I.

Pist. As many devils entertain, and to her boy say Fal. I have writ a letter . . . to Page's wife. She bears the purse too. (Mer. Wives, i. 1.)

The mercenary poet and painter visit Timon at his cave to ascertain the truth of the report, that he still has abundance of gold. The latter says to the former (Tim. Ath. iv. 3) :—

'It will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purses with what we travel for.' 1

431. Tranquillo qui libet gubernator.-Eras. Ad. 4496. (Anyone can be a pilot in fine weather.)

I am no pilot yet wert thou as far

As that vast shore . . . I would adventure. (R. Jul. ii. 2.) Come bitter conduct, come unsavoury guide!

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! (Ib. v. 3.)

Where is your ancient courage? You were used

To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike

Showed mastership in floating. (Cor. iv. 1.)

432. Nullus emptor difficilis emit opsonium. (No buyer that is hard to please buys a good article-lit. viands or fish.)

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good: the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty cheap in goodness. (M. M. iii. 1.)

433. Chi semina spine non vada discalzo. (He who sows thorns should not go barefoot.)

A sower of thorns.-De Aug. viii. 2.

Ros. How full of briars is this working-day world.

Cel. They are but burs, cousin . . . if we walk not in the trodden paths. . . our very petticoats will catch them.

(As Y. L. i. 2.) O the thorns we stand upon. (W. T. iv. 3.)

1 Collier's Notes and Emendations, p. 394.

The care you have of us, to mow down thorns that would

annoy our feet,

Is worthy praise. (2 Hen. VI. iii. 1.)

434. Quoniam Moses ad duritiam cordis permisit vobis.-Matt. xix. 8, Vulgate. (For Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you, &c.)

Renew her charitable heart, now hard and harsher
Than strife or war can be. (Tw. N. Kins. i. 2.)
(See No. 13.)

Folio 916.

435. Non nossem peccatum nisi per legem.-Rom. vii. 7. (I had not known sin but by the law.)

Escal. What think you of the trade, Pompey, is it a lawful trade?

Clo. If the law will allow it, sir.

Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey. (M. M. ii. 1.) Your brother is the forfeit of the law. (Ib.)

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother. (Ib.)

Fab. A good note that keeps you from the blow of the law. Sir To. I will waylay thee going home; where if it be thy chance to kill me . . . thou killest me like a rogue and a villain.

Fal. Still you keep the windy side o' the law. Good.

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry, 'tis crowners' quest law. (Tw. N. iii. 1.)

2 Clo. If this had been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of a Christian burial.

1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: and the more the pity, that great folks shall have countenance in this world to hang or drown themselves, more than their even Christian. (See Ham. v. 1.)

436. Discite justitiam monitj.—Virg. vi. (Be admonished, and learn to be just.)

may breathe

Gaunt. Will the king come that I
In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth.

my last

York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;

For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. (R. II. ii. 1, i. 139.).

Mrs. Ov. Good my lord, be good to me . . .

Good my lord! Escal. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in

the same kind?

This would make mercy play the tyrant. (M. M. iii. 2.)

(See No. 1092.)

437. Ubi testamentum ibi necesse est mors intercedat testatoris.—Heb. ix. 16. (Where a testament is, there must also be the death of the testator.)

Ant. Here's the parchment with the seal of Cæsar:

I found it in his closet, 'tis his will.

Let but the Commons hear this testament . . .
And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds.

4 Cit. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.
Ant. I fear I wrong the honourable men
Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar: I do fear it.

All. The will! The testament! (Jul. Cæs. iii. 3.)

438. Scimus quia lex bona est si quis ea utatur legitime. -1 Tim. i. 8. (We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.)

O just but severe law !

O it is excellent to have a giant's strength :

But it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. (M. M. ii. 2)

439. Væ vobis jurisperitj.-Luke xi. 46. (Woe unto you lawyers.)

O fie, fie, fie!

440. Nec me verbosas leges ediscere nec me ingrato vocem prostituisse foro.-Ovid. Am. i. 15, 5. (That I neither study verbose laws, nor have sold my voice for gain to the thankless forum.)

Crack the lawyer's voice

That he may never more false title plead,

Nor sound his quillets shrilly. (Tim. Ath. iv. 3.) (Compare the passages in italics with No. 442.)

(See for the verbose laws, Ham. v. 1, 91, 117—'The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box, and must the inheritor himself have no more?')

441. Fixit leges pretio atque refixit.--Virg. (He fixed and annulled the laws at a price.)

Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? quiddits now, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?

(Compare italics with 442.)

Where be his

(Ham. v. 1.)

Ang. Admit no other way to save his life . . .

either

You must lay down the treasures of your body

To this supposed, or else to let him suffer.

Isab. And 'twere the cheaper way. (M. M. ii. 4.)

There is a devilish mercy in the judge,

If you'll implore it, that will free your life,

But fetter you till death. (Ib. iii. 1.)

but that

442. Nec ferrea jura insanumque forum et populi tabularia vidit.-Virg. Georg. ii. 501.

(The senate's mad decrees he never saw,

Nor heard, at bawling bars, corrupted laws.)

Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice.

443. Miscueruntque novercæ non innoxia verba. "Pocula si quando sævæ infecere novercæ Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba."

(Virg. Georg. ii. 128.)

"A present antidote

Against the direful stepdame's deadly draught,
Who, mixing wicked weeds with words impure,
The fate of envied orphans would procure."
(Dryden.)

1 Purse in Mr. Collier's text; prize in older editions.

Queen. No, be assured, you shall not find me after the slander of most step-mothers, evil-eyed unto you.

Imogen. O dissenting courtesy! How fine this tyrant can tickle where she wounds. (Cymb. i. 1.)

Queen. Whiles yet the dew is on the ground, gather these flowers.

Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs?

Cor. Pleaseth your highness, ay: here they are, madam But I beseech your grace . . . wherefore have you Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds, Which are the movers of a languishing death; But though slow, deadly?

Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging (but none human),
To try the vigour of them, and apply

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart :
Besides, the seeing these effects will be

Both noisome and infectious.

(Aside) I do not like her . . . I do know her spirit,

And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damned nature.

;

(See Cymb. i. v. and the Queen's attempt to poison her step-daughter)

444. Jurisconsultj domus oraculum civitatis now as ambiguous as oracles.-Cic. (The house of the lawyer is the oracle of the state.)

445. Hic clamosi rabiosa forj.

446. Jurgia tendens improbus. (Shamelessly straining (aggravating) quarrels.)

This strained passion does you wrong, my lord.

Thou art a traitor and a miscreant. . . .

Once more, the more to aggravate the note

2 Hen. IV. i. 2.)

With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat. (R. II. i. 1.)

(See 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4.)