ACT IV. 8 SCENE II.-" Far from her nest the lapwing cries, away." THIS image was a favourite one with the Elizabethan writers. In Lily's 'Campaspe,' 1584, we have, "You resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not." Greene and Nash also have the same allusion, which Shakspere repeats in 'Measure for Measure :' "With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart." ["Far from her nest the lapwing cries."] is by no means clear, from the passage before us, that the bailiff did not even wear a sort of armour "One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel." 10 SCENE II.-"A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well." The hound that runs counter runs upon a false course; but the hound that draws dry-foot well, follows the game by the scent of the foot, as the blood-hound is said to do. The bailiff's dog-like attributes were not inconsistent; for he was a sergeant of the Counter prison, and followed his game as Brainworm describes in 'Every Man in his Humour: " Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young master, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London this morning." 11 SCENE II.-"One that, before the judgment, The arrest "before judgment" is that upon mesne-process, and Shakspere is here employing his legal knowledge. It appears that Hell was the name of a place of confinement under the Exchequer Chamber for the debtors of the Crown. It is described by that name in the Journals of the House of Commons on the occasion of the coronation of William and Mary. 12 SCUNE IV.-" Here's that, I warrant you, will pay them all." SCENE II.-"A fellow all in buff": The Prince asks Falstaff, "Is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?" The buff jerkin, according to Dromio's definition, is "an everlasting garment," worn by "a shoulder- Dr. Gray has the following note on this clapper." The commentators have thrown away passage: "If the honest countryman in the much research upon these passages. Steevens Isle of Axholm in Lincolnshire, where they maintains that everlasting and durance were grow little else but hemp, had been acquainted technical names for very strong and durable with Shakspere's Works, I should have imagined cloth; but there can be no doubt, we think, that he borrowed his jest from hence. At the that the occupation of the bailiff being some- beginning of the rebellion in 1641, a party of what dangerous, in times when men were ready the parliament soldiers, seeing a man sowing to resist the execution of the law with the somewhat, asked him what it was he was sowsword and rapier, he was clothed with the ox-ing, for they hoped to reap his crop; 'I am sowskin, the buff, which in warfare subsequently ing of hemp, gentlemen,' (says he,) and I hope took the place of the heavier coat of mail. It I have enough for you all." ENGRAVINGS. THE period of the action in this comedy being so necesarily undefined, we have preferred to select our Pictorial Illustrations from the most authentic representations of the existing remains of ancient Ephesus, and from views of the present state of that celebrated city, of Corinth, and of Syracuse. It may be convenient here to furnish a brief explanation of these Illustrations. pillars of the former sort in the mosque of St. John, at the village of Aiasalouck. I saw also a fine entablature; and on one of the columns in the mosque there is a most beautiful composite capital, which, without doubt, belonged to it. There are great remains of the pillars of the temple, which were built of large hewn stone, and probably cased with marble; but from what I saw of one part, I had reason to The temple of Diana is thus described by conclude that arches of brick were turned on Pococke : "The Temple of Diana is situated towards the south-west corner of the plain, having a lake on the west side, now become a morass, extending westward to the Cayster. This building and the courts about it were encompassed every way with a strong wall; that to the west of the lake and to the north was likewise the wall of the city: there is a double wall to the south. Within these walls were four courts: that is, one on every side of the temple, and on each side of the court to the west there was a large open portico, or colonnade, extending to the lake, on which arches of bricks were turned for a covering. The front of the temple was to the east. The temple was built on arches, to which there is a descent. I went a great way in, till I was stopped either by earth thrown down, or by the water. They consist of several narrow arches, one within another. It is probable they extended to the porticoes on each side of the western court, and served for foundations to those pillars. This being a morassy ground, made the expense of such a foundation so necessary; on which, it is said, as much was bestowed as on the fabric above ground. It is probable, also, that the shores [sewers] of the city passed this way into the lake. I saw a great number of pipes made of earthenware in these passages; but it may be questioned whether they were to convey the filth of the city under these passages, or the water from the lake to the basin which was to the east of the temple, or to any other part of the city. In the front of the temple there seems to have been a grand portico. Before this part there lay three pieces of red granite pillars, each being about fifteen feet long, and one of gray broken into two pieces; they were all three feet and a half in diameter. There are four them, and that the whole temple, as well as these pillars, was incrusted with rich marbles. On the stonework of the middle grand apartment there are a great number of small holes, as if designed in order to fix the marble casing. It is probable that the statue of the great goddess Diana of the Ephesians was either in the grand middle compartment or opposite to it." The engraving of the Temple restored is principally founded upon the descriptions of Pococke, who has given an imaginary groundplan. The Antiquities of Ionia,' published by the Dilettanti Society, and the 'Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce,' of M. Choiseul Gouffier, have furnished the authorities for the other engravings of Ephesian remains. Of the modern population of Ephesus the following striking description was furnished by Chandler sixty years ago. The place is now far more desolate and wretched :— "The Ephesians are now a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and insensibility; the representatives of an illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness; some, the substructions of the glorious edifices which they raised; some, beneath the vaults of the Stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions; and some, by the abrupt precipices in the sepulchres which received their ashes. We employed a couple of them to pile stones, to serve instead of a ladder at the arch of the Stadium, and to clear a pedestal of the portico by the theatre from rubbish. We had occasion for another to dig at the Corinthian temple; and, sending to the Stadium, the whole tribe, ten or twelve, followed; one playing all the time on a rude lyre, and at times striking the sounding-board with the fingers of his left hand in concert with the strings. One of them had on a pair of sandals of goat-skin, laced with thongs, and not uncommon. After gratifying their curiosity, they returned back as they came, with their musician in front. Such are the present citizens of Ephesus, and such is the condition to which that renowned city has been gradually reduced. It was a ruinous place when the Emperor Justinian filled Constantinople with its statues, and raised the church of St. Sophia on its columns. Since then it has been almost quite exhausted. A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon; and a noisy flight of crows from its marble quarries seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the theatre and of the Stadium. The glorious pomp of its heathen worship is no longer remembered; and Christianity, which was here nursed by apostles, and fostered by general councils, until it increased to fulness of stature, barely lingers on in an existence hardly visible." |