5 BOULT. Ay, fhe quickly poop'd him; fhe made him roaft-meat for worms:-but I'll go fearch the market. [Exit BOULT. PAND. Three or four thoufand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly, and fo give over. BAWD. Why, to give over, I pray you? is it a fhame to get when we are old? 6 PAND. O, our credit comes not in like the commodity; nor the commodity wages not with the danger: therefore, if in our youths we could pick up fome pretty eftate, 'twere not amifs to keep our door hatch'd. Befides, the fore terms we ftand Ay, he quickly poop'd him ;] The following paffage in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607, will fufficiently explain this Logular term: แ foul Amazonian trulls, "Whofe lanterns are flill lighted in their poops." MALONE. The fame phrafe (whatever be its meaning) occurs in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, bc. 1596: But we fhall l'envoy him, and trumpe and poope him well enough." STEEVENS. 6 the commodity wages not with the danger:] i. e. is not equal to it. Several examples of this expreffion are given in former notes on our author. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: ་་ his taints and honours Wag'd equal with him." STEEVENS. Again, more appofitely, in Othello: To wake and wage a danger profitlefs." MALONE. to keep our door hatch'd.] The doors or hatches of brothels, in the time of our author, feem to have had fome diftinguishing mark. So, in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: Set fome picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profefs to keep a bawdy-house." Prefixed to an old pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632, is a reprefentation of a celebrated brothel on the Bank-fide near the Globe playhouse, from which the annexed cut has been made. We upon with the gods, will be ftrong with us for giving over. have here the hatch exadly delineated. The man with the pole-ax was called the Ruffian. MALONE. The precept from Cupid's Whirligig, and the paffage in Pericles to which it refers, were originally applied by me to the illuftration of the term Pil-hatch in The Merry Wives of Windfor. See Vol. V. P. 77, n. 3. A hatch is a half-door, ufually placed within a treet-door, admitting people into the entry of a houfe, but preventing their accefs to its lower apartments, or its ftair-cafe. Thus, fays the Syracufan Dromio in The Comedy of Errors, to the Dromio of Ephefus: "Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the hatch." BAWD. Come, other forts offend as well as we.* When the top of a hatch was guarded by a row of pointed iron pikes, no perfon could reach over, and undo its fastening, which was always within- fide, and near its bottom. This domeftick portcullis perbaps was neceffary to our ancient brothels. Secured within fuch a barrier, Mrs. Overdone could parley with her cuftomers; refufe admittance to the fhabby vifitor, bargain with the rich gallant, defy the beadle, or keep the constable at bay. From having been therefore her ufual defence, the hatch at laft became an unequivocal denotement of her trade; for though the hatch with a flat top was a conftant attendant on butteries in great families, colleges, &c. the hatch with Spikes on it was peculiar to our early houfes of amorous entertainment.-Nay, as I am affured by Mr. Walsh, (a native of Ireland, and one of the compofitors engaged on the prefent edition of Shakspeare,) the entries to the Royal, Halifax, and Dublin bagnios in the city of Dublin, ftill derive convenience or fecurity from hatches, the Spikes of which are unfurmountable. This long explanation (to many readers unneceffary) is imputable to the preceding wooden cut, from the repetition of which I might have excused myself. As it is poffible, however, that I may ftand in the predicament of poor Sancho, who could not difcern the enchanted caftles that were fo diftin&ly visible to his master's opticks, I have left our pi&ure of an ancient brothel, where I found it. It certainly exhibits a house, a lofty door, a wicket with a grate in it, a row of garden-rails, and a drawbridge. As for hatch-let my readers try if they can find one. I must suppose, that my ingenious fellow-labourer, on future confideration, will clafs his hatch with the air-drawn dagger, and join with me in Macbeth's exclamation- There's no fuch thing." Let me add, that if the Ruffian (as here reprefented) was an oftenfible appendage to brothels, they muft have been regulated on very uncommon principles; for instead of holding out allurements, they must have exhibited terrors. Surely, the Ruffian could never have appeared nifi dignus vindice nodus inciderat, till his prefence became neceffary to extort the wages of proftitution, or fecure fome other advantage to his employer. The representation prefixed to Holland's Leaguer, has, therefore, in my opinion, no more authenticity to boat of, than the contemporary wooden cuts illuftrative of the Siege of Troy. STERVENS PAND. As well as we! ay, and better too; wề offend worfe. Neither is our profeffion any trade; it's no calling-but here comes Boult. Enter the Pirates, and BOULT dragging in MARINA, BOULT. Come your ways. [To MARINA. ]-My mafters, you fay fhe's a virgin? 1. PIRATE. O fir, we doubt it not. 9 BOULT. Mafter, I have gone thorough for this piece, you fee: if you like her, fo; if not, I have loft my earnest. BAWD. Boult, has fhe any qualities? BOULT. She has a good face, fpeaks well, and has excellent good clothes; there's no further neceffity of qualities can make her be refused. BAWD. What's her price, Boult? BOULT. I cannot be bated one doit of a thoufand pieces. PAND. Well, follow me, my mafters; you fhall have your money prefently. Wife, take her in; in Come, other forts offend as well as we.] From her husband's answer, I suspe& the poet wrote-Other trades, &c. MALONE. Malone fufpe&s that we fhould read-other trades, but that is unneceffary; the word forts has the fame fenfe, and means pro·feffions or conditions of life. So, Macbeth fays, "I have won "Golden opinion of all forts of people." M. MASON. I have gone thorough] i. e. I have bid a high price for her, gone far in my attempt to purchase her. STEEVENS. 2 I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.} This fpeech fhould feem to fuit the Pirate. However, it may belong to Boult. I cannot get them to bate me one doit of a thousand pieces. MALONI ftru&t her what fhe has to do, that fhe may not be raw in her entertainment. 3 [Exeunt Pander and Pirates. BAWD. Boult, take you the marks of her; the colour of her hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry, He that will give moft, fhall have her firft. Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you. BOULT. Performance fhall follow. [Exit Boult. MAR. Alack, that Leonine was fo flack, fo flow! (He should have ftruck, not spoke;) or that these pirates, (Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard Thrown me, to feek my mother!" that he may not be raw in her entertainment,] Unripe, unfkilful. So, in Hamlet: " and yet but raw neither, in refpe of his quick fail." 4 age, So, the quarto, 1619. The firft copy has-her age. MALONI. " and cry, He that will give moft, fhall have her firft. ] The prices of firft and fecondary profitution are exadly fettled in the old profe romance already quoted: “ Gọ thoù and make a crye through the cyte that of all men that fhall enhabyte with her carnally, the fyrft fhall gyve me a pounde of golde, and after that schone a penny of golde." STEEvens. or that thefe pirates (Not enough barbarous,) had not over-board (Not enough barbarous,) had not o'erboard thrown me, For to feek &c. STEEVENS. I fufped the fecond not was inadvertently repeated by the com pofitor. Marina, I think, means to fay, Alas, how unlucky it was, that Leonine was fo flack in his office; or, he having omitted to kill me, how fortunate would it have been for me, if those pirates had thrown me into the fea to feek my mother. MALONE. We thould recur to the old copies, and read, "Not enough barbarous, had not overboard," &c. which is clearly right; — for Marina is not expreffing what the wified that Leonine and the Pirates had done, but repining at |