Others again say that he was a wool stapler, or rather served his father in that employment.

And

to support this, in the first place they allege that it derives probability from the analogy between the business of a butcher and a wool stapler, intimating that they are not unusually carried on by the same person, and aid and contribute to the advancement of each other. And in the next place they quote from Shakspeare's comedy of the Winter's Tale, act 4th, scene 2d, in which it may be remembered the clown says,

"Let me see, every leaven weather tods-every tod yields £- and odd shillings-fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to? I cannot do it without counters. Let me see, what am I to buy for our sheep shearing feast?

This, I believe, is the main argument in favor of wool stapling, and upon which I shall make a remark presently. Whence they derive their doctrine in regard to his being a glover, except it be from the charge of his having stolen a deer, or his familiarity with sheep-skin, I am somewhat at loss how to determine.

The third notion is, that he was a schoolmaster, and for this, among many other less important indications of the pedagogue, we are referred to the

4th act of Merry Wives of Windsor, scene between Sir Hugh Evans, Mrs. Page and her son William.

Evans. What is lapis, William?

William. A stone.

Evans. And what is a stone, William?

William. A pebble.

Evans. What is he, William, that does lend articles?

William. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be thus declined: singulariter, nominativo, hic, hæc, hoc.

Evans. Pray you mark, genitivo, Hujus; well, what is your accusative case? &c.

And, fourthly, they have dignified him with the condition of an attorney's clerk. The reason for this is, that he appeared to be exceedingly familiar with the technicalities and legal phrases of the profession. This is true. The best representation of a wager of battle--an obsolete mode of trial, formerly recognised in England, that can be found any where, is to be found in Richard II, between Bolingbroke and Norfolk. And it is a matter of notoriety that in a case, which was the last of that kind and which led to the abrogation of the law, the case, I think, of Ashford against Thornton, which took place about ten years ago, Mr. Chitty, who chiefly conducted the pleadings, drew largely from the case to which I have referred. And in the trial in the Merchant of Ve

nice, there is a vast deal of the lawyer skill exhibited, as well as in various other trials which are scattered through his Plays. But how absurd are all these conclusions to which I have adverted; how inconsistent with each other, and totally unsustained by the course of reasoning resorted to in their support. You might just as well say that he was a druggist, from his description of the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet; that he was a doctor, because he has drawn the character of a physician so exquisitely in the Play of Macbeth; or that he was a blacksmith, from his having so admirably described one of the sons of Vulcan in the Play of King John; or that he was a metaphysician, from his having suggested the best test of the sanity of mind which philosophy supplies, in the following passage in Hamlet, in the dialogue with the Queen:

"My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered: put me to the test,

And I the matter will reword,

Which madness would gambol from."

It is an extraordinary fact, which may be mentioned with propriety here as related by Sir Henry Halford, in his lectures recently published, I quote from memory, but I trust with substantial accuracy,

that he, Sir Henry Halford, and Sir Thomas Tuthill, were called on to examine a young baronet, who had just executed his will, and who was suspected of unsoundness of mind. These eminent physicians, occupied a considerable portion of the day in the application of the various tests supplied by their own skill; and, finally, were about leaving the house without having arrived at any determination, when Sir Henry proposed, as a last resort, that they should apply Shakspeare's test; they accordingly did so the patient was utterly unable to reword the matter-he gamboled from it, and left no doubt as to his total mental incompetency.

Perhaps the strongest indication of Shakspeare's legal learning, is to be found in the deduction of King Henry's title to the crown of France, although I believe that has never been referred to by any of the commentators, in support of their doctrine. No lawyer's brief in a case of ejectment, and that was intended to be a case of ejectment between kings, could be more perfect. The only inconsistency in it is, and that perhaps does not materially touch the present question, that he gives it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of a lawyer. Allow me to ask your attention to the dialogue which is between King Henry and the Archbishop.

Vide Act 1st. Scene 2d.

Doctor Drake introduces a vast variety of instances in which legal terms are used in their technical sense; as thus, in King Henry IV, part 2d.

"For what in me was purchased,

Falls upon thee in a much fairer sort."

And purchase, it is here said, is used in a legal sense, and in contradistinction to an acquisition by descent. And again, in the Merry Wives of Wind

sor,

"He lets the Devil have him in fee simple, with fine and recovery."

Then in the Comedy of Errors,

"He's 'rested on the case."

And again in the Merchant of Venice,

"Go with me to a notary, and seal me there a bond."

In Much Ado About Nothing, Dogberry charges the watch to keep their fellow's counsel, and their own. This is part of the oath of a Grand Jury -Then, in Othello this passage occurs:

"Where is that Palace whereinto foul things

Sometimes intrude not? who has a breast so pure-
But some uncleanly apprehension

Keeps leets and law days; and in session sit

With meditations lawful."