get that kind of warrant from me, signior. Do you see this prick i' the bottom? it betokens power and speed; it is a privy mark that runs betwixt the constables and my master those that cannot read, when they see this, know 'tis for lechery or murder; and this being away, the warrant comes gelded and insufficient. . . . Look you, all these are nihils: they want the punction."

Much of "The Spanish Curate" seems designed to "crucify the lawyer." In this admirable comedy, the character of Bartolus, the lawyer and one of the principal personages, and the standing of lawyers as evidenced by the luxurious habits of their wives, are strikingly and succinctly exhibited in the opening speeches of his handsome spouse, Amaranta :

"You know your own disease, distrust and jealousy.

You are too covetous:

If that be rank'd a virtue, you have a rich one.
Set me, like other lawyers' wives, off handsomely,
Attended as I ought; and as they have it,

My coach, my people, and my handsome women,
My will in honest things."

From another speech of Bartolus, it appears that one of the learned professions brought grist to the lawyer's mill, which, in modern times, does not except indirectly:

"'Tis some honest client,

Rich and litigious, the curate has brought to me."

But the curate brings instead a law-student in the person of Leandro, a gallant disguised, who is in love with the beautiful Amaranta, and, as a means to prosecute his suit, proposes to become an inmate of Bartolus's house

and office. It would be pleasing to the profession to meet a law-student of equal ability and willingness to pay nowadays; for this one offered twenty ducats a month for the privilege, besides three hundred down, and to "defray his diet." Of course, he was accepted. Diego, the sexton, who accompanies him, bids him adieu with"Take a good heart: and when you are a cunning lawyer, I'll sell my bells; and you shall prove it lawful."

Amaranta's suspicions are aroused by the liberal payments which her husband tells her the student has made : and the student serenades her in some verses, which she says are no law; they sound too sweetly." Don Henrique employs Bartolus in a dishonest cause, upon which hinges the other branch of the plot. Bartolus scruples not: "We surgeons of the law do desperate cures; good fees beget good causes; the prerogative of the crowns will carry the matter; the assistant sits to-morrow, and he's your friend: your moneyed men love naturally; and as your loves are clear, so are your causes. Hang the penurious! their causes, like their purses, have poor issues." But he "must have witnesses enough and ready

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substantial, fearless souls that will swear suddenly — that will swear any thing; for variety, they may swear truth, else 'tis not much look'd after." He then advises his client to "see "the judge, and dismisses him with 'go, and believe i' the law." Before they come into court, the defendant assails Bartolus with foul language, and insinuates that he "would plead a needy client's cause for a starv'd hen, or half a little loin of veal, though fly-blown." Bartolus's opening speech in court is quite in the modern vein :

"If I stood here

To plead in the defence of an ill man,
Most equal judge, or to accuse the innocent
(To both which I profess myself a stranger),
It would be requisite I should deck my language
With tropes and figures, and all flourishes
That grace a rhetorician: 'tis confess'd
Adulterate metals need the goldsmith's art
To set 'em off; what in itself is perfect
Contemns a borrowed gloss."

As a matter of course, the court is with Bartolus and his client. On another occasion Bartolus says,

"I have been atoning two most wrangling neighbors: They had no money, therefore I made even."

But Leandro finding scant opportunities to court Amaranta, his friends, the curate and the sexton, enter into a plot to entice Bartolus from home. Diego feigns mortal sickness, and sends Lopez for Bartolus to draw his will. Then ensues a most amusing scene. It is represented to Bartolus that Diego is very rich, and after making sundry bequests, intends most of his estate for the covetous lawyer. Diego's attendants give him drink to sustain his strength; and he, becoming tipsy, makes the most extravagant and absurd provisions for all sorts of strange objects and the lawyer is in an agony at seeing his prospects dissipated. After spinning out this will as long as possible, the conspirators confess that they have been fooling Bartolus. He raves; and Diego "finds this cataplasm of a well-cozened lawyer, laid to his stomach, lenifies his fever." In the mean time, the handsome wife and the law-student are improving the opportunity at home, and in a pretended attendance at church. On

Bartolus's return he rages horribly, but is quieted by Lopez's mention of the Inquisition as a terror to those who deny their wives the privilege of church. He pretends to be reconciled, and invites the conspirators to breakfast. They attend he deprives them of their weapons, surrounds them with officers, and instead of edibles, puts in one dish "an execution for a thousand ducats" against the guest; in another, "a capias from his surgeon and his silk man; in another, “a strong citation ;" and in another, a warrant to appear before the judges." Out of this mess they are rescued by a deus ex machina, and in the end all parties are reconciled.

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In "A Wife for a Month," a "Lawyer, Physician, Captain, and Cutpurse pass over the stage ;" and Tony, a fool, in his remarks to Podrano concerning the various "suitors to the widow lady," deals out hard measure to our profession, in respect to our gallantry toward the fair

sex:

"Podrano. Why, these are rascals! Tony. They were meant to be so: Does thy master deserve better kindred?

Pod. There's an old lawyer,

Trimm'd up like a galley-foist: what would he do with her? Tony. As usurers do with their gold: he would look on

her,

And read her over once a day, like a hard report,
Feed his dull eye, and keep his fingers itching;
For any thing else she may appeal to a parliament:
Subpoenas and posteas have spoil'd his codpiece."

When the suitors present themselves and urge their claims, the lawyer says, "I am a lawyer: I can make her a jointure of any man's land in Naples; and she

shall keep it too: I have a trick for it." To which Tony

"Canst thou make her a jointure of thine honesty,
Or thy ability, thou lewd abridgement?

Those are nonsuited, and flung o'er the bar."

When, to test their sincerity, it is inquired of the suitors which of them will " dare take her for one month, and then die?" the lawyer excuses himself, because

"This is like to be a year of great dissention
Among good people, and I dare not lose it:
There will be money got."

RACINE.

Closely modelled, in several scenes, upon "The Wasps" of Aristophanes, but of more intelligible, because of more modern, interest, is "Les Plaideurs" of Racine. We have, as dramatis persona, Dandin, a judge, fond of exercising his powers; his son, Léandre, a gay youth, to whom the study of the law, for which his father designs him, is irksome; L'Intimé, the judge's secretary; Petit Jean, the house-porter, illiterate; and the Prompter, who helps the advocate, Petit Jean, in the trial scene; also Chicaneau, a citizen, and La Comtesse, both litigious. Léandre and Dandin make their first appearance in a dialogue, in which the old man expostulates with his son on account of his dissolute course, and reproaches him for despising the law. The hereditary pride of the old French judge is strikingly illustrated:

"Money is not earned so fast in my dominion. Each of thy fine ribbons cost me 'n opinion.