the crime, which the prosecution must always establish. Sometimes it is difficult to prove that the commission of an act was prompted by a criminal or "unlawful" intent, hence the conclusion that it would be unpardonable in the speaker to himself act as the trumpeter of his "unlawful intents."

"Par. Sir, for a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple of his salvation, the inheritance of it; and cut the entail from all remainders, and a perpetual succession for it perpetually."

A fee-simple is a freehold estate of inheritance, free from conditions. It is the highest estate known to the law and is absolute, so far as it is possible to possess an absolute right of property in land. Freehold estates are either of inheritance or those not of inheritance, hence the "inheritance" of his salvation, is used as a synonym for the fec-simple absolute estate therein.

An estate tail or an "entail" was an estate of inheritance, that was conditioned to descend to the heirs of the donce's body, instead of to his heirs generally, in a direct line, so long as his direct posterity continued and the estate determined upon the death of the owner without issue.' remainder is the future estate in lands which is supported and preceded by a particular estate in possession, which must determine before the remainder takes effect."

.1

As a fee-simple estate is one free from all entails” and "remainders," and "perpetual succession" is likewise an incident of such an absolute estate in lands, as distinguished from the more limited estates, with which it is contrasted, in this verse, it is apparent that the terms used are employed in their proper legal sense.

All's Well That Ends Well, Act IV, Scene III.
Teideman, R. P. Sec. 29 (3d ed.).

Tiedeman, R. P. Sec. 26 (3d ed.).

'Tiedeman, R. P. Sec. 38 (3d ed.).

Tiedeman, R. P. Sec. 296 (3d ed.).

Sec. 124. Evidence.

"King.

But thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore stand aside."1

3

Evidence, in law, includes all the means by which any alleged fact is established or disproved. In the connection in which the word is used in this verse, it means oral evidence, or the testimony of a witness, given viva voce, as distinguished from written evidence. As the object of all evidence is to ascertain the truth regarding the fact alleged or disaffirmed, testimony of witnesses is therefore confined to the point in issue and where the witness draws unnecessary distinction, or vacillates from the truth, the witness is sometimes said to be drawing too fine distinetions. The meaning of this is, that instead of meeting the issue, the witness dodges the issue by distinctions and points too fine to be appreciated by those seeking the truth. After a witness has testified it is a common thing for the Counsel or Court to ask the witness to "stand aside," hence the King, on rejecting the testimony offered because the evidence was "to fine," asked the witness to "stand aside."

In Titus Andronicus, Marcus speaks of "the poor remainder of Andronici." (Act V, Scene III.)

Posthumus bids Cymbeline adieu, in the following words: "Post. The gods protect you: and bless the good remainders of the court." (Act I, Scene II.)

Polonius tells the Queen, in Hamlet: "Pol. For this effect, defective, comes by cause; Thus it remains and the remainder, thus." (Act II, Scene II.)

1 All's Well That Ends Well, Act V. Scene III.

21 Greenl. Evid. Sec. 1, Chap. 1.

'1 Phillipps Evid. 166.

Clarence asks of the murderers, before his murder, in King Richard III, Act I, Scene IV: “Clar... . Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? What lawful quest have given their verdict up unto the frowning judge?"

Clarence tells Brakenbury, in King Richard III: "Clar. 0. Brakenbury, I have done these things, That now give evidence against my soul." (Act I, Scene IV.)

"Hel. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Deadly divorce step between me and you."

Marriage being a legal relation and not a mere contract, between husband and wife, it takes some legal authority to dissolve the relation and the dissolution or suspension, by law, of such relation, is called divorce. Formerly, in England, ecclesiastic courts alone had jurisdiction over divorce suits and the temporal courts had no authority to dissolve the relation of husband and wife. The divorce absolute was called a divorce from the bonds of matrimony, or a vinculo matrimonii, while a mere suspension of the relation was called a mensa et thoro, or a denial of the bed and board of the husband or wife.3

'All's Well That Ends Well, Act V, Scene III. Bishop, Marriage and Divorce, Sec. 292.

Bishop, Marriage and Divorce, Sec. 3.

Polixenes, in Winter's Tale, is made to say, to his son: "Pol. Mark your divorce, young sir, whom son I dare not call." (Act IV, Scene III.)

In King Richard II, Bolingbroke thus addressed Bushy and Green:

You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,

Broke the possession of a royal bed,

Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;

And stained the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks,
With tears drawn from her eyes, by your foul wrongs."

(Act III, Scene I.)

King Richard II is made to say, to Northumberland: "K. Rich. Doubly divorc'd? Bad men, ye violate

A twofold marriage; 'twixt my crown and me;

And then 'twixt me and my married wife." (Act IV, Scene I.) Gloster thus divorces his wife, on her arrest for treason, in 2 Henry VI:

"Glo.. . I banish her, my bed and company;

And give her, as a prey to law and shame,

That hath dishonor'd Gloster's honest name."

(Act II, Scene I.)

In speaking of the dissolution of the relation of husband and wife as "deadly," the Poet clearly entertained the present view of the evil effects of divorces, as a blight upon the home life and a remedy to be avoided.

Queen Margaret tells the king, in 3' Henry VI: "Q. Mar. thou prefer'st thy life, before thine honour; And seeing thou dost, I here divorce myself, Both from thy table, Henry and thy bed, Until that act of Parliament be repealed, Whereby my son is disinherited." (Act I, Scene I.)

Replying to Cardinal Wolsey's advice to trust her cause to the King, permitting him a divorce from her, Queen Katherine said: "Q. Kath. Nothing but death shall e'er divorce my dignities." (Act III, Scene I.)

On finding gold in the forest, Timon of Athens, said: "Tim. O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce, 'twixt natural son and sire: thou bright defiler of Hymen's purest bed." (Act IV, Scene III.)

Desdemona thus pleads with the beast Iago, in Othello:

"That I do not yet, and ever did,

And ever will,-though he do shake me off

To beggarly divorcement,-love him dearly,
Comfort forswear me."

(Act IV, Scene II.)

Venus thus addresses death, in Venus and Adonis:

"'Hard-favor'd tyrant, ugly, meager, lean,

Hateful divorce of love,-thus chides she death." (931, 932.)

"Host. I know my remedy, I must go fetch the third borough.

Sly. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law;

I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly."

2

A Thirdborough, or third-borow, as sometimes called, was an under constable and in old English law was spoken of as an officer holding about the same power and subject to the same limitations as a constable. As a peace officer and one invested with the authority to preserve the peace, he would have had jurisdiction over the person of the offender, in this instance, for disturbance of the peace and destroying the property of the Hostess. Sec. 127. Court-leet, or manor court.

"1 Serv. O, yes, my lord, but very idle words;
For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,
Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door,

1

Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene I.

2 Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

*Lambard, Duty of Const., 6.

In Love's Labour's Lost, the Constable, Dull, is made to say: "Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough," meaning that he is a peace officer. (Act I, Scene I.)