Volumnia tells Coriolanus, in her appeal for Rome, before his tent: "Vol. There is no man in the world more bound to his mother; yet here he lets me prate, like one i'the stocks." (Act V, Scene III.)

The process whereby the duke of Cornwall and his wife Regan, placed the Earl of Kent in the stocks, in King Lear, is described as follows:

"Corn. Fetch forth the stocks, ho:

You stubborn ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
We'll teach you-

Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn;

Call not your stocks for me; I serve the king,

On whose employment I was sent to you:

You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
Against the grace and person of my master,

Stocking his messenger.

Corn. Fetch forth the stocks:

As I've life and honour, there shall he sit till noon.
(Stocks brought out.)

Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same col

Our sister speaks of:-Come, bring away the stocks. Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so:

your purpos'd low correction

Is such, as basest and contemned'st wretches,
For pilferings, and most common trespasses,
Are punish'd with: the king must take it ill,
That he's so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrain'd.

Corn. I'll answer that.

Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted, For following her affairs.-Put in his legs.(Kent is put in the stocks.)" (Act II. Scene IV.)

The Fool tells Kent: "An thou had'st been set i'the stocks for that question, thou had'st well deserved it."

Kent asks the Fool: "Where learned you this, fool?" And he replies:

"Fool. Not i'the stocks, fool." And when Lear appears, he asks: "Lear. Who put my man i'the stocks?" (Act II. Scene IV.)

Sec. 236. Infamy.—

"Ch. Jus. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.

Fal. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less."1

Infamy, at common law, was the condition produced by the conviction of crime and the loss of honor, which was held to render the infamous person incompetent as a witness. A man, for instance, who was guilty of an offense inconsistent with the fundamental principles of honesty and humanity, was called an infamous person, and the law considered his oath of no weight, in a court of justice, because he was unworthy of belief.3 The Chief Justice here accused Falstaff of leading an idle, trifling, swindling, fraudulent existence, which made him an infamous person, or one unworthy of respect.

Sec. 237. Laws of land-service.

"Ch. Jus. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land service, I did not come."

Falstaff here refers to his knight service, as a soldier, under the king and the advice given him as to his exemption from answering to the civil authorities, while engaged in such service. Military service, under the feudal system, was evidently "this land service" referred to, for

Queen Margaret is made to say, of Gloster's death, in 2' Henry VI:

"Q. Mar.

This get I by his death: Ah, me, unhappy; To be a queen and crown'd with infamy." (Act III, Scene II.) 2' Henry IV, Act I, Scene II.

under the feudal tenure, when the lord called upon the knights to render such service, in support of the king, they were compelled to do so and certain exemptions. applied to them when so engaged. The sovereign, in

England had authority, in time of war, by articles of war, to dispose of all crimes not specified by military law, and to assess all punishments not reaching to death or mutilation' and Falstaff here attempts to hide behind this authority as a cloak to protect him from his failure to answer to the civil authority.

Sec. 238. Action.

"Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action? Fang. It is entered.'

In practice, an "action" is the formal demand of one's rights, from another person, made and insisted upon, in a formal manner, in a court of justice. This is the kind of an action, these lines refer to, for Hostess Quickley had sued Falstaff and wanted the officer to arrest him, at a time when the attachment of the person was a proper proceeding upon such causes of action for debt and to redress the wrongs of which she had made complaint.*

Sec. 239. Eating flesh contrary to law.

.

"Fal. Marry, there is another indictment upon thee, for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house, contrary to law; for the which, I think, thou wilt howl."

'Benet, Military Law; Tyler, Military Law.

22' Henry IV, Act II. Scene I.

'Bracton, 98b; Coke, 2' Inst. 40; Coke. Litt. 289.

3 Bl. Comm. 280; 4 Bl. Comm. 283.

5

Falstaff persuades the Hostess to withdraw her action against him, in this same play, as follows: “Fal. . . . Come, an it were not for thy humors, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face and draw thy action." (Act II, Scene II.)

2 Henry IV. Act II. Scene IV.

There were various statutes enacted during the reign of Elizabeth, as well as during the reign of James I forbidding boarding house keepers and victualers from furnishing flesh to be eaten in their houses, during the Lenten season' and this reference is, no doubt, to one of these statutes, which, in the United States, would be held to be an unconstitutional enactment, because a sumptuary law.

Sec. 240. "Pistol.

"Faitors."

I'll see her damned first; to Pluto's damned lake, by this hand, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down, down, dogs: down, faitors: Have we not Hiren here?" The word "faitors," as used in an old statute of the reign. of Richard II, is synonymous with evil-doers." Standing alone, it would seem to be a contraction of the Latin word factors, meaning doers; but by the use of the term in this statute, it is probable that Shakespeare used it as a term. of reproach, from the preceding word used, in this same connection, so he must have been familiar with this statute.

Sec. 241. Inns of court.

"Shal.

He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was once of Clement's-Inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet."

"Inns of Court" is the English name for those voluntary associations or societies, which have the exclusive right of calling persons to the English Bar. There are four such societies in London, i. c., the inner temple, the middle temple, Lincoln's inn and Gray's inn, and each of these inns possesses several smaller inns,-no doubt like

'Rolfe's Second part of King Henry IV, p. 208, notes; V Reeve's History Eng. Law.

22' Henry IV, Act II, Scene IV.

III Reeve's History Eng. Law; Rolfe's Second part of King Henry IV, p. 201, notes.

12' Henry IV, Act III, Scene II

that mentioned in the above verse-which are mere collections of houses or chambers, as Clifford's inn, New inn, Furnival's inn, etc. The four inns are governed by a board, called the "benchers," who are generally learned lawyers, and local habitations are occupied exclusively by barristers and are a source of great wealth.

Each inn is self-governing and independent of the others, but an educational qualification is imposed on the students and other rules adopted for the admission into the various inns.

The existence of these inns dates to an early day in English history. It is beyond dispute that the Temple was inhabited by a law society in the reign of Edward III, for on acquisition of the property in 1324, the same was leased to divers professors of law, at a rental of 10 lb. per annum and these professors came from Thavies Inn, in Holborn.' When the inheritance of this house again fell to the crown in the reign of Henry VIII, it was again leased to the lawyers by this monarch and they continued tenants of the crown until the sixth year of James I, when a new lease was made for the benefit of the students and professors of the law.

'Dugd. Or. Jur. 145.

III Reeve's Hist. Eng. Law, pp. 346, 347.

Professors of law resided in Gray's inn, during the reign of Edw. III, under a lease from Lord Grey, of Wilton, and Henry VIII granted a fee-farm lease of the house to them, for 6 lbs. 13 s. 4d. per annum. And in 18' Edw. III, Lady Clifford granted a demise of Clifford's inn, near Fleet street, to the law societies. III. Reeve's Hist. Eng. Law, p. 347.

Falstaff, referring to his association with Justice Shallow, at the inns of court, said: "Fal. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring, when he was naked he was, for all the world, like a forked radish." (2' Henry IV, Act III, Scene II.)

Referring further along, to his experience at the inns of court, Shallow, is made to say: "Shal. . . you had not four such swing-bucklers in all the inns of court again: and I may say to