of an ecclesiastical court, whose duty it was to serve citations and execute such similar process of the court.1 In these courts citations were most frequently issued for offenses against chastity and these officers were thus called upon often to serve process in these offenses prompted by Cupid. Hence, the reference, to the God of Love, as the general of this special class of officers.2

Sec. 75. Enfranchising one.

"Arm.

Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee. Cos. O, marry me to one Frances: I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound."

As explained by the players in this verse the word "enfranchise" in the law, literally means to set free. Enfranchisement is giving freedom to a person, hence a citizen of London is said to be enfranchised. And, at common law, a villain was said to be en franchised when he had obtained his freedom from his lord paramount, under the land tenure law. Being the opposite of "immured, restrained," etc., the Poet expresses the legal meaning of the term as it is understood in the law.

1 Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

Rolfe's Love's Labour's Lost, p. 176, notes.

Love's Labour's Lost, Act III, Scene I.

Bouvier's Law Dictionary.

"II Coke, 91.

In Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra thus addresses Antony: "Cleo... Or, who knows,

If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent

His powerful mandate to you, Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee."

(Act I, Scene I.)

In Julius Cæsar, before the assassination, Cassius is made to

say:

"Biron. To fast,-to study, and to see no woman, Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth."1

2

Treason, in the law, implies a betrayal, or breach of allegiance, amounting to treachery, hence the conclusion is a that to study and to fast "and to see no woman,' course so inconsistent with the primary obligations of youth, as to amount to "flat treason." The overt act of making war against a country to which allegiance is due from the person raising arms, is an act of treason, and this course of conduct is so at war with youth, that it could also be considered treason, for this reason, as well.

"Cas. Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon;

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,

To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber."

3

Having been banished from Rome Publius Cimber lost all his rights and privileges as a citizen of Rome and Brutus and Cassius begged Cæsar not only to admit him to a full pardon, but to likewise restore him to the privileges of his citizenship, or to enfranchise him. (Julius Cæsar, Act III, Scene I.)

'Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene III.

24 Shars. Bl. Comm. 75.

а

2 Chitty, Cr. Law, 60-102; 3 Story, Const. 39.

In King Richard II, the Duke of Norfolk, replies to Bolingbroke:

"Nor. . . First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me,
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;
Which else would post, until it had return'd
These terms of treason doubled down his throat."

(Act I, Scene I.)

And King Richard II, speaking of Bolingbroke, said:
"K. Rich. Tell Bolingbroke (for yond', methinks, he is,)
That every stride he makes upon my land,
Is dangerous treason."

(Act III, Scene III.)

The Earl of Worcester, is quoted as saying, in 1' Henry IV: "Wor. Suspicion shall be all stuck full of eyes: For treason

is but trusted like the fox." (Act V, Scene II.)

Speaking of the treason and attempt to kill him, Henry V, said: "K. Hen. . . Treason and murder, ever kept together, as two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, working so grossly in a natural cause, that admiration did not whoop at them: but thou, 'gainst all proportion did bring in, wonder, to wait on treason, and on murder." (Act II, Scene II.)

Speaking to the traitors, who conspired to kill him, Henry V, said: "K. Hen. But he, that temper'd thee, bade thee stand up, gave thee no instance why thou should'st do treason, unless to dun thee with the name of traitor." (Act II, Scene II.) Somerset asks Richard Plantagenet, in 1' Henry VI: "Som. Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, for treason executed in our late king's days?" (Act II, Scene IV.)

Talbot, before Rouen, in 1' Henry VI, is made to say: "Tal. France thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears, if Talbot but survive thy treachery." (Act III, Scene II.)

In 2' Henry VI, the king resents the idea that the duke of Gloster was guilty of treason, in the following language: “K. Hen. . . Our kinsman, Gloster is as innocent From meaning treason to our royal person, As is the sucking lamb, or harmless dove." (Act III, Scene I.)

Suffolk said to Gloster, in 2' Henry VI: "Suff. Nay, Gloster, know, that thou art come too soon, Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art: I do arrest thee of high treason." (Act III, Scene I.)

In attempting to make Gloster the instigator of his wife's treason, Suffolk said, in 2' Henry VI: “Suff. . . Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep; And in his simple show, he harbors treason. The fox barks not, when he would steal the lamb." (Act III, Scene I.)

Warwick says of Clarence, after he quit his forces, in 3' Henry VI: "War. O, passing traitor, perjur'd and unjust." (Act V, Scene I.)

Speaking of the alleged treason of Buckingham, King Henry VIII, is made to say: "K. Hen. He is attach'd; call him to present trial; if he may find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none, let him not seek't of us; By day and night, he's traitor to the height." (Act I, Scene II.)

In his attempt to prevent a ratification of the peace treaty closed by Coriolanus, with Rome, Aufidius tells the citizens: "Auf. Read it not, noble lords; But tell the traitor, in the highest degree, he hath abus'd your powers." (Act V, Scene V.)

Sec. 77. Quillets of the law.

"Long. O, some authority how to proceed,

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil." "Quillet," is no doubt derived from quidlibet, meaning what you please. A subtle, nice point of law, is referred to as a "quillet" and the term is used as a synonym for quibble. The thought of the player is that the violation of the oath was without excuse and unless by some trick, or quibble, they could avoid it, the devil would be rewarded for their transgression. Of course a "quillet" or quibbles is generally a cavil raised without necessity and it may be doubted, from a professional standpoint, if any lawyer is justified in causing such questions, in an argument.

The king tells his wife, in Hamlet, in regard to Laertes threats: "Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;

There's such divinity doth hedge a king,

That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will." (Act IV, Scene V.) Referring to the pure Lucrece, and Tarquin's attack upon her chastity, the Poet said, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"The dove sleeps fast that this night-owl will catch: Thus treason works, ere traitors be espied." (360, 361.)

'Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene III.

2 Webster's Dictionary.

'Bouvier's Law Dictionary. Mr. Bouvier says: "No justly eminent member of the bar will resort to a quibble in his argument. It is contrary to his oath, which is to be true to the court, as well as to his client; and bad policy, because by resorting to it, he will lose his character as a man of probity."

Warwick, in replying to Somerset's request to judge between himself and Richard Plantagenet, in 1' Henry VI, said: "War... I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment; But in these nice, sharp quillets of the law,

Good faith, I am no wîser than a daw." (Act II, Scene 1V.) Suffolk thus urges the death of the good Gloster, in 2' Henry VI: “Suff. . . And do not stand on quillets, how to slay him: Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety, Sleeping or waking, 'tis no matter how, So he be dead, for that is good deceit."

(Act III, Scene I.)

Sec. 78. Statute-caps.

"Rosaline. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps. But will you hear? the king is my love sworn."1 During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was not infrequent that laws were passed ostensibly for the betterment of the general class of citizens but really favorable to some particular class. In the year 1571 an act of Parliament was passed in the interest of the trade of cappers, which required all citizens, other than the nobility, and those excepted, to wear woolen caps on Sundays and holidays, under the pain and penalties of the statute.

As this law only required the citizens or common people to wear woolen caps, the meaning is plain, that better wits could be found among the plain people than the King and his followers.

Timon of Athens, said, "Tim. Crack the lawyer's voice, That he may never more false titles plead, Nor sound his quillets shrilly." (Act IV, Scene III.)

In Hamlet, when the Prince comes upon the grave diggers and he talks of the skull of the supposed lawyer, he speaks of "his quiddits, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks." (Act V, Scene I.)

In the controversy with the Clown, in Othello, the Moor of Venice, Cassio is made to say: "Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillets." (Act III, Scene I.)

'Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene II.

2 V Reeve's History English Law, 238; Rolfe's Love's Labour's Lost, p. 205, notes.