phrase "lawful prize," in this passage, very distinct
proof that they were acquainted with Admiralty law. Second, That, in
the use of the other phrases, "board," and especially "down goes her
topsail," they have furnished yet stronger evidence that they had been
sailors on board armed vessels, and that the trope indicates, that, had
not the vessel or lady in question lowered her topsail or top-knot, she
would then and there have been put mercilessly to the sword.

But what shall we think of the acumen and the judgment of a Chief
Justice, a man of letters, and a man of the world, who brings forward
such passages as the following as part of the evidence bearing upon the
question of Shakespeare's legal acquirements?--

"Come; fear not you; _good counsellors lack
no clients._"
_Measure for Measure_. Act i. Sc. 2.

"One that _before the judgement_ carries poor
souls to hell."
_Comedy of Errors_. Act iv. Sc. 2.

"Well, Time is the old _Justice_ that examines
all such offenders,--and let Time try."
_As You Like It_. Act iv. Sc. 1.

"And that old common _arbitrator_, Time."
_Troilus and Cressida_. Act iv. Sc. 5.

"No cock of mine; you crow too like a _craven_."
_Taming of the Shrew_. Act ii. Sc. 1.

"Bestial oblivion or some _craven_ scruple."
_Hamlet_. Act iv. Sc. 4.

By which last line, according to Lord Campbell, (p. 55,) "Shakespeare
shows that he was acquainted with _the law for regulating 'trials by
battle_'"!

But to proceed with the passages quoted in evidence:--

"Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the
skin of an innocent lamb should be made
_parchment_? that parchment, being _scribbled
o'er_, should undo a man? Some say, the bee
stings: but I say, 'tis the bee's _wax_; for I did
but _seal_ once to a thing, and I was never mine
own man since."--2 _Henry VI_. Act vi. Sc. 2.

Upon citing which, his Lordship exclaims,--

"Surely Shakespeare must have been employed to write _deeds_ on
_parchment_ in _courthand_, and to apply the _wax_ to them in the form
of _seals_. One does not understand how he should, on any other theory
of his bringing-up, have been acquainted _with these details_"!

One does not; but we submit to the court, that, if two were to lay their
heads together after the manner of Sydney Smith's vestrymen, they might
bring it about.

In aid of his Lordship's further studies, we make the following
suggestion. He doubtless knows that one of