Inscription.
The Astronomical Anatomy in a shadowed physnomy, recommended to posterity, dissected and presented in the empirical ghost of D. Nicholas Gallerius. ——Facilis descensus Averni.
Enter Watch distraughtedly, letting fall their lanthorns.
Watch. Spirits, spirits, spirits!
Enter Constable, rubbing his eyes.
Con. Where, where, where?
Watch. Here, there, and everywhere;
Now in the porter's lodge, then in the air!
Con. A foutre for such ranging mawkins! I'll tell you, fellow-officers—for I have been since my weaning sufficiently schooled in the office of a constable—that we have no legislative power (do you mark me?) to commit any person, be he never so notorious a delinquent, if he fly or (as our falconers say) mount up into th' air. We are not bound to follow him, neither to attach nor commit him. And why? says the law. Because it is not in our power to catch him. But if he strut in the street, you may command him to come before me the Constable, as I am the representative body of the duke; or before yourselves, being the representative body of your Constable; and if the person so taken remain under safe custody, and he fly, if you overtake him by speed of foot, or by help of the bellman's mongrel, you may by the law of arms lay him by th' heels.
[Dismiss the Watch, and exeunt.