Page:An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers and Instruments attributed to Shakspeare.djvu/32

Rh legal subjects, or the true object of lawyers in their examination of evidence, are frequently surprised at minute questions put to witnesses, which they think either vexatious or impertinent; and on such occasions the well-known question which a late admirable comick actor introduced into one of his pieces, and which he rendered still more ridiculous by imitating the thin and stridulous voice of an eminent barrister who was afterwards raised to the Bench,—“Pray, now let me ask you, was—the—toast buttered on both sides?” is often mentioned with much satisfaction and applause by those who have attended more to the humour of the theatre, than the investigation of truth. But the judicious lawyer, when he asks, not precisely such questions as the English Aristophanes has invented for him, but, in the case (we will suppose) of a disputed Will,—whether the testator, when he made and published it, was sitting up in his bed or in an arm-chair;—what was the size or form of the room,—how many persons were present,—who lighted the candle, or furnished the wax with which it was sealed, &c. perfectly understands what he is about; and in cases of fiction and fraud the event