Note 27 — SCENE II.

beg me for a fool] “Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries, vol. i. p. 303, says,—‘By the old common law there is a writ de idiota inquirendo, to inquire whether a man be an idiot or not; which must be tried by a jury of twelve men: and if they find him purus idiota, the profits of his lands, and the custody of his person, may be granted by the king to some subject who has interest enough to obtain them.’ And he observes, that this power, though of late very rarely exerted, is still alluded to in common speech by that usual expression of begging a man for a fool.” Reed.