ABSTRACT
A statute of King Henry III ordained that in every village and township there should be appointed a constable or two, according to the number of the inhabitants; and the Statute of Winchester largely reorganized and regulated the old institutions for the repression of crime. 'The Constable,' saith an ancient jurist, 'hath as good authority in his place as the Chief Justice of England hath in his.' Yea, verily he hath. Probably the best known constable in fiction is Dogberry, and certainly in Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare has given us the most complete character sketch of the Elizabethan constable that has come down to us. The constable in another play of Shakespeare's day, The Heir, by Thomas May, is clearly a descendant of Dogberry; indeed, the whole scene in which he appears is redolent of Shakespeare's creation.
