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EPILOGUE.

SPOKEN BY A LADY.

It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue If it be true that "good wine needs no bush," 't is true that a good play needs no epilogue: yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the won -I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases them: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women (as I perceive, by your simpering, none of you hate them), that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many

women:

of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions

that liked me, and breaths that I defied not: and

I am sure, as many as have good beards, or

good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for
my kind offer, when I make curt'-

sey, bid me Farewell.

NOTES.

V.T.N.

"I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence."

Act I., Scene 1. That is, the reverence due to my father is, in some degree, inherited by you as the first-born.

"I am no villain."— Act I., Scene 1.

The word villain is used by the elder brother in its present meaning: by Orlando, in its original sense, for a fellow of base extraction.

"He is already in the forest of Arden."- Act I., Scene 1. Shakspeare was furnished with the principal scene in this play by Lodge's novel. Arden (or Ardenne) is a forest of considerable extent, near the Meuse, and between Charlemont and Rocroy. It is mentioned by Spenser, in his " COLIN CLOUT," as famous "Ardeyn;" and in recent times is thus characterized by Lady Morgan in connection with the play: "The forest of Ardennes smells of early English poetry. It has all the greenwood freshness of Shakspeare's scenes; and it is scarcely possible to feel the truth and beauty of his exquisite · As YOU LIKE IT,' without having loitered as I have done, amid its tangled glens and magnificent depths."

"Since the little wit that fools have was silenced."- Act I., Scene 2. The allusion here is to the professional fools or jesters who for ages had been allowed an unbridled liberty of censure and mockery, and about Shakspeare's time began to be less tolerated.

"With bills on their necks."—Act I., Scene 2.

There is probably an equivoque intended here between a legal instrument and the weapon called a bill. To carry the bill on the neck (not on the shoulder) was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. The expression is used in "ROSALYNDE:”—“Ganimede on a day sitting with Aliena, cast up her eye, and saw where Rosader (Orlando) came pacing toward them with his forest-bill on his neck."

"Is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides?" Act I., Scene 2. Rosalind hints at a whimsical similitude between the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some musical instruments; and therefore calls broken ribs, broken music.-JOHNSON.

This probably alludes to the pipe of Pan, which, consisting of reeds of unequal length, and gradually lessening, bore some resemblance to the ribs of a man. - MALONE.

"That which here stands up

Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block."— Act 1. Scene 2. There were various kinds of quintains: the one here alluded to appears to have been a stake driven into a field, upon which were hung a shield and trophies of war, at which they shot, darted, or rode with a lance. When the shield and trophies were all thrown down, the quintain remained.

"Ros. No, faith: hate him not for my sake.

CEL. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well.”

Act I., Scene 3.

Celia answers Rosalind as if the latter had said, "Love him for my sake."

"Ros. Why, whither shall we go?

CEL. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden." Act I., Scene 3. This passage furnished Mr. Steevens, in his later editions, with an amusing opportunity of showing his superabundant zeal in the cause of what he deemed correct meter. "Here (says he) the old copy adds, in the forest of Arden.' But these words are an evident interpolation without sense, and injurious to the measure: "Why, whither shall we go

To seek my uncle,'

being a complete verse. Besides, we have been already informed by Charles the Wrestler that the banished Duke's residence was in the forest of Arden."-This is trying a play by the rigid rules that might be applicable to a mathematical essay.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

Act II., Scene 1.

It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. Science has shown the belief to be erroneous, but the poet has turned it to excellent account.

"Ros. O Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!

TOUCH. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, and to cry like a woman."— Act II., Scene 4.

The old copy here reads "how merry are my spirits." The emendation, which the context and the Clown's reply render certain, was made by Mr. Theobald. In the original copy of "OTHELLO" (4to. 1622), nearly the same mistake has happened; for there we find, "Let us be merry, let us hide our joys," instead of "Let us be wary." MALONE.

"Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame.”— Act II., Scene 5. For ducdame, Sir T. Hanmer very acutely and judiciously reeds, "Duc ad me;" that is "Bring him to me." - JOHNSON.

"A motley fool;—a miserable world!"— Act II., Scene 7. "A miserable world" is a parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the sight of a fool, or at the hearing reflections on the fragility of life.-JOHNSON.

"Good-morrow, fool,' quoth I: No sir,' quoth he, 'Cull me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.'" Touchstone's answer alludes to the common saying that fools are fortune's favorites.

"One man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.” — Act II., Scene 7.

Dr. Warburton boldly asserts that this was "no unusual" division of a play before our author's time. One of Chapman's plays ("Two

WISE MEN, AND ALL THE REST FOOLS") is indeed in seven acts: this, however, is the only dramatic piece that I have found so divided. — But surely it is not necessary to suppose that our author alluded here to any such precise division of the drama. His comparisons seldom run on four feet. It was sufficient for him that a play was distributed into several acts, and that human life, long before his time, had been divided into seven periods.

In the "TREATISE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES" (1613), Proclus, a Greek author, is said to have divided the life of man into seven periods, over which one of the seven planets was supposed to rule. Hippocrates also divided the life of man into seven ages, but differs from Proclus in the number of years allotted to each period. — See Brown's" VULGAR ERRORS," folio, p. 173. — MALONE.

"Full of wise saws and modern instances."— Act II., Scene 7. The meaning seems to be, that justice is full of old sayings and late examples.

"Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen.”— Act II., Scene 7. "Thou winter wind (says Amiens), thy rudeness gives the less pain,

as thou art not seen: as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness is therefore not aggravated by insult."

"Though thou the waters warp.”-
-Act II., Scene 7.

The surface of waters, so long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are frozen, this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle. - KENRICK. To warp was probably in Shakspeare's time a colloquial word, which conveyed no distinct allusion to anything else, physical or medicinal. To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: when milk is changed by curdling, we now say it is turned; when water is changed or turned by frost, Shakspeare says it is curdled. To be warped is only to be changed from its natural state.-JOHNSON.

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"Harping with loud and solemn quire,

With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born heir."

"Tongues I'll hang on every tree,

That shall civil sayings shew.” — Act III., Scene 2.

The term civil is here used as when we say civil wisdom, or civil life, in opposition to a solitary state, or to the state of nature. "This desert (says Orlando) shall not appear unpeopled, for every tree shall teach the maxims or incidents of social life."

"Helen's cheek but not her heart;

Cleopatra's majesty;

Atalanta's better part;

Sad Lucretia's modesty."— Act III., Scene 2.

It is plausibly suggested by Mr. Tollet, that "Atalanta's better part" may mean her virgin chastity, with which Nature had graced Rosalind, together with Helen's beauty, without her heart, or lewdness; with Cleopatra's dignity or behavior; and with Lucretia's modesty, that scorned to survive the loss of honor. The term "better part" appears, however, to have been a colloquial one, signifying worth or virtue in general.

"I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an

Irish rat."—Act III., Scene 2.

This passage probably refers to some metrical charm or incantation used in Ireland for ridding houses of rats. Similar allusions are found in various writers of the age. In Ben Jonson's "POETASTER," we find,

"Rhyme them to death, as they do Irish rats,
In drumming tunes."

"Good my complexion ! dost thou think, though I am caparisoned like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition ?” — Act III., Scene 2. The meaning of the exclamation "Good my complexion!" probably is, as suggested by Malone, "My native character, my female inquisitive disposition, canst thou endure this?" Complexion is used in the sense of disposition in the "MERCHANT OF VENICE:-"It is the complexion of them all to leave their dam."

"Ros. Answer me in one word.

CEL. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth first.”

Act III., Scene 2.

Rosalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua, the giant of Rabelais, who swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all, in a salad.

"It is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the propositions of a lover.” Act III., Scene 2. Bullokar, in his "ENGLISH EXPOSITOR" (1616), says, "An atomie is a mote flying in the sunne. Anything so small that it cannot be made less."

“Ory, holla! to thy tongue I pr'y thee; it curvets unseasonably.” Act III., Scene 2. "Holla!" was a term by which the rider restrained and stopped "He that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good his horse. It is so used by Shakspeare in his "VENUS AND ADONIS:" breeding." Act III., Scene 2.

A doubt is expressed by Dr. Johnson whether custom did not formerly authorize this mode of speech, and make "complain of good breeding" the same with "complain of the want of good breeding." In the last line of the "MERCHANT OF VENICE," we find that to "fear the keeping" is to "fear the not keeping."

"Why should this a desert be?"- Act III., Scene 2.

The old copy reads "Why should this desert be?" The judicious insertion of the "a" was made by Pope. The omission was probably a typographical error. Tyrwhitt's interpolation of the word "silent" is unnecessary.

"What recketh he his rider's angry stir,

His flattering 'holla,' or his 'stand,' I say.”

"I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have studied your questions."-Act III., Scene 2.

This passage alludes to the placing moral maxims or sentences in the mouths of the figures represented on the painted cloth hangings of the period. The custom is frequently mentioned by contemporary writers. Shakspeare also adverts to it in his "TARQUIN AND LUCRECE:

"Who fears a sentence, or an old man's saw,
Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe."

"An unquestionable spirit; which you have not.”
Act III., Scene 2.

An unquestionable spirit is a spirit not inquisitive; a mind indif. ferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences; Shakspeare has used a passive for an active mode of speech. So in a former scene, "The duke is too disputable for me;" that is, too disputatious.

"A material fool!"- Act III., Scene 3.

That is, a fool with matter in him; a fool stocked with notions.

"I' faith, his hair is of a good color."— Act III., Scene 4. There is much nature in this petty perverseness of Rosalind. She finds fault in her lover, in hope to be contradicted; and when Celia, in sportive malice, too readily seconds her accusations, she contradicts herself rather than suffer her favorite to want a vindication.JOHNSON.

“A nun of winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously.” Act III., Scene 4. That is, of an unfruitful sisterhood, that had devoted itself to chastity. A similar expression is found in the "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM:"

"To be a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon."

"What though you have more beauty.” — Act III., Scene 5. The old copy reads, "What though you have no beauty." That no is a misprint appears clearly from the passage in Lodge's "ROSALYNDE" which Shakspeare has here imitated: "Sometimes I have seen high disdaine turne to hot desires. Because thou art beautiful be not so coy; as there is nothing more faire, so there is nothing more fading." Mr. Theobald corrected the error by expunging the word no; in which he was copied by the subsequent editors; but omission, as I have often observed, is of all the modes of emendation the most exceptionable. "No" was, I believe, a misprint for "mo," a word often used by our author and his contemporaries for "more." So in a former scene of this play:

considered one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It is gravely censured by Ascham, in his "SCHOOLMASTER," and by Bishop

Hall, in his "QUO VADIS;" and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakspeare.

"He hath a Rosalind of a better leer than you." -Act IV., Scene 1. Meaning, of a better feature, complexion, or color than you.

"I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain." Act IV., Scene 1. Statues, and particularly that of Diana, with the water conveyed through them to give them the appearance of weeping figures, were anciently a frequent ornament of fountains. So in Rosamond's "EPISTLE," by Drayton:"

"Here in the garden, wrought by curious hands,
Naked Diana in the fountain stands."

"Make her fault her husband's occasion."— Act IV., Scene 1. That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband.

"1st Lord.

What shall he have that killed the deer?

2nd Lord.

His leather skin and horns to wear. "

Act IV., Scene 2.

Shakspeare perhaps formed this song on a hint furnished by Lodge "What news, forester. Hast thou wounded some deer, and lost him in the fall? Care not, man, for so small a loss; thy fees was but the skin, the shoulders, and the horns."

"The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream,
Left on your right hand brings you to the place."
Act IV., Scene 3.

That is, passing by the rank of osiers, and leaving them on your right hand, you will reach the place.

"Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy." — Act IV., Scene 3. Fancy here signifies love, which is always described as composed of

"I pray you, mar no mo of my verses, by singing them ill-favoredly. contraries. As in Lodge's "ROSALYNDE:Again, in "MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING:

"Sing no more ditties, sing no mo.”

Again, in the "TEMPEST:"

"Mo widows of this business' making."

Many other instances may be added. The word is found in almost every book of that age. - MALONE.

"Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer."— Act III., Scene 5. That is, the ugly seem most ugly, when though ugly they are scoffers.-JOHNSON

"Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might, "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'" Act III., Scene 5. The line quoted by Phebe is from Marlowe's "HERO AND LEANDER," in which the passage stands thus:

"Where both deliberate, the love is slight!

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?"

The poem, it appears, was very popular; one edition of it was entered in the Stationers' books in 1593, and another in 1597.

"Or I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola. Act IV., Scene 1. That is, "I will scarce think you have been at Venice." The fashion of traveling, which prevailed very much in Shakspeare's time, was

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"As those that fear-they hope, and know they fear." Act V., Scene 4. Malone suggests that the meaning of this passage is, 'As those who fear,-they, even those very persons, entertain hopes that their fears will not be realized; and yet at the same time they well know that there is reason for their fears."

"I have trod a measure."- Act V., Scene 4. Touchstone, to prove that he has been a courtier, particularly mentions a measure, because it was a stately solemn dance.

"JAQ. But, for the seventh cause, how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?

TOUCH.-Upon a lie seven times removed."— Act V., Scene 4.

Touchstone here enumerates seven kinds of lies, from the retort courteous, to the seventh and most aggravated species of lie, which he calls the lie direct. The courtier's answer to his intended affront, he expressly tells us, was the retort courteous. When, therefore, he says that they found the quarrel was on the lie seven times removed, we must understand by the latter word, the lie removed seven times, counting backwards (as the word removed seems to intimate), from the last and most aggravated species of lie—the lie direct.

"O, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book."― Act V., Scene 4. The particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise of one Vincentio Saviola, entitled "OF HONOR AND HONORABLE QUARRELS " (1594). The first part of this tract is "A discourse most necessary for all gentlemen that have in regard their honors, touching the giving and receiving the lie, whereupon the duello and the combat in divers forms doth ensue, and many other inconveniences, for lack only of true knowledge of honor, and the right understanding of words, which is here set down."

Touchstone's satirical allusion to the virtue of " if" is founded on a passage in the fourth chapter, in which the writer says, "Conditional lies be such as are given conditionally; as if a man should say or write these words-If thou hast said that I have offered my lord abuse, thou liest; or, if thou sayest so hereafter, thou shalt lie.""

"That thou mightst join her hand with his

Whose heart within her bosom is."— Act V., Scene 4.

The old copy for "her," in this passage, reads "his," in both instances. The errors were corrected by Rowe and Malone. The meaning is, "that thou mightst join her hand with the hand of him whose heart is lodged within her bosom;" that is, whose affection she already possesses. In "LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST" the King says to the Princess :

"Hence ever, then, my heart is in thy breast."

In the same play, with the same error that has happened in the passage quoted at the head of this note, the Princess says to her ladies: — "But while 't is spoke, each turn away his face."

"Meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprise and from the world."
Act V., Scene 4.

In Lodge's novel, the usurping Duke is not diverted from his pur pose by the pious counsels of a hermit, but is subdued and killed by the twelve peers of France.

Dr. Grey and Mr. Upton asserted that this play was certainly borrowed from the "COKE'S TALE OF GAMELYN," printed in Urry's Chaucer; but it is hardly likely that Shakspeare saw that in manuscript, and there is a more obvious source from whence he derived his plot, viz., the pastoral romance of ROSALYNDE, OR EUPHUES' GOLDEN LEGACY," by Thomas Lodge, first printed in 1590. From this he sketched his principal characters, and constructed his plot; but those admira ble beings, the melancholy Jaques, the witty Touchstone, and his Audrey, are of the poet's own creation.

Lodge's novel is one of those tiresome (I had almost said unnatural) pastoral romances, of which the " EUPHUES" of Lyly, and the "ARCADIA" of Siduey, were also popular examples:-it has, however, the redeeming merit of some very beautiful verses interspersed; and the circumstance of its having led to the formation of this exquisite pastoral drama is enough to make us withhold our assent to Steevens's splenetic censure of it as "worthless."

Everything about Rosalind breathes of youth's sweet prime. She is fresh as the morning, sweet as the dew-awakened blossom, and light as the breeze that plays amongst them. She is as witty, as voluble, as sprightly as Beatrice, but in a style altogether distinct. In both, the wit is equally unconscious; but in Beatrice it plays about us like the lightning, dazzling, but also alarming; while the wit of Rosalind bubbles up and sparkles like the living fountains, refreshing all around. Her volubility is like the bird's song; it is the outpouring of a heart filled to overflowing with life, love and joy, and all sweet and affectionate impulses. She has as much tenderness as mirth, and in her most petulant raillery there is a touch of softness— "By this hand, it will not hurt a fly."

As her vivacity never lessens our impression of her sensibility, so she wears her masculine attire without the slightest impugnment of her delicacy. Shakspeare did not make the modesty of his women depend on their dress. Rosalind has in truth no "doublet and hose in her disposition." How her heart seems to throb and flutter under her page's vest! What depth of love in her passion for Orlando; whether disguised beneath a saucy playfulness, or breaking forth with a fond impatience, or half betrayed in that beautiful scene where she faints at the sight of the kerchief stained with his blood! Here the recovery of her self-possession-her fears lest she should have revealed her sex-her presence of mind and quick-witted excuse, "I pray you tell your brother how well I counterfeited," and the characteristic playfulness which seems to return so naturally with her recovered senses, are all as amusing as consistent.

Then how beautiful is the dialogue managed between herself and Orlando; how well she assumes the airs of a saucy page, without throwing off her feminine sweetness! How her wit flutters free as air over every subject! with what a careless grace, yet with what exquisite propriety:

"For innocence hath a privilege in her
To dignify arch jests and laughing eyes."

And if the freedom of some of the expressions used by Rosalind or Beatrice be objected to, let it be remembered that this was not the fault of Shakspeare or the women, but generally of the age. Portia, Beatrice, Rosalind, and the rest, lived in times when more importance was attached to things than to words; now we think more of words than of things,- and happy are we in these days of super-refinement, if we are to be saved by our verbal morality.- MRS. JAMESON—“CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN."

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