ACT I.-SCENE I.

"As I remember, Adam"-This is printed as it stands in the old copies, and certainly gives the effect of colloquial ease and the careless phraseology of familiar dialogue, referring to something that had been said before. Several later editors have thought proper to give it a more formal and grammatical character, by correcting the reading in various ways. Thus, Johnson-" As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me. By will," etc. Blackstone suggests-"He bequeathed." We agree, with Caldecott, that "the old text is in the true spirit of all dialogue on such an occasion."

"-his COUNTENANCE"-i. e. His behaviour, his bearing. A "countenance" (says Johnson) may be good or bad.

66- be NAUGHT awhile"-In Ben Jonson's "Tale of a Tub" we have

Peace and be naught! I think the woman's phrensic.

In his "Bartholomew Fair" we find-" Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst awhile." There are many examples in the old dramatists which clearly show that "be naught," or be nought, was a petty malediction; and thus Oliver says no more than-Be better employed, and be hanged to you. This is the substance of Gifford's note upon the passage in "Bartholomew Fair."

"-nearer to his reverence"-i. e. The reverence due to my father is, in some degree, inherited by you as the first-born. Warburton, always ingenious, proposes to read "his revenue.'

"I am no VILLAIN"-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.

"the forest of Arden"-Shakespeare 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:-"The forest of Ardennes smells of early English poetry. It has all the green-wood freshness of Shakespeare'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."

"-of all sorts enchantingly beloved"-"It is too venturous to charge a passage in SHAKESPEARE with want of truth to nature; and yet at first sight this speech of Oliver's expresses truths which it seems almost impossible that any mind should so distinctly, so livelily, and so voluntarily, have presented to itself in connection with feelings and intentions so malignant and so contrary to those which the qualities expressed would naturally have called forth. But I dare not say that this seeming unnaturalness is not in the nature of an abused wilfulness, when united with a strong intellect. In such characters there is sometimes a gloomy self-gratification in making the absoluteness of the will (sit pro ratione voluntas!) evident to themselves by setting the reason and the conscience in full array against it."-COLERIDGE. -KINDLE the boy"-i. e. Instigate. In MACBETH, we have "enkindle you unto the crown."

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SCENE II.

"CEL."-" Celia asks a question, to which the Clown replies. The usurping duke in the last scene, is called Duke Frederick. In the old folios this speech is given to Rosalind; but we have to choose between two mistakes-either that Shakespeare in the last act forgot the name of the Duke of the first act, or that the printer gave a speech of Celia to Rosalind."-KNIGHT.

With the majority of the editors, from Theobald to Knight, we have preferred the latter supposition-such a misprint being among the most common.

"-you'll be whipp'd for TAXATION"-It was the custom to whip fools when they allowed their tongues too great license. "Taxation" is satire, censure, scandal.

"-the little wit that fools have"-The allusion is to allowed an unbridled liberty of censure and mockery; the professional fools, or jesters, who for ages had been and about Shakespeare's time began to be less tolerated.

"-BILLS on their NECKS"-There is reason to think that "with bills on their necks," as Farmer suggested, should be part of the description Le Beau is giving of

the old man and his two sons. Lodge, in his "Rosalynde," calls the father a "lustie franklin of the country," with "two tall men that were his sonnes ;" and they would properly be furnished with "bills on their necks," or halberds, commonly carried by foresters; and Rosalind immediately misinterprets the word "bills," as if it meant public notices-" Be it known to all men by these presents." However, the old copies give the words to Rosalind, who may still very naturally play upon the double sense of the word bills.

"broken MUSIC in his sides"-" 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.

"if you saw yourself with YOUR eyes"-Coleridge says, "Surely we should read our eyes, and our judg ment." But Dr. Johnson interprets the passage according to the original: "if you used your own eyes to see, or your own judgment to know yourself, the fear of your own adventure would counsel you.'

"a QUINTAINE"-A "quintaine" was originally a

wooden object, generally in the figure of a man, used in

martial exercises, as a mark against which weapons were directed. It afterwards became a sport, and was such in the time of Shakespeare. The origin and use of the "quintaine" are thus described in the "Pictorial History of England:"

"A pole or spear was set upright in the ground, with a shield strongly bound to it; and against this the youth tilted with his lance in full career, endeavouring to burst the ligatures of the shield, and bear it to the earth. A steady aim and a firm seat were acquired from this exercise; a severe fall being often the consequence of failure in the attempt to strike down the shield. This, however, at the best, was but a monotonous exercise; and therefore the pole, in process of time, was supplanted by the more stimulating figure of a misbelieving Saracen, armed at all points, and brandishing a formidable wooden sabre. The puppet moved freely upon a pivot, or spindle, so that, unless it was struck with the lance adroitly in the centre of the face or breast, it rapidly revolved; and the sword, in consequence, smote

The change of "not" to but was made by Theobald, who says, What was the penalty of Adam hinted at by our Poet? The being sensible of the difference of the seasons. The Duke says, the cold and effects of the winter feelingly persuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the penalty?" Boswell and Caldecott reply, "Surely the old reading is right. Here we feel not, do not suffer from, the penalty of Adam, the seasons' difference; for when the winter's wind blows upon my body, I smile, and say," etc.;-which seems very satisfactory. But Mr. Knight, following an inge folio, but changes the punctuation, thus:— nious suggestion of Whiter, retains the words of the

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam. The seasons' difference,-as, the icy fang, And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, Which when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say This is no flattery,-these are counsellors, etc. Although this reading strikes my ear as harsh and discordant to the general melody of this speech, and is broken into such pauses and interrupted sense as the Poet is wont to use only when strong passion is meant to be expressed, yet the argument of Whiter and Knight is so ingenious, and contains so much of beautiful illustration, that I cannot omit it:-" We ask, what is the penalty of Adam?' All the commentators say, the seasons' difference. On the contrary, it was, In

the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.' Milton represents the repentant Adam as thus interpreting the penalty:

On me the curse aslope

Glanced on the ground; with labour I must earn
My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse.
The beautiful passage in Cowper's 'Task,' describing
the Thresher, will also occur to the reader :-

See him sweating o'er his bread,
Before he eats it. 'Tis the primal curse,
But soften'd into mercy; made the pledge

Of cheerful days, and nights without a groan. 'The seasons' difference,' it must be remembered, was ordained before the fall, and was in no respect a penalty. We may therefore reject the received interpretation. But how could the Duke say, receiving the passage in the sense we have suggested

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam?

In the first act, Charles the Wrestler, describing the Duke and his co-mates, says, they 'fleet the time care

The lifeless block is clearly an allusion to the wooden man thus described. The " quintaine" was, however, often formed only of a broad plank on one side of the pivot, with a sand-bag suspended on the other side.

"the SMALLER is his daughter"-The old copies have taller, which is certainly wrong, because Rosalind, in the next scene, says that she is "more than common tall." Pope altered it to shorter; but "smaller" comes nearer to the old reading, and we may add that shorter and daughter read dissonantly.

characteristics of the golden world is thus described by Daniel:

The exil'd courtiers led a life without toil-a life in which they were contented with a little-and they were thus exempt from the 'penalty of Adam.' We close, therefore, the sentence at 'Adam.' 'The seasons' difference' is now the antecedent of these are counsellors;' the freedom of construction common to Shakespeare and the poets of his time fully warranting this acceptation of the reading. In this way, the Duke says-The differences of the seasons are counsellors that teach me what I am ;-as, for example, the winter's wind-which, when it blows upon my body, I smile, and say, this is no flattery.' We may add that, immediately following the lines we have quoted from the 'Paradise Lost,' Adam alludes to the seasons' difference,' but in no respect as part of the curseWith labour I must earn

My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;

My labour will sustain me; and lest cold
Or heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath unbesought provided, and his hands
Cloth'd us unworthy, pitying while He judg'd.
How much more, if we pray Him, will his ear
Be open, and his heart to pity incline,

And teach us further by what means to shun
Th' inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow."

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

"It has been supposed that the 'precious jewel' refers only to the brilliancy of the toad's eyes, as contrasted with its ugly form. But there can be no doubt it referred to a common superstition, with which Shakespeare's audience was familiar. This, like many other vnlgar errors, is ancient and universal. Pliny tells us of the wonderful qualities of a bone found in the right side of a toad. In India, it is a common notion that some species of serpents have precious stones in their heads. Our old credulous writers upon natural history, who dwelt with delight upon notable things' and ' secret wonders,' are as precise about the toad's stone as a modern geologist is about quartz. Edward Fenton, in 1569, tells us there is found in heads of old and great toads a stone which they call borax, or stelon: it is most commonly found in the head of a he-toad.' These toadstones, it should seem, were not only specifics against poison, when taken internally, but being used in rings gave forewarning against venom.' There were, of course, many counterfeit stones, procured by a much easier process than that of toad-hunting; but the old lapidaries had an infallible mode of discovering the true from the false. You shall know whether the toadstone be the right and perfect stone or not. Hold the stone before a toad, so that he may see it; and if it be a right and true stone the toad will leap toward it, and make as though he would snatch it. He envieth so much that man should have that stone.' Shakespeare, in the passage before us, has taken the superstition out of the hands of the ignorant believers in its literality, and has transmuted it into a poetical truth."-STEVENS and KNIGHT.

"this DESERT CITY"-Our Poet may have derived this thought from two lines in "Montanus's Sonnet," in Lodge's "Rosalynde:"

About her wond'ring stood The citizens of the wood.

"—with FORKED heads"-i. e. The "forked," or barbed, "heads" of arrows.

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"Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out"-In his lectures, in 1818, Coleridge eloquently and justly praised the pastoral beauty and simplicity of As You LIKE IT; but he did not attempt to compare it with Lodge's Rosalynde," where the descriptions of persons and of scenery are comparatively forced and artificial:-"Shakespeare (said Coleridge) never gives a description of rustic scenery merely for its own sake, or to show how well he can paint natural objects: he is never tedious or elaborate; but while he now and then displays marvellous accuracy and minuteness of knowledge, he usually only touches upon the larger features and broader characteristics, leaving the fillings up to the imagination. Thus, in As You LIKE IT, he describes an oak of many centuries' growth in a single line

Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out. Other and inferior writers would have dwelled on this description, and worked it out with all the pettiness and impertinence of detail. In SHAKESPEARE, the 'antique root' furnishes the whole picture."

These expressions are from notes made at the time, by Mr. Collier. They serve partially to supply an obvious deficiency of general criticism on this play, in Coleridge's "Literary Remains."

"-needless stream"-i. e. That needed no such ac

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"how WEARY are my spirits"-In the old copies it stands, "how merry are my spirits!"-an easy misprint; and that it was so seems shown by the answer of Touchstone, "I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary." Weary" has been adopted by all except Caldecott and Knight, who retain merry, agreeing with Whiter, who suggests that Rosalind was assuming good spirits, as well as male attire; and would therefore say, "how merry are my spirits!" But why should she assume good spirits here to Celia, when, in the very next sentence she utters, she says that her spirits are so bad that she could almost cry?

"I should bear no CROSS"-Touchstone plays upon the double meaning of "cross," for an evil, a misfortune, and also a piece of money stamped with a cross.

44

SCENE V.

It is spelled

-TURN his merry note"-Pope and some other editors vary from the old copies, by reading tune instead of " turn," which was the language of the period.

"Ducdùme, ducdùme, ducdàme"-Hanmer turned this into Latin-Duc ad me, ("Bring him to me.") Jaques was parodying the "Come hither, come hither, come hither," of the previous song. The conjecture that he was using some country-call of a woman to her ducks, appears more rational than his latinity.

"the first-born of Egypt"-Johnson explains this as a proverbial expression for high-born persons.

SCENE VII.

"A motley fool; (a miserable world!)”—“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.

"

Motley" refers to the parti-coloured dress which was the costume of the professed fool, or clown.

"Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune”— Touchstone's answer alludes to the common saying that fools are fortune's favourites.

or indeed any novelty of expression, meant this"Though the freezing sky weave the waters into a solid texture. The same image had occurred to a later classic: Propertius makes the southwest wind, one of the cold winds of Italy, weave the waters into ice :Africus in glaciem frigore nectit acquam.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

ARGUMENT"-i. e. Subject-matter.

"Seek him with CANDLE"-It is supposed that this is an allusion to the passage in "Saint Luke," (chap. xv.:) "If she lose one piece, doth she not light a candle ?" If so, it is, metaphorically, "Seek him in every corner, with the greatest diligence."

"Do this EXPEDIENTLY"-i. e. Expeditiously. Expedient, throughout our author's plays, signifies expeditious; as in KING JOHN-"His marches are expedient to this town."

SCENE II.

"THRICE-CROWNED queen of night"-"This passage seems to evince a most intimate knowledge of ancient mythology, but Shakespeare was doubtless familiar with that fine racy old poet, Chapman's "Hymns to Night and to Cynthia," which, though over-informed with learning, have many highly poetical passages; among which the following may have been in our Poet's mind :

Nature's bright eye-sight, and the night's fair soul,
That with thy triple forehead dost control

Earth, seas, and hell.- Hymnus in Cynthiam,' (1594.) All the learning of all the mythologists was poured forth in the notes to these poems."-SINGER.

"— UNEXPRESSIVE she"-i. e. Inexpressible. Milton uses the word in the same sense, in his "Hymn on the Nativity:"

Harping with loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes.

And again, in "Lycidas"-" the unexpressive nuptial song.' Warton thinks the word was coined by Shakespeare.

"he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding"-Dr. Johnson doubts 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." Johnson might have asserted this with less hesitation, for such use is found colloquially even now, and is common, as Whiter remarks, in all languages.

"good MANNERS”. "Manners" is here used in the sense of morals, both senses being included in the Latin mores. Morals is not found in any of the old dictionaries, or authors.

God make INCISION in thee"-It has been ingeniously urged that insition, or graffing, is here meant, and that the phrase may be explained, "God put knowledge into thee;" but we want instances to confirm this. Stevens thought the allusion here was to the common expression of cutting for the simples; and the subsequent speech of Touchstone, "That is another simple sin in you," gives colour to this conjecture. Nares asks, "Can it have been a phrase borrowed from surgery?" A quotation from the "Time's Whistle, or a New Daunce of Seven Satires," (MS.,) made by Dr. Farmer, shows that it was

Be stout, my heart; my hand, be firm and steady;
Strike, and strike home-the vaine world's vaine is ready :
Let ulcer'd limbes and goutye humors quake,
Whilst with my pen I doe incision make.

And the following curious passage from Baret's " Alvearie" proves it:-"Those hell houndes which lay violent hands upon other men's goods are like biles and blotches

in the body of the common-weale; and must be cured either by incysion and letting blood in the necke-vaine, or by searing with a hot yron, or els with a caudle of hempseed chopt halter-wise," etc. His purpose is to illustrate why a thief is called felon, which also signified a bile. Shakespeare uses "incision" for opening a vein in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, (act iv. scene 2:)-"A fever in your blood, why then incision will let her out in saucers."

"-fairest LIN'D"-i. e. Delineated; not limn'd, as it has been sometimes printed.

"the FAIR of Rosalind"-"Fair" for fairness, beauty-as in COMEDY OF ERRORS, (act ii. scene 1;) but it is common in the Elizabethan poets.

The commentators have filled many pages with the discussion of the precise meaning of the "better part" of Atalanta's excellence. "Better part" seems to have been often used for any peculiar excellence, whatever it was, in the individual; and Ovid, in the passage on which all the allusions to Atalanta are founded, makes the spectator doubt whether she were "better" (more admirable) for swiftness, or grace of form:—

Laude pedum formæne bono præstantior esset.

This have been in the author's mind, whether he may read it in Latin or in Golding's Old-English. Tollet makes it refer to her virgin chastity. Whiter, whose commentary on this play is mainly an ingenious illustra tration of the doctrine of the association of ideas suggesting images and language, thus applies his theory to this passage:

"The imagery selected to discriminate the perfections of Helen, Cleopatra, Atalanta, and Lucretia, was not derived from the abstract consideration of their general qualities; but was caught from those peculiar traits of beauty and character which are impressed on the mind of him who contemplates their portraits. It is well known that these celebrated heroines of romance were, in the days of our Poet, the favourite subjects of popular representation, and were alike visible in the coarse hangings of the poor, and the magnificent arras of the rich. In the portraits of Helen, whether they were produced by the skilful artist or his ruder imitator, though her face would certainly be delineated as eminently beautiful, yet she appears not to have been adorned with any of those charms which are allied to modesty; and we accordingly find that she was generally depicted with a loose and insidious countenance, which but too manifestly betrayed the inward wantonness and perfidy of her heart. With respect to the 'majesty' of Cleopatra, it may be observed that this notion is not derived from classical anthority, but from the more popular storehouse of legend and romance. I infer, therefore, that the familiarity of the image was im