EPILOGUE.

Ros. 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,'4 'tis 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 women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them), that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many 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'sy, bid me farewell.

5

[Exeunt.

NOTES

ΤΟ

AS YOU LIKE IT.

АСТ І.

1 As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion: he bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns.

As suggested by Sir W. Blackstone, we have inserted the pronoun 'he' before 'bequeathed.' In the folio the word 'fashion' ends the line, and hence the printer was more likely to fall into the error, and overlook the omission. The phrase 'poor a thousand,' instead of 'a poor thousand,' was common in Shakespeare's time. Caldecott elaborately defends it: 'A is one, a number. Suppose, then, the bequest had been two, or five, or ten; you see how insufferable would be this expression, two poor thousand crowns." But further-" a thousand crowns" are words of the will which the speaker quotes; and thereby makes them, as it were, a substantive to his adjective poor.'

2 Be naught awhile. This seems to have been a proverbial expression. Malone quotes from an old comedy, Swetnam, 1620, the expression, 'Get you both in and be naught awhile;' i. e., better do mischief than nothing. 3 Arden, properly Ardenne, or Ardennes, is a frontier department in the north-east of France, bordering on Belgium-a tract of country which was formerly one great forest.

4 The folio gives the words, with bills on their necks, to Rosalind, but obviously they should form part of the speech of Le Beau. He uses the term bills to signify a weapon-the forester's bill-upon which Rosalind interrupts him by misinterpreting the word, as applying to notices called bills, which began with: 'Be it known unto all men,' &c. The introduction of the bills is from Lodge: 'Rosader came pacing towards them with his forest bill on his neck.'

5 A quintain was originally a post or butt set up for several kinds of martial exercises, against which they threw their darts and exercised their arms. But the figure of a man carved in wood was afterwards introduced. 6 Father's child; in the old copies, 'child's father,' an evident mistake. The correction was first made by Rowe.

7 Curtal-axe, a short broad sword, or cutlass.

ACT II.

1 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam. The folio has 'not the penalty,' &c. Theobald substituted but for not. Collier and Knight retain the old reading.

2 I would not change it. These concluding words of the Duke's philosophic speech are commonly printed as part of Amiens's reply. Upton suggested the transfer, which at once recommends itself.

3 With forked heads. Deer were then killed with barbed arrows; not shot, as by the modern deer-stalker.

4 Roynish, from Fr. rogneux, scurvy.

misprint for roguish.

But the word is probably a

5 How weary are my spirits. The folio has: 'how merry are my spirits.' This is clearly one of the many misprints with which the original work abounds, and which editors have from time to time corrected.

6 Cross-the coin stamped with a cross. On this, as Steevens says, our author is perpetually quibbling.

7 The batlet was an instrument with which washers beat their clothesa square piece of wood with a handle.

8 And turn his merry note.

Pope altered 'turn' to 'tune;' but the original expression was common in Shakespeare's time. In Hall's Satires we have:

"While threadbare Martial turns his merry note.'

9 Ducdàme. Hanmer proposed duc ad me, that is, bring him to me; but ducdame is more generally, and with greater probability, considered to be a mere by-word, 'coined for the nonce,' as Farmer said.

10 Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune. An allusion to the

ancient proverbial saying, that 'Fortune makes a fool of the man whom she favours too much.'

11 Suit-petition; a play upon the word.

12 What, for a counter, would I do, but good? French counters, or pieces of imitative or false money, used as a means of reckoning, were then introduced into England.

13 Till that the wearer's very means do ebb. This is Mr Singer's reading of the line. In the original it is: 'Till that the wearie verie meanes do ebb.' Pope read 'the very, very means." Collier's Old Corrector alters it to: Till that the very means of wear do ebb.' The correction we have adopted seems the most simple and obvious.

14 All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

This sentiment is at least as old as the time of Petronius-Totus mundus agit histrionem—and was probably familiar also in the days of the Greek drama. In Withal's old Latin and English Dictionary, the poet might have read: 'The world is a stage, full of change every way-every man is a player.' It occurs also in the old play of Damon and Pythias, 1586. The division of life into seven ages was also of ancient origin, and was the frequent subject of pictorial illustration. In Arnold's Chronicle (a work of the fifteenth century), we see how our ancestors apportioned each period: "The seven ages of man living in the world. The first age is infancy, and lasteth from the birth unto seven years of age. The second is childhood, and endureth unto fifteen years of age. The third is adolescence, and endureth unto twenty-five years of age. The fourth age youth, and endureth unto thirty-five years of age. The fifth age manhood, and endureth unto fifty years of age. The sixth age is eld, and lasteth unto seventy years of age. The seventh age of man is cripple, and endureth unto death.'

is

15 Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. The word sans, introduced into our language as early as the time of Chaucer, was, as Douce shews, pronounced as an English, not a French word, being spelt

sance.

16 Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

The fifth of these lines has led to much conjecture and emendation. Why is the winter wind less keen because it is invisible? Warburton

proposed 'not so sheen" (shining); and Farmer, 'Because thy heart's not seen.' Johnson thought the original line had been lost, and the one in the text substituted merely to fill up the measure and the rhyme. Mr Staunton would read: 'Because thou art foreseen;' but this does not agree with the next line: Although thy breath be rude.' We believe the text to be genuine, and the meaning to be as given in Johnson's roundabout paraphrase: Thou winter wind, 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.' 17 Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remember'd not.

'Remember'd' is here used for 'remembering'-a form of expression that appears awkward to modern readers, but was then not uncommon.

ACT III.

1 Extent an English law-phrase connected with the appraisement and seizure of property.

2 Expediently-expeditiously.

3 Unexpressive-inexpressible; not to be expressed. Thus in Milton's Lycidas:

'And hears the unexpressive nuptial song.'

4 Parlous was a common corruption of perilous.

5 Fair-fairness or beauty.

6 The right butter-women's rank to market-in a rank or row, one after the other on their pad-horses.

7 Why should this a desert be?

In the folio, 'Why should this desert be?' Rowe inserted the article. Tyrrwhit suggested, 'Why should this desert silent be?' and the line is so printed in some editions.

8 In little shew-an allusion to a miniature portrait, which, in Shakespeare's time, was called 'painted in little.' For 'picture in little,' see Hamlet, Act II., Sc. 2.

9 Look here what I found on a palm-tree: I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat.

A palm-tree in the forest of Arden, is as much out of place as the lioness in a subsequent scene.-STEEVENS. The poet was led into such anachronisms by following Lodge, who introduces the lion, the myrrh-tree, the fig, the citron, pomegranate, &c., into his forest of Arden. There was an old saying, alluded to by Donne, Temple, and others, that rats were rhymed to death in Ireland. Rosalind, as Johnson said, is a learned lady: 'she alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls