pressed, both on the Poet and his reader, from pictures or representations in tapestry, which were the lively and faithful mirrors of popular romances. Atalanta, we know, was considered by our ancient poets as a celebrated beauty; and we may be assured, therefore, that her portraits were everywhere to be found. Since the story of Atalanta represents that heroine as possessed of singular beauty, zealous to preserve her virginity even with the death of her lovers, and accomplishing her purposes by extraordinary swiftness in running, we may be assured that the skill of the artist would be employed in displaying the most perfect expressions of virgin purity, and in delineating the fine proportions and elegant symmetry of her person. Lucretia (we know) was the grand example of conjugal fidelity throughout the Gothic ages;' and it is this spirit of unshaken chastity which is here celebrated under the title of 'modesty.'

"Such, then, are the wishes of the lover in the formation of his mistress-that the ripe and brilliant beauties of Helen should be united to the elegant symmetry and virgin graces of Atalanta; and that this union of charms should be still dignified and ennobled by the majestic mein of Cleopatra, and the matron modesty of Lucretia."

"on a PALM-TREE"-"A palm-tree, (as Stevens remarks,) in the forest of Arden, is as much out of place as the lioness in a subsequent scene.' Shakespeare cared little about such proprieties;' but possibly he wrote plane-tree, which may have been misread by the transcriber, or compositor."-COLLIER.

"I was an IRISH RAT"-Johnson calls Rosalind a

very learned lady for this allusion to the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls. It was no less common than the other allusion of rhyming rats to death in Ireland. This fanciful idea probably arose from some metrical charm, or incantation, used there for ridding houses of rats. We find it mentioned by Ben Jonson, Randolph, and Marmion. Thus, in the "Poetaster:"

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

"-a chain, that you once wore"-Alluding to the chain which Rosalind had given to Orlando. "-out of all WHOOPING"-i. e. Out of all cry, or out of all measure. It is an old phrase.

111

Good my complexion"-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 same sense of disposition in the MERCHANT OF VENICE "It is the complexion of them all to leave their dam."

"-a SOUTH-SEA OF DISCOVERY"-i. e. "My curiosity can endure no longer. If you perplex me any further, I have a space for conjecture as wide as the South-sea. Of is the original reading; the modern change is, 'a South-sea off discovery.'"-KNIGHT.

So

"-speak SAD. BROW, and TRUE MAID"-i. e. Speak with a serious countenance, and as a "true maid." HENRY V. says

I speak to thee plain soldier. And in this scene we have-"I'll answer you right painted cloth."

"-borrow me GARAGANTUA'S MOUTH"-Rosalind re

quires 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. Shakespeare's allusions to the French wit, whose works had been some time translated into

English, show their great popularity.

"-as easy to count ATOMIES"-Bullokar, in his "English Expositor," (1616,) says-"An atomie is a mote flying in the sunne. Any thing so small that it cannot be made less."

-holla! to thy tongue"-" Holla!" was a term by which the rider restrained and stopped his horse. It is so used by Shakespeare, in his VENUS AND ADONIS :What recketh he his rider's angry stir,

His flattering holla, or his stand, I say?'

66

"-kill my HEART"-A quibble between hart and heart," then spelled the same.

"I answer you right painted cloth"-This passage alludes to the placing moral maxims, or sentences, in the mouths of the figures represented on the paintedcloth hangings of the period. The custom is frequently mentioned by contemporary writers. Shakespeare 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.

"the coney, that you see dwell where she is KINDLED"-" Kindled" is a phrase not yet antiquated in England, in this sense, though out of use on this side of the Atlantic, for being brought forth and is applied only to certain animals, as rabbits.

"an UNQUESTIONABLE spirit"-Johnson explains this" An unquestionable spirit is a spirit not inquisitive; a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences." This seems erroneous. Unquestionable" is the reverse of questionable, as used in HAMLET, "such a questionable shape"-one that may be conversed with. To question is used in this play for converse.

111

-POINT-DEVICE"-A customary old phrase for exact, dressed with nicety.

"-a LOVING humour of madness"-"The old copies have it, 'living humour of madness;' which is not very intelligible, unless it mean (as Stevens supposed) a lasting humour of madness. The antithesis is however complete, if, with Johnson, we read loving, which is only the change of a letter; and this reading is supported by the MS. correction of the early possessor of the first folio, in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. The meaning thus is, that Rosalind drove her suitor from his mad humour of love, into a humour in which he was in love with madness, and forswore the world."-COLLIER.

66

"the FALCON her BELLS"-Master Stephen, in Every Man in his Humour," says, "I have bought me a hawk and a hood, and bells and all." Gervase Markham, in his edition of the "Boke of St. Albans," says, "The bells which your hawk shall wear, look in any wise that they be not too heavy, whereby they over load her, neither that one be heavier than another, but both of like weight: look also that they be well-sound ing and shrill, yet not both of one sound, but one at least a note under the other."

To be a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

"-breaks his staff like a noble goose"-The humour of this simile depends upon its allusion to tilting, in which it was a disgrace for any knight to break his lance across, and not directly against the breast of his adversary. "Quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover," means, unskilfully across the breast of the lady with whom he was in love; "lover" being applied to both sexes.

SCENE V.

"-CAPABLE impressure"-Thus the old copies, and it is intelligible in the sense of "the impression which is capable of being made," that which may be taken from the "rush." But there is much likelihood of truth in the suggestion that "capable" is a misprint of palpable.

"-though you have no beauty"-This passage was very needlessly altered, by Malone and Stevens, by substituting mo, or more, for "no," because, in Lodge's "Rosalynde," in a similar speech, it is said, "Because thou art beautiful," etc. Shakespeare's intent is differ ent, and very obvious. Rosalind intends, throughout her speech, to check the vanity of Phebe; and begins

by telling her that she has no beauty, and therefore no excuse for being "proud and pitiless."

"Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer"-i. e. "The ugly seem most ugly, when, though ugly, they are scoffers."-JOHNSON.

"YOUR foulness"-The modern reading is her. We suppose Rosalind here turns to the parties before ber, and addresses each.

"Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; 'Who ever lov'd, that loo'd not at first sight?"" "The dead shepherd' was Christopher Marlowe, who was killed in 1593, and whose paraphrase of ' Hero and Leander,' from Musæus, was not printed until 1598. He did not finish the work, but it was completed by Geo. Chapman, and published entire in 1600. The line above quoted concludes a passage in the first 'Sestiad,' the whole of which Shakespeare seems to have had in his mind when he wrote this scene; and it runs thus:It lies not in our power to love or hate,

For will in us is over-ruled by fate.

When two are stripp'd, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win:

And one especially we do affect

Of two gold ingots, like in each respect.

The reason no man knows: let it suffice,

What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.

Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?"

COLLIER.

"the old CARLOT"-" Carlot (Douce says) is a word of Shakespeare's coinage." It is derived from carl, and means a peasant.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

"DISABLE all the benefits of your own country"i.e. Underrate them, speak slightingly of them. So, afterwards-"He disabled my judgment." Beaumont and Fletcher have the same use of the word.

"SWAM in a GONDOLA"-i. e. Been at Venice; then the resort of all travellers, as Paris now is. Shakespeare's contemporaries also point their shafts at the corruption of youth by travel. Bishop Hall wrote his little book "Quo Vadis?" to stem the fashion.

"-a better LEER than you"-Tyrwhitt, in his glossary to Chaucer, explains lere to mean the skin; and he derives it from the Saxon. Here it is to be taken as complexion, or feature. It occurs again in TITUS ANDRONICUS, (act iv. scene 2,) in a similar sense. Sir F. Madden translates it countenance, in his excellent glossary to "Syr Gawayne."

"the foolish CHRONICLERS of that age FOUND"Sir Thomas Hanmer reads coroners, which, from its relation to the word "found," the technical word of the verdict, may well have been the reading. Still, the sense is good as it stands. The silly "chronicler" sat on his body like a coroner's jury, and "found" that he died for love.

"-weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain"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 Dray

ton:

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

"MAKE the doors"-Still the language of the midland counties of England, for making fast the doors.

"-"Wit, whither wilt'"-A proverbial exclamation, so common as to be found in the sermons of that age. In act i. scene 2, of this play, Rosalind asks Touchstone, "How now, wit! whither wander you?" which seems only a variation of the same expression.

"-make her fault her husband's OCCASION"-i. e. Represent her fault as occasioned by her husband.

SCENE II.

"Then sing him home"-In the folios we have, as the third line

Then sing him home, the rest shall bear this burthen. With most former editors, I have thought that the first four words were part of the song, and the rest a stagedirection. But Knight and Collier omit all, and the latter insists that "The words, "Then sing him home: the rest shall bear this burden,' are clearly only stage-directions, although, by error, printed as part of the song in the old copies. Then sing him home' has reference to the carrying of the lord, who killed the deer, to the duke; and we are to suppose that the foresters sang as they quitted the stage for their 'home' in the wood. 'The rest shall bear this burden' alludes to the last six lines, which are the burden of the song. Modern editors have taken upon them to divide the song between the first and second lord, by the figures '1' and '2;' but without any warrant. It is to be observed that it is found in Playford's Musical Companion,' without the words, Then sing him home.' It is also in 'Catch that Catch can,' (1652,) in the same form."

6

SCENE III.

"MUCH Orlando"-Ironically, no Orlando here; as we still say, "I shall get much by that"-meaning, I shall get nothing.

"To sleep. Look, who comes here"-The mockheroic tone assumed by Celia is well kept up by the measure, and her speech is thus printed in the original, which in later editions has been printed as prose.

"-sweet and bitter FANCY"-" Fancy" here signifies love, as composed of contraries; probably suggested by Lodge's "Rosalynde"-"I have noted the variable disposition of fancy: a bitter pleasure wrapped in sweet prejudice."

"HURTLING"-To hurtle is to move with impetuosity and tumult. It is used in JULIUS CESARA noise of battle hurtled in the air.

ACT V.-SCENE II.

"Is't possible"-"Shakespeare, by putting this question into the mouth of Orlando, seems to have been aware of the improbability in his plot, caused by deserting his original. In Lodge's novel, the elder brother is instrumental in saving Aliena from a band of ruffians; without this circumstance, the passion of Aliena appears to be very hasty indeed."-STEVENS.

11

- all OBEISANCE"-The original has observance, which, as it also ends the next line but one preceding, seems to be a misprint; and I have adopted Ritson's conjecture. Malone proposed obedience.

"WHY do you speak, TOO"-This is the old reading which is perfectly intelligible, when addressed to Orlando; who replies, that he speaks "too," notwithstanding the absence of his mistress. It was altered, by Rowe and other editors, to "Who do you speak to."

ACT V. SCENE 2.-I know into what struts of fortune she is Ariven.

SCENE III.

"-to be a woman of the world"-i. e. To be married.

"SONG"-This song may be seen more at large in Chappell's "Collection of National English Airs," from a MS. now in the Advocates' "Library," Edinburgh, believed to have been written within sixteen years after this play. This confirmed the previous conjecture that a transposition of the first and second stanzas had taken place in the old editions. It also clears up another difficulty, the folios in the fourth line having rang time, which Johnson and others printed rank-i. e. luxuriant. The "ring-time" is the time for marriage.

SCENE IV.

"As those that fear; they hope, and know they fear"In the folio the line is printed thus:

As those that fear they hope, and know they fear. This, Caldecott, Collier, and others, retain unaltered, explaining it that "Orlando is in the state of mind of those who fear what they hope, and know that they fear it." Yet, with Johnson and other editors, I must confess that I cannot extract that or any other sense from the old reading. This edition, therefore, adopts the suggestion of Henley, which requires only a slight alteration of the pointing; and then Orlando may be understood as comparing himself to "those who fear, but yet hope while they are still conscious of real fear." Perhaps, however, the text requires a still bolder correction; and I have been much inclined to adopt Heath's reading, which is more Shakespearian in its antithesis, and its boldness of expression:

As those that fear their hope, and know their fear.

"-a lie seven times removed"-"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."-Illust. Shak.

"we quarrel in print, by the book"-"The Poet (says Warburton) has, in this scene, rallied the mode of formal duelling, then so prevalent, with the highest humour and address: nor could he have treated it with a happier contempt, than by making his Clown so knowing in the forms and preliminaries of it. The particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise of one Vincentio Saviolo, entitled, 'Of Humours and Honourable Quarrels,' in quarto, printed by Wolf, (1594.) The first part of this tract he entitles, 'A Discourse most necessary for all Gentlemen that have in regard their Honours, 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 Honour, and the right Understanding of Words, which here is set down.' The contents of the several chapters are as follow:-1. What the Reason is that the Party unto whom the Lie is given ought to become challenger, and of the Nature of Lies. 2. Of the Manner and Diversity of Lies. 3. Of Lies certain, [or direct.] 4. Of conditional Lies, [or the lie circumstantial.] 5. Of the Lie in general. 6. Of the Lie in particular. 7. Of foolish Lies. 8. A Conclusion touching the wresting or returning back of the Lie, [or the countercheck quarrelsome.] In the chapter of conditional Lies, speaking of the particle if, he 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, thon liest; or if thou sayest so hereafter, thou wilt lie. Of these kind of lies, given in this manner, often arise much contention in words-whereof no sure conclusion can arise.'

"Enter HYMEN"-" Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being, in the character of Hymen."-JOHNSON.

In all the allegorical shows exhibited at ancient weddings, Hymen was a constant personage. Ben Jonson, in his Hymenæi, or the solemnities of Masque and Barriers, at a Marriage,' has left us instructions how to dress this favourite character. On the other hand entered Hymen, the god of marriage, in a saffron-coloured robe, his under vestures white, his sockes yellow, a yellow veile of silke on his left arme, his head crowned

with roses and marjoram, in his right hand a torch."STEVENS.

"ATONE together"-i. e. Agree together, or are reconciled: from at one. The use of this word is very frequent by the contemporaries of Shakespeare, who also use it actively, as he too does elsewhere.

"Enter Second Brother"-So called in the old copies, to avoid confusion with the "melancholy Jaques." The name of this "second brother" must have been also Jaques, and he is mentioned in the first scene as then "at school." He is in fact the third brother introduced in the play; but what is meant is, that he is second in point of age-younger than Oliver, and older than Orlando. Collier objects that this supposition would seem to make Orlando too much of a stripling. But one so well read in Old-English literature should have remembered that school was used with great latitude by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, so as to include even the highest academic instruction-as we still say, "the School of Medicine" at Paris, etc. Thus, Hamlet writes, "Go back to school at Wittenberg"-i. e. to the University there. In Lodge's novel, (which ends very differently,) Fernandine, the second of the three brothers, is represented as "a scholar in Paris." He, like Jaques de Bois, arrives quite at the end of the story.

"-meeting with an old religious man"-In Lodge's novel, the usurping Duke is not diverted from his purpose by the pious counsels of a hermit, but is subdued and killed by the twelve peers of France, who undertake the cause of Rosader-the Orlando of this play.

"the measure of their STATES"-Not 'states, for estates, as in Collier's edition, which is a useless change of the old reading-" All shall receive such a share of my own returning property as may suit their several stations."

"To see no pastime"-" Amid this general festivity, the reader may be sorry to take his leave of Jaques, who appears to have no share in it, and remains behind unreconciled to society. He has, however, filled, with a gloomy sensibility, the space allotted to him in the play, and to the last preserves that respect which is due to him as a consistent character, and an able, though solitary moralist.

"It may be observed, with scarce less concern, that Shakespeare has, on this occasion, forgot old Adam, the servant of Orlando, whose fidelity should have entitled him to notice at the end of the piece, as well as to that happiness which he would naturally have found, in the return of fortune to his master."-STEVENS.

"It is the more remarkable that old Adam is forgotten, since, at the end of the novel, Lodge makes him captain of the king's guard."-FARMER.

"As we do trust they'll end in true delights”—“Thé universal modern stage-direction here is a dance,' which probably followed the Duke's speech. The ancient direction, however, is exit; but there seems no sufficient reason why the Duke should go out before the conclusion of the Epilogue. Nevertheless, according to the custom of our old stage, he may have done so. Malone, Stevens, and all the modern editors, (Capell excepted,) read And instead of As,' in this line, without any reason for change, and without attempting to assign any."-COLLIER.

"If I were a woman"-The female characters in plays, it is hardly necessary to observe, were at this time, and until after the Restoration, performed by boys, or young men.

"Every thing about Rosalind breathes of youth's sweet prime. She is fresh as the morning, sweet as the dewawakened blossoms, and light as the breeze that plays among 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 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. Shakespeare 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 Shakespeare or his 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.

"The plot of this delicious comedy was taken by our Poet from Lodge's Rosalynde, or Euphues' Golden Legacye.' Some of Lodge's incidents are judiciously omitted, but the greater part are preserved-the wrestling scene, the flight of the two ladies into the forest of Arden, the meeting there of Rosalind with her father and mother, and the whole happy termination of the plot, are found in the prose romance. Even the names of the personages are but slightly changed; for Lodge's Rosalind, in her male attire, calls herself Ganymede, and her cousin, as a shepherdess, is named Aliena. But never was the prolixity and pedantry of a prosaic narrative transmuted by genius into such magical poetry. In the days of James I., George Heriot, the Edinburgh merchant, who built a hospital still bearing his name, is said to have made his fortune by purchasing for a trifle a quantity of sand that had been brought as ballast by a ship from Africa. As it was dry, he suspected from its weight that it contained gold, and he succeeded in filtering a treasure from it. Shakespeare, like Heriot, took the dry and heavy sand of Lodge, and made gold

out of it.

"Before I say more of this dramatic treasure, I must absolve myself by a confession as to some of its improbabilities. Rosalind asks her cousin Celia, 'Whither shall we go?' and Celia answers, 'To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.' But, arrived there, and having purchased a cottage and sheep-farm, neither the daughter nor niece of the banished Duke seem to trouble themselves much to inquire about either father or uncle. The lively and natural-hearted Rosalind discovers no impatience to embrace her sire until she has finished her masked courtship with Orlando. But Rosalind was in love, as I have been with the comedy these forty years; and love is blind-for until a late period my eyes were never couched so as to see this objection. The