Honour, high honour, and renown,

To Hymen, god of every town!

Duke S. O, my dear niece! welcome thou art to me: Even daughter, welcome in no less degree.

Phe. [To SILVIUS.] I will not eat my word, now thou art mine;

Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine.

Enter Second Brother3.

2 Bro. Let me have audience for a word or two.
I am the second son of old Sir Rowland,
That bring these tidings to this fair assembly.-
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Address'd a mighty power, which were on foot
In his own conduct, purposely to take
His brother here, and put him to the sword.
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came,
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprize, and from the world;
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands restor❜d to him again*,
That were with him exil'd. This to be true,
I do engage my life.

3 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; but this supposition would seem to make Orlando too much of a stripling at the wrestlingmatch to have had any chance against Charles. In Lodge's novel (which ends very differently), Fernandine, the second of the three brothers, is represented as a scholar in Paris," not "at school" there. He, like Jaques de Bois, arrives quite at the end of the story.

66

And all their lands restor❜d to HIM again] So the old copies, which modern editors have altered without notice to "restor❜d to them again." The meaning is, that the converted brother restores to the banished brother his dukedom, and all the lands of those who were in exile with him, in order that he (the duke) may bestow the lands again on their former possessors. The duke afterwards tells his nobles that he will give them back their estates.

Duke S.

Welcome, young man;
Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding:
To one, his lands withheld; and to the other,
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun, and well begot;
And after, every of this happy number,

That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us,
Shall share the good of our returned fortune,
According to the measure of their 'states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,
And fall into our rustic revelry.-

Play, music! and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.
Jaq. Sir, by your patience.-If I heard you rightly,
The duke hath put on a religious life,

And thrown into neglect the pompous court?
2 Bro. He hath.

Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.You [To DUKE S.] to your former honour I bequeath; Your patience, and your virtue, well deserve it :You [To ORLANDO] to a love, that your true faith doth

merit:

You [TO OLIVER] to your land, and love, and great allies:

You [To SILVIUS] to a long and well deserved bed :— And you [To TOUCHSTONE] to wrangling; for thy loving voyage

Is but for two months victuall'd.-So, to your pleasures: I am for other than for dancing measures.

Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay.

Jaq. To see no pastime, I:-what you would have, I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave.

[Exit.

Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites,

As we do trust they'll end in true delights".

5 As we do trust they'll end in true delights.] The universal modern stage

EPILOGUE.

I

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', '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. 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 curtsey, bid me farewell. [Exeunt.

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, Steevens, 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.

6 -no bush,] It was formerly the custom, says Steevens, to hang a tuft of iry at the door of a vintner. It is alluded to by many old writers.

7 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.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

"The Taming of the Shrew" was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-two pages, viz. from p. 208 to p. 229 inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It was reprinted in the three later folios.