AS YOU LIKE IT.

Frederick, Brother to the Duke, and Ufurper of his
Dukedom.

Amiens,Lords attending upon the Duke in his
Jaques,

Banishment.

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Dramatis Personæ] First given by Rowe (ed. i) and substantially followed by all Editors. In Rowe (ed. ii), after the names Corin and Sylvius, there is added ‘A Clown, in love with Audrey,' and 'William, another Clown, in love with Audrey.' Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, and Warburton followed Rowe (ed. ii). Capell added ‘a Person presenting Hymen.'

5. Jaques] The pronunciation of this name has never been decisively determined. A discussion in regard to it arose in the pages of The Athenæum for the 31st of July, the 14th and 21st of August, and the 4th of September, 1880; by some of the participants it was held to be a monosyllable, and by the others a disyllable. The discussion ended, as literary journalistic discussions generally end, in leaving the disputants, as far as the public can judge, more firmly convinced than ever of the soundness of the views with which they started. For the monosyllabic pronunciation no authority was cited, merely personal preference was alleged. For the disyllabic pronunciation the requirements of metre were urged when the occurrence of the name in the middle of a verse shows that pronunciation to be indispensable, as in II, i, 29: 'The mel | ancho | ly Jaques grieves | at that,' and possibly in V, iv, 199: 'Stay, Ja | ques, stay.' I have discussed in a note on II, i, 29, all the instances where the name occurs metrically in Shakespeare, and beg to refer the student to that note, which supplements the present. In The Athenæum for the 20th of May, 1882, H. BARTON BAKER gives of this disyllabic pronunciation four examples from Greene's Friar Bacon, five from his James IV, one from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, another from his Soliman and Perseda, and two from Beaumont and Fletcher's Noble Gentleman. The value of this list, for our present purpose, is impaired by the fact that none of these characters is supposed to be English, and in each case, therefore, 'Jaques' may possibly have received a foreign pronunciation.

On the other hand, HALLIWELI, says 'the name of this character was pronounced jakes.' And FRENCH (p. 317) tells us that 'the name of the melancholy Lord Jaques belongs to Warwickshire, where it is pronounced as one syllable; "Thomas Jakes of Wonersh," was on the List of Gentry of the Shire, 12 Henry VI, 1433. At the surrender of the Abbey of Kenilworth, 26 Henry VIII, 1535, the Abbot was Simon Jakes, who had the large pension of 100l. per annum granted to him. There are still some respectable families of the name in the neighborhood of Stratford; John Jaques and Joseph Jaques reside at Alderminster; Mrs Sarah Jaques at Newbold-onStour; and families of the name are living at Pillerton and Eatington (1867).' The

Le Beu, A Courtier attending on Frederick.

Oliver, Eldeft Son to Sir Rowland de Boys, who

had formerly been a Servant of the Duke.

Jaques,

Orlando Younger Brothers to Oliver.

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evidence which French adduces is sufficient, I think, to show that the name as a monosyllable was well known in Shakespeare's day. If more be needed in proof of this monosyllabic pronunciation it is settled beyond a peradventure by the coarse, unsavory anecdote with which Harington begins his Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596 (p. 17 of Singer's Reprint), which need not be repeated here; Halliwell's word and mine may be taken for the fact. Assuming, then, this monosyllabic pronunciation, I think it is not impossible to reconcile it with the passages where the metre demands two syllables by supposing that, like many other words, such as commandment (see II, vii, 115 post), England, children and the like, there can be, when needed, the subaudition of an extra syllable. The fact that Jaques was an old Warwickshire name takes it out of the rule which applies to foreign names, like Parolles. To me the evidence is conclusive that it was in general pronounced as a monosyllable, Jakes, and, when metre required it, there was, I believe, the suggestion of a faint, unemphatic second syllable.

Having thus discerned the right, let us be human and the wrong pursue. The name Jakes is so harsh, and so indissolubly associated with the old time Bowery boys,' that surely the fervent hope may be pardoned that the name Jaques will never be pronounced other than Jaq-wes.—ED.

6. Le Beu] This is the uniform spelling in the Folio, except in the Stage direction, I, ii, 88, which reads Enter le Beau.

7. Rowland de Boys] FRENCH (p. 316): It is very probable that Shakespeare took the name of his knight from an old but extinct family of great note in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, whose memory was long preserved in the latter county, Sir Ernald or Arnold de Boys, Arnold being easily transposed to Roland, and thence we have Orlando. The manor of Weston-in-Arden was held by Sir Ernald de Boys, temp. Edw. I, paying yearly to the Earl of Leicester 'one hound called a Brache, and seven pence in money for all services.' There were four generations in succession of the lords of the manor of Weston-in-Arden, each of whom is called Sir Ernald de Bosco, or de Boys.

9. Jaques] To avoid confusion with the 'melancholy Jaques,' WIELAND changed this to Jakob. LE TOURNEUR adopted James in his Dramatis Persona, but by the time the Fifth Act was reached he had forgotten the substitution, and Jaques, not James, enters on the scene. It was Wieland, I am afraid, who started the custom in Germany, which has survived, I am sorry to say, even to the present hour, of translating, and of changing at will, the names of Shakespeare's characters. The infection spread even to that most admirable translator, François-Victor Hugo. Scarcely a play of Shakespeare's can be read in German wherein names with which we are all familiar from our childhood are not distorted and disguised beyond recognition, and however often they may occur in reading it is always an effort to recall the original. Who of us, however at home he may be in German, can recognize at first sight Frau Hurtig? or Schaal and Stille, or those two associates lost to everlasting redemption under the disguise of Holzapfel and Schleewein? Perhaps it may be urged that these

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