Rof. Nay, you might keepe that checke for it, till you met your wiues wit going to your neighbours bed.

Orl. And what wit could wit haue, to excuse that? Rofa. Marry to say, she came to seeke you there : you shall neuer take her without her anfwer, vnleffe you take her without her tongue : ô that woman that cannot make her fault her husbands occasion, let her neuer nurse her childe her felfe, for she will breed it like a foole.

167. occafion] accusation Han. Sing. Ktly. accusing Coll. (MS) ii, iii.

161

165

168

168. She will...it like a] she'll...it a Cap. conj.

STEEVENS: This was an

known at that time, though now perhaps irretrievable. exclamation much in use when any one was either talking nonsense or usurping a greater share in conversation than justly belonged to him. So in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602: My sweet wit, whither wilt thou? my delicate poetical fury,' &c. [p. 166, ed. Hawkins]. Again, in Heywood's Royal King: 'Captain. I since came to purchase that Which all the wealth you have will never win you. Bonville. And what's that, I pray? Capt. Wit. Is the word strange to you? Wit. Bon. Whither wilt thou? Capt. True; Wit will to many ere it come to you' [I, i, p. 18, ed. Sh. Soc. Steevens quoted, of the above, only the phrases containing the proverb. But I think the Captain's answer throws some light on the obscure meaning of the phrase; it seems as though it were equivalent to saying: 'Wit, whither wilt thou go? Thou art clearly leaving the present company.' Halliwell adds several other authorities for the use of the phrase, to which more could be added without increasing our knowledge of the meaning. Malone believed the phrase to be the first words of an old madrigal. See I, ii, 55.-ED.]

165. answer] TYRWHITT: See Chaucer, Marchaundes Tale [line 1020, ed. Morris, where Proserpine assures Pluto that May shall have an answer ready to excuse any escapade :] Now by my modres Ceres soule I swere, That I schal yive hir suffisaunt answere, And alle wommen after for hir sake; That though thay be in any gult i-take, With face bold thay schul hemself excuse, And bere hem doun that wolde hem accuse. For lak of answer, noon of hem schal dyen. Al had a man seyn a thing with bothe his yen, Yit schul we wymmen visage it hardily, And wepe, and swere, and chide subtilly, So that ye men schul ben as lewed as gees.'

166. ] What rule, if any, guided the compositor in the use of this circumflexed a it seems almost impossible to discover. Perhaps, as it does not begin a sentence, the lower case o seemed too insignificant without some distinction, or perhaps it was that, unlike Othello, its demerits could not speak unbonneted. Walker (Crit. i, 104) says that 'O' in the forms o' my truth, o' my life, &c. is frequently expressed by ô.' As we see here, in the present instance, the same type is used in the mere exclamation. It is, however, purely a matter of typography, and very remotely, if at all, connected with Shakespeare.—ED.

167. occasion] JOHNSON: That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. CAPELL: That cannot make her husband the cause of it. CALDECOTT: That is, an act done upon his occasions, in prosecution of his concerns. STAUNTON: If any deviation is required, we might perhaps, and without departing far from the text, read, her husband's confusion.' KEIGHTLEY: I find I have followed Hanmer,

Orl. For these two houres Rofalinde, I wil leaue thee. Rof. Alas, deere loue, I cannot lacke thee two houres. Orl. I must attend the Duke at dinner, by two a clock I will be with thee againe.

Rof. I, goe your waies, goe your waies: I knew what you would proue, my friends told mee as much, and I thought no leffe: that flattering tongue of yours wonne me: 'tis but one caft away, and fo come death clocke is your howre.

Orl. I, fweet Rofalind.

170

175

two o'

Ref. By my troth, and in good earneft, and fo God. mend mee, and by all pretty oathes that are not dangerous, if you breake one iot of your promife, or come one minute behinde your houre, I will thinke you the most patheticall breake-promife, and the most hollow louer,

176. o'] o' th' Rowe+. o' the Steev. '85.

180

183

183. patheticall] atheistical Warb. jesuitical Grey.

but doubt if I was justified in so doing. WRIGHT: That is, an occasion against her husband; an opportunity for taking advantage of him.

168. In Kemble's Acting Copy Rosalind here sings the song from Love's Labour Lost: When daisies pied,' &c.

170. FLETCHER (p. 221): How deliciously after all this acted levity and mischievousness, comes immediately this fond exclamation!

171, 176. two a... two o'] Let us note this variation in spelling, a compositor's mere vagary, within half a dozen lines, and let our souls be instructed.-ED.

176. come death] It is not impossible that there is here just an allusion to that popular song of Anne Bullen's: Death, rock me asleep. Bring me to quiet rest,' &c. It sounds to me like some quotation or allusion, whose popularity excuses, or at least lightens, the charming exaggeration.—ED.

177. your howre] LADY MARTIN (p. 429): This is to be full of tears;' and when she has put a pang into her lover's heart by this semblance of reproachful grief, she suddenly floods it with delight by turning to him her face radiant with smiles, and saying, 'Two o'clock's your hour! This is to be full of smiles,' and the charm so works upon him that we see he has lost the consciousness that it is the boy Ganymede, and not his own Rosalind, that is before him, as he answers, 'Ay, sweet Rosalind.' And she, too, in her parting adjuration to him, comes nearer than she has ever done before to letting him see what is in her heart.

183. patheticall] HEATH: The meaning is, That of all break-promises he best counterfeits a real passion. I suppose the old salvo of faithless lovers: 'perjuria ridet amantum,' maintained its ground even in Shakespeare's time. TALBOT: We now use pitiful in a like sense. WHITER (p. 57): 'Pathetical,' in its first sense, means full of passion and sentiment. In a ludicrous sense, a 'pathetical break-promise' is a whining, canting, promise-breaking swain. Shakespeare, perhaps, caught this word from Lodge's Novel, where Phoebe's indifference to Montanus is described: But she,

and the most vnworthy of her you call Rofalinde, that may bee chofen out of the groffe band of the vnfaithfull therefore beware my cenfure, and keep your promife.

Orl. With no leffe religion, then if thou wert indeed my Rofalind: fo adieu.

Iuftice that examines all
adieu.

Exit.

Rof. Well, Time is the olde fuch offenders, and let time try Cel. You haue fimply mifus'd our fexe in your loueprate we must haue your doublet and hose pluckt ouer your head, and fhew the world what the bird hath done to her owne neast.

Rof. O coz, coz, coz : my pretty little coz, that thou didft know how many fathome deepe I am in loue: but it cannot bee founded: my affection hath an vnknowne bottome, like the Bay of Portugall.

185

190

195

199

191. Scene III. Pope, Han. Warb.

191. try] try you Coll. (MS). measuring all his passions with a coy disdaine, and triumphing in the poore shepheard's patheticall humours.' &c. WRIGHT: Cotgrave explains 'Pathetique' as Patheticall, passionate; persuasiue, affection-moving. ALLEN (MS): Rosalind merely misplaces the epithet (by a kind of hypallage); 'pathetical' properly belongs to 'lover,' as if she had said: 'I will think you the most passionate-not lover as now -but break-promise.'

183. breake-promise] 'At lovers' perjuries They say Jove laughs.'—Rom. & Jul. II, ii, 93.

190. olde Iustice] STEEVENS: So in Tro. & Cress. IV, v, 225: 'that old common arbitrator, Time, Will one day end it.'

192. misus'd] MOBERLY: Completely libelled our sex. WRIGHT: That is, abused. On the other hand, abuse in Shakespeare's time was equivalent to the modern 'misuse.'

195. neast] STEEVENS: So in Lodge's Rosalynde: 'I pray (quoth Aliena) if your robes were off, what mettal are you made of that you are so satyrical against women? is it not a foule bird that defiles his own nest?'

199. Portugall] WRIGHT: In a letter to the Lord Treasurer and Lord High Admiral, Ralegh gives an account of the capture of a ship of Bayonne by his man Captain Floyer in 'the bay of Portugal' (Edwards, Life of Ralegh, ii, 56). This is the only instance in which I have met with the phrase, which is not recognised, so far as I am aware, in maps and treatises on geography. It is, however, I am informed, still used by sailors to denote that portion of the sea off the coast of Portugal from Oporto to the headland of Cintra. The water there is excessively deep, and within a distance of forty miles from the shore it attains a depth of upwards of 1400 fathoms, which in Shakespeare's time would be practically unfathomable. NEIL: Perhaps this simile ought to be taken as a time-mark of the production of the play. The history of Portugal engaged a good deal of attention between 1578 and 1602. On the 4th

Cel. Or rather bottomleffe, that as faft as you poure affection in, in runs out.

Rof. No, that fame wicked Bastard of Venus, that was begot of thought, conceiu'd of fpleene, and borne of madnesse, that blinde rafcally boy, that abuses euery ones eyes, because his owne are out, let him bee iudge, how deepe I am in loue: ile tell thee Aliena, I cannot be out of the fight of Orlando : Ile goe finde a fhadow, and figh till he come.

Cel. And Ile sleepe.

201. in, in] in, it F et seq.

Exeunt.

200

205

209

206. ile tell] I tell Cam. Edd. conj.

207. Orlando] Orland F. Orlanda F.. 209. Ile] I'll go Ktly.

of August, 1578, the destructive battle of Alcazar, on which George Peele composed a play published in 1594, was fought, and Don Sebastian, the king, was lost on the field. . . . . In 1589, before the public exultation at the defeat of the Spanish Armada had subsided, a band of adventurers, 21,000 in 180 vessels, engaged in an expedition into Portugal, under the command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris, in which the Earl of Essex also had a share. Instead of returning with the bays of victory, 11,000 persons perished; of the 1100 gentlemen volunteers, only 350 returned to their native country. They were embayed in its [sic] unknown bottom. In Der Bestrafte Brudermord, founded, it is believed, about 1598, on an early draught of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark suggests ironically to his uncle-father, 'Send me off to Portugal, so that I may never come back again.' In 1602 there appeared at London The true History of the late and lamentable Adventures of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, on which Massinger founded his play, Believe as you List, a drama only recently discovered and printed, whose title is a sort of echo of the play before us. A Portingal Voyage is noticed also as a memorable thing in Webster's NorthwardHo! published in 1607, but acted some time before that date.

203. thought] This is melancholy, according to Steevens, Malone, Caldecott, and Dyce. It is also moody reflection, according to Halliwell. Or with Schmidt we can take it as applied to love, a passion bred and nourished in the mind.' It is hardly to be taken as care, anxiety, the sense in which Hamlet uses it in 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,' or as in 'take no thought of the morrow.'-Ed.

203. spleene] SCHMIDT: That is, caprice; a disposition acting by fits and starts. WRIGHT: A sudden impulse of passion, whether of love or hatred.

206. ile tell thee] DYCE (ed. iii): Qu. “I tell thee"? This blunder, if it be one, is not uncommon.'-LETTSOM. It is not a blunder, [See Text. Notes, where Lettsom is anticipated.]

207. shadow] STEEVENS: So in Macb. IV, iii, 1: Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there Weep our sad bosoms empty.'

Scena Secunda.

Enter Iaques and Lords, Forreflers.

Iaq. Which is he that killed the Deare?
Lord. Sir, it was I.

Iaq. Let's present him to the Duke like a Romane Conquerour, and it would doe well to fet the Deares horns vpon his head, for a branch of victory; haue you no fong Forrester for this purpose ?

Lord.

Yes Sir.

Iaq. Sing it 'tis no matter how it bee in tune, fo it make noyfe enough.

Muficke, Song.

What shall he haue that kild the Deare?

His Leather skin, and hornes to weare:

Then fing him home, the rest shall beare this burthen;

Scene IV. Pope, Han. Warb. Johns.

Scene continued, Theob.

3. Lord.] 1. F. Cap. 1 Lord. Mal.

A Lord. Cam.

8. Lord.] For. Rowe +, Cam. Cap. 2 Lord. Mal.

14. For Text. Notes, see p. 231.

5

ΙΟ

14

2. F.

1. JOHNSON: This noisy scene was introduced to fill up an interval which is to represent two hours. [See note on Rosalind's first speech in next Scene.] GERVINUS (p. 388): This is characteristic of idle rural life, where nothing of more importance happens than a slaughtered deer and a song about it. [Gervinus presumes also to call this scene a stop-gap.' It is all very well for Dr Johnson to say that this scene is merely to fill up an interval: from him, we accept all notes and rate them as they deserve, but the learned German should have remembered that 'That in the captain's but a cholerick word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.'-ED.]

·

2. FLOWER (Memorial Theatre Edition): On the occasion of the first representation of As You Like It in the Memorial Theatre, April 30th, 1879, a fallow deer was carried on the stage by the foresters [in this scene] which had been that morning shot by H. S. Lucy, Esq., of Charlecote Park, out of the herd descended from that upon which Shakespeare is credited with having made a raid in his youth. The deer is now stuffed, and carried on whenever the play is acted in Stratford.

4-7. NEIL: Sir Thomas Elyot, in The Governour, 1531, says, regarding the hunting of red deer and fallow: To them which in this huntynge do showe moste prowess and actyvyty, a garlande or some other lyke token to be given in sign of victory, and with a joyful manner to be broughte in the presence of hym that is chiefe of the company there, to receive condigne prayse for their good endeavour.'-Bk. I, chap. xviii. 12, 13. MALONE: Shakespeare seems to have formed this song on a hint afforded