Actus Quintus. Scena Prima.

Enter Clowne and Awdrie.

Clow. We shall finde a time Awdrie, patience gentle Awdrie.

Awd. Faith the Priest was good enough, for all the olde gentlemans faying.

Clow. A moft wicked Sir Oliuer, Awdrie, a most vile Mar-text. But Awdrie, there is a youth heere in the Forrest layes claime to you.

Awd. I, I know who 'tis : he hath no interest in mee in the world: here comes the man you meane.

Enter William.

Clo. It is meat and drinke to me to fee a Clowne, by

my troth, we that haue good wits, haue much to answer.

for we shall be flouting : we cannot hold.

:

Will. Good eu'n Audrey.

Aud. God ye good eu'n William.

5

ΙΟ

15

Will. And good eu'n to you Sir.

Clo. Good eu'n gentle friend. Couer thy head, couer thy head: Nay prethee bee eouer'd. How olde are you

5. olde gentlemans] There is nothing disrespectful here in thus speaking of Jaques; it merely gives us a hint of his age. Yet Dingelstedt translates it 'der alte Murrkopf.'-ED.

12. meat and drinke] Of this common old proverbial phrase Halliwell gives many examples, and Wright refers to its repetition in Merry Wives, I, i, 306.

14. shall] See I, i, 126.

14. flouting] MOBERLY: We must needs be jeering people. WRIGHT: We must

have our joke.

15, 16. These two appear as of Rom. & Jul. I, ii, 55, 56.

Godden' and 'Godgigoden' in the Qq and Folios

Cle. So, fo, is good, very good, very excellent good: and yet it is not, it is but fo, fo:

30

Art thou wife?

Will. I fir, I haue a prettie wit.

Clo. Why, thou saist well. I do now remember a saying: The Foole doth thinke he is wife, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole. The Heathen Philofopher, when he had a defire to eate a Grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth, meaning thereby, that Grapes were made to eate, and lippes to open. You do loue this maid?

Will. I do fit.

26, 27, and throughout, Prose, Pope. 34. wifeman] wise man Rowe et

seq.

35

40

34. The Foole, &c.] MOBERLY: The marrow of the Apologia Socratis condensed into a few words. See Prov. xii, 15. WORDSWORTH (p. 340) asks, Is the "saying" here quoted derived from 1 Corinthians, iii, 18?'

34. wiseman] CAMBRIDGE EDITORS: There can be no doubt that the words wise man, printed as two, in obedience to modern usage, were frequently in Shakespeare's time written and pronounced as one word, with the accent on the first syllable, as 'madman' is still. See Walker (Crit. ii, 1391). [See I, ii, 83, where this note should have also appeared, but was unaccountably omitted. See also Mer. of Ven. I, i, 116. Here, too, be another omission supplied, which was discovered only when it was too late to change the stereotyped page, and space could be found on that page only to refer to this present penitential expiation of the oversight. On p. xxxvi of the 'Clarendon Edition,' WRIGHT, none of whose words can we afford to lose, has the following 'Additional Note' on 'moe,' III, ii, 257: The statement that "moe" is used only with the plural requires a slight modification. So far as I am aware, there is but one instance in Shakespeare where it is not immediately followed by a plural, and that is in The Tempest, V, i, 234 (First Folio): "And mo diversitie of sounds." But in this case also the phrase "diversity of sounds" contains the idea of plurality.'-ED.] 38. open] CAPELL: What he says of the 'heathen philosopher' is occasion'd by seeing his hearer stand gaping (as well he might), sometimes looking at him, sometimes the maid; who, says he, is not a grape for your lips..... When the Poet was writing this speech his remembrance was certainly visited by some other expressions in Euphues. [See Appendix. I'hoebe is no lettice for your lippes, and her grapes hang so high, that gaze at them you may, but touch them you cannot.']

Clo. Giue me your hand : Art thou Learned?
Will. No fir.

41

Clo. Then learne this of me, To haue, is to haue. For it is a figure in Rhetoricke, that drink being powr'd out of a cup into a glaffe, by filling the one, doth empty the other. For all your Writers do confent, that ipfe is hee: now you are not ipfe, for I am he.

Will. Which he fir?

Clo. He fir, that must marrie this woman: Therefore you Clowne, abandon: which is in the vulgar, leaue the focietie which in the boorish, is companie, of this female: which in the common, is woman: which together, is, abandon the fociety of this Female, or Clowne thou perishest or to thy better vnderstanding, dyeft; or (to wit) I kill thee, make thee away, tranflate thy life into death, thy libertie into bondage: I will deale in poyfon with thee, or in bastinado, or in fteele: I will bandy with thee in faction, I will ore-run thee with police: I

43, 49. Clo.] Col. F,.

54, 55. or (to wit)] to wit Farmer,

Steev. '93, Dyce iii.

58. police] policy Ff et cet.

45

50

55

58

56. poyson] WARBURTON'S far-fetched idea, that all this seems an allusion to Sir Thomas Overbury's affair,' was properly refuted by HEATH, who recalled the date of Sir Thomas Overbury's affair,' which did not break out till 1615, long after Shakespeare had quitted the stage and within a year or a little more of his death.'

57. bastinado] WRIGHT: This spelling has been adopted in modern times. But Cotgrave gives: Bastonnade: f. A bastonadoe; a banging or beating with a cudgell.' Florio (Ital. Dict.) has: Bastonata, a bastonado, or cudgell blow.'

57. bandy] SKEAT: To beat to and fro, to contend. Shakespeare has bandy, to contend, Tit. And. I, 312, but the older sense is to beat to and fro, as in Rom. & Jul. II, v, 14. It was a term used at tennis, and was formerly also spelt band, as in To band the ball.'-Turberville. The only difficulty is to account for the final -y; I suspect it to be a corruption of the Fr. bander (or bandë), the Fr. word being taken as a whole, instead of being shortened by dropping -er in the usual manner; Fr. ' bander, to bind, fasten with strings; also to bandie, at tennis.'-Cotgrave. He also gives: 'Jouer à bander et à racler contre, to bandy against, at tennis; and (by metaphor) to pursue with all insolencie, rigour, extremitie.' Also: Se bander contre, to bandie or oppose himselfe against, with his whole power; or to ioyne in league with others against.' Also: Ils se bandent à faire un entreprise, they are ploting a conspiracie together.' The word is therefore the same as that which appears as band, in the phrase 'to band together.' The Fr. bander is derived from the Ger. band, a band, a tie, and also includes the sense of Ger. bande, a crew, a gang.

58. police] This is one of the many examples in Walker's chapter (Crit. ii, 48) on the confusion of e and ie final.

will kill thee a hundred and fifty wayes, therefore trem

Cor. Our Mafter and Miftreffe feekes you: come a

Orl. Is't poffible, that on fo little acquaintance you

61. Do] Do, Rowe.

62. you merry] you merry, Rowe et

seq.

2

64. feekes] F2. feeks FF, Knt, Dyce i, Sta. Cam. Wh. ii. seek Rowe et cet. 66. Audry] F. Audrey FF.

64. seekes] Again that obtrusive s to which our attention is so often directed in the Folio. Whatever it be, a compositor's oversight or a flourish in Shakespeare's handwriting, it is not, as far as Shakespeare is concerned, 'that figment of the grammarians,' so says Wright in happy phrase, the old Northern plural in s. See I, ii, 101. ABBOTT ingeniously suggests that being indicated by a mere line at the end of a word in MS, it was often confused with the comma, full stop, dash, or hyphen.'$338. Sometimes, of course, the rhyme shows that it is genuinely present.-ED. 1. DYCE: Here, perhaps, the Scene ought to be marked: 'Another part of the Forest. Before a Cottage.'

2. possible] STEEVENS: Shakespeare, by putting this question into the mouth of Orlando, seems to have been aware of the impropriety he had been guilty of by deserting his original. In Lodge's Novel the elder brother is instrumental in saving Aliena from a band of ruffians. Without the intervention of this circumstance, the passion of Aliena appears to be very hasty indeed. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE (April, 1833, p. 558): Dr Johnson saith: I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship.' The ladies, we are sure, have forgiven Rosalind. What say they to Celia? They look down, blush, shake head, smile, and say, 'Celia knew Oliver was Orlando's brother, and in her friendship for Rosalind she felt how delightful it would be for them two to be sisters-in-law as well as cousins. Secondly, Oliver had made a narrow escape of being stung by a serpent and devoured by a lionness, and "pity is akin to love." Thirdly, he had truly repented him of his former wickedness. Fourthly, 'twas religiously done by him, that settlement of all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's upon Orlando. Fifthly, what but true love,

fhould like her? that, but fecing, you should loue her? And louing woo? and wooing, she should graunt? And will you perfeuer to enioy her?

3

5

7

Ol. Neither call the giddineffe of it in queftion; the pouertie of her, the small acquaintance, my fodaine wo

5. perfeuer] F, Cap. Steev. Var. Cald. Knt, Coll. i, Sing. Wh. Dyce, Sta. Cam.

Ktly, Huds. Rlfe. perfevere FF, Rowe +, Mal. Coll. iii.

following true contrition, could have impelled him thus to give all up to his younger brother, and desire to marry Aliena, "who, with a kind of umber, had smirched her face," a woman low and browner than her brother? Sixthly," tell me where is fancy bred ?" At the eyes.' Thank thee, ma douce philosophe. There is a kiss for thee, flung off the rainbow of our Flamingo! HARTLEY COLERIDGE (ii, p. 144): I confess I know nothing in Shakespeare so improbable, or, truth to say, so unnatural, as the sudden conversion of Oliver from a worse than Cain, a coward fratricide in will, to a generous brother and a romantic lover. Neither gratitude nor love works such wonders with the Olivers of real life. . . . . Romance is all very well in the Forest of Arden, but Oliver is made too bad in the first scenes ever to be worthy of Celia, or capable of inspiring a kindly interest in his reformation. Celia.... should at least have put his repentance on a twelvemonth's trial. But in the Fifth Act ladies have no time for discretion. SWINBURNE (A Study, &c., p. 151): Nor can it well be worth any man's while to say or to hear for the thousandth time that As You Like It would be one of those works which prove, as Landor said long since, the falsehood of the stale axiom that no work of man's can be perfect, were it not for that one unlucky slip of the brush which has left so ugly a little smear on one corner of the canvas as the betrothal of Oliver to Celia; though with all reverence for a great name and a noble memory, I can hardly think that matters were much mended in George Sand's adaptation of the play by the transference of her hand to Jaques. Once elsewhere, or twice only at the most, is any other such sacrifice of moral beauty or spiritual harmony to the necessities and traditions of the stage discernible in all the world-wide work of Shakespeare. In the one case it is unhappily undeniable; no man's conscience, no conceivable sense of right and wrong, but must more or less feel as did Coleridge's the double violence done it in the upshot of Meas. for Meas. Even in the much more nearly spotless work which we have next to glance at [Much Ado], some readers have perhaps not unreasonably found a similar objection to the final good fortune of such a pitiful fellow as Count Claudio. It will be observed that in each case the sacrifice is made to comedy. The actual or hypothetical necessity of pairing off all the couples after such a fashion as to secure a nominally happy and undeniably matrimonial ending is the theatrical idol whose tyranny exacts this holocaust of higher and better feelings than the more liquorish desire to leave the board of fancy with a palatable morsel of cheap sugar on the tongue.

5. perseuer] WRIGHT: The common spelling in Shakespeare's time, the accent being on the second syllable. The only exception to the uniformity of this spelling, given by Schmidt (Lexicon), is in Lear, III, v, 23, where the Qq have persevere and the Ff persever. [As is seen by the Text. Notes, this spelling did not last down to

1664.]

7. of her] For other instances of the use of the pronoun for the pronominal adjective, see Abbott, § 225.