I cannot live out of her company. self; If you out-stay the time, upon mine honour, [Exeunt Duke FRED. and Lords. Cel. O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go? Ros. I have more cause. Cel. Thou hast not, cousin;2 Pr'ythee, be cheerful; know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me his daughter? Ros. That he hath not. Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: 3 Cel. 4 To seek my uncle.5 2 Thou hast not, cousin ;) Some word is wanting to the metre. Perhaps our author wrote: Indeed thou hast not, cousin. Steevens. 3- Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:] The poet certainly wrote which teacheth me. For if Rosalind had learnt to think Celia one part of herself, she could not lack that love which Celia complains she does. Warburton. Either reading may stand. The sense of the established text is not remote or obscure. Where would be the absurdity of saying, You know not the law which teaches you to do right? Johnson. 4 to take your change upon you,] i. e. to take your change or reverse of fortune upon yourself, without any aid or participation. Malone. I have inserted this note, but without implicit confidence in the reading it explains. The second folio has charge. Steevens. 5 To seek my uncle.] Here the old copy adds-in the forest Ros. Alas, what danger will it be to us, Ros. Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, That do outface it with their semblances. Cel. What shall I call thee, when thou art a man? Ros. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page, And therefore look you call me, Ganymede. But what will you be call'd? Cel. Something that hath a reference to my state; No longer Celia, but Aliena. Ros. But, cousin, what if we essay'd to steal Cel. He 'll go along o'er the wide world with me; Arden. But these words are an evident interpolation, without use, and injurious to the measure: Why, whither shall we go?-To seek my uncle, being a complete verse. Besides, we have been already informed by Charles the wrestler, that the banished duke's residence was in the forest of Arden. Steevens. 6 And with a kind of umber smirch my face;] Umber is a dusky yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in Italy. See a note on "the umber'd fires," in K. Henry V, Act III. Malone. 7- curtle-ax-] Or cutlace, a broad sword. Johnson. 8 We'll have a swashing &c.] A swashing outside is an appearance of noisy, bullying valour. Swashing blow is mentioned in Romeo and Juliet; and, in King Henry V, the Boy says:-" As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers;" meaning Tom, Pistol, and Bardolph. Steevens. Devise the fittest time, and safest way 9 [Exeunt. ACT II.....SCENE I. The Forest of Arden. Enter Duke senior, AMIENS, and other Lords, in the dress of Foresters. Duke S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, 1 The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang, And churlish chiding of the winter's wind; Which when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,This is no flattery: these are counsellors That feelingly persuade me what I am. Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 9- Now go we in content,] The old copy reads-Now go in we content. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. I am not sure that the transposition is necessary. Our author might have used content as an adjective. Malone. 1 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,] The old copy reads"not the penalty-." Steevens. What was the penalty of Adam, hinted at by our poet? The be. ing sensible of the difference of the seasons? The Duke says, the cold and effects of the winter feelingly persuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the penalty? Doubtless, the text must be restored as I have corrected it; and it is obvious, in the course of these notes, how often not and but, by mistake have changed place in our author's former editions. Theobald. As not has here taken the place of but, so, in Coriolanus, Act II, sc. iii, but is printed instead of not: "Cor. Ay, but mine own desire. "1 Cit. How! not your own desire." Malone. D2 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;2 3 Ami. I would not change it: Happy is your grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune 2 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;] It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull. Johnson. In a book called A Green Forest, or a Natural History, &c. by John Maplett, 1567, is the following account of this imaginary gem: "In this stone is apparently seene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with despotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defusedly. It is available against envenoming." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, 1639: in most physicians' heads, Again, in Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen, 1635: "Do not then forget the stone "In the toad, nor serpent's bone," &c. Pliny, in the 32d Book of his Natural History, ascribes many wonderful qualities to a bone found in the right side of a toad, but makes no mention of any gem in its head. This deficiency however is abundantly supplied by Edward Fenton, in his Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to. bl. 1. 1569, who says, "That there is founde in the heades of old and great toades, a stone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulse poysons, and that it is a most soveraigne medicine for the stone." Thomas Lupton, in his First Booke of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. bears repeated testimony to the virtues of the "Tode-stone, called Crapaudina." In his Seventh Booke he instructs us how to procure it; and afterwards tells us-"You shall knowe whether the Todestone be the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a Tode, so that he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the Tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would snatch it: He envieth so much that man should have that stone." Steevens. 3 Finds tongues in trees, &c.] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book I: "Thus both trees and each thing else, be the bookes to a fancie." Steevens. 4 I would not change it:] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens beginHappy is your grace. Johnson. Into so quiet and so sweet a style. Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,- Have their round haunches gor'd. 1 Lord. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; 5 - native burghers of this desert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called "the wild burgesses of the forest." Again, in the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "Where, fearless of the hunt, the hart securely stood, Steevens. A kindred expression is found in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "About her wond'ring stood "The citizens o' the wood." Our author afterwards uses this very phrase: 6 "Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens." Malone. with forked heads -] i. e. with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A mad World my Masters: "While the broad arrow with the forked head "Misses," &c. Steevens. "There at the foot of yonder nodding beech "That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, "His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch, 66 And pore upon the brook that babbles by." Gray's Elegy. Steevens. |