"I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence." Act I., Scene 1. That is, the reverence due to my father is, in some degree, inherited by you as the first-born.

“I am no villain.”—Act I., Scene 1.

The word villain is used by the elder brother in its present meaning by Orlando, in its original sense, for a fellow of base extraction.

"He is already in the forest of Arden."-Act I., Scene 1. Shakspere was furnished with the principal scene in this play by Lodge's novel. Arden (or Ardenne) is a forest of considerable extent, near the Meuse, and between Charlemont and Rocroy. It is mentioned by Spenser, in his "COLIN CLOUT," as famous "Ardeyn;" and in recent times is thus characterised by Lady Morgan, in connexion with the play :-"The forest of Ardennes smells of early English poetry. It has all the greenwood freshness of Shakspere's scenes; and it is scarcely possible to feel the truth and beauty of his exquisite As YOU LIKE IT,' without having loitered, as I have done, amid its tangled glens and magnificent depths."

"Since the little wit that fools have was silenced.”

Act I., Scene 2.

The allusion here is to the professional fools or jesters who for ages had been allowed an unbridled liberty of censure and mockery, and about Shakspere's time began to be less tolerated.

"With bills on their necks."-Act I., Scene 2. There is probably an equivoque intended here between a legal instrument and the weapon called a bill. To carry the bill on the neck (not on the shoulder) was the phraseology of Shakspere's time. The expression is used in "RosaLYNDE:"-" Ganimede on a day sitting with Aliena, cast up her eye, and saw where Rosader (Orlando) came pacing toward them with his forest-bill on his neck."

"Is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides?” Act I., Scene 2. Rosalind hints at a whimsical similitude between the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some musical instruments; and therefore calls broken ribs, broken music.JOHNSON.

This probably alludes to the pipe of Pan, which, consisting of reeds of unequal length, and gradually lessening, bore some resemblance to the ribs of a man.-MALONE.

"That which here stands up

Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.”

Act I., Scene 2. There were various kinds of quintains: the one here alluded to appears to have been a stake driven into a field, upon which were hung a shield and trophies of war, at which they shot, darted, or rode with a lance. When the shield and trophies were all thrown down, the quintain remained.

"Ros. No, 'faith: hate him not, for my sake. CEL. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well." Act I., Scene 3. Celia answers Rosalind as if the latter had said, "Love him for my sake."

"Ros. Why, whither shall we go?

CEL. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden."

Act I., Scene 3.

This passage furnished Mr. Steevens, in his later editions, with an amusing opportunity of showing his superabundant zeal in the cause of what he deemed correct metre. "Here (says he) the old copy adds, 'in the forest of Arden.' But these words are an evident interpolation, without sense, 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."-This is trying a play by the rigid rules that might be applicable to a mathematical essay.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
Act II., Scene 1.

It was the current opinion in Shakspere's time that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. Science has shewn the belief to be erroneous, but the poet has turned it to excellent account.

"Ros. O Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!

TOUCH. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, and to cry like a woman.-Act II., Scene 4.

The old copy here reads "how merry are my spirits." The emendation, which the context and the Clown's reply render certain, was made by Mr. Theobald. In the original copy of "OTHELLO" (4to. 1622), nearly the same mistake has happened; for there we find "Let us be merry, let us hide our joys," instead of "Let us be wary."-MALONE.

"Ducdàme, ducdàme, ducdàme."-Act II., Scene 5. For ducdàme, Sir T. Hanmer very acutely and judiciously reads, "Duc ad me;" that is, "Bring him to me."JOHNSON.

"A motley fool;-a miserable world!"-Act II., Scene 7. "A miserable world" is a parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the sight of a fool, or at the hearing reflections on the fragility of life.--JOHNSON.

"Good-morrow, fool,' quoth I: 'No sir,' quoth he, 'Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune."" Act II., Scene 7. Touchstone's answer alludes to the common saying that fools are fortune's favourites.

"One man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages."-Act II, Scene 7.

Dr. Warburton boldly asserts that this was "no unusual” division of a play before our author's time. One of Chapman's plays ("Two WISE MEN, AND ALL THE REST FOOLS") is indeed in seven acts: this, however, is the only dramatic piece that I have found so divided. But surely it is not necessary to suppose that our author alluded here to any such precise division of the drama. His comparisons seldom run on four feet. It was sufficient for him that a play was distributed into several acts, and that human life, long before his time, had been divided into seven periods.

In the "TREATISE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES" (1613), Proclus, a Greek author, is said to have divided the life of man into seven periods, over which one of the seven planets was supposed to rule. Hippocrates also divided the life of man into seven ages, but differs from Proclus in the number of years allotted to each period.-See Brown's "VULGAR ERRORS," folio, p. 173.-MALONE.

"Full of wise saws and modern instances.”

Act II., Scene 7.

The meaning seems to be, that justice is full of old sayings and late examples.

"Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen.-Act II., Scene 7. "Thou winter wind (says Amiens), thy rudeness gives the less pain, as thou art not seen: as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness is therefore not aggravated by insult."

Though thou the waters warp."-Act II., Scene 7. The surface of waters, so long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are frozen, this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle.-KENRICK.

To warp was probably in Shakspere's time a colloquial word, which conveyed no distinct allusion to anything else, physical or medicinal. To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: when milk is changed by curdling, we now say it is turned; when water is changed or turned by frost, Shakspere says it is curdled. To be warped is only to be changed from its natural state.-JOHNSON.

"And thou, thrice crowned queen of night."—Act III., Scene 2.

This alludes to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess. "The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.”—Act III., Scene 2.

The word unexpressive is here used in the sense of inexpressible. Milton, in his "HYMN ON THE NATIVITY," employs it in a similar manner:

"Harping with loud and solemn quire.

With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born heir."

He that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding."-Act III., Scene 2.

A doubt is expressed by Dr. Johnson whether custom did not formerly authorise this mode of speech, and make "complain of good breeding" the same with "complain of the want of good breeding." In the last line of the "MERCHANT OF VENICE," we find that to "fear the keeping" is to "fear the not keeping."

"Why should this a desert be?"-Act III., Scene 2.

The old copy reads "Why should this desert be." The judicious insertion of the "a" was made by Pope. The omission was probably a typographical error. Tyrwhitt's interpolation of the word "silent" is unnecessary.

Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am caparisoned like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition?"-Act III., Scene 2.

The meaning of the exclamation "Good my complexion!" probably is, as suggested by Malone, "My native character, my female inquisitive disposition, canst thou endure this?" Complexion is used in the sense of disposition in the "MERCHANT OF VENICE:"-" It is the complexion of them all to leave their dam."

"Ros. Answer me in one word.

CEL. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth first."
Act III., Scene 2.

Rosalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of such magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua, the giant of Rabelais, who swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all, in a salad.

"It is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the prope sitions of a lover."-Act III., Scene 2.

Bullokar, in his "ENGLISH EXPOSITOR" (1616), says, "An atomie is a mote flying in the sunne. Anything so small that it cannot be made less."

"Cry, holla! to thy tongue, I pr'y thee; it curvets unseasonably."-Act III., Scene 2.

"Holla!" was a term by which the rider restrained and stopped his horse. It is so used by Shakspere in his "VьNUS AND ADONIS:"

"What recketh he his rider's angry stir,

His flattering holla,' or his 'stand, I say."

"I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have studied your questions."-Act III., Scene 2.

This passage alludes to the placing moral maxims or sentences in the mouths of the figures represented on the painted cloth hangings of the period. The custom is frequently mentioned by contemporary writers. Shakspere also adverts to it in his "TARQUIN AND LUCRECE:"

"Who fears a sentence, or an old man's saw,
Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe."