thoufand crowns left him. They agree upon it; and Or. Aando opens the fcene in this manner, As I remember, it was upon this, i. e. for the reafon we have been talking of, that my father left me but a thousand crowns; however, to make amends for this fcanty provifion, he charged my brother on his bleffing to breed me well. WARB. & CAPELL. Ibid.] There is, in my opinion, nothing but a point mifplaced, and an omiffion of a word which every hearer can fupply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager dialogue naturally excites. I read thus: As I remember, Adam, it was on this fafbion bequeathed me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as tkou fayft, charged my brother on bis bleffing to breed me well. What is there in this difficult or obfcure? the nominative my father is certainly left out, but fo left out, that the author inferts it, in spite of himself. JOHNS. L. 7. Stays me here at home, unkept.] We fhould read, fies, i. e. keeps me like a brute. The following wordsfor call you that keeping that differs not from the stalling of an ox, confirms this emendation. So Caliban fays, And here you fly me in this hard rock. WARB. & CAP. Ibid.] Sties is better than flays, and more likely to be Shakespeare's JOHNS. L. 15. His countenance feems to take from me.] We should certainly read, bis difcountenance. WARB. Ibid. There is no need of change, a countenance is either good or bad. JOHNS. P. 428. 1. 11. be nought a cubile.] Is only a north-country proverbial curfe equivalent to, a mischief on you So the old Poet Skelton. Correct frft thyfelf, walke and be nought, Deeme what thou lift, thou knoweft not my thought. But what the Oxford Editor could not explain he would, amend, and reads, and do aught a while. WARB. Ibid.] If be nought a while has the fignification here given it, the reading may certainly ftand; but till I learned its meaning from this note, I read, Be better employed, and be naught a while. In the fame fenfe as we say, "it is better to do mischief, than to do nothing. JOHNS. Ibid.] Dr. Warburton is mistaken in his interpretation of this expreffion; it means, begone, get out of my fight; and this is its import in the paffage he has quoted from Skelton. Make yourself fcarce is at this day, a cant phrase of the fame tendency. ANON.* L. 25. Albeit, I confefs your coming before me is nearer to his reverence.] This is fenfe indeed, and may be thus underftood,-The reverence due to my father is, in fome degree, derived to you, as the first-born-But I am perfuaded that Orlando did not here mean to compliment his brother, or condemn himself; fomething of both which there is in that fenfe. I rather think he intended a fatyrical reflection on his brother, who by letting him feed with his binds treated him as one not fo nearly related to old Sir Robert as himself was. I imagine, therefore, Shakespear might write,-albeit your coming before me is nearer to his revenue, i. e. though you are no nearer in blood, yet it must be owned, indeed, you are nearer in estate. WARB. & CAP. P. 429. 1. 2. I am no villain.] The word villain is ufed by the elder brother, in its prefent meaning, for a wicked or bloody man, by Orlando in its original fignification for a fellov of bafe extraction. JOHNS. P. 430. 1. 19. The old Duke's daughter.] The words old and new which feem neceffary to the perfpicuity of the dialogue, are inferted from Sir T. Hanmer's edition. JOHNS. P. 433. 1. 16. mock the good housewife Fortune from ber wheel. The wheel of fortune is not the wheel of a Louferife. Shakespeare has confounded fortune wh fe wheel only figures uncertainty and viciffitude, with the definie that fpins the thread of life, though indeed not with a wheel. JOHNS. P. 434. 1. 29. Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves. Rof. My Father's Love is enough to honour him enough.] This reply to the Clown is in all the books plac'd to Rofalind; but Frederick was not her Father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventured to prefix the Name of Celia. There is no Countenance from any paffage in the Play, or from the Dramatis Perfonæ, to imagine, that both the Brother-Dukes were namefakes; and one called Old, and the other the younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch authority, it would make confufion to fuppofe it. THEOB. Ibid.] Mr. Theobald feems not to know that the Dramatis Perfonæ were firft enumerated by Rowe. JOHNS. P. 435. 1. 3. —fince the little wit that fools have was filenc'd] Shakespeare probably alludes to the ufe of fools or jefters, who for fome ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of cenfure and mockery, and about this time began to be lefs tolerated. JOHNS. L. 16. laid on with a trowel.] I fuppofe the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mafs of big words laid upon a flight fubject. JOHNS. L. 19. You amaze me, ladies.] To amaze, here, is not to aftonish or ftrike with wonder, but to perplex; to confufe; as, to put out of the intended narrative. JOHNS. Ao P. 436. 1. 1. With Bills on their necks: Be it knoïvn unto all men by thefe prefents;-] The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of cross purpofes. Where the words of one fpeaker are wrefted by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown fays juft before- -Nay, if I keep not my rank. falind replies-thou left thy old fmell. So here when Rofalind had faid, With bills on their necks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in, Know all men by these prefenis. She fpoke of an inftrument of war, and he turns it to an inftrument of law of the fame name, beginning with these words: So that they must be given to him. WARB. Ibid.] This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is fo very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot fee why Rofalind fhould fuppofe, that the competitors in a wrestling match-carried bills on their fhoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor refemblance of prefence and prefents. Jочия. Ibid,] Whether Dr. Warburton's divifion of this paffage be right or no, his explication of it is certainly not. "She fpeaks of an inftrument of war; and He turns it into an inftrument of law of the fame name." Very acute! As if people carried fuch inftrments of war as bills and guns on their necks, not on their fhoulders; and as L. 17. if Rofalind had any occafion to talk of inftruments of war, when the converfation was only about a wrestling CAN.* is there any eife longs to fee this broken mufick in bis fides?] A ftupid error in the copies. They are talking here of fome who had their ribs broken in wrestling: aud the pleafantry of Rofalind's repartee must confift in the allufion fhe makes to compofing in mufick. It neceff.rily follows therefore, that the poet wrote- -fet this broken mufick in his fides. WARB. & CAP. Ibid.] If any change were ncceffary I fhould write, feel this broken mufick, for fee. But fee is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we fay every day, fee if the water be hot; I will fee which is the best time: fhe has tried, and fees that the cannot lift it. In this fenfe fee may be here ufed. The fufferer can, with no propriety, be faid to for the mufick; neither is the allufion to the act of tuning an inftrument, or pricking a tune, one of which muft be meant by fetting mufick. Rofalind hints at a whimfical fimilitude between the feries of ribs gradually fhortening, and fome mufical inftruments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken mufick. JOHNS. P. 437. 1. 6. The Men.] Sir T. Hanmer. In the old Editions, the man. JOHNS. L. 21. If you faw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourfelf with your judgment.] Abfurd! The fenfe requires that we should read, our eyes, and our judgment. The argument is, "Your fpirits are too bold, and therefore your judgment deceives you; but did you fee and know yourself with our. more impartial judgment you would forbear." WARE. & CAPELL. Ibid. I cannot find the abfurdity of the prefent reading. If you were not blinded and intoxicated, fays the princefs, with the Spirit of enterprife, if you could ufe your own eyes to fee, or your own judgment to know yourself, the fear of your adventure would counfel you. REV. & JOHNS. L. 29. I beseech you, punish me not, &c.] I fhould wish to read, I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Therein I confefs myself much guilty to deny jo fair and excellent Ladies any thing. P. 439. 1. 28. JOHNS. -one out of fuits with fortune,] This feems an allufion to cards, where he that has no more cards to play of any particular fort is out of fuit. JOHNS. P. 440. 5. Is but a quintaine, a mere lifeless block] A Quintaine was a poft or but fet up for feveral kinds of martial exercises, against which they threw their darts and exercised their arms. The allufion is beautiful, "I am, fays Orlando, only a quintaine, a lifeless block on which love only exercises his arms in jeft; the great disparity of condition between Rofalind and me, not fuffering me to hope that love will ever make a ferious matter of it." The famous fatirift Regnier, who lived about the time of our author, ufes the fame metaphor, on the fame fubject, tho' the thought be different Et qui depuis dix ans, jufqu'en ses derniers jours, L. 19. WARB. the Duke's condition,] The word condition means character, temper, difpofition. So Antonio the Merchant of Venice, is called by his friend the best conditioned man. JOHNS. P. 441. 1. 26. for my father's child.] The old editions (and Capell's) have it, for my child's father, that is, as it is explained by Mr. Theobald, for my future kufband. JOHNS. P. 442. 1. 6. cry, hem, and have him] A proverbial expreffion fignifying baving for afking. WARB. L. 17.by this kind of ckafe,] That is, by this way of following the argument. Dear is ufed by Shakespeare in a double fenfe, for beloved, and for hurtful, hated, baleful. Both fenfes are authorised, and both drawn from etymology, but properly beloved is dear, and bateful is dere. Rofalind ufes dearly in the good, and Celia in the bad fenfe. JOHNS. P. 444.. 7. And thou wilt show more bright, and feem more virtuous,] This implies her to be ome how remarkably defective in virtue; which was not the fpeaker's thought. The poet doubtless wrote, and fine more virtuous. i. e. her virtues would appear more fplendid, when the luftre of her coufin's was away. WARB. Ibid.] The plain meaning of the old and true reading is, |