網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, As we do trust they'll end, in true delights.

EPILOGUE.

[A dance.

Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush,32 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue: yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them,) that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman,33 I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me,34 and breaths that I defied not: 35 and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt.

82 It was formerly the general custom in England to hang a bush of ivy at the door of a vintner: there was a classical propriety in this; ivy being sacred to Bacchus.

88 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakespeare's time. The English stage had no actresses till after 1660.

34 The Poet often uses like in the sense of please; a common usage. renounce, to repudiate, or abjure. The

35 To defy, in old English, is to Poet has it repeatedly in that sense.

See vol. iii., page 189, note 7.

CRITICAL NOTES.

ACT I., SCENE 1.

Page 7. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion, — he bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns; and, as thou say'st, charged my brother, on his blessing, &c. — The original prints "it was upon this fashion bequeathed me," &c.; thus leaving charged without any subject, and his without any antecedent. Doubtless the pronoun he dropped out in the printing or the transcribing. A little further on, Orlando says to Oliver, “My father charged you in his will to give me good education." Ritson's correction.

P. 9. What prodigal's portion have I spent? - The original has "What prodigall portion." Seymour's correction.

P. 11. Cha. Good morrow to your Worship.

Oli. Good morrow, Monsieur Charles. What's the new news at the new Court? So Walker. The original has "Oli. Good Mounsier Charles: what's the new newes," &c. The salutation of Charles, "Good morrow," renders it all but certain that morrow was left out of Oliver's reply by mistake.

P. 11. There's no news at the new Court, sir, but the old news. — So Lettsom, and with evident propriety. The old text omits new before Court.

P. 11. Oli. Can you tell if Rosalind, the old Duke's daughter, be banished with her father?

Cha. O, no; for the new Duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her, &c. So Hanmer and Collier's second folio. The original lacks the words old and new before Duke's.

[ocr errors]

P. 13. I tell thee, Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of France; &c. - The folio reads "Ile tell thee," &c.

115

ACT I., SCENE 2.

P. 14. I show more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? - The third I is wanting in the original. Inserted by

Rowe.

P. 15. Those that she makes honest, she makes very ill-favoured. The original has “ very illfavouredly."

&c.

P. 15. Indeed, then is Fortune too hard for Nature, when she makes,

- So Dyce. The old text reads "Indeed, there is Fortune," &c.

P. 18. Le Beau.

- three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence, with bills on their necks,—

Ros. Be it known unto all men by these presents. In the original the words, "with bills on their necks," begin Rosalind's speech. Farmer assigned them to Le Beau; and it is plain enough that giving them to Rosalind quite defeats the humour of the passage. See foot-note 10.

P. 18. But is there any else longs to feel this broken music in his sides? — Instead of feel, the original has see, which some would change to set. Walker notes upon the passage, — “Feel, surely; and so Johnson conjectures."

P. 19. There is such odds in the men. So Hanmer. The original has "such odds in the man"; which is not English, and never was, though some recent editors have tried hard to defend it.

P. 19. Le Beau. Monsieur the challenger, the Princesses call for you.

Orl. I attend them with all respect and duty.- So Theobald. The original has Princess calls. The plural them in Orlando's reply shows Theobald's reading to be probably right. It is true, only one of the ladies, Celia, has expressly called for him; but she is understood to speak for them both; and the Duke has just said, "Speak to him, ladies." The objections that have been urged against the change seem to me decidedly martinetish.

P. 20. If you saw yourself with our eyes, or knew yourself with our judgment, the fear of your adventure would, &c. -So Hanmer, Walker, and Collier's second folio. The original reads "with your eyes," and "with your judgment." Perhaps this is one of the many instances of words repeated by mistake from contextual nearness, as "your adventure." Still I am not sure but the old text may be right. Heath explains it thus: "If you would give credit to the faithful report of your own eyes, and to the cool dictates of your judgment, rather than suffer yourself to be seduced by the bold spirits of your youth." But this may be drawing the matter something too fine.

P. 20. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing: but let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial; wherein if I be foil'd, &c. The original reads "with your harde thoughts, wherein I confesse me," &c. This wherein evidently has no coherence with the context. Johnson thought it should be therein; and Dyce, following Mason, prints herein; but I cannot see that either of these changes helps the matter at all. The word is simply in the way; and I have hardly any doubt that this is an instance of a mistake and the correction printed together. Since the above was written, I find that Mr. Spedding proposes the same reading.

P. 21. An you mean to mock me after, you should not have mock'd me before. The original omits An. Mason proposed "If you mean," &c.; which gives the same sense. Theobald thought we ought to read "An you mean"; and the Cambridge Editors say the same reading occurred to them before they knew of either conjecture.

P. 22. If you do keep your promises in love,

But justly, as you have exceeded promise, &c.—The old text reads "have exceeded all promise," which upsets the metre to no purHanmer printed "as you've here exceeded promise," and Walker proposed 'excell'd all promise." The reading in the text is Capell's.

pose.

66

P. 24. But yet, indeed, the shorter is his daughter. - Instead of shorter, the original has taller, which cannot be right; as Rosalind says, in the next scene, "Because that I am something more than com

mon tall." Malone substituted smaller, which has commonly been received in preference to Rowe's shorter, which is also found in Collier's second folio. Walker suspects taller to be "a slip of Shakespeare's pen"; and adds, "The word he had in his thoughts was probably shorter, not smaller, which in this sense belongs to later English."

ACT I., SCENE 3.

P. 25. Cel. But is all this for your father?

Ros. No, some of it is for my father's child. - So Rowe, Coleridge, and Collier's second folio. The original has ". "my child's father," which Singer retains, noting that "Rosalind playfully means no more than my future husband." Still I think Coleridge's objection is good, that by the old reading "a most indelicate anticipation is put into the mouth of Rosalind without reason."

P. 28. No? hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the love Which teacheth me that thou and I are one. - - So Theobald. The original reads "Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one."

P. 28. And do not seek to take the charge upon you

[ocr errors]

To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out. So Singer, followed by White and Dyce. The first folio has "take your change," the second, "take your charge." The old contractions of the and your were often confounded.

ACT II., SCENE 2.

P. 30. Here feel we not the penalty of Adam.
The seasons' difference, and 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,

[ocr errors]

these are counsellors, &c. In the first of these lines, Theobald changed not into but, and has been followed by a number of editors. This puts "seasons' difference" in apposition with "penalty of Adam." To be sure, the change of seasons was of old thought to be a consequence of the Fall; but I believe it was never thought to be the special penalty denounced upon Adam: this penalty was, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." It is

« 上一頁繼續 »