secret and villanous contriver against me his natural
brother: therefore use thy discretion; I had as lief
thou didst break his neck as his finger. And thou
wert best look to 't; for if thou dost him any slight
disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on 140
thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap
thee by some treacherous device, and never leave
thee till he hath ta'en thy life by some indirect
means or other; for, I assure thee, and almost with
tears I speak it, there is not one so young and so 145
villanous this day living. I speak but brotherly of
him, but should I anatomise him to thee as he is, I
must blush and weep, and thou must look pale and
wonder.

Cha. I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come 150
to-morrow, I'll give him his payment; if ever he
go alone again, I'll never wrestle for prize more:
and so, God keep your worship.

Oli. Farewell, good Charles. [Exit Charles.]

Now will I

stir this gamester: I hope I shall see an end of him; 155 141. entrap] Ff 1, 2; to entrap Ff 3, 4; Rowe. 147. anatomise] Ff 3, 4; anathomize Ff1, 2. 154. Exit Charles] Capell; omitted Ff; after line 153 Rowe.

Bacon, Advancement of Learning, I.
vii. (p. 66, Works, ed. Ellis and
Spedding): "Trajan erected many
famous monuments and buildings;
insomuch as ́ Constantine the Great in
emulation was wont to call him
Parietaria, wall flower."
136. natural] by course of nature;
in this sense obsolete. Compare
Cymbeline, III. iii. 107:-
"Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan
call'd

They take for natural father."
The later usage, as implying illegiti-
macy, is rare at the end of the sixteenth
century. Compare Ferne, Blazon of
Gentrie (1586), p. 90: "He hath
smoothed up the matter with a fine
terme, in calling him a sonne naturall,
a pretty terme.

138. break his neck] Tale of Gamelyn, 191 (ed. Skeat) :

"And bysoughte Iesu Crist that is
heven King

He mighte breke his nekke, in
that wrastelyng."

138, 139. thou wert best] Compare 1 Henry VI. v. iii. 82: "I were best to leave him," and Abbott, 230, for other examples.

141. practise] use underhand arts. Compare King John, IV. i. 20: My uncle practises more harm to me King Lear, III. ii. 57: "Hast practised on man's life." Also compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. xii. 34:— "Wherein she used practicke paine

hath the

Of this false footman, clokt with simplenesse."

147. anatomise] An extended metaphorical usage of the literal "dissect." Compare King Lear, III. vi. 80: "Let them anatomise Regan; see what breeds about her heart." For the figurative use, compare post, II. vii. 56. New Eng. Dict. gives Foxe, Actes and Monuments, iii. 879: "Thus was the Mass anatomized, with the abominations thereof," and Greene, Menaphon (Arber's reprint), 51: "To anatomise wit."

155. gamester] An athlete, as in Holland's Pliny (1601), ii. 304: "Professed wrestlers, runners, and such gamesters at feats of activity" (New

for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing
more than he. Yet he's gentle, never school'd and
yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchant-
ingly beloved, and indeed so much in the heart of
the world, and especially of my own people, who best 160
know him, that I am altogether misprised: but it
shall not be so long; this wrestler shall clear all :
nothing remains but that I kindle the boy thither;
which now I'll go about.

SCENE II.-Lawn before the Duke's palace.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA,

[Exit.

Cel. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.
Ros. Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress
of; and would you yet I were merrier? Unless you
could teach me to forget a banished father, you must
not learn me how to remember any extraordinary
pleasure.

157. he] him Hanmer.

SCENE II.

5

I. my

SCENE 11.] Scana Secunda Ff. Lawn. Palace] Capell; omitted Ff; The Duke's Palace Rowe; Open walk before the Duke's Palace Theobald. cos] coz Pope. 3. I were] Rowe ii; were Ff. 5. any] Ff 1, 2; my Ff 3, 4. Eng. Dict.), combined with the idea of adjective, see Abbott, 13, and for "coz a "frolicsome fellow" (Schmidt) as in instead of "cousin," Shakespeare, Henry VIII. 1. iv. 45, and Taming of passim. the Shrew, II. i. 402.

158. of all sorts] of all classes and ranks. Compare "All sorts and condi tions of men" of the English Prayerbook.

158, 159. enchantingly] as if by the use of magic incantation. Compare Cymbeline, 1. vi. 166:—

"Such a holy witch That he enchants societies into him."

161. misprised] Fr. mépriser. Wright quotes Cotgrave: "Mespriser, To disesteem, condemne, disdaine, despise, neglect, make light of, set nought by." Compare post, I. ii. 169; All's Well that Ends Well, III. ii. 33: "by the misprising of a maid too virtuous for the contempt of empire,” and Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. iv. 11: "Shame of such mesprize."

SCENE II.

I. sweet my coz] For this transposition of the unemphatic possessive

3. I were] Rowe's insertion of "I" seems necessary. Allen's paraphrase gives the point: "the mirth which I already show is more than I really feel; and do you still insist I shall be merrier." Jourdain's proposal (Philol. Soc. Trans. 1860-1, p. 143) to give the Folio reading," and would you yet were merrier," to Celia involves a greater wresting than Rowe's emendation, while Collier's suggestion that Rosalind wishes Celia to be merrier than she seems obscures the point.

5. learn] teach, as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. iii. 4; Romeo and Juliet,

. ii. 12; Othellc, 1. iii. 183; Cymbeline, I. v. 12. In each place followed by "how." Wordsworth quotes the Prayer-book version of Psalm xxv. 2: "Lead me forth in thy truth, and learn me." This is still a colloquial use in many parts of England.

5, 6. extraordinary pleasure] pleasure beyond my capacity; an antithesis to the extraordinary sorrow of a

Cel. Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight

that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father,
had banished thy uncle the Duke, my father, so thou
hadst been still with me, I could have taught my
love to take thy father for mine: so wouldst thou,
if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously
tempered as mine is to thee.

Ros. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to
rejoice in yours.

ΙΟ

15

Cel. You know my father hath no child but I, nor none is like to have; and truly, when he dies, thou shalt be his heir, for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honour, I will; and when I break that oath, 20 let me turn monster: therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry.

Ros. From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. Let me see, what think you of falling in love?

Cel. Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal: but love 25 no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in honour come off again.

Ros. What shall be our sport, then?

16. but I] but me Hanmer.

"banished father," continuing the
balance of "teach" and 66
'learn,"
"forget" and "remember."

9. so] Abbott, 133, says: "So is
used with the future and the subjunctive
to denote 'provided that,'
,"" and quotes
Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 18, and
Richard II. II. i. 25. The full con-
stuction is "be it (if it be) so that,"
as in Midsummer-Night's Dream, 1. i.
39:-

"Be it so she will not here before your grace

II.

Consent to marry with Demetrius." so wouldst thou] In full, " SO wouldst thou [have taught thy love to take my father for thine]." 12, 13. So... as] See Abbott, 275, for this rather uncommon constructijon. 13. tempered] mingled, blended. Compare Julius Cæsar, Iv. iii. 115: when grief and blood ill-tempered exeth him"; Romeo and Juliet, III. iii. 115: "I thought thy disposition better tempered." An early use is Promptorium Parvulorum, 488, I:

27. pure blush] a mere blush. For this use of " pure," compare post, II. vii. 130, and 1 Henry VI. 11. iv. 66: "blush for pure shame." The meaning is: "Love no man, even in sport, so much that more than a mere blush is necessary to safeguard your honour."

28. come off] emerge, escape, as from a fight. Compare Coriolanus, I. vi. I: "We are come off like Romans," and Troilus and Cressida, 1. iii. 381: "If the dull Ajax come safe off." New Eng. Dict. cites also Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress (1684), ii. 68: "Some Pilgrims in some things come off losers."

Cel. Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from 30 her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.

Ros. I would we could do so, for her benefits are mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to women.

Cel. 'Tis true; for those that she makes fair, she scarce makes honest, and those that she makes honest, she makes very ill-favouredly.

35

Ros. Nay, now thou goest from Fortune's office to Nature's; Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not 40 in the lineaments of Nature.

Enter TOUCHSTONE,

Cel. No? when Nature hath made a fair creature, may she not by Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument? 45 36, 37. those . . . and] Rowe i omits. 38. ill-favouredly]_Ff 3, 4; illfavouredly F 1; ill favouredly F 2; ill favoured Rowe. 41. Enter .] after line 46 Dyce. Touchstone] Theobald; Clown Ff (and throughout). 42. No?] Hanmer; No; Ff; No! Theobald. 45. the] Ff 1, 2; this Ff 3, 4;

Rowe.

30, 31. mock . . . wheel] johnson's note is unfortunate: "The wheel of Fortune is not the wheel of a housewife. Shakespeare has confounded Fortune, whose wheel only figures uncertainty and vicissitude, with the Destiny that spins the thread of life, though indeed not with a wheel." Compare Fluellen's exposition in Henry V. III. vi. 32 seq., and Hamlet, 11. ii. 515 seq., for Shakespeare's quite clear idea of the wheel of Fortune. The "housewife"-pronounced, as colloquially, today, husif-has a jesting or bad sense

of " 'jilt or "wanton," unconnected

with the wheel. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, IV. xv. 44, with Mr. Case's note in The Arden Shakespeare.

37. honest] chaste, virtuous. Compare post, III. iii. 24, and especially Hamlet, III. i. 103 seq.

38. ill-favouredly] Capell's note is worth reproduction: "Alter'd by the four latter moderns into ill-favoured: in order, as may be suppos'd, to make the antithesis the rounder. But how if that roundness was dislik'd by the Poet, as thinking it destructive of the ease of his dialogue? yet this he might

For

think, and with great reason."
the adverbial form, compare post, III. ii.
256; the adjectival, III. V. 53, and
Genesis xli. 3, "ill favoured and lean-
fleshed." For "favour" as meaning
"countenance," compare Measure for
Measure, IV. ii. 34: "A good favour
you have, but that you have a hanging
look," and Richard II. Iv. i. ..58:-

"Yet I well remember
The favours of these men."

39, 40. from Fortune's office to Nature's] Continuing the elaborate antithetical balance of Celia's previons speech; both "honesty " and "fainess are taken by Rosalind as gifts of Nature, while Celia (1. 37) distirguishes "honesty as a matter of chance. For a similar contrast of "Nature" and "Fortune," compare Giles Fletcher, The Reward of the Faithfull (Works, ed. Grosart, p. 25): "If a man digging in a field, find a mine, we cal it fortune: but a min must bee first there by nature, before any can finde it there by fortune. And! therefore fortune that comes alwayes after nature, cannot bee the cause of nature."

Ros. Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when
Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of
Nature's wit.

Cel. Peradventure this is not Fortune's work neither, but
Nature's, who, perceiving our natural wits too dull 50
to reason of such goddesses, hath sent this natural
for our whetstone; for always the dulness of the fool
is the whetstone of the wits.
How now, wit!
whither wander you?

Touch. Mistress, you must come away to your father.
Cel. Were you made the messenger?

you.

Touch. No, by mine honour, but I was bid to come for
Ros. Where learned you that oath, fool?
Touch. Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they

55

were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the 60
mustard was naught: now I'll stand to it, the pan-
cakes were naught, and the mustard was good, and
yet was not the knight forsworn.

Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of your
knowledge?

Ros. Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom.

Touch. Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, and swear by your beards that I am a knave.

Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art.

65

53. the

46. there is Fortune] Ff 1, 2; Fortune is there Ff 3, 4; then is Fortune Dyce. 50. perceiving] Ff2-4; perceiveth F1. 51. hath] and hath Malone. wits] his wits Malone; the wise Spedding conj. 66. your] you F 2.

47. natural] An idiot by nature. Compare Tempest, III. ii. 37: "That a monster should be such a natural!” and Romeo and Juliet, 11. iv. 96: "A great natural that runs lolling up and down." Here Touchstone is hardly accurately described; Douce suggests that "natural" is merely for the sake of pun and alliteration.

51. reason] Fr. raisonner, to talk, discourse, as freque lakespeare. Vide Schmidt, s.v. for several examples. For "of" meaning concerning, compare post, v. iv. 53, and Merchant of Venice, 1. iii. 54: "I am deba ing of my present store."

53. whetstone of the wits] Wright cites the title of Robert Recorde's Arithmetic, 1557: The Whetstone of Witte.

wit!] omitted Rowe.

53, 54. How ... you?] See note to IV. i. 153 post.

63. forsworn] Boswell quotes Damon and Pithias (Dodsley, Old Plays, vol. iv. p. 60): “I have taken a wise oath on him, have I not, trow ye? To trust such a false knave upon his honesty? As he is an honest man' (quoth you?), he may bewray all to the King, And break his oath for this never a whit." Compare also Richard III. Iv. iv. 374:

"K. Rich. Now, by my George, my
garter and my crown,-
Q. Eliz. Profaned, dishonour'd,
and the third usurp'd.

K. Rich. I swear

Q. Eliz. By nothing; for this is no oath."