They found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress.

2 LORD. My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft

Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing.
Hesperia, the princess' gentlewoman,
Confesses, that she secretly o'er-heard

Your daughter and her cousin much commend
The parts and graces of the wrestler

6

That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles ;
And she believes, wherever they are gone,
That youth is surely in their company.

DUKE F. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither;

If he be absent, bring his brother to me,
I'll make him find him: do this suddenly;
And let not search and inquisition quail
To bring again these foolish runaways.

8

[Exeunt.

5 -the ROYNISH clown,] Roynish, from rogneux, French, mangy, scurvy. The word is used by Chaucer, in The Romaunt of the Rose, 988:

66

"That knottie was and all roinous."

Again, ibid. 6190:

"This argument is all roignous."

Again, by Dr. Gabriel Harvey, in his Pierce's Supererogation, 4to. 1593. Speaking of Long Meg of Westminster, he saysAlthough she were a lusty bouncing rampe, somewhat like Gallemetta or Maid Marian, yet she was not such a roinish rannel, such a dissolute gillian-flirt," &c.

We are not to suppose the word is literally employed by Shakspeare, but in the same sense that the French still use carogne, a term of which Moliere is not very sparing in some of his pieces. STEEVENS.

6 — of the WRESTLER -] Wrestler, (as Mr. Tyrwhitt has observed in a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona,) is here to be sounded as a trisyllable. STEEVENS.

7 Send to his BROTHER;] I believe we should read-brother's. For when the Duke says in the following words, "Fetch that gallant hither;" he certainly means Orlando. M. MASON. 8-quail-] To quail is to faint, to sink into dejection. So, in Cymbeline:

which my false spirits

Quail to remember."

2 C

STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

Before OLIVER'S House.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting.

ORL. Who's there?

ADAM. What! my young master ?-O, my gen

tle master,

O, my sweet master, O you memory

9

Of old sir Rowland! why, what make you here ?
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?
And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant ?
Why would you be so fond1 to overcome
The bony priser 2 of the humorous duke?

9 O you MEMORY -] Shakspeare often uses memorial; and Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes. Humorous Lieutenant :

Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, by C. Turner, 1611: "And with his body place that memory

"Of noble Charlemont."

Again, in Byron's Tragedy:

I

"That statue will I prize past all the jewels
"Within the cabinet of Beatrice,

"The memory of my grandame." STEEVENS.

memory for

So, in The

SO FOND] i. e. so indiscreet, so inconsiderate. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond

"To come abroad with him." STEEVens.

2 The BONY priser -] In the former editions-The bonny priser. We should read-bony priser. For this wrestler is characterised for his strength and bulk, not for his gaiety or good humour. WARBURTON.

So, Milton:

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Giants of mighty bone."

JOHNSON.

So, in The Romance of Syr Degore, bl. 1. no date :

"This is a man all for the nones,

"For he is a man of great bones."

Bonny, however, may be the true reading. So, in King Henry VI. P. II. Act V.;

Your praise is come too swiftly home before you.
Know you not, master, to some kind of men
Their graces serve them but as enemies?
No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you.

O, what a world is this, when what is comely,
Envenoms him that bears it?

ORL. Why, what's the matter?
ADAM.
O unhappy youth,
Come not within these doors; within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives:

Your brother-(no, no brother; yet the son-
Yet not the son;-I will not call him son-
Of him I was about to call his father,)-

Hath heard your praises; and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie,
And you within it: if he fail of that,

He will have other means to cut you off:

I overheard him, and his practices.

This is no place, this house is but a butchery;

"Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well."

STEEVENS.

The word bonny occurs more than once in the novel from which this play of As You Like It is taken. It is likewise much used by the common people in the northern counties. I believe, however, bony to be the true reading. MALONE.

3 to SOME kind of men-] Old copy-seeme kind. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

4 This is no PLACE,] Place here signifies a seat, a mansion, a residence. So, in the first book of Samuel: "Saul set him up a place, and is gone down to Gilgal."

Again, in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales :

"His wonning was ful fayre upon an heth,

"With grene trees yshadewed was his place."

We still use the word in compound with another, as- -St. James's place, Rathbone place; and Crosby place, in King Richard III. &c. STEEVENS.

Our author uses this word again in the same sense in his Lover's Complaint:

"Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place." Plas, in the Welch language, signifies a mansion-house. MALONE.

Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

ORL. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go?

ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here. ORL. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food?

Or, with a base and boisterous sword, enforce
A thievish living on the common road?
This I must do, or know not what to do:
Yet this I will not do, do how I can;

I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood3, and bloody brother.
ADAM. But do not so: I have five hundred

crowns,

The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father,
Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse,
When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown;
Take that and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold;
All this I give you: Let me be your servant :
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty :

Steevens's explanation of this passage is too refined. Adam means merely to say-This is no place for you. M. MASON. DIVERTED blood,] Blood turned out of the course of JOHNSON.

5

nature.

So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

"Sometimes diverted, their poor balls are tied

"To the orbed earth." MALONE.

To divert a water-course, that is, to change its course, was a common legal phrase, and an object of litigation in Westminster Hall, in our author's time, as it is at present.

Again, in Ray's Travels: "We rode along the sea coast to Ostend, diverting at Nieuport, to refresh ourselves, and get a sight of the town;" i. e. leaving our course. REED.

6

and He that doth the RAVENS feed,

Yea, providently caters for the SPARROW, &c.] See Saint Luke, xii. 6, and 24. DOUCE.

For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my
blood 7
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly let me go with you;
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

ORL. O good old man; how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed! Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat, but for promotion; And having that, do choke their service up Even with the having: it is not so with thee. But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree, That cannot so much as a blossom yield, In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry: But come thy ways, we'll go along together; And ere we have thy youthful wages spent, We'll light upon some settled low content.

ADAM. Master, go on; and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years 9 till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.

At seventeen years many their fortunes seek ;
But at fourscore, it is too late a week:

7

REBELLIOUS liquors in my blood ;] That is, liquors which inflame the blood or sensual passions, and incite them to rebel against reason. So, in Othello:

66

For there's a young and sweating devil here, "That commonly rebels." MALONE.

Perhaps he only means liquors that rebel against the constitution. STEEVENS.

8 Even with the HAVING :] Even with the promotion gained by service is service extinguished. JOHNSON.

9 From SEVENTEEN years-] The old copy reads-seventy. The correction, which is fully supported by the context, was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.