But if thy love were ever like to mine, Haft thou been drawn to by thy fantafy? COR. Into a thoufand that I have forgotten. SIL. O, thou didst then ne'er love fo heartily: If thou remember'ft not the flightest folly? That ever love did make thee run into, Thou haft not lov'd: Or if thou haft not fat as I do now, Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praife, Or if thou haft not broke from company, Ros. Alas, poor fhepherd! fearching of thy wound,' I have by hard adventure found mine own. TOUCH. And I mine: I remember, when I was in love, I broke my fword upon a stone, and bid him 3 If thou remember'ft not the flighteft folly-] I am inclined to believe that from this paffage Suckling took the hint of his fong: "Honest lover, whofoever, "Thou must begin again, and love anew," &c. JOHNSON. Wearying thy bearer-] The old copy has-wearing. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. I am not fure that the emendation is neceffary, though it has been adopted by all the editors. MALONE. s of thy wound,] The old copy has-they would. The latter word was corrected by the editor of the fecond folio, the other by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. take that for coming anight' to Jane Smile: and I remember the kiffing of her batlet," and the cow's dugs that her pretty chop'd hands had milk'd: and I remember the wooing of a peafcod inftead of her; from whom I took two cods, and, giving her them again, faid with weeping tears, Wear thefe for my 8 5 anight-] Thus the old copy. Anight, is in the night. The word is used by Chaucer in The Legende of Good Women. Our modern editors read, o'nights, or o'night. STEEVENS. 6 batlet,] The inftrument with which washers beat their coarfe cloaths. JOHNSON. Old copy-batler. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE. 7 two cods,] For cods it would be more like sense to read-peas, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common prefents of lovers. JOHNSON. In a schedule of jewels in the 15th Vol. of Rymer's Fadera, we find," Item, two peafcoddes of gold with 17 pearles." FARMER. Peafcods was the ancient term for peas as they are brought to market. So, in Greene's Groundwork of Cony-catching, 1592: went twice in the week to London, either with fruit or pefcods," &c. Again, in The Shepherd's Slumber, a song published in England's Helicon, 1600: "In pefcod time when hound to horne Again, in The Honeft Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Shall feed on delicates, the first peafcods, ftrawberries." STEEVENS. In the following paffage, however, Touchftone's prefent certainly fignifies not the pea but the pod, and fo, I believe, the word is ufed here. "He [Richard II.] also used a peafcod branch with the cods open, but the peas out, as it is upon his robe in his monument at Westminster." Camden's Remains 1614. Here we fee the cods and not the peas were worn. Why Shakspeare used the former word rather than pods, which appears to have had the fame meaning, is obvious. MALONE. The peafcod certainly means the whole of the pea as it hangs upon the ftalk. It was formerly ufed as an ornament in dress, and was reprefented with the shell open exhibiting the peas. The paffage cited from Rymer by Dr. Farmer, fhows that the peas were fometimes made of pearls, and rather overturns Dr. Johnson's conjecture, who probably imagined that Touchftone took the cods from the peafcods, and not from his miftrefs. DoucE. -weeping tears,] A ridiculous expreffion from a fonnet in Jake. We, that are true lovers, run into ftrange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, fo is all nature in love mortal in folly." Ros. Thou speak'st wiser, than thou art 'ware of, TOUCH. Nay, I fhall ne'er be 'ware of mine own wit, till I break my fhins against it. Ros. Jove! Jove! this fhepherd's paffion TOUCH. And mine; but it grows fomething stale with me. CEL. I pray you, one of you question yond man, If he for gold will give us any food; I faint almoft to death. TOUCH. Holla; you, clown! COR. And to you, gentle fir, and to you all. Lodge's Rofalynd, the novel on which this comedy is founded. It likewife occurs in the old anonymous play of The Victories of K. Henry V. in Peele's Jefts, &c. STEEVENS. The fame expreffion occurs alfo in Lodge's Doraftus and Farnia, on which The Winter's Tale is founded. MALONE. 9 fo is all nature in love mortal in folly.] This expreffion I do not well understand. In the middle counties, mortal, from mort, a great quantity, is ufed as a particle of amplification; as mortal tall, mortal little. Of this fenfe I believe Shakspeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, fo is all nature in love abounding in folly. 2 JOHNSON. to you, friend.] The old copy reads-to your friend. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. Ros. I pr'ythee, fhepherd, if that love, or gold, Can in this defert place buy entertainment, Bring us where we may reft ourselves, and feed: Here's a young maid with travel much opprefs'd, And faints for fuccour. COR. Fair fir, I pity her, And wish for her fake, more than for mine own, My fortunes were more able to relieve her: Befides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed, COR. That young fwain that you faw here but erewhile, That little cares for buying any thing. Ros. I pray thee, if it ftand with honesty, Buy thou the cottage, pafture, and the flock, And thou shalt have to pay for it of us. CEL. And we will mend thy wages: I like this place, And willingly could waste my time in it. COR. Affuredly, the thing is to be fold: 2 And little recks-] i. e. heeds, cares for. So, in Hamlet: "And recks not his own rede." STEEVENS. 3 And in my voice most welcome shall you be.] In my voice, as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have come. JOHNSON. power to bid you wel Go with me; if you like, upon report, And buy it with your gold right fuddenly. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The fame. Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and Others. SONG. AMI. Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me, And tune his merry note No enemy, But winter and rough weather. F42. More, more, I pr'ythee, more. AMI. It will make you melancholy, monfieur Jaques. I F42. I thank it. More, I pr'ythee, more. can fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a weazel fucks eggs: More, I pr'ythee, more. 4 And tune-] The old copy has turne. Pope. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Corrected by Mr. "And to the nightingale's complaining note "Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes." MALONE. The old copy may be right, though Mr. Pope, &c. read tune. To turn a tune or a note, is ftill a current phrase among vulgar muficians. STEEVENS.. |