图书图片
PDF
ePub

Jaq. de B. He hath.

Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.— You to your former honour I bequeath: [To Duke S. Your patience and your virtue well deserves it:You [To ORLANDO] to a love, that your true faith doth merit::

You [To OLIVER] to your land, and love, and great allies:

You[ToSivius]to along and well deserved bed:And you [ To ToUCHSTONE] to wrangling; for thy loving voyage

Is but for two months victual'd:-So to your plea

sures;

I am for other than for dancing measures.

Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay.

Jag. To see no pastime, I :--what you would have I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave 20. [Exit. Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these

rites,

And 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 bush21, '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

20 The reader feels some regret to take his leave of Jaques in this manner; and no less concern at not meeting with the faithful old Adam at the close. It is the more remarkable that Shakspeare should have forgotten him, because Lodge, in his novel, makes him captain of the king's guard.

21 It was formerly the general custom in England, as it is still in France and the Netherlands, to hang a bush of ivy at the door of

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 furnished 22 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 23: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women (as I perceive, by your simpering, none of you hate them), that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman 24, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me 25, and breaths that I defied not: and I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'sy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt.

a vintner: there was a classical propriety in this; ivy being sacred to Bacchus. So in Summer's last Will and Testament, 1600: 'Green ivy-bushes at the vintners' doors.' Again in The Rival Friends, 1632 :

'Tis like the ivy-bush unto a tavern.'

The custom is still observed in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, at statute-hirings, wakes, &c. by people who sell ale at no other time. The manner in which they were decorated appears from a passage in Florio's Italian Dictionary, in voce Tremola: gold foile or thin leaves of gold or silver, namely, thinne plate, as our vintners adorn their bushes with.' Nash, in his Lenten stuffe, describes A London vintner's signe thicke jagged and fringed round with theaming arsadine, i. e. glittering foil or orsedew, and not a yellow pigment as Mr. Gifford has supposed.-v. Ben Jonson's Works, vol. iv. p. 405.

22 Furnished, dressed.

23 This is the reading of the old copy, which has been altered to as much of this play as please them,' but surely without necessity. It is only the omission of the s at the end of please, which gives it a quaint appearance, but it was the practice of the poet's age.

24 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakspeare's time.

25 i. e. that I liked.

Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preserved. The comic dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of this work, Shakspeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson, in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers. JOHNSON.

[merged small][graphic]

Lafeu. Nay, come your ways;
This is his majesty, say your mind to him.

Acr ii. Sc. 1.

FROM THE CHISWICK PRESS.

1826.

« 上一页继续 »