1. apace, quickly.

1, 2. I will... goats, I will bring your goats from the pasture to be milked the man, the happy man, the object of your choice.

3. feature, person; literally, the make (of the body); not merely as now in the plural the different parts of the face.

4. Your features! it has been supposed that beneath Audrey's exclamation of astonishment some joke lies buried, and Touchstone's next speech looks as if it were intended to be in some way explanatory.

6. capricious, with a pun upon the word in its sense of fanciful and its supposed derivation from Lat. caper, a goat: the Goths, a powerful German people who in the later empire obtained possession of part of Dacia, and from settling in the country of the Geta were themselves sometimes called Getæ ; hence Ovid, who for some unknown cause was banished to Tomi in the country of the Getæ, is spoken of as being among the Goths, and here of course there is a second pun on Goths and goats.

7. ill-inhabited, made to inhabit where it properly has no place; for this "curious use of passive verbs," see Abb. § 294.

8. in a thatched house, a reference to the story of Baucis and Philemon, an aged couple of Phrygia, who hospitably received Zeus and Hermes, travelling under the guise of ordinary mortals, when no one else would open their doors to them, and who as a reward were saved by Zeus in an inundation in which the rest of the populace perished. Cp. M. A. ii. 1. 99.

9-11. nor a man's... Understanding, nor a man's sparkling wit backed up by the ready appreciation of the hearer's understanding; forward, precocious, highly gifted; with an antithesis between man's and child.

11, 2. strikes... room, "is worse than the bill of a first-class hotel in a pot-house " (Moberly).

17, 8. what they swear... feign, apparently a mixture of constructions between what they swear in poetry may be said to be feigned by them in love,' and what they swear in poetry it may be said as lovers they do feign.'

24. honest, virtuous.

25. hard-favoured, harsh-featured. "These words,' says Clarke, "show that Audrey was not uncomely; although she in her modesty, and Touchstone in his pleasantry, choose to make her out to be plain. It is evident that the court-jester had the wit to perceive something genuinely and intrinsically attractive about the girl, beneath her simple looks and manner. Besides,

she was an oddity, and that has charms for him. Moreover, she evidently idolises him; which rivets him to her.”

26. is to have... sugar, is to have that which was already tempting enough, made doubly tempting.

27. A material fool, "a fool with matter in him; a fool stocked with notions" (Steevens).

32. foul, what we call homely, as Ritson says.

..

33, 4. sluttishness hereafter, we may hope for sluttishness some day; as though it were an acquirement to be proud of.

35. Sir, a translation of the Latin Dominus, a title given to bachelors of arts, and so often allowed to priests who had taken no degree at a University.

42. But what though? but that matters nothing; elliptical for 'what though it may be so.'

44. knows... goods, is so rich that he cannot count his wealth. 46. the dowry of his wife, the dowry his wife brings him; an allusion to the belief that horns sprang from the forehead of a man whose wife was disloyal to him.

47. Horns?... alone? Theobald's conjecture for 'horns, even so poor men alone,' the reading of the folios.

48. rascal, a term applied by sportsmen to deer when lean and out of season.

52. a horn, probably with an allusion to the horn of plenty, cornucopia.

54. you are well met, we are delighted to see you: despatch, marry us off at once without the tedious ceremony of going to church.

57. on gift, at the gift, giving.

58. she must be given, in the marriage ceremony the bride is given away by the father or some representative of the father. 62, 3. God 'ild... company, God reward you for your politeness to me when we last met; referring to the occasion when Jaques met him in the forest; 'ild, i.e. yield, pay, requite; cp. Mach. i. 6. 13, “Herein I teach you How you shall bid God 'ild us for our pains."

...

=

63, 4. even a toy sir, this is but a trifling matter I am about, sc. getting married; be covered, put on your hat, do not stand upon ceremony.

66. bow, the curved piece of wood going over the neck of the ox to which the yoke is fastened.

67. falcon, "by the falcon is always understood the female, as distinguished from the tercel, or male, of the peregrine or goshawk" (Harting, The Ornithology of Shakespeare, p. 52).

67, 8. and as nibbling, and like pigeons at pairing time, man and woman would be joined in wedlock; so billing and cooing,' from the way in which doves rub their bills together and make a cooing sound, is used figuratively for making love; cp. W. T. i. 2. 183, "How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!' 69. will you, do you wish: breeding, education, bringing up. 70. under a bush, i.e. with no other ceremony except such as vagrants go through in their unlicensed form of marriage.

71. what marriage is, what marriage really means, what a sacred contract marriage is, not a thing to be entered on in this light way.

72. wainscot, panelling for rooms; Jaques speaks as if the joining of wainscot was of a very flimsy nature and as if the panels were generally of an unseasoned character, though in reality it was only the best seasoned wood that was used for the purpose.

74. warp, become twisted by shrinking so that the joining will give way; for warp, see note on ii. 7. 186.

75, 6. I am not... another, I am in no other frame of mind than that it will be better that he should perform the marriage ceremony rather than some one else of a more accredited character; I am not in the mind but, i.e. I am in the mind that. Touchstone looks upon Sir Oliver Martext as a hedge-priest' whose celebration of the marriage will not be binding; for I were better, see Abb. §§ 230, 352.

77. well, properly.

82-8. O sweet thee, no doubt an extract, or extracts, from some old ballad and perhaps altered by Touchstone to suit his purpose.

86. Wind, turn, or perhaps here merely another form of wend, i.e. go.

90. flout... calling, mock me out of my profession as a priest.

SCENE IV.

1. Never... me, it is no use your arguing with me.

2. grace, proper feeling.

6. of the dissembling colour, in former days the disposition was supposed to be indicated by the colour of the hair, nor has the idea entirely died out, though it is more often that the colour of the eyes is considered a test.

7. Judas's, in ancient paintings and tapestry Judas is usually represented with red hair, that being a colour thought ugly; cp.

M. W. i. 4. 23, where a yellow beard is spoken of for the a Cain-coloured beard."

same reason as

66

8. are... children, are as false as those of Judas.

;

...

10. your chestnut, for your in this colloquial sense, cp. Haml. iv. 3. 22-5, "Your worm is your only emperor for diet: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service A. C. ii. 7, 29, 30, "Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile": the only colour, i.e. worth anything.

13. holy bread, probably sacramental bread; Barry pointed out to Collier that 'pax-bread' is rendered by Coles panis osculandus, i.e. bread to be kissed. This, however, is no proof that 'pax-bread' meant the consecrated wafer, for that was enclosed in the pyx, a small vessel or casket, while the 'pax' was a tablet of gold, silver, etc., carried round during the celebration of the Mass for the communicants to give the 'kiss of peace,' whence its name, and hence it was also termed the osculatory.' Barron Field denies that holy bread was sacramental bread, and says it was "merely one of the ceremonies' which Henry the Eighth's Articles of Religion pronounced good and lawful, having mystical significations in them. 'Such,' he says, 'were the vestments in the worship of God, sprinkling holy water... giving holy bread, in sign of our union to Christ,' etc."

6

14. chaste, the first folio reads 'cast,' which has been explained as cast off,' 'left off,' as if the lips were like old clothes, an idea utterly ludicrous to say the least; the later folios give chast' for which Rowe reads chaste.

14, 5. a nun... religiously, a nun of the Order of St. Winter could not kiss more chastely; of course the Order of St. Winter is merely a poetic fiction, in imitation of Orders named after Saints, for an Order of nuns of the most icy chastity.

21, 2. I think... horse-stealer, I don't say he is as utterly reprobate as a common pick-pocket or, etc.

22. for his verity in love, so far as his constancy in love is concerned concave, hollow, i.e. insincere.

23. covered goblet, a goblet with its cover on being a better emblem of hollowness than with it off.

26. downright, in the strongest terms.

28, 9. they are both... reckonings, each is as readily used as the other to bolster up conscious falsehoods: attends on, waits

upon.

31. question, conversation; as frequently in Shakespeare.

34. what... fathers, what is the good of talking about fathers.

36. that's a brave man, he's a fine fellow; that, used with a sarcastic flavour.

38. traverse, across; to break the lance, in tilting, across the breast of the adversary was considered a disgrace to the tilter; cp. A. W. ii. 1. 70, M. A. v. 1. 139, "Nay, then, give him another staff: this last was broke cross lover, mistress; the term being formerly applied to both sexes, nowadays to the man only: though in the plural we still speak of 'lovers' meaning both the man and the woman: puisny, having but the skill of a novice” (Schmidt); literally, younger, from Ŏ. F. puisné, younger, from Lat. post natus, born after.

66

39. that spurs ... side, i.e. not in such a way as to meet his adversary in direct career.

40, 1. but all's ... guides, but everyone is ready enough to applaud youth and folly (and so I need not wonder at your infatuation, I suppose).

47. a pageant truly play'd, a spectacle worth seeing; for pageant, see above, ii. 7. 138, and for its application to love, cp. M. N. D. iii. 2. 112.

48. the pale complexion, i.e. one who wears the pale, etc. 50. I shall, see Abb. § 318.

51. will mark, are willing to observe.

53. see, an insertion by Jervis adopted by Dyce, Collier, etc. : say, admit.

54. I'll prove ... play, that I will play an important part in this pageant of which you tell us.

SCENE V.

2. Say... me not, say that you do not love me, if you must say so.

5. Falls, lets fall; this transitive use is frequent in Shakespeare: humbled, bent low on the block.

6. But... pardon, without first begging pardon.

66

7. Than he... drops ? This hysteron proteron [case of 'cart before the horse'] is by no means uncommon: its meaning is, of course, the same as live and die, i.e. subsist from the cradle to the grave... Compare With sorrow they both die and live That unto richesse her hertes geve.'-The Romaunt of the Rose, v. 5789. 'He is a foole, and so shall he dye and liue, That thinketh him wise, and yet can he nothing.'-Barclay's Ship of Fooles, 1570. 'Behold how ready we are, how willingly the women of Sparta will die and live with their husbands.'-The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes, p. 29" (Arrowsmith).