lie direct, or the seventh cause. Six previous causes had passed without a duel; there were six modes of giving the lie, none of which had been considered sufficient to authorise a combat; but the seventh, the lie direct, would have been the subject of a quarrel, and this is also what is to be understood by a 'lie seven times removed.' The absurdity of the dispute just terminating before the necessity of fighting had arrived, and of there being two lies of higher intensity than the countercheck quarrelsome ‘I lie,' is evidently intentional." This seems satisfactory, though Furness remarks, “It is, I am afraid, a waste of time to attempt to reconcile any discrepancy in Touchstone's category of lies and causes. And perhaps after all one is not over-anxious to square him by any rule of logic.

65. seeming, seemingly, with a more seemly carriage: I did dislike, I expressed my dislike of.

70. Quip, taunt, sarcasm, gibe: Modest, keeping within the bounds of moderation, in no way outrageous.

71. disabled my judgement, said that my opinion in such a matter was worthless.

75. and so to, and so by the next step arriving at, etc.

80. and parted, the measuring of swords (in order to make sure that neither had the advantage of the other in length of weapon) being of course usually preliminary to fighting, not to parting.

83. we quarrel ... book, everything in such matters is laid down with rigid precision. Warburton supposed that the particular book here alluded to was a very ridiculous treatise by one Vincentio Saviolo, 1594. In this he treats of various ways in which the lie may be given and received, though the connection of his treatise with Touchstone's speech is, says Furness, "really very slight; there is in it nothing of the enumeration of causes, and there can be scarcely a doubt that the names for the 'degrees' are wholly Shakespeare's own.' If any special book is referred to at all, Furness thinks it may have been one entitled "The Booke of Honor and Armes, wherein is discoursed the Causes of Quarrell, and the nature of Injuries, and their Repulses, etc., 4to, 1590."

84. books for good manners, which were common in those days.

91. take up, make up, arrange; cp. above, 1. 47.

94. swore brothers, swore eternal friendship to each other. The allusion is to the fratres jurati, sworn brothers of the days of chivalry, when companions in arms mutually bound themselves by oath to share each other's fortune. Cp. H. V. ii. 1. 13; M. A. i. 1. 73; i. H. IV. ii. 4. 7.

98. a stalking-horse, a horse whether real, or a stuffed figure made of cloth, behind which the sportsman approached the game without being discovered. The phrase is common nowadays in a figurative sense.

98, 9. under that, under cover of which disguise; by presenting that in front of himself.

101. made even, all difficulties being smoothed away.

102. Atone together, are brought into harmony with each other: atone, literally to make at one, is again used intransitively in Cor. iv. 6. 72, “He and Aufidius can no more atone"; but elsewhere transitively.

107. Whose heart... is, whose heart has been wholly given to her; her is Malone's correction of the folio 'his.'

111. sight, Johnson conjectured shape in consequence of Phebe's answer, and Walker adopting that reading explains it as dress.

112. If sight... true, if one may trust one's sight and if the forin before me is not an illusion.

113. my love adieu, there is an end to the love I have cherished. 117. I bar confusion, I will allow none of this confusion.

122. If truth... contents, "if there be truth in truth, unless truth fails of veracity" (Johnson).

123. cross, affliction, misfortune.

122-6. Said respectively to (1) Rosalind and Orlando, (2) Celia and Oliver, (3) Phebe, (4) Audrey and Touchstone.

125. You... accord, you must bring yourself into harmony with his love, reciprocate it.

126. to your lord, as, for, your master.

127. are sure together, are united in bonds which nothing can loosen.

128. As... weather, as surely as foul weather is the companion of winter.

130. Feed questioning, satisfy yourselves by inquiring of each other how these things have come about.

131, 2, That reason ... finish, that wonder at your coming together in this manner may give way at the touch of reason, and these matters come to a happy conclusion.

133. Juno's, as the protectress of women and especially as presiding over marriage.

136. High, sacred. Furness understands the word as an adverb qualifying honoured. White strongly suspects this song, and thinks it not improbable that the whole of Hymen's part is from another hand than Shakespeare's.

...

140. Even daughter, degree, nay, rather my daughter, and welcome as a daughter.

141. eat my word, break my promise.

142. Thy faith... combine, your constancy binds my love to you, constrains me to return your love: said to Silvius.

148. Address'd ... power, prepared a mighty force; Address'd, ultimately from Lat. directus, straight; power, used constantly by Shakespeare, both in singular and plural, for forces, army. 149. In his own conduct, led by himself.

152. religious man, recluse, one devoted to religion. 153. question, conversation, discourse.

156. restored, being restored.

157. This to be true, that this is true; see Abb. § 354.

158. engage, pledge, stake.

159. Thou offer'st... wedding, the wedding present you make (i.e. in the news you bring) is a handsome one.

161. A land... dukedom, a territory complete; for at large, = on a large scale, cp. T. C. i. 3. 346, "The baby figure of the giant mass of things to come at large.' Rosalind, as the Duke's

only child, would inherit his possessions.

162. do those ends, complete those purposes.

163. begot, devised; for the curtailed form of the participle, see Abb. § 343.

164. every, for this word used as a pronoun, see Abb. § 12. 165. shrewd, bitter; originally the passive participle of schrewen, to curse.

166. our returned fortune, the prosperity which has come back to us.

167. According... states, in proportion to the estates which formerly belonged to them: for states, cp. M. V. iii. 2. 262, "When I told you My state was nothing, I should then have told you That I was worse than nothing"; i. H. IV. iv. 1. 46, were it good To

66

set the exact wealth of all our states All at one cast?"

168. new-fall'n dignity, the restored dukedom. 169. fall into, adapt yourselves to.

...

171. with measure fall, with fullest joy abandon yourselves to the dancing; cp. R. J. ii. 6. 24, "if the measure of thy joy Be heap'd like mine"; Luke, vi. 38, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom ; and for measures, see note on 1. 41, above.

172. by your patience, with your permission.

173. a religious life, the life of a recluse.

...

174. And thrown court, and abandoned the pomps and vanities of a life at court.

176. convertites, converts; used again in K. J. v. 1. 19.

177. much matter, much worth hearing and reflecting upon.

178. bequeath, give; see note on i. 1. 2.

179. patience, endurance of your wrongs and troubles; for the singular verb, see Abb. § 336.

181. allies, bosom friends.

182. You... bed, you to a marriage which you have well deserved by your long constancy.

183, 4. for thy loving... victuall'd, for your union is not likely to be for long a loving one; you are not furnished with those qualifications which make a married life permanently happy.

188. your abandon'd cave, your retreat which you have now abandoned to return to the pomps of your former life; said with his usual caustic severity.

EPILOGUE.

1. It is not... epilogue, G. S. B. (The Prologue and Epilogue) points out that in the early age of our drama it was not the general practice to assign the Prologues and Epilogues to the characters of the play, and that in 1609 it was a novelty for a female character (not a woman, for women did not act till after the Restoration) to speak a Prologue. He quotes the stage directions to Every Woman in Her Humour, "Enter Flavia, as a Prologue "; and having entered, she says, "Gentles of both sexes, and of all sorts, I am sent to bid ye welcome. I am but instead of a Prologue, for a she-Prologue is as rare as a usurer's alms."

2. unhandsome, improper.

3. good wine needs no bush, Steevens says, "It appears formerly to have been the custom to hang a tuft of ivy at the door of a vintner. I suppose ivy was chosen rather than any other plant as it has relation to Bacchus. So in Gascoigne's Gloss. of Government, 1575, 'Now a days the good wyne needeth none ivye garland.' Again in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600, "Green ivy-bushes at the vintners' doors.""

7, 8. insinuate with you, find my way into your favour; ingratiate myself; cp. V. A. 1012, "With Death she humbly doth insinuate furnished, dressed; cp. above, iii. 2. 216.

9. become me, be fitting in me.

10. conjure, adjure; perhaps with an allusion to the sense of the word as used in reference to magicians, to influence by magic.

12. as please you, Walker suggests with great probability that there may be a double meaning here, not merely 'as it pleases you, i.e. if you are so pleased,' but "as may be acceptable to you"; as please you seems to be used impersonally like 'so please you.' The logic of this badinage is not very clear, but apparently the meaning is, 'I charge you, O women, by that feeling which is the strongest in your natures, namely, the love you bear to men, to like the play; and by the similar feeling which is strongest in your natures, namely, your love towards women, I charge you also, O men, to like the play.'

...

14, 5. that between . please, so that between you both, taking men and women together, the play may find acceptance.

15. a woman, see note on 1. 1, above.

17. that liked me, that pleased me; for this construction, properly impersonal, see Abb. § 297: defied, disliked, had an aversion towards.

19. for my kind offer, for the polite words I have just used: bid me farewell, wish me all good fortune.