And all the embossed sores, and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot hast caught,
Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.
JAQ. Why, who cries out on pride,
That can therein tax any private party?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea,
Till that the very very means do ebb?
What woman in the city do I name,
When that I say, The city-woman bears
The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders?
Who can come in, and say, that I mean her,
When such a one as she, such is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function,

That says, his bravery' is not on my cost,
(Thinking that I mean him,) but therein suits
His folly to the mettle of my speech?

There then; How then? what then? Let me see wherein

My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right, Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free, Why then, my taxing like a wild goose flies, Unclaim'd of any man.-But who comes here?

*

Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn.
ORL. Forbear, and eat no more.

JAQ.

Why, I have eat none yet.

* First folio, come.

6 Till that the VERY very ] The old copy reads-weary very. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

7 his BRAVERY] i. e. his fine clothes. So, in The Taming of a Shrew:

"With scarfs and fans, and double change of bravery."

STEEVENS.

8 There then; How, what then? &c.] I believe we should read -Where then? So, in Othello:

"What then? How then? Where's satisfaction?"

MALONE.

The old copy reads, very redundantly

"There then? How then? What then," &c.

STEEVENS.

ORL. Nor shalt not, till necessity be serv'd.
JAQ. Of what kind should this cock come of?
DUKE S. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy
distress;

Or else a rude despiser of good manners,

That in civility thou seem'st so empty?

ORL. You touch'd my vein at first; the thorny point

Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show
Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred',
And know some nurture 2: But forbear, I say;
He dies, that touches any of this fruit,
Till I and my affairs are answered.

JAQ. An you will not be answered with reason, I must die.

DUKE S. What would you have? Your gentleness shall force,

More than your force move us to gentleness.

ORL. I almost die for food, and let me have it. DUKE S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.

ORL. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray

Of bare distress hath TA'EN from me the show

Of smooth civility:] We might read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration. JOHNSON. INLAND bred,] Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is the opposite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say, that he had not been bred among clowns. HOLT WHITE.

2 And know some NURTURE:] Nurture is education, breeding, manners. So, in Greene's Never Too Late, 1616:

"He shew'd himself as full of nurture as of nature." Again, as Mr. Holt White observes to me, Barret says in his Alvearie, 1580: "It is a point of nurture, or good manners, to salute them that you meete. Urbanitatis est salutare obvios." STEEVENS.

St. Paul advises the Ephesians, in his Epistle, ch. vi. 4, to bring their children up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." HARRIS.

I thought, that all things had been savage here;
And therefore put I on the countenance

Of stern commandment: But whate'er you are,
That in this desert inaccessible 3,

Under the shade of melancholy boughs,

Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;
If ever you have look'd on better days;

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church;
If ever sat at any good man's feast;

If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear,
And know what 'tis to pity, and be pitied;
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be:
In the which hope, I blush, and hide my sword.
DUKE S. True is it that we have seen better days;
And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church;
And sat at good men's feasts; and wip'd our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd:
And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
And take upon command what help we have,
That to your wanting may be ministred.

ORL. Then, but forbear your food a little while,
Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,
And give it food". There is an old poor man,
Who after me hath many a weary step
Limp'd in pure love; till he be first suffic'd,-
Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger,—
I will not touch a bit.

DUKE S.
Go find him out,
And we will nothing waste till you return.

3 - desert inaccessible,] This expression I find in The Adventures of Simonides, by Barn. Riche, 1580: and onely acquainted himselfe with the solitarinesse of this unaccessible desert." HENDERSON.

4 And take UPON COMMAND what help we have,] Upon command, is at your own command. STEEVENS.

5 Whiles, like a DOE, I go to find my FAWN,

And give it FOOD.] So, in Venus and Adonis :

"Like a milch doe, whose swelling dugs do ake,
"Hasting to feed her fawn." MALONE.

ORL. I thank ye; and be bless'd for your good

comfort!

[Exit. DUKE S. Thou seest, we are not all alone un

happy:

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in".

JAQ.

All the world's a stage',

And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;

6 Wherein we play IN.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope more correctly reads

"Wherein we play."

I believe, with Mr. Pope, that we should only read—

"Wherein we play."

and add a word at the beginning of the next speech, to complete the measure; viz.

Why, all the world's a stage.

Thus, in Hamlet:

"Hor. So Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go to't.

"Ham. Why, man, they did make love to their employment." Again, in Measure for Measure:

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once."

Again, ibid. :

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Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done." In twenty other instances we find the same adverb introductorily used. STEEVENS.

For a defence of the phraseology objected to by Mr. Pope and Mr. Steevens, see Romeo and Juliet, p. 70, n. 7. MALONE.

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All the world's a stage, &c.] This observation occurs in one Non duco contentionis funem, of the fragments of Petronius: dum constet inter nos, quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrioniam." STEEVENS.

This observation had been made in an English drama before the time of Shakspeare. See Damon and Pythias, 1582:

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Pythagoras said, that this world was like a stage, "Whereon many play their parts."

In The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, 1597, we find these

Unhappy man

"Whose life a sad continual tragedie,

"Himself the actor, in the world, the stage,

"While as the acts are measur'd by his age." MALONE.

And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

Then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel,

3

And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school: And then, the lover;
Sighing like furnace 1, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eye-brow: Then, a soldier;
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard 2,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth: And then, the justice;
In fair round belly, with good capon lin❜d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances1,

8 His acts being seven AGES.] On account of the length of the notes on this passage, I have thrown them to the end of the play. BOSWELL.

9 AND then,] And, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied, for the sake of metre, by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

Sighing like furnace,] So, in Cymbeline: " he furnaceth the thick sighs from him." MALONE.

2- a soldier;

Full of strange oaths, and BEARDED like the pard,] So, in Cythia's Revels, by Ben Jonson :

"Your soldiers face-the grace of this face consisteth much in a beard." STEEVENS.

Beards of different cut were appropriated in our author's time to different characters and professions. The soldier had one fashion, the judge another, the bishop different from both, &c. See a note on King Henry V. Act III. Sc. VI. : And what a beard of the general's cut," &c. MALONE.

3

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SUDDEN and quick-] Lest it should be supposed that these epithets are synonymous, it is necessary to be observed that one of the ancient senses of sudden, is violent. Thus, in Macbeth:

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I grant him sudden,
STEEVENS.

"Malicious," &c.

4 Full of wise saws and MODERN instances,] It is remarkable that Shakspeare uses modern in the double sense that the Greeks used zawos, both for recens and absurdus. WARBURTON.