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So much of nothing, set out in so much form, is, indeed, simply taken, enough in character; but was probably meant to ridicule something now out of reach.

(2) clubs cannot part them] The outcry for assistance upon the breaking out of an affray. Mr. Malone observes, that the preceding words" they are in the very wrath of love," give the introduction of this word a marked propriety here; and he cites Tit. Andron.

"Clubs, clubs; these lovers will not keep the peace."
II. 1. Aaron.

See H. VIII. V. 3. Porter's Man.

(3) which I tender dearly, though I say I am a magician] And therefore might be supposed able to elude death. MALONE.

Certainly, as Mr. M. Mason observes at the end of Mids. N. Dr., the fairies of Shakespeare, and of common tradition, were endowed with immortality. Such too is his spirit Ariel, and Mil. ton's Comus. But the witch Sycorax was no more than mortal; neither was Prospero, who had power to control her. The sanguinary laws enacted by James against those who exercised witchcraft could not, as supposed by Warburton and Steevens, affect this question, if, as Messrs. Malone, Chalmers, and Douce concur, this play was not written later than 1600.

(4) 'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon] Mr. Malone observes, that this expression is borrowed from Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "I tell thee, Montanus, in courting Phoebe, thou barkest with the wolves of Syria, against the moone." In that place, however, it imports an aim at impossibilities, a sense which, whatever may be Rosalind's meaning, cannot very well be attached to it here.

(5) desire to be a woman of the world] i. e. to be married. "If I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isbell the woman and I will do as we may." All's well, &c. I. 3. Clown. See M. ado, &c. II. 1. Beatr.

(6) a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino] It is observable, that amongst other scraps and burdens of songs, Ophelia, under her visitation of madness, IV. 5. sings this, as well as others of a similar character: and see Lear III. 3. Edgar.

Mr. Douce quotes Melismata, musical phansies, &c. 4to. 1611, and Playford's musical Companion, p. 55.

"He that will an alehouse keepe
"Must have three things in store;
"A chamber and a feather bed,
“A chimney, and a hey no-ny no-ny,
"Hey no-ny no-ny, hey no-ny no,
Hey no-ny no, hey no-ny no."

Illustrat. II. 162.

See Florio's Ital. Dict. 1611, sub voce Fossa.

(7) the spring time, the only pretty rank time] This, the reading of Dr. Johnson, offers a sense close to the letter of the old copies, which concur in giving rang, and in perfect correspondence with the spirit and character of the context; that of luxuriant. To rich pasture the term is applied every where, and a river too full and overflowing its banks, is so characterized by our author. See K. John, V. 4. Salisb.

But the word, as given in the old copies, may have been used by the duke's page for the purpose of softening its offensive character. See rank, M. of V. Shyl. I. 3.

(8) make these doubts all even] Remove doubts, which may be said to be in the nature of knobs or inequalities, obstructing Mr. Steevens refers to

our course.

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(9) I desire you of the like] i. e. the like of you. Mr. Steevens cites Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621:

"Craving you of more acquaintance."

And F. Q. IV. viii.

"She dear besought the prince of remedy."

And Heywood's Play of the Wether:

"Besechynge your grace of wynde continual."

See M. N. Dr. III. 1. Bottom.

(10) as marriage binds, and blood breaks] As the marriagerite imposes the obligation, and heat of blood prompts to its

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Beauty is a witch,

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood."

M. ad. ab. Noth. II. 1. Claud.

(11) the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases] i. e. such pleasant fooleries or sayings, as I have been scattering about; and which are epidemical among us as diseases.

Mr. Malone has produced a very apt instance of the same species of writing and humour in Launcelot Gobbo:" the young gentleman (according to the fates and destinies, and such odd sayings, the sisters three, and such branches of learning,) is indeed deceased." M. of Ven. II. 2.

(12) ――as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard] This folly is touched upon, with high humour, by Fletcher, in his Queen of Corinth :

66

Has he familiarly

"Dislik'd your yellow starch, or said your doublet
"Was not exactly frenchified?

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Cry'd, 'twas ill mounted? Has he given the lie "In circle, or oblique, or semicircle,

"Or direct parallel? you must challenge him."

WARBURTON.

(13) I durst go no further than the lie circumstantial] This was certainly, as he sets them out, "finding the quarrel upon the sixth, and not, as he had just said, upon the seventh cause."

But the correction or amendment of the humour, or blundering random shot of Shakespeare's clowns, is one of the most mischievous parts of the mischievous process of conjectural criticism. And the suggestion of Dr. Johnson, that the text should be altered, because Touchstone had not been uniform in his statement of the gradation of causes that prevented his fighting this duel, has been judiciously rejected by the modern editors. The course indeed which Mr. Malone takes, would remove all difficulties; and he repeatedly insists that the seventh cause, i. e. the lie seven times removed, properly understood (which, he says, is by counting backwards from the lie direct, the last and most aggravated species of lie) was the first, or the retort courteous. But this involves a much stranger contradiction: he could not then have gone further; and this he represents that he might have done, had he dared.

(14) O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; you have books for good manners] The poet has, in this scene, rallied the mode of formal duelling, then so prevalent, with the highest humour and address: nor could he have treated it with a happier contempt, than by making his Clown so knowing in the forms and preliminaries of it. The particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise of one Vincentio Saviolo, intitled, Of Honour and honourable Quarrels, in quarto, printed by Wolf, 1594. The first part of this tract he entitles, A Discourse most necessary for all Gentlemen that have in regard their Honours, touching the giving and receiving the Lie, whereupon the Duello and the Combat in divers Forms doth ensue; and many other inconveniences, for lack only of true Knowledge of Honour, and the right Understanding of Words, which here is set down. The contents of the several chapters are as follow:-1. What the Reason is that the Party unto whom the Lie is given ought to become Challenger, and of the Nature of Lies. II. Of the Manner and Diversity of Lies. III. Of Lies certain, [or direct.] IV. Of conditional Lies, [or the lie circumstantial.] V. Of the Lie in general. VI. Of the Lie in particular. VII. Of foolish Lies. VIII. A Conclusion touching the wresting or returning back of the Lie, [or the countercheck quarrelsome.] In the chapter of conditional Lies, speaking of the particle if, he says, Conditional lies be such as are given conditionally, as if a man should say or write these wordes:-if thou hast said

that I have offered my lord abuse, thou liest; or if thou sayest so hereafter, thou shalt lie. Of these kind of lies, given in this manner, often arise much contention in wordes,-whereof no sure conclusion can arise." By which he means, they cannot proceed to cut one another's throat, while there is an if between. Which is the reason of Shakespeare making the Clown say, " I knew when seven justices could not make up a quarrel: but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an if; as, if you said so, then I said so, and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your if is the only peace-maker: much virtue in if." Caranza was another of these authentic authors upon the Duello. Fletcher, in his last Act of Love's Pilgrimage, ridicules him with much humour. WARBurton.

The words which I have included within crotchets are Dr. Warburton's. They have hitherto been printed in such a manner as might lead the reader to suppose that they made a part of Saviolo's work. The passage was very inaccurately printed by Dr. Warburton in other respects, but has here been corrected by the original. MALONE.

I have The Boke of Nurture, or Schole of good Manners, for Men, Servants, and Children, with stans puer ad mensam; 12mo. black letter, without date. It was written by Hugh Rhodes, a gentleman, or musician, of the Chapel Royal; and was first published in 4to. in the reign of King Edward VI.

STEEVENS.

Another is, Galateo of Maister John Casa, Archbishop of Benevento; or rather, a Treatise of the Manners and Behaviours it behoveth a Man to use and eschewe in his familiar Conversation. A Work very necessary and profitable for all Gentlemen or other; translated from the Italian, by Robert Peterson, of Lincoln's Inn, 4to. 1576. REED.

(15) Enter Hymen, leading Rosalind] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen. JOHNSON.

Mr. Steevens says, in all the allegorical shows exhibited at ancient weddings, Hymen was a constant personage. Ben Jonson in his Hymenæi, or the Solemnities of Masque and Barriers, at a Marriage, has left instructions how to dress this favourite character. "On the other hand entered Hymen, the god of marriage, in a saffron-coloured robe, his under vestures white, his sockes yellow, a yellow veile of silke on his left arme, his head crowned with roses and marjoram, in his right hand a torch."

STEEVENS.

It is necessary to observe, that the modern editors have here introduced, not only without any authority, but in contradiction

to what follows, Hymen leading Rosalind in women's clothes; and in consequence have found it necessary to change the gender of two of the pronouns in the two last lines of the following hymn and instead of his, in the first and third instances, they read her.

:

Before our attention had been directed to this variance between the old copies and the modern editions, we had conceived that our author had repeatedly used the masculine pronoun in reference to the previously assumed character, and “doublet and hose" dress of Rosalind; but it seems now from this as well as other considerations, that her dress could not have been altered. The duke, her father, who did not now know or suspect who she was, (although he had just before said, "he remembered some lively touches of his daughter in this shepherd boy,") must, one would think, have at once recognized her in a female dress; and she must also have delivered the epilogue in a male habit, or she could hardly have used the expression, "if I

were a woman."

That the text is correct there may be much doubt. The introduction of the words " in women's clothes" in the modern editions, was probably in consequence of the stage practice, and the mode of representation there.

(16) Duke Frederick, &c.] In Lodge's novel the usurping Duke is not diverted from his purpose by the pious counsel of a hermit, but is subdued and killed by the twelve peers of France, who were brought by the third brother of Rosader (the Orlando of this play) to assist him in the recovery of his right.

STEEVENS.

(17) -no bush] It appears formerly to have been the custom to hang a tuft of ivy at the door of a vintner. I suppose ivy was rather chosen than any other plant, as it has relation to Bacchus. So, in Gascoigne's Glass of Government, 1575:

"Now a days the good wyne needeth none ivye garland."

Again, in the Rival Friends, 1632:

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

Again, in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600 :

"Green ivy-bushes at the vintners' doors." STEEVENS. The practice is still observed in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, at statute-hirings, wakes, &c. by people who sell ale at no other time. And hence, I suppose, the Bush tavern at Bristol, and other places. RITSON.

(18) What a case am in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you, &c.] "Although to good wine

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