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Ros. Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard?

Cel. Nay, he hath but a little beard.

Ros. Why, God will send more, if the man will be thankful: let me stay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin.

Cel. It is young Orlando; that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels, and your heart, both in an instant.

Ros. Nay, but the devil take mocking; speak sad brow, and true maid.9

Cel. I' faith, coz, 'tis he.

Ros. Orlando?

Cel. Orlando.

Ros. Alas the day! what shall I do with my doublet and hose? What did he, when thou saw'st him? What said he? How look'd he? Wherein went he? What makes he here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word.

Cel. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth first: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size: To say, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechism.

Ros. But doth he know that I am in this forest, and

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·speak sad brow, and true maid.] i. e. speak with a grave countenance, and as truly as thou art a virgin; speak seriously and honestly. Ritson.

1 Wherein went he?] In what manner was he clothed? How did he go dressed? Heath.

Rosalind requires nine quesCelia tells her that a word of mouth but that of Garagantua

2 Garagantua's mouth] tions to be answered in one word. such magnitude is too big for any the giant of Rabelais. Johnson. Garagantua swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all, in a sallad. It appears from the books of the Stationers' Company, that in 1592 was published, "Garagantua his Prophecie." And in 1594, "A booke entitled, The History of Garagantua." book of Garagantua is likewise mentioned in Laneham's Narrative of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle, in 1575. Some translator of one of these pieces is censured by Hall, in his second Book of Satires:

"But who conjur'd, &c.

"Or wicked Rablais dronken revellings

"To grace the misrule of our tavernings?" Steevens:

The

in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled?

Cel. It is as easy to count atomies,3 as to resolve the propositions of a lover:-but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with a good observance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn.

Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth such fruit.4

Cel. Give me audience, good madam.

Ros. Proceed.

Cel. There lay he, stretch'd along, like a wounded knight.

Ros. Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well becomes the ground.5

Cel. Cry, holla! to thy tongue, I pr'ythee; it curvets very unseasonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter. Ros. O ominous! he comes to kill my heart."

3 to count atomies,] Atomies are those minute particles discernible in a stream of sunshine that breaks into a darkened room. Henley.

"An atomie, (says Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616) is a mote flying in the sunne. Any thing so small that it cannot be made lesse." Malone.

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when it drops forth such fruit.] The old copy readswhen it drops forth fruit. The word such was supplied by the editor of the second folio. I once suspected the phrase, “when it drops forth," to be corrupt; but it is certainly our author's; for it occurs again in this play:

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woman's gentle brain

"Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention."

This passage serves likewise to support the emendation that has been made. Malone.

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such a sight, it well becomes the ground.] So, in Hamlet: Such a sight as this

"Becomes the field,"

Steevens.

6 Cry, holla! to thy tongue,] The old copy has-the tongue. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Holla was a term of the menage, by which the rider restrained and stopp'd his horse. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"What recketh he his rider's angry stir,

"His flattering holla, or his stand I say?"

The word is again used in Othello, in the same sense as here: "Holla! stand there." Malone.

Again, in Cotton's Wonders of the Peak:

"But I must give my muse the hola here." Reed.

Cel. I would sing my song without a burden: thou bring'st me out of tune.

Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. Sweet, say on.

Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES.

Cel. You bring me out:-Soft! comes he not here? Ros. 'Tis he; slink by, and note him.

[CEL. and Ros. retire. Jaq. I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone.

Orl. And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, I thank you too for your society.

Jaq. God be with you; let's meet as little as we can. Orl. I do desire we may be better strangers.

Jaq. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing lovesongs in their barks.

Orl. I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading them ill-favouredly.

Jaq. Rosalind is your love's name?

Orl. Yes, just.

Jaq. I do not like her name.

Orl. There was no thought of pleasing you, when she was christen'd.

Jaq. What stature is she of?

Orl. Just as high as my heart.

Jaq. You are full of pretty answers: Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conn'd them out of rings?

Orl. Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth,8 from whence you have studied your questions.

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to kill my heart.] A quibble between heart and hart. Steevens.

Our author has the same expression in many other places. So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart.” Again, in his Venus and Adonis:

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they have murder'd this poor heart of mine." But the preceding word, hunter, shows that a quibble was here intended between heart and hart. In our author's time the latter word was often written instead of heart, as it is in the present instance, in the old copy of this play. Malone.

8 but I answer you right painted cloth,] This alludes to the fashion in old tapestry hangings, of mottos and moral sentences

Jaq. You have a nimble wit; I think it was made of Atalanta's heels. Will you sit down with me? and we

from the mouths of the figures worked or painted in them. The poet again hints at this custom, in his poem, called Tarquin and

Lucrece:

"Who fears a sentence, or an old man's saw,
"Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe."

Theobald.

So, in Barnaby Riche's Soldier's Wishe to Britons Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, &c. 1604, p. 1: "It is enough for him that can but robbe a painted cloth of a historie, a booke of a discourse, a foole of a fashion, &c.

The same allusion is common to many of our old plays. So, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "Now will I see if my memory will serve for some proverbs. O, a painted cloth were as well worth a shilling, as a thief is worth a halter." Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633: "There's a witty posy for you.

No, no; I'll have one shall savour of a saw."Why then 'twill smell of the painted cloth." Again, in The Muses' Looking Glass, by Randolph, 1638: 66 I have seen in Mother Redcap's hall

"In painted cloth, the story of the prodigal.”

From this last quotation we may suppose that the rooms in pub. lick houses were usually hung with what Falstaff calls water-work. On these hangings, perhaps, moral sentences were depicted as issuing from the mouths of the different characters represented.

Again, in Sir Thomas More's English Works, printed by Rastell, 1557: "Mayster Thomas More in hys youth devysed in hys father's house in London, a goodly hangyng of fyne paynted clothe, with nine pageauntes, and verses over every of those pageauntes; which verses expressed and declared what the ymages in those pageauntes represented: and also in those pageauntes were paynted the thyngs that the verses over them dyd (in effecte) declare."

Of the present phraseology there is an instance in King John: "He speaks plain cannon-fire, and bounce, and smoke."

Steevens. I answer you right painted cloth, may mean, I give you a true painted cloth answer; as we say, she talks right Billingsgate: that is, exactly such language as is used at Billingsgate.

Johnson. This singular phrase may be justified by another of the same kind in King Henry V:

"I speak to thee plain soldier."

Again, in Twelfth Night:

"He speaks nothing but madman.”

There is no need of Sir T. Hanmer's alteration: "I answer you right in the style of painted cloth." We had before in this

two will rail against our mistress the world, and all our misery.

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Orl. I will chide no breather in the world, but myself; against whom I know most faults.

Jaq. The worst fault you have, is to be in love. Orl. 'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue. I am weary of you.

Jaq. By my troth, I was seeking for a fool, when I found you.

Orl. He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you shall see him.

Jaq. There shall I see mine own figure.

Orl. Which I take to be either a fool, or a cipher. Jaq. I'll tarry no longer with you: farewel, good sig

nior love.

Orl. I am glad of your departure; adieu, good monsieur melancholy.

[Exit JAQ-CEL. and Ros. come forward.

play, "It is the right butter-woman's rate to market." So, in Golding's translation of Ovid, 1567:

the look of it was right a maiden's look."

I suppose Orlando means to say, that Jaques's questions have no more of novelty or shrewdness in them than the trite maxims of the painted cloth. The following lines which are found in a book with this fantastick title,-No whipping nor tripping, but a kind of friendly snipping, octavo, 1601, may serve as a specimen of painted cloth language:

"Read what is written on the painted cloth:
"Do no man wrong; be good unto the poor;
"Beware the mouse, the maggot and the moth,
"And ever have an eye unto the door;
"Trust not a fool, a villain, nor a whore ;

"Go neat, not gay, and spend but as you spare;

"And turn the colt to pasture with the mare;" &c.

That moral sentences were wrought in these painted cloths, is ascertained by the following passage in A Dialogue both pleasaunt and pitifull, &c. by Dr. Willyam Bulleyne, 1564, (sign. H 5.) which has been already quoted: "This is a comelie parlour,and faire clothes, with pleasaunte borders aboute the same, with many wise sayings painted upon them." Malone.

9 - no breather in the world,] So, in our author's 81st Son

net:

"When all the breathers of this world are dead."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"She shows a body, rather than a life;

"A statue, than a breather." Malone.

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