First, in this forest, let us do those ends That here were well begun and well begot; That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us, And fall into our rustic revelry. 170 Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all, With measure heap'd in joy, to th' measures fall. JAQUES. Sir, by your patience. If I heard you rightly, The Duke hath put on a religious life, And thrown into neglect the pompous court? JAQUES DE Boys. He hath. JAQUES. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd. 180 [TO THE DUKE.] You to your former honor I bequeath; Your patience and your virtue well deserves it : [TO ORLANDO.] You to a love that your true faith doth merit : [TO OLIVER.] You to your land and love and great allies : [TO SILVIUS.] You to a long and well deserved bed: [TO TOUCH.] And you to wrangling; for thy loving voyage Is but for two months victuall'd. So, to your pleasures : I am for other than for dancing measures. 191 DUKE SENIOR. Stay, Jaques, stay. JAQUES. To see no pastime I: what you would have I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. [Exit. DUKE SENIOR. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, As we do trust they'll end, in true delights. [A dance. EPILOGUE. ROSALIND. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, as I perceive by your simpering none of you hates them, that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that Hik'd me, and breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt. TEXTUAL NOTES. Dramatis Personæ. List first given by Rowe. ACT I. SCENE I. 2. The omission of he before bequeathed would be an easy slip for an Elizabethan printer. It is possible, however, that Shakespeare designed by such ellipsis to represent the eagerness and informality of Orlando's outpouring to the faithful old servant. SCENE II. The 4. I, missing from the folios, was supplied by Rowe. 51-52. The First Folio reads who perceiveth our naturall wits too dull to reason of such goddesses, hath sent. Second Folio amends to perceiving. Malone, followed by eminent editors, reads and hath sent. Which correction is the better? 81-83. The original text gives this spirited reply to Rosalind. The emendation is Theobald's. Capell would change the name Frederick to Ferdinand. Which of these three readings accords best with the epithet old? What is the force of that epithet here? Which reading, as we consider the character of the two girls and the two fathers, seems most natural? Which implies the liveliest play of conversation and action? Which has best authority? honor him: enough! Hanmer's punctuation for the folio reading honour him enough. Between these readings editors are about evenly divided. What is the main advantage of each? 119. Farmer, Dyce, and Hudson would take the words with bills on their necks from Rosalind, and add them to Le Beau's preceding speech. Would this arrangement better the wit of the dialogue? 136. see. So the original texts. What are the objections to the reading? Consider carefully Theobald's emendation, set; Heath's, get; and Dr. Johnson's, feel. 154. man. So the original texts. Many editors change to men. Is this necessary? 160. The folios read Princesse cals. Many editors, because of Orlando's reply, change to the plural. Is this necessary? 170-171. Some editors would change your eyes and your judgment to our eyes and our judgment. Is this necessary? What should be the emphasis in the original reading? 179. wherein offends the grammatical sense of certain editors, who would substitute therein or herein, or omit the word altogether. What is the strict verbal antecedent of wherein? What is the implied antecedent of idea? Would severe grammatical accuracy be expected of Orlando under the circumstances? 202. Here a few editors are tempted to read An you mean, or its equivalent, If you mean. Does the original text call for change? 239. The folios read all promise, which, as Hudson says, "upsets the metre to no purpose." Giving him a chain from her neck. This is Theobald's addition. In Lodge's novel we read that Rosalind "tooke from hir neck a Jewell, and sent it by a Page to the young Gentleman." Search the third act to find out why Theobald supplied here chain rather than jewel. 267. The folios have taller. If Shakespeare's usual script was as blind as it appears in his few extant signatures, the printer might easily have read as taller the word lesser. Other emendations proposed are shorter, smaller, lower. What two statements in the play make it evident that Celia was not as tall as Rosalind? 97. SCENE III. "Theobald mended what he considered faulty in sense and grammar by reading 'me' for 'thee' and 'are' for 'am.' Johnson considered the former change unnecessary; 'for,' said he, where would be the absurdity of saying, You know not the law which teaches you to do right?' No one would now think of writing, 'thou and I am,' but as it is an instance of a construction of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare's time, by which the verb is attracted to the nearest subject, it should not be altered. See Ben Jonson, The Fox, ii. 1: Take it or leave it, howsoever, both it and I am at your service.' And Cynthia's Revels, i. 1: 'My thoughts and I am for this other element, water.'" — Wright. 102. your change. So the First Folio. your charge, and a number of editors, recognizing how easily the ye of an Elizabethan MS. might be taken for yr, have adopted the charge. Which of the three readings is best? The later folios read ACT II. SCENE I. 5-11. This passage has been subjected to much editorial discussion. Theobald, followed by eminent scholars, would read in line 5 but for not, claiming that the penalty of Adam was to suffer, in place of Eden's perpetual spring, the changes of the weather. Others contend that the penalty of Adam was labor, from which the Duke and his lords, who "fleet the time carelessly" with song and feast and hunting, are exempt. But the passage, as a whole, has no reference to labor. Its general sense would seem to be: "I am entrenched in my own content. I translate the stubbornness of fortune into so quiet and so sweet a style that here, far from false luxury of courts and the pang of man's ingratitude, here in the wild and lonely forest of Arden, though the winter wind may blow and the bitter sky may freeze, even till the body shrink with cold, I am lord of my own spirit and pluck the precious jewel wisdom from the ugliest shape of adversity." The sense of the flesh is one thing, and the feeling of the soul another. 18. I would not change it. The original text, divergence from which should be extremely cautious, gives these words to Amiens; but they form so human a conclusion to the address of the Duke, whose later inconsistency of action is human, too, and make so poor a preface to the young lord's tribute of loyal admiration, that the emendation prevails. |