II. v. 63. I'll rail against all the first-born of Egypt.' According to Johnson 'the first-born of Egypt' was a proverbial expression for high-born persons, but it has not been found elsewhere. Nares suggests that perhaps Jaques is only intended to say that, if he cannot sleep, he will, like other discontented persons, rail against his betters. There is no doubt some subtler meaning in the words, and the following is possibly worthy of consideration:Jaques says if he cannot sleep he'll rail again all first-borns, for it is the question of birthright which has caused him 'leave his wealth and ease,' merely as he had previously put it 'to please a stubborn will'; this idea has perhaps suggested Pharaoh's stub. bornness, and by some such association 'all first-borns' became 'all the first-born of Egypt;' or, by mere association, the meaningless tag of Egypt' is added by Jaques to round off the phrase, and to give it some sort of colour.

II. vii. 19. Touchstone of course alludes to the common saying 'Fortune favours fools,' cp. Every man out of his humour, I. i.: Sogliardo. Why, who am I, sir?

Macilente. One of those that fortune favours.

Carlo. [Aside] The periphrasis of a fool.'

II. vii. 34, 36. 'A worthy fool'... 'O worthy fool': the 'A' and O'should probably change places, according to an anonymous conjecture noted in the Cambridge Edition.

II. vii. 55. Not to seem'; the words 'not to' were first added by Theobald: the Folios read 'seem'; Collier, following his MS. corrections, proposed 'but to seem'; the meaning is the same in both cases. Mr Furness follows Ingleby in maintaining the correctness of the text, and paraphrases thus:-"He who is hit the hardest by me must laugh the hardest, and that he must do so is plain; because if he is a wise man he must seem foolishly sense

less of the bob by laughing it off. Unless he does this, viz., shows his insensibility by laughing it off, any chance hit of the fool will expose every nerve and fibre of his folly."

II. vii. 73. the weary very means,' the reading of the Folios (Folios 1 and 2 'wearie'; Folios 3, 4, weary'). Pope proposed 'very very'; Collier (MS.) 'the very means of wear'; Staunton 'weary-very,' or 'very-weary. Others maintain the correctness of the original reading, and explain, until that its very means, being weary or exhausted, do ebb.' A very plausible emendation was suggested by Singer, viz., wearer's' for 'weary,' and it has rightly been adopted by several editors: cp. Henry VIII. I. i. 83-5:— 'O, many

6

Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em

For this great journey.'

II. vii. 178. 'because thou art not seen,' i.e. "as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence" (Johnson): several unnecessary emendations have been proposed, e.g. 'Thou causest not that teen' (Hanmer); Because thou art foreseen' (Staunton), &c.

II. vii. 189. As friend remember'd not,' i.e. ' as forgotten friendship,' or 'as what an unremembered friend feels': cp. 'benefits forgot,' supra.

III. ii. 119. 'the very false gallop,' cp. Nashe's Four Letters Confuted, "I would trot a false gallop through the rest of his ragged verses, but that if I should retort his rime dogrell aright, I must make my verses (as he doth his) run hobling like a Brewer's Cart upon the stones, and observe no length in their feet."

III. ii. 163. 'pulpiter': Spedding's suggestion for 'Jupiter' of the Folios.

III. ii. 439. 'living,' i.e lasting, permanent; the antithesis

seems to require 'loving,' which has been substituted by some editors: it is noteworthy that in some half-dozen instances in Shakespeare'live' has been printed for 'love,' but it is questionable whether any change is justifiable here.

III. iii. 5, 6. 'your features! ... what features?' Farmer's conjecture feature! ... what's feature' seems singularly plausible; cp. l. 17, "I do not know what 'poetical' is."

III. iii. 81. her, so Folios 1, 2; his,' Folios 3, 4: the female bird was the falcon; the male was called 'tercel' or 'tassel.' III. iv. 48. ‘noble goose': Hanmer substituted ‘nose-quilled' for 'noble,' which is, of course, used ironically.

III. v. 7. 'dies and lives,' i.e. 'lives and dies,' i... 'subsists from the cradle to the grave'; the inversion of the words seems to have been an old idiom: cp. Romaunt of the Rose,' v. 5790:

With sorwe they both die and live,

That unto Richesse her hertis yive.'

Other passages in later literature might be adduced where the exigencies of metre do not exist.

IV. i. 154. like Diana in the fountain.' Stow mentions in his Survey of London (1603) that there was set up in 1596 on the east side of the cross in Cheapside "a curiously wrought tabernacle of grey marble, and in the same an alabaster image of Diana, and water conveyed from the Thames prilling from her naked breast." It is very doubtful whether Shakespeare is referring to this particular Diana,' as some have supposed.

IV. ii. 13. The words 'Then sing him home, the rest shall bear this burden,' are printed as one line in the Folios. Theobald was the first to re-arrange, as in the text. Knight, Collier, Dyce, and others take the whole to be a stage-direction. Knight

first called attention to the fact that possibly the original music for this song is to be found in John Hilton's Catch that Catch Can; or, a Choice Collection of Catches, Rounds,' &c., 1652 (printed Furness, p. 230, 231).

IV. iii. 76. ‘fair ones'; Mr. Wright suggests that perhaps we should read 'fair one,' and Mr. Furness assents to the view that 'Shakespeare seems to have forgotten that Celia was apparently the only woman present.' But surely it is noteworthy that Oliver a few lines lower down gives the description:- The boy is fair,' &c.

IV. iii. 88. like a ripe sister: the woman low'; the pause at the the woman low cæsura takes the place of a syllable.

IV. iii. 102. chewing the food,' usually quoted as 'chewing the cud,' a correction of the line first suggested by Scott (cf. Introduction to Quentin Durward).

V. ii. 21. 'fair sister;' Oliver addresses' Ganymede' thus for he is Orlando's counterfeit Rosalind (cp. IV. iii. 93). Some interpreters of Shakespeare are of opinion that Oliver knows the whole secret of the situation.

V. ii. 77. 'which I tender dearly'; probably an allusion to the Act "against Conjuracons, Inchantments, and Witchecraftes," passed under Elizabeth, which enacted that all persons using witchcraft, &c., whereby death ensued, should be put to death without benefit of clergy, &c

V. iii. 17. Chappell printed the music of the song from a MS., now in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, belonging to the early part of the seventeenth century (cp. Furness, pp. 262, 263). In the Folios the last stanza is made the second. Mr. Roffe is of opinion that Shakespeare contemplated a trio between the Pages and Touchstone.

V. iv. 4. As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.' A large number of unnecessary emendations have been proposed for this plausible reading of the Folios; e.g. 'fear, they hope, and know they fear'; 'fear their hope and hope their fear'; 'fear their hope and know their fear,' &c. The last of these gives the meaning of the line as it stands in the text.

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iv. 94. 6 we quarrel in print, by the book'; Shakespeare probably refers to " Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. In two Bookes. The first intreating the use of the Rapier and Dagger. The second, of Honor and honorable Quarrels "; printed in 1594.

V. iv. 95. books for good manners, e.g. “A lytle Booke of Good Maners for Chyldren with interpritation into the vulgare Erglysshe tongue by R. Whittinton, Poet Laureat"; printed at London in 1554; (p. Dr. Furnivall's Book of Norture of John Russell, &c., published by the Early English Text Society, 1868). Cp. Hamlet, V. ii. 149, 'he (i.e. Laertes) is the card or calendar of gentry,' a probable allusion to the title of some such book of manners.'

V. iv. 120. her hand with his'; the first and second Folios 'his hand'; corrected to 'her' in the second and third Folios.

V. iv. 154. even daughter, welcome'; Theobald proposed 'daughterwelcome,' i.c. welcome as a daughter.' Folios 1, 2, 3, read 'daughter welcome'; Folio 4, 'daughter, welcome.' The sense is clear whichever reading is adopted, though the rhythm seems in favour of the reading in the text: 'O my dear niece,' says the Duke, nay, daughter, welcome to me in no less degree than daughter.'

Epilogue, 18. If I avere a woman'; the part of Rosalind was of course originally taken by a boy-actor: women's parts were not taken by women till after the Restoration.