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Enter JAQUES DE BOIS.

JAQ. DE B. Let me have audience for a word, or two;

I am the second son of old sir Rowland,

That bring these tidings to this fair assembly:-
Duke Frederick,' hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Address'd a mighty power; which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take

His brother here, and put him to the sword:
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came;
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprize, and from the world:
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands restor❜d to them again
That were with him exíl'd: This to be true,
I do engage my life.

DUKE S.

Welcome, young man ;
Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers, wedding:
To one, his lands with-held; and to the other,
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun, and well begot:
And after, every of this happy number,

verb, which here, as in Measure for Measure, only signifies to bind:

"I am combined by a sacred vow,

"And shall be absent." STEEVENS.

1 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.

That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us,
Shall share the good of our returned fortune,
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,
And fall into our rustick revelry:-

Play, musick;-and you brides and bridegrooms all,

With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall. JAQ. Sir, by your patience; If I heard you rightly,

The duke hath put on a religious life,

And thrown into neglect the pompous court?
JAQ. DE B. He hath.

JAQ. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.You to your former honour I bequeath;

[To Duke S. Your patience, and your virtue, well deserves it:You [To ORLANDO] to a love, that your true faith

doth merit:

You [TO OLIVER] to your land, and love, and great allies:

You [To SILVIUS] to a long and well deserved bed;

And you [To TOUCHSTONE] to wrangling; for thy loving voyage

Is but for two months victual'd:-So to your pleasures;

I am for other than for dancing measures.
DUKE S. Stay, Jaques, stay.

JAQ. To see no pastime, I: what you would have I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave.2 [Exit.

To see no pastime, I:what you would have

I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave.] Amidst this general festivity, the reader may be sorry to take his leave of

DUKE S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin

these rites,

And we do trust they'll end, in true delights.

[A dance.

EPILOGUE.

Ros. 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

Jaques, who appears to have no share in it, and remains behind unreconciled to society. He has, however, filled with a gloomy sensibility the space allotted to him in the play, and to the last preserves that respect which is due to him as a consistent character, and an amiable, though solitary moralist.

It may be observed, with scarce less concern, that Shakspeare has, on this occasion, forgot old Adam, the servant of Orlando, whose fidelity should have entitled him to notice at the end of the piece, as well as to that happiness which he would naturally have found, in the return of fortune to his master. STEEVENS.

It is the more remarkable, that old Adam is forgotten; since, at the end of the novel, Lodge makes him captaine of the king's guard. FARMer.

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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 gar

land."

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.

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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 furnished 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 them: and so I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hate them,) that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman,' I would kiss as many

• What a case am I in then, &c.] Here seems to be a chasm, or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended. The reasoning probably stood thus: Good wine needs no bush, good plays need no epilogue; but bad wine requires a good bush, and a bad play a good epilogue. What case am I in then? To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done, without copies, is to note the fault. JOHNSON.

Johnson mistakes the meaning of this passage. Rosalind says, that good plays need no epilogue; yet even good plays do prove the better for a good one. What a case then was she in, who had neither presented them with a good play, nor had a good epilogue to prejudice them in favour of a bad one? M. MASON. furnished like a beggar,] That is, dressed: so before, he was furnished like a huntsman. JOHNSON.

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I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please them: and so I charge you, &c.] The old copy reads—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,that between you and the women, &c. STEEVens.

This passage should be read thus: I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases them: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, -to like as much as pleases them, that between you and the women, &c. Without the alteration of you into them, the invocation is nonsense; and without the addition of

of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions

the words, to like as much as pleases them, the inference of, that between you and the women the play may pass, would be unsupported by any precedent premises. The words seem to have been struck out by some senseless player, as a vicious redundancy. WARBURTON.

The words you and y", written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable. JOHNSON.

Mr. Heath observes, that if Dr. Warburton's interpolation be admitted, ["to like as much, &c."] "the men are to like only just as much as pleased the women, and the women only just as much as pleased the men; neither are to like any thing from their own taste: and if both of them disliked the whole, they would each of them equally fulfil what the poet desires of them. But Shakspeare did not write so nonsensically; he desires the women to like as much as pleased the men, and the men to set the ladies a good example; which exhortation to the men is evidently implied in these words, "that between you and the women the play may please.'

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Mr. Heath, though he objects (I think very properly) to the interpolated sentence, admits by his interpretation the change of "-pleases you" to "-pleases them;" which has been adopted by the late editors. I by no means think it necessary; nor is Mr. Heath's exposition, in my opinion, correct. The text is sufficiently clear, without any alteration. Rosalind's address appears to me simply this: "I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to approve of as much of this play as affords you entertainment; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, [not to set an example to, but] to follow or agree in opinion with the ladies; that between you both the play may be successful." The words "to follow, or agree in opinion with, the ladies" are not, indeed, expressed, but plainly implied in those subsequent; "that, between you and the women, the play may please." In the epilogue to King Henry IV. P. II. the address to the audience proceeds in the same order: "All the gentlewomen here have forgiven. [i. e. are favourable to] me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly."

The old copy reads--as please you. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe.

Like all my predecessors, I had here adopted an alteration made by Mr. Rowe, of which the reader was apprized in the

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