SCENE III. Before Oliver's House. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting. ORL. Who's there? ADAM. What! my young master?-O, my gentle master, O, my sweet master, 9 you memory' Of old sir Rowland! why, what make you here? Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you? And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant? Why would you be so fond' to overcome 2 The bony priser of the humorous duke? 9 O you memory-] Shakspeare often uses memory for memorial; and Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes. So, in The Humorous Lieutenant : "I knew then how to seek your memories." Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, by C. Turner, 1611: "And with his body place that memory "Of noble Charlemont." Again, in Byron's Tragedy: 1 "That statue will I prize past all the jewels The memory of my grandame." STEEVENS. so fond-] i. e. so indiscreet, so inconsiderate. So, in The Merchant of Venice: 66 I do wonder, "Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond "To come abroad with him " STEEVENS. The bony priser -] In the former editions-The bonny priser. We should read-bony priser. For this wrestler is characterised for his strength and bulk, not for his gaiety or good humour. WARBURTON. So, Milton: "Giants of mighty bone." JOHNSON, you. Your praise is come too swiftly home before O, what a world is this, when what is comely ORL. Why, what's the matter? ADAM. Your brother-(no, no brother; yet the son- He will have other means to cut you off: 4 This is no place, this house is but a butchery; So, in the Romance of Syr Degore, bl. 1. no date: "This is a man all for the nones, "For he is a man of great bones." Bonny, however, may be the true reading. So, in King Henry VI. P. II. Act V: "Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well." STEEvens. The word bonny occurs more than once in the novel from which this play of As you like it is taken. It is likewise much used by the common people in the northern counties. I believe, however, bony to be the true reading. MALONE. 3 -to some kind of men-] Old copy-seeme kind. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. *This is no place,] Place here signifies a seat, a mansion, a residence. So, in the first Book of Samuel: "Saul set him up a place, and is gone down to Gilgal." ORL. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go? ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here. ORL. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food? Or, with a base and boisterous sword, enforce 5 ADAM. But do not so: I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, Again, in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales: "His wonning was ful fayre upon an heth, "With grene trees yshadewed was his place." We still use the word in compound with another, as-St. James's place, Rathbone place; and Crosby place, in King Richard III. &c. STEEVENS. Our author uses this word again in the same sense in his Lover's Complaint: "Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place." Plas, in the Welch language, signifies a mansion-house. MALONE. Steevens's explanation of this passage is too refined. Adam means merely to say-" This is no place for you." M. MASON. diverted blood,] Blood turned out of the course of JOHNSON. nature. So, in our author's Lover's Complaint: "Sometimes diverted, their poor balls are tied "To the orbed earth-." MALONE. To divert a water-course, that is, to change its course, was a common legal phrase, and an object of litigation in Westminster Hall, in our author's time, as it is at present. Again, in Ray's Travels: "We rode along the sea coast to Ostend, diverting at Nieuport, to refresh ourselves, and get a sight of the town;" i. e. leaving our course. REED. VOL. VIII. E Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse, 6 When service should in my old limbs lie lame, Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; " ORL. O good old man; how well in thee appears 6 and He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, &c.] See Saint Luke, xii. 6, and 24. DOUCE. 7 rebellious liquors in my blood;] That is, liquors which inflame the blood or sensual passions, and incite them to rebel against reason. So, in Othello: "For there's a young and sweating devil here, "That commonly rebels." MAlone. Perhaps he only means liquors that rebel against the constitution. STEEvens. Even with the having:] Even with the promotion gained by service is service extinguished. JOHNSON. But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree, But come thy ways, we'll go along together; ADAM. Master, go on; and I will follow thee, [Exeunt. 9 From seventeen years] The old copy reads-seventy. The correction, which is fully supported by the context, was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. |