SCENE IV. The Forest of Arden. Enter ROSALIND in boy's clothes, CELIA drest like a Shepherdess, and TOUCHSTONE. Ros. O Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!! TOUCH. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, and to cry like a woman: but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat: therefore, courage, good Aliena. CEL. I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further. 10 Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!] The old copy reads-how merry, &c. STEEVENS. And yet, within the space of one intervening line, she says, she could find in her heart to disgrace her man's apparel, and cry like a woman. Sure, this is but a very bad symptom of the briskness of spirits: rather a direct proof of the contrary disposition. Mr. Warburton and I, concurred in conjecturing it should be, as I have reformed in the text:-how weary are my spirits! And the Clown's reply makes this reading certain. THEOBALD She invokes Jupiter, because he was supposed to be always in good spirits. A jovial man was a common phrase in our author's time. One of Randolph's plays is called ARISTIPPUS, or The Jovial Philosopher; and a comedy of Broome's, The Jovial Crew, or The Merry Beggars. In the original copy of Othello, 4to. 1622, nearly the same mistake has happened; for there we findlet us hide our joys," "Let us be merry, instead of-Let us be wary. MALONE. TOUCH. For my part, I had rather bear with you, than bear you: 2 yet I should bear no cross,3 if I did bear you; for, I think, you have no money in your purse. Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden. TOUCH. Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content. Ros. Ay, be so, good Touchstone:-Look you, who comes here; a young man, and an old, in solemn talk. Enter CORIN and SILVIUS. COR. That is the way to make her scorn you still. SIL. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her! COR. I partly guess; for I have lov'd ere now. SIL. No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess; Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow: But if thy love were ever like to mine, (As sure I think did never man love so,) How many actions most ridiculous Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy? COR. Into a thousand that I have forgotten. SIL. O, thou didst then ne'er love so heartily: I had rather bear with you, than bear you:] This jingle is repeated in King Richard III: 3 "You mean to bear me, not to bear with me." STEEVENS. yet I should bear no cross,] A cross was a piece of money stamped with a cross. On this our author is perpetually quibbling. STEEvens. If thou remember'st not the slightest folly* Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, 5 Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praise, Or if thou hast not broke from company, I have by hard adventure found mine own. TOUCH. And I mine: I remember, when I was in love, I broke my sword upon a stone, and bid him take that for coming anight' to Jane Smile : If thou remember'st not the slightest folly-] I am inclined to believe that from this passage Suckling took the hint of his song: 5 "Honest lover, whosoever, "If in all thy love there ever "Was one wav'ring thought, if thy flame "Were not still even, still the same. "Know this, “Thou lovʼst amiss, "And to love true, "Thou must begin again, and love anew," &c. JOHNSON. Wearying thy hearer-] The old copy has-wearing. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. I am not sure that the emendation is necessary, though it has been adopted by all the editors. MALONE. 6 of thy wound,] The old copy has-they would. The latter word was corrected by the editor of the second folio, the other by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 7 anight-] Thus the old copy. Anight, is in the night. The word is used by Chaucer, in The Legende of good Women. Our modern editors read, o'nights, or a'night. STEEvens. and I remember the kissing of her batlet, and the cow's dugs that her pretty chop'd hands had milk'd: and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her; from whom I took two cods, and, giving her them again, said with weeping tears,' Wear these 8 batlet,] The instrument with which washers beat their coarse clothes. JOHNSON. Old copy-batler. Corrected in the second folio. MALONE. 9 -two cods,] For cods it would be more like sense to read-peas, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common presents of lovers. JOHNSON. In a schedule of jewels in the 15th Vol. of Rymer's Fœdera, we find," Item, two peascoddes of gold with 17 pearles." 66 - FARMER. Peascods was the ancient term for peas as they are brought to market. So, in Greene's Groundwork of Cony-catching, 1592: went twice in the week to London, either with fruit or pescods," &c. Again, in The Shepherd's Slumber, a song published in England's Helicon, 1600: "In pescod time when hound to horne Again, in The honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Shall feed on delicates, the first peascods, strawberries." STEEVENS. In the following passage, however, Touchstone's present certainly signifies not the pea but the pod, and so, I believe, the word is used here: "He [Richard II.] also used a peascod branch with the cods open, but the peas out, as it is upon his robe in his monument at Westminster." Camden's Remains, 1614. Here we see the cods and not the peas were worn. Why Shakspeare used the former word rather than pods, which appears to have had the same meaning, is obvious. MALONE. The peascod certainly means the whole of the pea as it hangs upon the stalk. It was formerly used as an ornament in dress, and was represented with the shell open exhibiting the peas. The passage cited from Rymer, by Dr. Farmer, shows that the peas were sometimes made of pearls, and rather overturns Dr. Johnson's conjecture, who probably imagined that Touchstone took the cods from the peascods, and not from his mistress. DOUCE. weeping tears,] A ridiculous expression from a sonnet in Lodge's Rosalynd, the novel on which this comedy is founded. 1. for my sake. We, that are true lovers, run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.2 Ros. Thou speak'st wiser, than thou art 'ware of. TOUCH. Nay, I shall ne'er be 'ware of mine own wit, till I break my shins against it. Ros. Jove! Jove! this shepherd's passion TOUCH. And mine; but it grows something stale with me. CEL. I pray you, one of you question yond man, If he for gold will give us any food; I faint almost to death. TOUCH. Holla; you, clown! Ros. Peace, fool; he's not thy kinsman. COR. Who calls? TOUCH. Your betters, sir. COR. Else are they very wretched. Ros. Good even to you, friend.3 Peace, I say: COR. And to you, gentle sir, and to you all. It likewise occurs in the old anonymous play of The Victories of King Henry V. in Peele's Jests, &c. STEEVENS. The same expression occurs also in Lodge's Dorastus and Fawnia, on which The Winter's Tale is founded. MALONE. 2 so is all nature in love mortal in folly.] This expression I do not well understand. In the middle counties, mortal, from mort, a great quantity, is used as a particle of amplification; as mortal tall, mortal little. Of this sense I believe Shakspeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, so is all nature in love abounding in folly.' JOHNSON. 3 to you, friend.] The old copy reads-to your friend. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. |