Invest me in my motley; give me leave wouldst do. good ? DUKE S. Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin : For thou thyself hast been a libertine, As sensual as the brutish sting 5 itself; And all the embossed sores, and headed evils, That thou with licence of free foot hast caught, Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world. 3 Cleanse the foul body of the infected world,] So, in Macbeth : “ Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff.” DOUCE. *- for a counter,] Dr. Farmer observes to me, that about the time when this play was written, the French counters (i. e. pieces of false money used as a means of reckoning) were brought into use in England. They are again mentioned in Troilus and Cressida : " will you with counters sum “ The past proportion of his infinite?" STEEVENS. 5 As sensual as the brutish sting – Though the brutish sting is capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the brutish sty. JOHNSON. I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I. c. viii: " A heard of bulls whom kindly rage doth sting.” Again, B. II. c. xii : " As if that hunger's point, or Venus' sting, « Had them enrag'd.” Again, in Othello : “ our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.” STEEVENS. JAQ. Why, who cries out on pride, That can therein tax any private party? Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea, Till that the very very means do ebb? 6 What woman in the city do I name, When that I say, The city-woman bears The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders ? Who can come in, and say, that I mean her, When such a one as she, such is her neighbour ? Or what is he of basest function, That says, his bravery is not on my cost, (Thinking that I mean him,) but therein suits His folly to the mettle of my speech ? · There then; How, what then? Let me see wherein My tongue hath wrong'd him : if it do him right, Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free, Why then, my taxing like a wild goose flies, Unclaim'd of any man.-But who comes here? Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn. ORL. Forbear, and eat no more. Why, I have eat none yet. • Till that the very very - ] The old copy reads_weary very. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. ? his bravery -] i. e. his fine clothes. So, in The Taming of a Shrew: “With scarfs and fans, and double change of bravery.” STEEVENS. • There then; How, what then? &c.] The old copy reads, very redundantly “ There then; How then? What then? &c. STEEVENS. I believe we should read-Where then? So, in Othello : ' • What then? How then? Where's satisfaction?” · MALONE. DUKE S. Art thou thus bolden’d, man, by thy distress; point JAQ. An you will not be answered with reason, ness shall force, More than your force move us to gentleness. ORL. I almost die for food, and let me have it. DUKE S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table. - the thorny point Of smooth civility:] We might read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration. Johnson. F i nland bred,] Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is the opposite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say, that he had not been bred among clowns. Holt WHITE. ? And know some nurture:] Nurture is education, breeding," manners. So, in Greene's Never toò late, 1616 : “He shew'd himself as full of nurture as of nature.” Again, as Mr. Holt White observes to me, Barret says, in his Alvearie, 1580: “ It is a point of nurture, or good manners, to salute them that you meete. Urbanitatis est salutare obvios.” STEVENS. St. Paul advises the Ephesians, in his Epistle, ch. vi. 4, to bring their children up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” HARRIS. ORL. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you: I thought, that all things had been savage here; And therefore put I on the countenance Of stern commandment: But whate'er you are, That in this desert inaccessible,3 Under the shade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; If ever you have look”d on better days; If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church ; If ever sat at any good man's feast; If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear, And know what 'tis to pity, and be pitied ; Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: In the which hope, I blush, and hide my sword. DUKE S. True is it that we have seen better days; + And have with holy bell been knoll’d to church; And sat at good men's feasts; and wip'd our eyes Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd : And therefore sit you down in gentleness, And take upon command what help we have, That to your wanting may be ministred. ORL. Then, but forbear your food a little while, Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, And give it food. There is an old poor man, Who after me hath many a weary step Limp'd in pure love; till he be first suffic'd, desenanted himsonides, by Ba this expre s- desert inaccessible,] This expression I find in The Adventures of Simonides, by Barn. Riche, 1580: “ — and onely acquainted himselfe with the solitarinesse of this unaccessible desert.” HENDERSON. * And take upon command what help we have,] Upon command, is at your own command. STEEVENS. • Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, And give it food.] So, in Venus and Adonis : “ Like a milch doe, whose swelling dugs do ake, feed mewhosenus anem Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger, Go find him out, [Exit. DUKE S. Thou seest, we are not all alone un happy: All the world's a stage, JAQ. o Wherein we play in.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope more correctly reads : Wherein we play. Wherein we play. “ Why, all the world's a stage.”. “ Hor. So Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go to’t. ployment.” “ Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once.” " Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done.” In twenty other instances we find the same adverb introductorily used. STEEVENS. ? All the world's a stage, &c.] This observation occurs in. one of the fragments of Petronius : “ Non duco contentionis. funem, dum constet inter nos, quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrioniam.” STEEVENS. This observation had been made in an English drama before the time of Shakspeare. See Damon and Pythias, 1582: “ Pythagoras said, that this world was like a stage, " Whereon many play their parts.” * Thej moda d shafrin v cmmm tthalupau Buha ustitk dil haqqish ave stal sau Maniculi liha on |