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And with a kind of umber smirch my face,
The like do you; so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants.

Ros.

Were it not better,

Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?
A gallant curtle-axe" upon my thigh,

A boar-spear in my hand; and (in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,)
We'll have a swashing and a martial outside;
As many other mannish cowards have,

That do outface it with their semblances.

CEL. What shall I call thee, when thou art a

man?

Ros. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own
page,

And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
But what will you be call'd?

CEL. Something that hath a reference to my

state;

No longer Celia, but Aliena.

Ros. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal The clownish fool out of your father's court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

CEL. He'll go along o'er the wide world with

me;

Leave me alone to woo him: Let's away,
And get our jewels and our wealth together;
Devise the fittest time, and safest way
To hide us from pursuit that will be made
After my flight: Now go in we* content,
To liberty, and not to banishment.

we in,

[Exeunt. 1632.

• And with a kind of umber smirch my face] Umber is a dusky yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in Italy.

MALONE.

In the Chor. IV H. V. we have, "the battle's umber'd face." Smirch is soil, smear. "The smirchen worm-eaten tapestry." Much ado, &c. III. 3. Borach.

bcurtle-axe] Cutlace, broadsword. JOHNSON.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The Forest of Arden.

Enter Duke senior, AMIENS, and other Lords in the dress of Foresters.

DUKE S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in

exíle,

Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,-
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am."
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

• Hath not old custom

(1)

Are not these woods-Here feel we not the penalty

That feelingly persuade me what I am] Wherever the course of thought admits it, Shakespeare is accustomed to continue the form of speaking which he first falls upon; and the sense of this passage, in which he repeats the word not, appears to be

The penalty here, properly speaking, is not, or scarce is, physically felt, because the suffering it occasions, sharp as it otherwise might be called, turns so much to account in a moral sense." The construction of" which, when it blows," is " at which, or which blowing." The modern editors, following Theobald, for not, read but: as we conceive, unnecessarily. Still the word " 'feelingly," used at the end of this passage in an affirmative sense, after "feel" had been brought forward, coupled with a negative, certainly makes a confusion, if it be not said to favour Theobald's alteration.

And this our life, exempt from publick haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, (2

Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

AMI. I would not change it: Happy is your grace,

That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.

(3)

(4)

DUKE S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison ? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this desert city,4 Should, in their own confínes, with forked heads, Have their round haunches gor'd.

1 LORD.

Indeed, my lord,

The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.
To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself,
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: (5)
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears (6)
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

DUKE S.

But what said Jaques ? Did he not moralize this spectacle ?

1 LORD. O yes, into a thousand similes. First, for his weeping into the needless stream;"

⚫ needless stream] Stream, that needed not, that wanted no supply. Much in the sense in which Lear says, “age is unne

Poor deer, quoth he, thoù mak'st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more

a

To that which had too much: Then being alone, Left and abandon'd of his velvet friend ;b 'Tis right, quoth he; this misery doth part The flux of company: Anon, a careless herd, Full of the pasture, jumps along by him, And never stays to greet him; Ay, quoth Jaques, Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; 'Tis just the fashion: Wherefore do you look Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there? Thus most invectively he pierceth through ao, 1632. The body of [the] country, city, court,

Yea, and of this our life: swearing, that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse,
To fright the animals, and to kill them up,"
In their assign'd and native dwelling place.

(7)

DUKE S. And did you leave him in this contemplation?

2 LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and commenting

Upon the sobbing deer.

DUKE S.

Show me the place;

cessary,” II. 4. i, e. superfluous lumber, what might be spared, needless.

b

[blocks in formation]

"With tearful eyes add water to the sea,

"And give more strength to that which hath too much.” III H. VI. (V. 4.) STEEVENS.

friend] The modern editors have substituted friends: but Mr. Whiter observes, "the singular is often used for the plural with a sense more abstracted; and therefore in many instances more poetical." Specimen of a Commentary, 8vo. 1794, p. 15.

с

greasy citizens] "By other men's losses to enrich and greaze themselves." Newton's Lemnie's Touchstone of Complexions, 12mo. 1581, p. 58, b.

I love to cope him" in these sullen fits,

For then he's full of matter.

2 LORD. I'll bring you to him straight. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, and Attendants.

DUKE F. Can it be possible, that no man saw them?

It cannot be some villains of my court
Are of consent and sufferance in this.

1 LORD. I cannot hear of any that did see her. The ladies, her attendants of her chamber, Saw her a-bed; and, in the morning early, They found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress. 2 LORD. My lord, the roynish clown, (8) at whom so oft

Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing.
Hesperia, the princess' gentlewoman,
Confesses, that she secretly o'er-heard

Your daughter and her cousin much commend
The parts and graces of the wrestler

That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles;
And she believes, wherever they are gone,

That youth is surely in their company.

DUKE F. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither;

If he be absent, bring his brother to me,

cope him] Encounter. "Cope malicious censurers." H. VIII. I. 2. Wols. "Cope your wife," Othel. IV. 1. Iago.

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