DUKE S. Come, fhall we go and kill us venifon? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this defert city,'Should, in their own confínes, with forked heads * Have their round haunches gor'd. I LORD. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; And, in that kind, fwears you do more ufurp Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself, Did fteal behind him, as he lay along Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: " To the which place a poor fequefter'd ftag, That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt, Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, The wretched animal heav'd forth fuch groans, 3 Native burghers of this defert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called the wild burgeffes of the foreft." Again, in the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion: Where, fearlefs of the hunt, the hart fecurely ftood, "And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the wood." STEEVENS, A kindred expreffion is found in Lodge's Rofalynde, 1592: "About her wond'ring flood "The citizens o' the wood." Our author afterwards ufes this very phrafe: 66 Sweep on, you fat and greafy citizens." MALONE. with forked heads-] i. e. with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A Mad World my Mafters: "While the broad arrow with the forked head "There at the foot of yonder nodding beech "That wreathes its old fantastic roots fo high, "His liftlefs length at noon-tide would he ftretch, "And pore upon the brook that babbles by." Gray's Elegy. STEEVENS, That their discharge did ftretch his leathern coat DUKE S. But what faid Jaques? Did he not moralize this fpectacle? I LORD. O, yes, into a thoufand fimiles. To that which had too much: Then, being alone, 6 the big round tears, &c.] It is faid in one of the marginal notes to a fimilar paffage in the 13th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, that the harte weepeth at his dying: his tears are held to be precious in medicine." STEEVENS. 7 in the needlefs ftream;] The ftream that wanted not fuch a fupply of moisture. The old copy has into, caught probably by the compofitor's eye from the line above. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 8 To that which had too much :] Old copy-too muft. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. Shakspeare has almoft the fame thought in his Lover's Com plaint: in a river. "Upon whofe weeping margin fhe was fet, Again, in K. Henry VI. P. III. A&t V. fc. iv: "With tearful eyes add water to the fea, "And give more ftrength to that which hath too much." STEEVENS. 9 Then, being alone,] The old copy redundantly reads→→→ Then being there alone. STEEVENS. And never ftays to greet him; Ay, quoth Jaques, 2 DUKE S. And did you leave him in this contemplation? 2 LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and comment ing Upon the fobbing deer. DUKE S. Show me the place; 2 LORD. I'll bring you to him straight. [Exeunt. The body of the country,] The oldeft copy omits the; but it is fupplied by the fecond folio, which has many advantages over the firft. Mr. Malone is of a different opinion; but let him speak for himself. STEEVENS. Country is here used as a trifyllable. So again, in Twelfth Night: "The like of him. Know'ft thou this country?" The editor of the fecond folio, who appears to have been utterly ignorant of our author's phrafeology and metre, reads-The body of the country, &c. which has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE. Is not country ufed elsewhere alfo as a diffyllable? See Coriolanus, A& I. fc. vi: "And that his country's dearer than himself." Befides, by reading country as a trifyllable, in the middle of a verfe, it would become rough and diffonant. STEEVENS. 3 to cope him-] To encounter him; to engage with him. JOHNSON. SCENE II. A Room in the Palace. Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, and Attendants. DUKE F. Can it be poffible, that no man faw them? It cannot be fome villains of my court I LORD. I cannot hear of any that did fee her. 2 LORD. My lord, the roynish clown, at whom fo oft Your grace was wont to laugh, is alfo miffing. -the roynish clown,] Roynish from rogneux, Fr. mangy, fcurvy. The word is ufed by Chaucer, in The Romaunt of the Rofe, 988: "That knottie was and all roinous." Again, by Dr. Gabriel Harvey, in his Pierce's Supererogation, 4to. 1593. Speaking of Long Meg of Westminster, he faysAlthough he were a lufty bouncing rampe, fomewhat like Gallemetta or maid Marian, yet was fhe not fuch a roinish rannel, fuch a diffolute gillian-flirt," &c. We are not to fuppofe the word is literally employed by Shakfpeare, but in the fame fenfe that the French ftill ufe carogne, a term of which Moliere is not very fparing in fome of his pieces. STEEVENS. 5 of the wreftler-] Wreftler, (as Mr. Tyrwhitt has obferved in a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona,) is here to be founded as a trifyllable, STEEVENS. And the believes, wherever they are gone, 6 DUKE F. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither; If he be abfent, bring his brother to me, [Exeunt. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting. ORL. Who's there? ADAM. What! my young mafter?-O, my gentle master, O, my fweet mafter, O you memory 8 Of old fir Rowland! why, what make you here? Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you? And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant? 6 Send to his brother;] I believe we fhould read-brother's. For when the Duke fays in the following words: "Fetch that gallant hither;" he certainly means Orlando. M. MASON. 7 -quail-] To quail is to faint, to fink into dejection. So, in Cymbeline: 66 66 which my falfe fpirits Quail to remember." STEEVENS. 8 O you memory-] Shakspeare often ufes memory for memorial: and Beaumont and Fletcher fometimes. So, in the Humorous Lieutenant: "I knew then how to feek 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: "That ftatue will I prize paft all the jewels "The memory of my grandame." STEEVENS. |