I.i.3 (229,2) [As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion
bequeathed me. By will, but a poor thousand crowns] There is, in my
opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word
which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager
dialogue naturally excludes.
I read thus: _As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed
me. By will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou
sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well._
What is there in this difficult or obscure? The nominative _my
father_ is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor
inserts it, in spite of himself.
I.i.9 (230,3) [stays me here at home, unkept] [W: Stys] _Sties_ is
better than _stays_, and more likely to be Shakespeare's.
I.i.19 (230,4) [his countenance seems to take from me]
[W: discountenance] There is no need of change, a countenance is
either good or bad.
I.i.33 (231,5) [be better employ'd, and be nought a while] Warburton
explained ["be nought a while" as "a mischief on you"] If _be
nought a while_ has the signification here given it, the reading
may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this
note, I read,
_Be better employed, and be_ naught a while.
In the same sense as we say, _it is better to do mischief, than to
do nothing_.
I.i.59 (233,7) [I am no villain] The word _villain_ is used by the
elder brother, in its present meaning, for a _worthless, wicked_,
or _bloody man_; by Orlando in its original signification, for a
_fellow of base extraction_.
I.ii.34 (237,9) [mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel]
The wheel of Fortune is not the _wheel_ of a _housewife_. Shakespeare
has confounded Fortune, whose wheel only figures uncertainty and
vicissitude, with the Destiny that spins the thread of life,
though indeed not with a wheel.