Clo. _Farewel, good sir Oliver, not _O sweet Oliver, O brave
Oliver, leave Be not behind thee,--_but_
_Wend away
Begone, I say,
I will not to wedding with thee to-day._
Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as shall appear
necessary to the sense, or conducive to the humour. I have received
all but the additional words. The song seems to be complete
without them. (1773)
III.iv.11 (298, 5) [I' faith, his hair is of a good colour] There is
much of nature in this petty perverseness of Rosalind; she finds
faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia
in sportive malice too readily seconds her accusations, she contradicts
herself rather than suffer her favourite to want a vindication.
III.v.5 (301, 1) [Will you sterner be Than he that dies and lives by
bloody drops?] [W: deals and lives] [Hammer: lives and thrives]
Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word _deals,_
wants its proper construction, or that of sir T. Hammer may serve
the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the
wrong word, and should rather read,
_Than he that dies_ his lips by _bloody drops?_
Will you speak with more sternness than the executioner, whose
_lips_ are used to be _sprinkled_ with blood? The mention of _drops_
implies some part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped.
III. v. 23 (303, 2) [The cicatrice and capable impressure] Cicatrice
is here not very properly used; it is the scar of a wound.
_Capable impressure arrows mark._
III. v. 29 (303, 3) [power of fancy] _Fancy_ is here used for _love,_ as
before in Midsummer Night's Dream.
III. v. 35 (304, 4) [Who might be your mother] It is common for the
poets to express cruelty by saying, of those who commit it, that
they were born of rocks, or suckled by tigresses.
III. v. 48 (305, 8) [That can entame ay spirits to your worship]
[W: entraine] The common reading seems unexceptionable.
III. v. 62 (305, 9) [Foal is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer]
[W: being found] The sense of the received reading is not fairly
represented; it is, _The ugly seem most ugly, when,_ though _ugly,
they are scoffers._
III.v.78 (306,2) [Though all the world could see, None could be so
abus'd in sight, as he] Though all mankind could look on you,
none could be so _deceived_ as to think you beautiful but he.
IV.i.37 (309,3) [swam in a gondola] That is, _been at_ Venice, the
sweat at that tine of all licentiousness, where the young English
gentlemen waited their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes
lost their religion.
The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's
time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal
causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censored
by Aschaa in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis;
and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakespeare.
IV.i.157 (312,6) [and that when you are inclin'd to sleep] [W: to
weep] I know not why we should read _to weep_. I believe most men
would be more angry to have their _sleep_ hindered than their _grief_
interrupted.
IV.i.168 (313,8) [_Wit, whither wilt_?] This must be some allusion to a
story well known at that time, though not perhaps irretrievable.
IV.i.177 (313,9) [make her fault her husband's occasion] That is,
represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Banner
reads, _her husband's_ accusation.
IV.i.195 (314,1) [I will think you the most pathetical break-promise]
[W: atheistical] I do not see but that _pathetical_ may stand, which
seems to afford as much sense and as much humour as _atheistical_.
IV.ii.14 (315,2) [_Take thou no scorn_] [T: In former editions: _Then
sing him home, the rest shall bear his burden_. This is an admirable
instance of the sagacity of our preceding editors, to say nothing
worse. One should expect, when they were _poets_, they would at
least have taken care of the _rhimes_, and not foisted in what has
nothing to answer it. Now, where is the rhime to, _the rest shall
bear this burden_? Or, to ask another question, where is the sense
of it? Does the poet mean, that He, that kill'd the deer, shall
be sung home, and the rest shall bear the deer on their backs?
This is laying a burden on the poet, that we mist help him to throw
off. In short, the mystery of the whole is, that a marginal note
is wisely thrust into the text: the song being design'd to be sung
by a single voice, and the stanzas to close with a burden to be
sung by the whole company.] This note I have given as a specimen
of Mr. Theobald's jocularity, and the eloquence with which he
recommends his emendations.
IV.iii (316,4) [_Enter Rosalind and Celia_] The foregoing noisy scene
was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent
two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor
Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando
sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of
the acts this absurdity can be obviated.
IV.iii.48 (318,3) [_That could do no vengeance to me] Vengeance_ is
used for _mischief_.
IV.iii.59 (318,4) [youth and kind] _Kind_ is the old word for _nature_.
IV.iii.101 (319,5) [Within an hour] We must read, _within two hours_.
IV.iii.160 (321,6) [cousin--Ganymed!] Celia in her first fright forgets
Rosalind's character and disguise, and calls out _cousin_, then
recollects herself, and says Ganymed.
V.ii.21 (325,9) [And you, fair sister] I know not why Oliver should
call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose
we should read, _and you_, and your _fair sister_.
V.ii.45 (326,1) [Clubs cannot part them] Alluding to the way of
parting dogs in wrath.
V.ii.74 (327,2) [human as she is] That is, not a phantom, but the
real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to
attend the rites of incantation.
V.iii.17 (329,3) [_It was a lover and his lass_] The stanzas of this
song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated
them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza
is now the last.
The same transposition of these stanzas is made by Dr. Thirlby,
in a copy containing some notes on the margin, which I have perused
by the favour of Sir Edward Walpole. (see 1765, II,97,3)
V.iii.36 (330,4) [the note was very untuneable] [T: untimeable] This
emendation is received. I think very undeservedly, by Dr. Warburton.
V.iv.4 (331,5) [As those that fear, they hope, and know they fear]
[W: their hap, and know their] The deprivation of this line is
evident, but I do not think the learned commentator's emendation
very happy. I read thus,
_As those that fear_ with _hope, and hope_ with _fear_.
Or thus, with less alteration,
_As those that fear_, they _hope, and_ now _they fear_.
V.iv.36 (332,6) [Here comes a pair of very strange beasts] [W: unclean
beasts] _Strange beasts_ are only what we call _odd_ animals. There is
no need of any alteration.
V.iv.51 (333,7) [found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause] So
all the copies; but it is apparent from the sequel that we must
read, _the quarrel was_ not _upon the seventh cause_.
V.iv.56 (333,8) [I desire you of the like] [W: of you] I have not
admitted the alteration, because there are other examples of
this mode of expression. (1773)
V.iv.59 (333,9) [according as marraige binds, and blood breaks] I
cannot discover what has here puzzled the commentator [W]: _to
swear according as marriage binds_, ii to take the oath enjoin'd
in the ceremonial of marriage.
V.iv.68 (334,1) [dulcet diseases] This I do not understand. For
_diseases_ it is easy to read _discourses_: but, perhaps the fault
may lie deeper.
V.iv.114 (336,4) [_Enter Hymen_] Rosalind is imagined by the rest of
the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced
by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen.
V.iv.125 (336,5) [If there be truth in sight] The answer of Phebe
makes it probable that Orlando says, _if there be truth in_ shape:
that is, _if a form may be trusted_; if one cannot usurp the form
of another.
V.iv.136 (337,6) [If truth holds true contents] That is, if there be
_truth in truth_, unless truth fails of veracity.
V.iv.147 (337,7) [_Wedding is great Juno's crown_] Catullus, addressing
himself to Hymen, has this stanza:
Quae tuis careat sacris,
Non queat dare praesides
Terra finibus: at queat
Te volente. Quis huic deo
Compararier ausit? (1773)
Epilogue.7 (340,5) [What a case am I in then] Here seems to be a chasm,
or some other depravation, which destroys the sentiment here intended.
The reasoning probably stood thus, _Good wine needs no
bush, good plays need no epilogue_, but bad wine requires a good
bush, and a bad play a good epilogue. _What case am I in then_?
To restore the words is impossible; all that can be done without
copies is, to note the fault.
Epilogue.10 (340,1) [furnish'd like a beggar] That is dressed: so
before, he was _furnished_ like a huntsman.
Epilogue.13 (340,2) [I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to
men, to like as much of this Play as pleases them: and I charge
you, O men, for the love you bear to women----that between you
and the women] [W: pleases them...pleases them] The words _you_ and
_of_ written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript
scarcely distinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and
probable.
(341,4) General Observation. Of this play the fable is wild and
pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility
with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To
Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship.
The character of Jaqaes is natural and well preferred. The
comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low
buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant
and harmonious. By hastening to the end of his work,
Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the
hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in
which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers.