Ros. Why, whither shall we go?

CEL. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden".
Ros. Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far?
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

CEL. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
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-ax' 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,

8

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.

s To seek my uncle.] Here the old copy adds-in the forest of Arden. But these words are an evident interpolation, without use, and injurious to the measure :

Why, whither shall we go!-To seek my uncle," being a complete verse. Besides, we have been already informed by Charles the wrestler, that the banished Duke's residence was in the forest of Arden. STEEVENS.

6 And with a kind of UMBER Smirch my face ;] Umber is a dusky yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in Italy. See a note on "the umber'd fires," in King Henry V. Act III. MALONE.

7 — curtle-ax ] Or cutlace, a broad sword. JOHNSON. 8 WE'LL have a swashing, &c.] A swashing outside is an appearance of noisy, bullying valour. Swashing blow is mentioned in Romeo and Juliet; and, in King Henry V. the Boy says-" As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers;" meaning Nym, Pistol, and Bardolph. STEEVENS.

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 we in content 9, To liberty, and not to banishment.

[Exeunt.

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 but the penalty of Adam',

9 - Now go wE IN content,] The old copy reads-Now go in we content. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. I am not sure that the transposition is necessary. Our author might have used content as an adjective. MALONE.

I Here feel we BUT the penalty of Adam,] The old copy readsnot the penalty-. STEEVENS.

What was the penalty of Adam, hinted at by our poet? The being sensible of the difference of the seasons? The Duke says,

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 2;

2

-the cold and effects of the winter feelingly persuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the penalty? Doubtless, the text must be restored as I have corrected; and it is obvious, in the course of these notes, how often not and but, by mistake, have changed place in our author's former editions. THEOBALD. As not has here taken the place of but, so, in Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. III. but is printed instead of not:

"Cor. Ay, but mine own desire.

"1 Cit. How! not your own desire." MALONE. Surely the old reading is right. Here we feel not, do not suffer, from the penalty of Adam, the season's difference; for when the winter's wind blows upon my body, I smile, and say

2 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

BOSWELL.

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ;] It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull. JOHNSON.

In a book called A Green Forest, or a Natural History, &c. by John Maplett, 1567, is the following account of this imaginary gem: "In this stone is apparently seene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with despotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defusedly. It is available against envenoming." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, 1639: in most physicians' heads,

66

"There is a kind of toadstone bred.”

Again, in Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen, 1635 :

"Do not then forget the stone

"In the toad, nor serpent's bone," &c.

Pliny, in the 32d book of his Natural History, ascribes many wonderful qualities to a bone found in the right side of a toad, but makes no mention of any gem in its head. This deficiency however is abundantly supplied by Edward Fenton, in his Secrete

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

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",
Should, in their own confínes, with forked heads "

6

Wonders of Nature, 4to. bl. 1. 1569, who says, "That there is founde in the heades of old and great toades, a stone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulse poysons, and that it is a most soveraigne medicine for the stone.'

Thomas Lupton, in his First Booke of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. bears repeated testimony to the virtues of the "Tode-stone, called Crapaudina." In his Seventh Book he instructs us how to procure it; and afterwards tells us-" You shall knowe whether the Tode-stone be the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a Tode, so that he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the Tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would snatch it. He envieth so much that man should have that stone." STEEVENS.

3 Finds tongues in trees, &c.] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, book i. "Thus both trees and each thing else, be the bookes to a fancie." 4 I would not change it :] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens begin-Happy is your grace. JOHNSON.

5-native BURGHERS of this desert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called "the wild burgesses of the forest." Again, in the 18th song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"Where, fearless of the hunt, the hart securely stood,
"And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the wood."
STEEVENS.

A kindred expression is found in Lodge's Rosalinde, 1592:
"About her wond'ring stood

"The citizens o' the wood."

Our author afterwards uses this very phrase:

66

Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens." MALONE. 6- with FORKED HEADS] i. e. with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A Mad World my Masters:

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':
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
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.

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech "That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, "His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch, "And pore upon the brook that babbles by." Gray's Elegy. STEEVENS. 8 The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans, That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat, Almost to bursting; and the big round tears Cours'd one another down his innocent nose, &c.] Saucius at quadrupes nota intra tecta refugit, Successitque gemens stabulis; questuque, cruentus, Atque imploranti similis, tectum omne replevit. Virg. MALONE.

It is said in one of the marginal notes to a similar passage 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.