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Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

ORL. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go?

ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here. ORL. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food?

Or, with a base and boisterous sword, enforce
A thievish living on the common road?
This I must do, or know not what to do:
Yet this I will not do, do how I can;

I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood3, and bloody brother.
ADAM. But do not so: I have five hundred

crowns,

The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father,
Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse,
When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown;
Take that and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold;
All this I give you: Let me be your servant :
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty:

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Steevens's explanation of this passage is too refined. Adam means merely to say-This is no place for you. M. MASON.

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nature.

DIVERTED blood,] Blood turned out of the course of
JOHNSON.

So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

"Sometimes diverted, their poor balls are tied

"To the orbed earth." MALONE.

To divert a water-course, that is, to change its course, was a common legal phrase, and an object of litigation in Westminster Hall, in our author's time, as it is at present.

Again, in Ray's Travels: "We rode along the sea coast to Ostend, diverting at Nieuport, to refresh ourselves, and get a sight of the town; i. e. leaving our course.

6 and He that doth the RAVENS feed,

REED.

Yea, providently caters for the SPARROW, &c.] See Saint Luke, xii. 6, and 24. DOUCE.

For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ';
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly: let me go with you;
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

ORL. O good old man ; how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed! Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat, but for promotion; And having that, do choke their service up Even with the having: it is not so with thee. But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree, That cannot so much as a blossom yield, In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry: But come thy ways, we'll go along together; And ere we have thy youthful wages spent, We'll light upon some settled low content.

ADAM. Master, go on; and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.—
From seventeen years 9 till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.

At seventeen years many their fortunes seek;
But at fourscore, it is too late a week:

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REBELLIOUS liquors in my blood;] That is, liquors which inflame the blood or sensual passions, and incite them to rebel against reason. So, in Othello:

"For there's a young and sweating devil here,
"That commonly rebels." MALONE.

Perhaps he only means liquors that rebel against the constitution. STEEVENS.

8 Even with the HAVING :] Even with the promotion gained by service is service extinguished. JOHNSON.

9 From SEVENTEEN years-] The old copy reads-seventy. The correction, which is fully supported by the context, was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

Yet fortune cannot recompense me better,
Than to die well, and not my master's debtor.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Forest of Arden.

Enter ROSALIND in boy's clothes, CELIA drest like a Shepherdess, and TOUCHSTONE.

Ros. O Jupiter! how weary are my spirits'! TOUCH. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.

Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, and to cry like a woman: but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat: therefore, courage, good Aliena.

CEL. I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further.

TOUCH. For my part, I had rather bear with you, than bear you 2: yet I should bear no cross, if I

1 O Jupiter! how WEARY are my spirits!] The old copy reads― how merry, &c. STEEVENS.

And yet, within the space of one intervening line, she says, she could find in her heart to disgrace her man's apparel, and cry like a woman. Sure, this is but a very bad symptom of the briskness of spirits: rather a direct proof of the contrary disposition. Mr. Warburton and I concurred in conjecturing it should be, as I have reformed in the text:-how weary are my spirits! And the Clown's reply makes this reading certain. THEOBALD.

In the original copy of Othello, 4to. 1622, nearly the same mistake has happened; for there we find―

"Let us be merry, let us hide our joys,"

Instead of-Let us be wary. MALONE.

2

I had rather BEAR WITH you, than BEAR you :] This jingle is repeated in King Richard III.':

"You mean to bear me, not to bear with me." STEEVENS. 3 yet I should bear no CROSs,] A cross was a piece of money stamped with a cross, On this our author is perpetually quibbling.

STEEVENS.

did bear you; for, I think, you have no money in your purse.

Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden.

TOUCH. Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.

Ros. Ay, be so, good Touchstone:-Look you, who comes here; a young man, and an old, in solemn talk.

Enter CORIN and SILVIUS.

COR. That is the way to make her scorn you still. SIL. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love

her!

COR. I partly guess; for I have lov'd ere now. SIL. No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess; Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow: But if thy love were ever like to mine, (As sure I think did never man love so,) How many actions most ridiculous Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?

COR. Into a thousand that I have forgotten. SIL. O, thou didst then ne'er love so heartily: If thou remember'st not the slightest folly * That ever love did make thee run into,

Thou hast not lov'd:

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• If thou remember'st not the slightest folly-] I am inclined to believe that from this passage Suckling took the hint of his

song:

"Honest lover, whosoever,

"If in all thy love there ever

"Was one wav'ring thought; if thy flame

"Were not still even, still the same :

"Know this,

"Thou lov'st amiss,

"And to love true,

"Thou must begin again, and love anew," &c.

JOHNSON.

Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,
Wearing thy hearer' in thy mistress' praise,
Thou hast not lov'd:

Or if thou hast not broke from company, Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, Thou hast not lov'd: O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe ! [Exit SILVIUS. Ros. Alas, poor shepherd! searching of thy wound",

I have by hard adventure found mine own.

TOUCH. And I mine: I remember, when I was in love, I broke my sword upon a stone, and bid him take that for coming anight' to Jane Smile: and I remember the kissing of her batlet, and the cow's dugs that her pretty chop'd hands had milk'd: and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her; from whom I took two cods, and, giving her

5 WEARING thy hearer-] Thus the old copy, altered unnecessarily in the second folio to wearying. MALONE.

- of THY WOUND,] The old copy has they would. The latter word was corrected by the editor of the second folio, the other by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

7-anight-] Thus the old copy. Anight, is in the night. The word is used by Chaucer, in The Legende of Good Women. Our modern editors read-o'night's, or o'night. STEEVENS.

8-batlet,] The instrument with which washers beat their coarse clothes. JOHNSON.

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Old copy-batler. Corrected in the second folio. MALONE. - two cops,] For cods it would be more like sense to read— peas, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common presents of lovers. JOHNSON.

In a schedule of jewels in the 15th vol. of Rymer's Fœdera, we find,"Item, two peascoddes of gold with 17 pearles." FARMER. Peascods was the ancient term for peas as they are brought to market. So, in Greene's Groundwork of Cony-catching, 1592: went twice in the week to London, either with fruit or pescods," &c. Again, in The Shepherd's Slumber, a song published in England's Helicon, 1600:

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In pescod time when hound to horne "Gives ear till buck be kill'd," &c.

Again, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Shall feed on delicates, the first peascods, strawberries."

STEEVENS.

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