Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

DRAMATIS PERSONE. The pronunciation of 'Jaques' is still somewhat doubtful, though the metrical test makes it certain that it is always a dissyllable in Shakespeare: there is evidence that the name was well known in England, and ordinarily pronounced as a monosyllable; hence Harrington's Metamorphosis of A-jax (1596). The name of the character was probably rendered 'Jakës': the modern stage practice is in favor of 'Jaq-wes.'

I. i. 1. it was upon this fashion: bequeathed,' etc. The Folio does not place a stop at 'fashion,' but makes 'bequeathed' a past participle; the words 'charged' on his blessing' presuppose 'he' or 'my father'; the nominative may, however, be easily supplied from the context, or possibly, but doubtfully, 'a' (='he') has been omitted before ' charged.' There is very much to be said in favour of the Folio reading; a slight confusion of two constructions seems to have produced the difficulty. Warburton, Hanmer, and Capell proposed to insert my father' before bequeathed. Others punctuate in the same way as in the present text, but read 'he bequeathed' or my father bequeathed'; the Cambridge editors hold that the subject of the sentence is intentionally omitted.

I. ii. 32. mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel'; cp. Fortune is painted with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation,' Henry V., III. vi. 35. Good-housewife,' as Harness puts it,' seems applied to Fortune merely as a jesting appellation.'

I. ii. 82. The Folio prefixes Rosalind' to the speech: Theobald first proposed to change to 'Celia,' and he has been followed by most editors. Capell suggested Fernandine' for Frederick' in the previous speech. Shakespeare does not give us the name of Rosalind's father; he is generally referred to as Duke Senior'; Celia's father is mentioned as Frederick' in two other places

From the English translation (Cott. MS., XVth Cent.) of William de
Deguilleville's Pilgrimage of Human Life.

(1. 236 of this Scene, and V. iv. 160). One has, however, a shrewd suspicion that Touchstone is referring to the exiled king as 'old Frederick,' and that Rosalind speaks the words, my father's love is enough to honour him:' the expression is so much in harmony with her subsequent utterance, 11. 237-240:

'My father loved Sir Rowland as his soul.'

And again, in the next scene, 1. 30:

—

'The Duke my father loved his father dearly.'

I. ii. 209. You mean'; Theobald proposed An' you mean,' and the Cambridge editors suggest that 'and' for 'an' (if) may be the right reading, omitted by the printer, who mistook it for part of the stage-direction' Orl. and' for 'Orland.'

I. ii. 274. the taller'; but Rosalind is later on described as more than common tall,' and Celia as the woman low, and browner than her brother': probably 'taller' is a slip of Shakespeare's pen: 'shorter,'' smaller, lesser, lower,' have been variously proposed; of these lesser' strikes one perhaps as most Shakespearian.

I. iii. 101. 'charge'; Folio 1, which is followed by Cambridge. editors, 'change'; ' charge,' i.e. 'burden,' the reading of Folios 2 and 3, seems to be the true reading.

I. iii. 127. There has been much discussion of the scansion of this line; several critics, in their anxiety to save Shakespeare from the serious charge of using a false quantity, proposes to accent Aliena' on the penultimate, but for all that it seems most likely that the line is to be read

'No longer Cél|ya bút] Aliena?'

II. i. 5. Here feel we but'; Theobald first conjectured 'but' for 'not' of the Folios, and his emendation has been accepted by many scholars, though violently opposed by others. Most of the discussions turn on the penalty of Adam,' which ordinarily suggests toil in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread '-but in this passage Shakespeare makes the penalty to be "the season's difference," cp. Paradise Lost, x. 678, 9:

'Else had the spring Perpetual smiled on earth with vernant flowers?

II. i. 13-14. like the toad, ugly and venomous,' etc. A favourite Euphuistic conceit, e.g. The foule toade hath a faire stone in his head, Euphues, p. 53 (ed. Arber), based on an actual belief in toad-stones. The origin of the belief is traced back to Pliny's description of a stone as of the colour of a frog.'

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head?

From an early edition (c.1495?) of the Ortus Sanitatis.

II. iii. 12. No more do yours: a somewhat loose construction, but one easily understood, the force of the previous sentence being 'to some kind of men their graces serve them not as friends.'

II. iii. 71. seventeen'; Rowe's emendation for 'scaventie' of the Folios.

II. iv. I. weary'; Theobald's emendation formerry' of the Folios, and generally adopted; some scholars are in favour of the Folio reading, and put it down to Rosalind's assumed merriment; her subsequent confession as to her weariness must then be taken as an aside.

II. iv. 52. from whom, i.e. from the peascod; similarly 'her' in the next line: he was wooing the peascod instead of his mistress.

II. v. 3. turn,' so the Folios: Pope substituted' tune'; but the

change is unnecessary; according to Steevens to turn a tune or note' is still a current phrase among vulgar musicians.

II. v. 61. 'I'll rail against all the first-born of Egypt. According to Johnson, the first-born of Egypt' was a proverbial expression for high-born persons, but it has not been found elsewhere. Nares suggests that perhaps Jaques is only intended to say that, if he cannot sleep, he will, like other discontented persons, rail against his betters. There is no doubt some subtler meaning in the words, and the following is possibly worthy of consideration:-Jaques says if he cannot sleep he'll rail again all first-borns, for it is the question of birthright which has caused him 'leave his wealth and ease,' merely as he had previously put it to please a stubborn will'; this idea has perhaps suggested Pharaoh's stubbornness, and by some such association all firstborns' became all the first-born of Egypt'; or, by mere association, the meaningless tag of Egypt' is added by Jaques to round off the phrase, and to give it some sort of colour.

II. vii. 19. Touchstone of course alludes to the common saying 'Fortune favours fools,' cp. Every man out of his humour, I. i.:

Sogliardo. Why, who am I, sir?

Macilente. One of those that fortune favours.

Carlo. [Aside] The periphrasis of a fool.'

II. vii. 34, 36. A worthy fool'

6

O worthy fool': the 'A' and 'O' should probably change places, according to an anonymous conjecture noted in the Cambridge Edition.

II. vii. 55. Not to seem'; the words not to' were first added. by Theobald: the Folios read 'seem'; Collier, following his MS. corrections, proposed 'but to seem'; the meaning is the same in both cases. Mr. Furness follows Ingleby in maintaining the correctness of the text, and paraphrases thus:-"He who is hit the hardest by me must laugh the hardest, and that he must do so is plain; because if he is a wise man he must seem foolishly senseless of the bob by laughing it off. Unless he does this, viz., shows his insensibility by laughing it off, any chance hit of the fool will expose every nerve and fibre of his folly." II. vii. 73. the weary very means, the reading of the Folios

(Folios 1 and 2, 'wearic'; Folios 3. 4, weary'). Pope proposed

very very'; Collier (MS.) 'the very means of wear'; Staunton

weary-very,' or 'very-weary.' Others maintain the correctness

of the original reading, and explain, 'until that its very means, being weary or exhausted, do ebb.' A very plausible emendation

was suggested by Singer, viz., ' wearer's' for 'weary,' and it has been adopted by several editors: cp. Henry VIII., I. i. 83-5

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em

For this great journey.

II. vii. 178. Because thou art not seen, i.e. "as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence" (Johnson): several unnecessary emendations have been proposed, e.g.' Thou causest not that teen' (Hammer); Because thou art foreseen' (Staunton), etc.

II. vii. 189. As friend remember'd not,' i.e. 'as forgotten. friendship.' or 'as what an unremembered friend feels': cp. ́benefits forgot,' supra.

III. ii. 116. the very false gallop, cp. Nashe's Four Letters Confuted, "I would trot a false gallop through the rest of his ragged verses, but that if I should retort his rime dogrell aright, I must make my verses (as he does his) run hobling like a Brewer's Cart upon the stones, and observe no length in their feet."

III. ii. 158. 'pulpiter'; Spedding's suggestion for 'Jupiter' of the Folios.

III. ii. 431. living,' i.e. lasting, permanent; the antithesis seems to require loving, which has been substituted by some editors: it is noteworthy that in some half-dozen instances in Shakespeare 'live' has been printed for 'love,' but it is questionable whether any change is justifiable here.

III. iii. 5, 6. Your features! what features?' Farmer's conjecture, feature! what's feature?' seems singularly plausible; c.p. 1. 17, 'I do not know what "poetical" is.'

III. iii. 79. her, so Folios 1, 2; 'his,' Folios 3, 4: the female bird was the falcon: the male was called 'tercel' or 'tassel.' III. iv. 44. noble goose: Hanmer substituted nose-quilled' for noble, which is, of course, used ironically.

III. v. 7. 'dies and lives. i.e. lives and dies,' i.e. ' subsists from the cradle to the grave'; the inversion of the words seems to have been an old idiom: cp.' Romaunt of the Rose,' v. 579:—

'With sorwe they both die and live,

That unto Richesse her hertis yive.

Other passages in later literature might be adduced where the exigencies of metre do not exist.