As you have whisper'd faithfully you were,
And as mine eye doth his effigies witness
Most truly limn'd, and living in your face,
Be truly welcome hither: I am the Duke,

That lov'd your father. The residue of your for

tune,

Go to my cave and tell me. Good old man,
Thou art right welcome as thy master is.
Support him by the arm. Give me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes understand.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. A Room in the Palace.

Enter FREDERICK, OLIVER, Lords, and Attendants. Fred. Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be But were I not the better part made mercy,

I should not seek an absent argument

Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it:
Find out thy brother, wheresoe'er he is;

Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living,
Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more
To seek a living in our territory.

Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine,
Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands,
Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth
Of what we think against thee.

Oli. O, that your highness knew my heart in this I never lov'd my brother in my life.

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent1 upon his house and lands:

2

Do this expediently, and turn him going. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Forest of Arden

Enter ORLANDO, with a paper.

Orl. Hang there, my verse, in witness of iny love:

And thou, thrice-crowned queen of night,' survey
With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,
Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway.

O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character;
That every eye, which in this forest looks,
Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. [Exit.

A law phrase, thus explained by Blackstone, Com. B. iii. ch. 26: The process hereon is usually called an extent or extendi facias, because the sheriff is to cause the lands, &c., to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the plaintiff."

H.

2 That is, expeditiously. Expedient is used by Shakespeare throughout his plays for expeditious. So, in King John: "His Inarches are expedient to this town." And in Richard II.: “Are making hither with all due expedience."

This passage seems to evince a most intimate knowledge of ancient mythology; but Shakespeare was doubtless familiar with Chapman's Hymns to Night and to Cynthia, which, though overinformed with learning, have many highly poetical passages, among which is the following:

"Nature's bright eye-sight, and the night's fair soul,
That with thy triple forehead dost control

Earth, seas, and hell."

2 That is, inexpressible. See Act ii. sc. 5, uote 3, of this play. Also Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 1, note 4.

H.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

Corin. And how like you this shepherd's life, master Touchstone?

Touch. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?

Cor. No more, but that I know the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends: that the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: that good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the sun that he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of3 good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

Touch. Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?

Cor. No, truly.

Touch. Then thou art damn'd.

Cor. Nay, I hope,

Touch. Truly, thou art damn'd, like an ill-roasted

egg, all on one side.

Cor. For not being at court?

Your reason.

3 In Ben Jonson's play, The Sad Shepherd, Lionel says of Amie "She's sick of the young shepherd that bekist her;" i. e sick for him, or wanting him.

:

4 A natural being a common term for a fool, Touchstone quib bles on the word.

Touch. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never saw'st good manners; if thou never saw'st good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous' state, shepherd.

Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me, you salute not at the court, but you kiss your hands that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds. Touch. Instance, briefly; come, instance.

Cor. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy.

Touch. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, shallow: A better

instance, I say; come.

Cor. Besides, our hands are hard.

Touch. Your lips will feel them the sooner. Shallow, again: A more sounder instance; come.

Cor. And they are often tarr'd over with the surgery of our sheep; and would you have us kiss tar? The courtier's hands are perfum'd with civet.

Touch. Most shallow man! Thou worms-meat, in respect of a good piece of flesh, indeed! — Learn of the wise, and perpend: Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the instance, shepherd.

Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me: I'll rest.
Touch. Wilt thou rest damn'd?

God help thee,

$ Parlous is evidently a corruption of perilous.

H.

6 Hides or skins; as in Ben Jonson's Discoveries: "A prince is the pastor of the people. He ought to shear, not to flea nis sheep; to take their fleeces, not their fells "

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shallow man! God make incision in thee!7 thou

art raw.

Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I eat. get that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm and the greatest of my pride is, to see my ewes graze, and my lambs suck.

Touch. That is another simple sin in you: to bring the ewes and the rams together, and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle: to be bawd to a bell-wether; and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated, old, cuckoldy ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou be'st not damn'd for this, the de vil himself will have no shepherds: I cannot see else how thou shouldst 'scape. Cor. Here comes young master Ganymede, my new mistress's brother.

Enter ROSALIND, reading a paper.

Ros. From the east to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind.

The

7 A passage that has not been made altogether clear. most common explanation is, that incision refers to the proverbial phrase of cutting for the simples; which has some support in what Touchstone says afterwards,· -"That is another simple sin in you." Of course the being raw is the reason why incision should be made. The best illustration, then, that we can think of, is in one of Dr. South's Sermons, where he remarks upon the passage, -"Having their conscience seared with a hot iron:" "Others more significantly, make it an allusion to the practice of surgeons and physicians, who use cuttings and burnings for the healing of corrupt flesh; which, being once thus cauterized or seared, becomes afterwards insensible." So, also, in The Times Whistle, a manuscript, quoted by Dr. Farmer:

"Let ulcer'd limbes and goutye humors quake,
Whilst with my pen I doe incision make."

Bearing in mind that raw is used in the double sense of green and sore, perhaps this will render the passage clear enough; at least give it a meaning

H.