A XVIIth Cent. Curtle-Axe (see I. iii. 116).

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. I. 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 lóngler Céllya bút| Alilena.'

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.'

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 'seaventie' of the Folios.

II. iv. I. weary'; Theobald's emendation for 'merry' 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