Be truly welcome hither: I am the duke,

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

tune,

3

Go to my cave and tell me.-Good old man, Thou art right welcome as thy master is:3 Support him by the arm.-Give me your hand, And let me all your fortunes understand.

[Exeunt.

consequent agitation of the ocean, and not to the operation of frost, may be collected from our author's having in King John described ice as uncommonly smooth:

"To throw a perfume on the violet,

"To smooth the ice," &c.

MALONE.

As friend remember'd not.] Remember'd for remembering. So, afterwards, Act III. sc. last:

"And now I am remember'd-."

i. e. and now that I bethink me, &c. MALONE.

3

as thy master is:] The old copy has-masters. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALone.

ACT III. SCENE I.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter Duke FREDERICK, OLIVER, Lords, and Attendants.

DUKE F. 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.

DUKE F. More villain thou.-Well, push him out of doors;

And let my officers of such a nature

an absent argument-] An argument is used for the contents of a book, thence Shakspeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in yet another sense. JOHNSON.

* Seek him with candle;] Alluding, probably, to St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xv. v. 8: "If she lose one piece, doth she not light a candle,—and seek diligently till she find it?" STEEVENS.

VOL. VIII.

G

Make an extent upon his house and lands:o
Do this expediently," and turn him going.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Forest.

Enter ORLANDO, with a paper.

ORL. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And, thou,thrice-crowned queen of night, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' full life doth sway."

that name,

my

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent upon his house and lands:] "To make an extent of lands," is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ, (extendi facias,) whereby the sheriff is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the person entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid. MALONE.

7 expediently,] That is, expeditiously. JOHNSON.

Expedient, throughout our author's plays, signifies-expeditious. So, in King John:

"His marches are expedient to this town."

Again, in King Richard II:

"Are making hither with all due expedience."

STEEVENS.

-thrice-crowned queen of night,] Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines:

Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana,
Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis.

JOHNSON.

that my full life doth sway.] So, in Twelfth Night: “M.O.A.I. doth sway my life.' STEEVENS.

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.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

COR. 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

1-unexpressive-] For inexpressible. JOHNSON.

Milton also, in his Hymn on the Nativity, uses unexpressive for inexpressible:

"Harping with loud and solemn quire,

"With unexpressive notes to heaven's new-born heir.”

MALONE.

nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.2

TOUCH. Such a one is a natural philosopher.3 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 illroasted egg, all on one side.

2

4

he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.] I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakspeare's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make complain of good breeding the same with complain of the want of good breeding. In the last line of The Merchant of Venice we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping.

JOHNSON.

I think he means rather-may complain of a good education, for being so inefficient, of so little use to him. MALONE.

Such a one is a natural philosopher.] The shepherd had said all the philosophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a satire on physicks or natural philosophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the natural philosopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things, as the rustic. It appears, from a thousand instances, that our poet was well acquainted with the physicks of his time; and his great penetration enabled him to see this remediless defect of it. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare is responsible for the quibble only, let the commentator answer for the refinement. STEEVENs.

The Clown calls Corin a natural philosopher, because he reasons from his observations on nature. M. MASON.

A natural being a common term for a fool, Touchstone, perhaps, means to quibble on the word. He may however only mean, that Corin is a self-taught philosopher; the disciple of nature. MALONE.

4

like an ill-roasted egg,] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning. JOHNSON.