ACT II. SCENE I.

The Forest of Arden.

Enter Duke senior, AMIENS, and other Lords, in the dress of Foresters.

DUKE S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exíle,

Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,1
The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,-
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.

1 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,] The old copy reads—“ not the penalty—” STEEVENS.

What was the penalty of Adam, hinted at by our poet? The being sensible of the difference of the seasons? The Duke says, the cold and effects of the winter feelingly persuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the penalty? Doubtless, the text must be restored as I have corrected; and it is obvious, in the course of these notes, how often not and but, by mistake, have changed place in our author's former editions.

THEOBALD.

As not has here taken the place of but, so, in Coriolanus, Act II. sc. iii. but is printed instead of not :

"Cor. Ay, but mine own desire.

"1 Cit. How! not your own desire." MALONE.

Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from publick haunt,

2 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

2

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head:] It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull. JOHNSON.

In a book called A Green Forest, or a Natural History, &c. by John Maplett, 1567, is the following account of this imaginary gem: "In this stone is apparently seene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with despotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defusedly. It is available against envenoming."

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, 1639: 66 in most physicians' heads,

"There is a kind of toadstone bred."

Again, in Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen, 1635: "Do not then forget the stone

"In the toad, nor serpent's bone," &c.

"That

Pliny, in the 32d Book of his Natural History, ascribes many wonderful qualities to a bone found in the right side of a toad, but makes no mention of any gem in its head. This deficiency however is abundantly supplied by Edward Fenton, in his Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to. bl. 1. 1569, who says, there is founde in the heades of old and great toades, a stone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulse poysons, and that it is a most soveraigne medicine for the stone."

Thomas Lupton, in his First Booke of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. bears repeated testimony to the virtues of the "Tode-stone, called Crapaudina." In his Seventh Booke he instructs us how to procure it; and afterwards tells us-" You shall knowe whether the Tode-stone be the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a Tode, so that he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the Tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would snatch it. He envieth so much that man should have that stone." STEEVENS.

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks," Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

AMI. I would not change it: Happy is your

grace,

That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.

DUKE S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,—
Being native burghers of this desert city,-
Should, in their own confínes, with forked heads
Have their round haunches gor'd.

1 LORD.

Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.

3 Finds tongues in trees, &c.] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book I:

"Thus both trees and each thing else, be the bookes to a fancie." STEevens.

▲ I would not change it:] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens beginHappy is your grace. JOHNSON.

5

native burghers of this desert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called "the wild burgesses of the forest." Again, in the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion:

"Where, fearless of the hunt, the hart securely stood, "And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the wood." STEEVENS.

A kindred expression is found in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "About her wond'ring stood

"The citizens o' the wood."

Our author afterwards uses this very phrase:

6

"Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens." MAlone.

with forked heads-] i. e. with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A mad World my Masters: "While the broad arrow with the forked head "Misses," &c. STEEVENS.

To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself,
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood:"
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

DUKE S.

But what said Jaques ? Did he not moralize this spectacle?

1 LORD. O, yes, into a thousand similes. First, for his weeping in the needless stream; Poor deer, quoth he, thou mak'st a testament As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
"That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
"His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,
"And pore upon the brook that babbles by."

9

Gray's Elegy. STEEVENS.

the big round tears &c.] It is said in one of the marginal notes to a similar passage in the 13th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, that "the harte weepeth at his dying: his tears are held to be precious in medicine." STEEVENS.

9

in the needless stream;] The stream that wanted not such a supply of moisture. The old copy has into, caught probably by the compositor's eye from the line above. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

To that which had too much:1 Then, being alone,2
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends ;
'Tis right, quoth he; this misery doth part
The flux of company: Anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him; Ay, quoth Jaques,
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;

'Tis just the fashion: Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,

1 To that which had too much:] Old copy-too must. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALOne.

Shakspeare has almost the same thought in his Lover's Complaint:

66

in a river

σε Upon whose weeping margin she was set,
"Like usury, applying wet to wet.”

Again, in King Henry VI. P. III. Act V. sc. iv:

2

"With tearful eyes add water to the sea,

"And give more strength to that which hath too much.”

STEEVENS.

Then, being alone,] The old copy redundantly reads Then being there alone. STEEVENS.

3 The body of the country,] The oldest copy omits—the; but it is supplied by the second folio, which has many advantages over the first. Mr. Malone is of a different opinion; but let him speak for himself. STEEVENS.

Country is here used as a trisyllable. So again, in Twelfth Night:

"The like of him. Know'st thou this country?"

The editor of the second folio, who appears to have been utterly ignorant of our author's phraseology and metre, reads— The body of the country, &c. which has been followed by all the subsequent editors. MALONE.

Is not country used elsewhere also as a dissyllable? See Coriolanus, Act I. sc. vi:

"And that his country's dearer than himself." Besides, by reading country as a trisyllable, in the middle of a verse, it would become rough and dissonant. STEEVENS.