DUKE F. Not see him fince? Sir, fir, that cannot be:

But were I not the better part made mercy,

I should not feek an abfent argument

8

Of my revenge, thou prefent: But look to it;
Find out thy brother, wherefoe'er he is;

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

Thy lands, and all things that thou doft call thine,

Worth feizure, do we feize 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, pufh him out of doors;

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

JOHNSON.

Seek him with candle;] Alluding, probably, to St. Luke's Gofpel, ch. xv. v. 8: "If the lofe one piece, doth fhe not light a candle, and feek diligently till fhe find it?" STEEVENS.

And let my officers of fuch a nature

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

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Foreft.

Enter ORLANDO, with a Paper.

ORL. Hang there, my verfe, in witnefs of my love: And, thou, thrice-crowned queen of night,3 fur

vey

With thy chafte eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth fway.*

9 And let my officers of fuch a nature

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

2

expediently,] That is, expeditiously. JOHNSON. Expedient, throughout our author's plays, fignifies-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. 3 thrice-crowned queen of night,] Alluding to the triple character of Proferpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by fome mythologists to the fame goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines:

Terret, luftrat, agit, Proferpina, Luna, Diana,
Ima, fuperna, feras, fceptro, fulgore, fagittis.

JOHNSON.

4 that my full life doth fway.] So, in Twelfth Night: "M. O. A. I. doth way my life." STEEVENS.

O Rofalind! thefe trees fhall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character;
That every eye, which in this foreft looks,
Shall fee thy virtue witnefs'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando; carve, on every tree,
The fair, the chafte, and unexpreffive the. [Exit.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

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

TOUCH. Truly, fhepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in refpect that it is a fhepherd's life, it is naught. In refpect that it is folitary, I like it very well; but in refpect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in refpect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in refpect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a fpare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my ftomach. Haft any philofophy in thee, fhepherd?

COR. No more, but that I know, the more one fickens, 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 pafture makes fat fheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the fun: That he, that hath learned no wit by

4 unexpreffive-] For inexpreffible. JOHNSON. Milton alfo, in his Hymn on the Nativity, ufes unexpreffive for inexpreffible:

Harping with loud and folemn quire,

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

MALONE.

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

TOUCH. Such a one is a natural philofopher." Waft ever in court, fhepherd?

COR. No, truly,

TOUCH. Then thou art damn'd.
COR. Nay, I hope,-

TOUCH. Truly, thou art damn'd; like an illroafted egg,' all on one fide.

5- 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 Shak fpeare's time did not authorife this mode of fpeech, and make complain of good breeding the fame with complain of the want of good breeding. In the lait 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 fo inefficient, of fo little ufe to him. MALONE.

6 Such a one is a natural philofopher.] The fhepherd had faid all the philofophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a fatire on phyficks or natural philofophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the natural philofopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things, as the ruftic. It appears, from a thousand inftances, that our poet was well acquainted with the phyfics of his time; and his great penetration enabled him to fee this remedilefs defect of it. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare is refponfible for the quibble only, let the commentator answer for the refinement. STEEVENS.

The Clown calls Corin a natural philofopher, because he reafons from his obfervations on nature. M. MASON.

A natural being a common term for a fool, Touchftene, perhaps, means to quibble on the word.. He may however only mean, that Corin is a felf-taught philofopher; the difciple of nature.

MALONE.

7 like an ill-roafted egg,] Of this jeft I do not fully comprehend the meaning. JOHNSON.,

There is a proverb, that a fool is the best roafter of an egg, becaufe he is always turning it. This will explain how an egg may

COR. For not being at court? Your reason.

TOUCH. Why, if thou never waft at court, thou never faw'ft good manners; if thou never faw'st good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is fin, and fin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.

COR. Not a whit, Touchstone: thofe, 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 falute not at the court, but you kifs your hands; that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds.

TOUCH. Inftance, briefly; come, inftance.

COR. Why, we are ftill handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy.

TOUCH. Why, do not your courtier's hands fweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, fhallow: A better inftance, I fay; come.

COR. Befides, our hands are hard.

TOUCH. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow, again: A more founder inftance, come.

be damn'd all on one fide; but will not fufficiently show how Touchftone applies his fimile with propriety; unless he means that he who has not been at court is but half educated. STEEVENS.

I believe there was nothing intended in the correfponding part of the fimile, to answer to the words, "all on one fide." Shakfpeare's fimiles (as has been already obferved) hardly ever run on four feet. Touchftone, I apprehend, only means to say, that Corin is completely damned; as irretrievably deftroyed as an egg that is utterly fpoiled in the roafting, by being done all on one fide only. So, in a fubfequent fcene, "and both in a tune, like two gypfies on a horse." Here the poet certainly meant that the fpeaker and his companion fhould fing in unifon, and thus resemble each other as perfectly as two gypfies on a horfe;-not that two gypfies on a horfe fing bath in a tune. MALONE.