take that for coming anight to Jane Smile: and I remember the kiffing of her batlet," and the cow's dugs that her pretty chop'd hands had milk'd: and I remember the wooing of a peafcod instead of her; from whom I took two cods, and, giving her them again, faid with weeping tears, Wear thefe for my 8 5 anight-] Thus the old copy. Anight, is in the night. The word is ufed by Chaucer in The Legende of Good Women. Our modern editors read, o'nights, or o'night. STEEVENS. 6 batlet,] The inftrument with which washers beat their coarfe cloaths. JOHNSON. Old copy-batler. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE. 7 two cods,] For cods it would be more like sense to read-peas, which having the fhape of pearls, resembled the common prefents of lovers. JOHNSON. In a schedule of jewels in the 15th Vol. of Rymer's Fadera, we find," Item, two peafcoddes of gold with 17 pearles." FARMER. Peafcods was the ancient term for peas as they are brought to market. So, in Greene's Groundwork of Cony-catching, 1592: went twice in the week to London, either with fruit or pefcods," &c. Again, in The Shepherd's Slumber, a fong published in England's Helicon, 1600: "In pefcod time when hound to horne Again, in The Honeft Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Shall feed on delicates, the firft peafcods, ftrawberries." STEEVENS. In the following paffage, however, Touchftone's prefent certainly fignifies not the pea but the pod, and fo, I believe, the word is ufed here." He [Richard II.] also used a peafcod branch with the cods open, but the peas out, as it is upon his robe in his monument at Westminfter." Camden's Remains 1614. Here we fee the cods and not the peas were worn. Why Shakspeare used the former word rather than pods, which appears to have had the fame meaning, is obvious. MALONE. The peafcod certainly means the whole of the pea as it hangs upon the ftalk. It was formerly used as an ornament in drefs, and was reprefented with the fhell open exhibiting the peas. The paffage cited from Rymer by Dr. Farmer, fhows that the peas were fometimes made of pearls, and rather overturns Dr. Johnfon's conjecture, who probably imagined that Touchftone took the cods from the penfeeds, and not from his miftrefs. DoucE. 3-weeping tears,] A ridiculous expreflion from a fonnet in Jake. We, that are true lovers, run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, fo is all nature in love mortal in folly." Ros. Thou speak'st wiser, than thou art 'ware of, TOUCH. Nay, I shall ne'er be 'ware of mine own wit, till I break my fhins against it. Ros. Jove! Jove! this fhepherd's paffion TOUCH. And mine; but it grows fomething ftale CEL. I pray you, one of you queftion yond man, If he for gold will give us any food; I faint almost to death. TOUCH. Holla; you, clown! Ros. Peace, fool; he's not thy kinsman. COR. Who calls? TOUCH. Your betters, fir. COR. Elfe are they very wretched. Ros. Good even to you, friend.* Peace, I fay : COR. And to you, gentle fir, and to you all. Lodge's Rofalynd, the novel on which this comedy is founded. It likewife occurs in the old anonymous play of The Victories of K. Henry V. in Peele's Jefts, &c. STEEVENS. The fame expreffion occurs alfo in Lodge's Doraftus and Fawnia, on which The Winter's Tale is founded. MALONE. 9-fo is all nature in love mortal in folly.] This expreffion I do not well understand. In the middle counties, mortal, from mort, a great quantity, is ufed as a particle of amplification; as mortal tall, mortal little. Of this fenfe I believe Shakspeare takes advantage to produce one of his darling equivocations. Thus the meaning will be, fo is all nature in love abounding in folly. JOHNSON. to you, friend.] The old copy reads to your Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. friend. Ros. I pr'ythee, fhepherd, if that love, or gold, Can in this defert place buy entertainment, Bring us where we may reft ourselves, and feed: Here's a young maid with travel much opprefs'd, And faints for fuccour. COR. Fair fir, I pity her, And wish for her fake, more than for mine own, My fortunes were more able to relieve her: And little recks to find the way to heaven Befides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed, Ros. What is he that fhall buy his flock and pafture? COR. That young fwain that you faw here but erewhile, That little cares for buying any thing. Ros. I pray thee, if it stand with honesty, Buy thou the cottage, pafture, and the flock, And thou shalt have to pay for it of us. CEL. And we will mend thy wages: I like this place, And willingly could 'waste my time in it. COR. Affuredly, the thing is to be fold: 2 And little recks-] i. e. heeds, cares for. So, in Hamlet: "And recks not his own rede." STEEVENS. you wel 3 And in my voice most welcome shall you be.] In my voice, as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have power to bid come. JOHNSON. Go with me; if you like, upon report, And buy it with your gold right fuddenly. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The fame. Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and Others. SONG. AMI. Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me, And tune his No enemy, But winter and rough weather. JA2. More, more, I pr'ythee, more. AMI. It will make you melancholy, monfieur Jaques. I F42. I thank it. More, I pr'ythee, more. can fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a weazel fucks eggs: More, I pr'ythec, more. 4 And tune-] The old copy has turne. Corrected by Mr. Pope. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "And to the nightingale's complaining note "Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes." MALONE. The old copy may be right, though Mr. Pope, &c. read tune. To turn a tune or a note, is still a current phrafe among vulgar muficians. STEEVENS. AMI. My voice is ragged; I know, I cannot please you. F42. I do not defire you to please me, I do desire you to fing: Come, more; another ftanza; Call you them stanzas? AMI. What you will, monfieur Jaques. F42. Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing: Will you fing? AMI. More at your request, than to please myfelf. F42. Well then, if ever I thank any man, I'll thank you but that they call compliment, is like the encounter of two dog-apes; and when a man thanks me heartily, methinks, I have given him a penny, and he renders me the beggarly thanks. Come, fing; and you that will not, hold your tongues. AMI. Well, I'll end the fong.-Sirs, cover the while; the duke will drink under this tree :-he hath been all this day to look you. F42. And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too difpútable for my company: I think of as many matters as he; but I give heaven thanks, and make no boast of them. Come, warble, come. ragged;] Our modern editors (Mr. Malone excepted) read rugged; but ragged had anciently the fame meaning. So, in Nath's Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, 4to. 1593: "I would not trot a falfe gallop through the reft of his ragged verfes," &c. STEEVENS. 6 difputable for difputatious. MALONE. |