My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right, Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free, Why then, my taxing like a wild goofe flies, Unclaim'd of any man.-But who comes here? Enter ORLANDO, with his fword drawn. ORL. Forbear, and eat no more. Why, I have eat none yet. Or elfe a rude defpifer of good manners, ORL. You touch'd my vein at firft; the thorny point Of bare diftrefs hath ta'en from me the show I believe we should read—Where then? So, in Othello: "What then? How then? Where's fatisfaction?" MALONE. the thorny point Of bare diftrefs hath ta'en from me the show Of Smooth civility:] We might read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration. JOHNSON. 8 inland bred,] Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is the oppofite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say, that he had not been bred among clowns, HOLT WHITE. 9 And know fome nurture:] Nurture is education, breeding, manSo, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: ners. "He fhew'd himself as full of nurture as of nature." Again, as Mr. Holt White obferves to me, Barret fays in his Alvearie, 1580: "It is a point of nurture, or good manners, tọ falute them that you meete. Urbanitatis eft falutare obvios.” STEEVENS. FAQ. An you will not be answered with reafon, I must die. DUKE S. What would you have? Your gentlenefs fhall force, More than your force move us to gentleness. ORL. I almoft die for food, and let me have it. DUKE S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table. ORL. Speak you fo gently? Pardon me, I pray you: I thought, that all things had been favage here; And therefore put I on the countenance Of ftern commandment: But whate'er you are, Under the fhade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church; my fword. DUKE S. True is it that we have seen better days; And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church; And fat at good men's feafts; and wip'd our eyes Of drops that facred pity hath engender'd: And therefore fit you down in gentleness, And take upon command what help we have," That to your wanting may be miniftred. 9 -defert inacceffible,] This expreffion I find in The Adventures of Simonides, by Barn. Riche, 1580: " and onely acquainted himselfe with the folitarineffe of this unacceffible defert." HENDERSON. 2 And take upon command what help we have,] Upon command, is at your own command. STEEVENS. ORL. Then, but forbear your food a little while, Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, And give it food. There is an old poor man, Who after me hath many a weary step Limp'd in pure love; till he be firft fuffic'd,Opprefs'd with two weak evils, age and hunger,I will not touch a bit. DUKE S. Go find him out, And we will nothing wafte till you return. ORL. I thank ye; and be blefs'd for your good comfort! [Exit. DUKE S. Thou feeft, we are not all alone un happy: This wide and univerfal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene 3 Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, And give it food.] So, in Venus and Adonis: "Like a milch dee, whofe fwelling dugs do ake, 66 4 Wherein we play in.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope more correctly reads: Wherein we play. I believe with Mr. Pope, that we should only read Wherein we play. and add a word at the beginning of the next fpeech, to complete the measure; viz. "Why, all the world's a stage." Thus, in Hamlet: "Hor. So Rofencrantz and Guildenstern go to't. "Ham. Why, man, they did make love to their employment." Again, in Measure for Measure: Why, all the fouls that were, were forfeit once." Again, ibid: Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done." In twenty other inftances we find the fame adverb introductorily ufed. STEEVENS. VOL. VI. F 742 All the world's a ftage,+ And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits, and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being feven ages. At first, the infant, ♦ All the world's a flage, &c.] This obfervation occurs in one of the fragments of Petronius: "Non duco contentionis funem, dum conftet inter nos, quod fere totus mundus exerceat hiftrioniam." STEEVENS. This obfervation had been made in an English drama before the time of Shakspeare. See Damon and Pythias, 1582: Pythagoras faid, that this world was like a ftage, "Whereon many play their parts." In The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, 1597, we find thefe lines: Unhappy man "Whofe life a fad continual tragedie, "Himself the actor, in the world, the flage, "While as the a&s are measur'd by his age.” MALONE. 5 His acts being feven ages.] Dr. Warburton obferves, that this was no unusual divifion of a play before our author's time;" but forbears to offer any one example in fupport of his affertion. I have carefully perufed almoft every dramatick piece antecedent to Shakfpeare, or contemporary with him; but fo far from being divided into acts, they are almoft all printed in an unbroken continuity of fcenes. I fhould add, that there is one play of fix acts to be met with, and another of twenty-one; but the fecond of thefe is a tranflation from the Spanish, and never could have been defigned for the ftage. In God's Promifes, 1577," A Tragedie or Enterlude," (or rather a Myftery) by John Bale, feven acts may indeed be found. STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton boldly afferts that this was no unusual divifion of a play before our author's time." One of Chapman's plays (To Wife Men and all the rest Fools) is indeed in feven acts. This, however, is the only dramatick piece that I have found fo divided. But furely it is not neceffary to fuppofe that our author alluded here to any fuch precife divifion of the drama. His comparifons feldom run on four feet. It was fufficient for him that a play was diftributed into feveral acts, and that human life, long before his time, had been divided into jeven periods. In the Treasury of Ancient and Modern Times, 1613, Proclus, a Greek author, is faid to have divided the life-time of man into SEVEN AGES; over each of which one of the feven planets was fuppofed to rule. The FIRST AGE is called Infancy, containing Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms; the fpace of foure yeares.-The SECOND AGE Continueth ten years, untill he attaine to the yeares of fourteene: this age is called Childhood.-The THIRD AGE confifteth of eight yeares, being named by our auncients Adolefcencie or Youthhood; and it lafteth from fourteene, till two and twenty yeares be fully compleate.The FOURTH AGE paceth on, till a man have accomplished two and fortie yeares, and is tearmed Young Manhood.-The FIFTH AGE, named Mature Manhood, hath (according to the faid authour) fifteene yeares of continuance, and therefore makes his progress fo far as fix and fifty yeares.-Afterwards in adding twelve to fiftyfixe, you shall make up fixty-eight yeares, which reach to the end of the SIXT AGE, and is called Old Age.-The SEAVENTH and laft of these seven ages is limited from fixty-eight yeares, fo far as four-fcore and eight, being called weak, declining, and Decrepite Age. If any man chance to goe beyond this age, (which is more admired than noted in many,) you fhall evidently perceive that he will returne to his firft condition of Infancy againe.' Hippocrates likewife divided the life of man into seven ages, but differs from Proclus in the number of years allotted to each period. See Brown's Vulgar Errors, folio, 1686, p. 173. MALONE. I have feen, more than once, an old print entitled, The ftage of Man's Life, divided into seven ages. As emblematical reprefentations of this fort were formerly ftuck up, both for ornament and inftruction, in the generality of houfes, it is more probable that Shakspeare took his hint from thence, than from Hippocrates or Proclus. HENLEY. One of the reprefentations to which Mr. Henley alludes, was formerly in my poffeffion; and confidering the ufe it is of in explaining the paffage before us, " I could have better fpared a better print." I well remember that it exhibited the school-boy with his fatchel hanging over his fhoulders. STEEVENS. 6 And then,] And, which is wanting in the old copy, was fupplied, for the fake of metre, by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. ↑ Sighing like furnace,] So, in Cymbeline: "—he furnaceth the thick fighs from him—," MALONE. |