CEL. Trow you, who hath done this? Ros. Is it a man? CEL. And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck: Change you colour? Ros. I pr'ythee, who? CEL. O lord, lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and fo encounter. Ros. Nay, but who is it? CEL. Is it poffible? Ros. Nay, I pray thee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is. CEL. O wonderful, wonderful, and moft wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping!" "friends to meet;] Alluding ironically to the proverb: Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.' 8 See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS. but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and fo encounter.]" Montes duo inter fe concurrerunt," &c. fays Pliny, Hift. Nat. Lib. II. c. lxxxiii. or in Holland's tranflation: "Two bills (removed by an earthquake) encountered together, charging as it were, and with violence affaulting one another, and retyring again with a moft mighty noife." TOLLET. 9 out of all whooping!] i. e. out of all measure, or reckoning. So, in the Old Ballad of Yorke, Yorke for my money, &c. 1584: "And then was fhooting, out of cry, "The fkantling at a handful nie." Again, in the old bl. I. comedy called Common Conditions: "I have beraed myself out of cry." STEEVENS. This appears to have been a phrafe of the fame import as another formerly in ufe, "out of all cry." The latter feems to allude to the cuftom of giving notice by a crier of things to be fold. So, in A Chafte Maide of Cheapfide, a comedy by T. Middleton, 1630: "I'll fell all at an outcry." MALONE. An outcry is ftill a provincial term for an auction. STEEVENS. Ros. Good my complexion! doft thou think, though I am caparison'd like a man, I have a doublet and hofe in my difpofition? One inch of delay more is a South-fea-off discovery.' I pr'ythee, tell Good my complexion!] This is a mode of expression, Mr. Theobald fays, which he cannot reconcile to common fenfe. Like enough: and fo too the Oxford editor. But the meaning is-Hold good my complexion, i. e. let me not blush. WARBURTON. Good my complexion!] My native character, my female inquifitive difpofition, can't thou endure this!-For thus characterizing the most beautiful part of the creation, let our author answer. MALONE. Good my complexion! is a little unmeaning exclamatory address to her beauty; in the nature of a small oath. RITSON. 3 One inch of delay more is a South-fea-off discovery.] The old copy reads-is a South-fea of difcoverie. STEEVENS. This is ftark nonfenfe; we muft read-off difcovery, i. e. from discovery. "If you delay me one inch of time longer, I shall think this fecret as far from difcovery as the South-fea is." WARBURTON. This fentence is rightly noted by the commentator as nonfenfe, but not fo happily reftored to fenfe. I read thus: One inch of delay more is a South-fea. Difcover, I pr'ythee; tell me who is it quickly!-When the tranfcriber had once made difcovery from difcover I, he easily put an article after South-fea. But it may be read with ftill lefs change, and with equal probability-Every inch of delay more is a South-fea difcovery: Every delay however fhort, is to me tedious and irksome as the longest voyage, as a voyage of difcovery on the South-fea. How much voyages to the South-fea on which the English had then first ventured, engaged the converfation of that time, may be easily imagined. JOHNSON. Of for off, is frequent in the elder writers. A South-jea of difcovery is a difcovery a South-fea off-as far as the South-fea." FARMER. Warburton's fophiftication ought to have been reprobated, and the old, which is the only reading that can preferve the sense of Rofalind, restored. A South-fea of discovery, is not a discovery, as FAR OFF, but as COMPREHENSIVE as the South-fea; which, being the largest in the world, affords the widest scope for exercifing curiofity. HENLEY. On a further confideration of this paffage I am ftrongly inclined to think, with Dr. Johnson, that we should read-a South-fea difcovery. "Delay, however fhort, is to me tedious and irkfome as me, who is it? quickly, and speak apace: I would thou couldft stammer, that thou might'ft pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at all. I pry' thee take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings. CEL. So you may put a man in your belly, Ros. Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard? CEL. Nay, he hath but a little beard. Ros. Why, God will fend more, if the man will be thankful: let me ftay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin. CEL. It is young Orlando; that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels, and your heart, both in an instant. Ros. Nay, but the devil take mocking; fpeak fad brow, and true maid.4 CEL. I'faith, coz, 'tis he, CEL. Orlando. 5 Ros. Alas the day! what fhall I do with my doublet and hofe?-What did he, when thou faw'ft him? What faid he? How look'd he? Wherein went he? What makes he here? Did he afk for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? and when fhalt thou fee him again? Answer me in one word. the longest voyage, as a voyage of difcovery on the South-Sea," The word of, which had occurred juft before, might have been inadvertently repeated by the compofitor. MALONE. 4-speak fad brow, and true maid.] i. e. fpeak with a grave countenance, and as truly as thou art a virgin; fpeak seriously and honeftly. RITSON. 5 Wherein went he?] In what manner was he clothed? How did he go dreffed? HEATH, CEL. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth' firft: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's fize: To fay, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechifm. Ros. But doth he know that I am in this forest, and in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day, he wrestled? CEL. It is as easy to count atomies," as to refolve the propofitions of a lover:-but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with a good obfervance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn. Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth fuch fruit." 6 Garagantua's mouth-] Rofalind requires nine queftions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of fuch magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais. JOHNSON. Garagantua fwallowed five pilgrims, their ftaves and all, in a fallad. It appears from the books of the Stationers' Company, that in 1592 was published, "Garagantua his Prophecie." And in 1594: A booke entitled, The Hiftory of Garagantua." The book of Garagantua is likewife mentioned in Laneham's Narrative of 2. Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenel-worth-Caftle, in 1575. Some tranflator of one of these pieces is cenfured by Hall, in his Second Book of Satires: "But who conjur'd, &c. “Or wicked Rablais dronken revellings "To grace the mifrule of our tavernings?" STEEVENS. to count atomies,] Atomies are thofe minute particles difcernible in a stream of sunshine that breaks into a darkened room. HENLEY. "An atomie (fays Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616) is a mote flying in the funne. Any thing fo fmall that it cannot be made leffe." MALONE. 8 when it drops forth fuch fruit.] The old copy readswhen it drops forth fruit. The word fuch was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. I once fufpected the phrafe, " when it drops forth," to be corrupt; but it is certainly our author's; for it occurs again in this play: CEL. Give me audience, good madam. CEL. There lay he, ftretch'd along, like a wounded knight. Ros. Though it be pity to fee fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground." CEL. Cry, holla! to thy tongue,' I pr'ythee; it curvets very unfeasonably. He was furnifh'd like a hunter. Ros. O ominous! he comes to kill my heart.' CEL. I would fing my fong without a burden: thou bring'ft me out of tune. Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak, Sweet, fay on. -woman's gentle brain "Could not drop forth fuch giant-rude invention." This paffage ferves likewife to fupport the emendation that ha been made. MALONE, fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground.] So, in Hamlet: Such a fight as this "Becomes the field,". STEEVENS. Cry, holla! to thy tongue.] The old copy has the tongue. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Holla was a term of the manege, by which the rider restrained and stopp'd his horfe. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "What recketh he his rider's angry ftir, "His flattering holla, or his ftand I fay?" The word is again used in Othello, in the fame fenfe as here: "Holla! ftand there." MALONE. 3 -to kill my heart.] A quibble between heart and hart. STEEVENS. Our author has the fame expreffion in many other places. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: 66 Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart." Again, in his Venus and Adonis: -they have murder'd this poor heart of mine." But the preceding word, hunter, fhows that a quibble was here intended between heart and hart. In our author's time the latter word was often written instead of beart, as it is in the prefent inftance, in the old copy of this play. MALONE, |