should fall into so strong a liking with old Sir Roland's youngest son? Ros. The Duke my father lov'd his father dearly. Cel. Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando. 2 Ros. No, 'faith, hate him not, for my sake. Cel. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?3 Ros. Let me love him for that; and do you love him because I do. Look, here comes the Duke. Cel. With his eyes full of anger. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords. Fred. Mistress, despatch you with your safest haste, And get you from our Court. Ros. Fred. Me, uncle? You, cousin: Within these ten days if that thou be'st found Ros. Or have acquaintance with mine own desires; (As I do trust I am not,) then, dear uncle, Fred. Thus do all traitors: They are as innocent as grace itself: Ros. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor. Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. Fred. Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. So was I when your Highness banish'd him: Treason is not inherited, my lord; Or, if we did derive it from our friends, What's that to me? my father was no traitor: 2 In Shakespeare's time, it was just as correct to speak of hating dearly as of loving dearly; of a dear foe as of a dear friend. Thus, in Hamlet, Act i. scene 2: " Would I had met my dearest foe in Heaven, or ever I had seen that day." 3 Celia here speaks ironically, her meaning apparently being, - "It was because your father deserved well that my father hated him; and ought I not, by your reasoning, to hate Orlando for the same cause?" Purgaton is proof of innocence; clearing themselves of the matter charged. See Act v. scene 4, note 4. Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much Cel. Dear sovereign, hear me speak. Fred. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake; Cel. I did not then entreat to have her stay; Still we went coupled and inseparable. Fred. She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, Her very silence, and her patience, Speak to the people, and they pity her. Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous Firm and irrevocable is my doom Which I have pass'd upon her: she is banish'd. Cel. Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege. I cannot live out of her company. Fred. You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself: If you out-stay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatness of my word, you die. [Exeunt FREDERICK and Lords Cel. O, my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more griev'd than I am. Ros. I have more cause. Cel. Thou hast not, cousin. Pr'ythee, be cheerful: know'st thou not the Duke Hath banish'd me, his daughter? Ros. That he hath not. Cel. No? hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? Remorse was continually used by the old writers for pity. The original has thee instead of me. The change was made by War burton has been renewed by Dyce, and ought never to have been rejected For, by this Heaven, now at our sorrows pale, Cel. To seek my uncle in the Forest of Arden. Cel. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, Were 't not better, Ros. That do outface it with their semblances.11 Cel. What shall I call thee when thou art a man ? But what will you be called? Cel. Something that hath a reference to my state; No longer Celia, but Aliena. Ros. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal The clownish Fool out of your father's Court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel? Cel. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; And get our jewels and our wealth together; To hide us from pursuit that will be made To liberty, and not to banishment. Italy. [Exeunt. Umber was a dusky, yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in This was one of the old words for a cutlass, or short, crooked sword. It was variously spelt, courtlas, courtlax, curtlax. 9 That is, "Whatever hidden woman's fear lies in my heart." 10 Swashing is dashing, swaggering. Thus, in Fuller's Worthies of England: "A ruffian is the same with a swaggerer, so called, because endeavouring to make that side swag or weigh down, whereon he engageth. The same also with swash-buckler, from swashing or making a noise on bucklers." 11 Compare with this Portia's delectable speech on a like occasion; her last but one in The Merchant of Venice, Act iii. scene 4. ACT II. SCENE I. The Forest of Arden. Enter the DUKE, AMIENS, and other Lords, drest like Foresters Duke. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, I would not change it.* Ami. Happy is your Grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune Duke. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? 6 1 So in the original: modern editions have generally changed not into but. Their reasons for the change are plausible, but far from conclusive. The curse, or penalty, denounced upon Adam was, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Now this is just what the Duke and his co-mates do not feel: they fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world." The Dake then goes on, consistently, to say what they do feel. So that I see no good cause for departing from the original reading. The using of both the relative and the personal pronouns, in relative clauses, as which and it in this passage, was not uncommon with the best writers. Shakespeare has many instances of it, as "Who if he break." in The Merchant of Venice. So in Bacon's Advancement of Learning: "Which though it be not true, yet I forbear to note any deficiencies." It results from a doubling of the connectives, as which and when, who and if, which and though; a Latin idiom, which our language does not rightly admit of. The "precious jewel" in the toad's head was not his bright eye, as is sometimes supposed, but one of the "secret wonders of nature." According to Edward Fenton, it was found in the heads of old, and large, and especially he toads, and was of great value for its moral and medicinal virtues. 4 In the original, these words, "I would not change it," begin the next speech. Some of the best editors transfer them justly, I think -to the Duke. 5 The verb irk has gone out of use, but its sense survives in the adjective irksome. Forked beads are barbed arrows. - Forked is here a dissyllable. as 1 Lord. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;" Duke. Did he not moralize this spectacle? But what said Jaques? 9 1 Lord. O yes, into a thousand similes. And never stays to greet him: Ay, quoth Jaques, marked also is, a little after. In Shakespeare's time, in verbs, participles, and adjectives ending with ed, the ed was always a syllable by itself. The old copies are very particular in the matter, dropping the e whenever the verse requires that syllable to coalesce with the preceding, as in gor'd and banish'd, just below. In the text as here set forth, this rule is uniformly followed, except in words ending in ied, such as died, tried, &c. 7 This shows that the Poet anglicized the name Jaques, instead of giving it the French pronunciation. The verse here requires it to be a dissyllable. I never heard Mrs. Kemble read this play; but I remember, many years ago, hearing an equally good authority, Mrs. Charles Kean, pronounce it as a dissyllable on the stage. 8 Drayton in the thirteenth song of his Poly-Olbion has a fine description of a deer-hunt, which he winds up thus: "He who the mourner is to his own dying corse, Upon the ruthless earth his precious tears lets fall." And in a note upon the passage he adds, "The hart weepeth at his dying: his tears are held precious in medicine." 9 Needless for not needing. Shakespeare abounds in similar language. |