little foolery, that wife men have, makes a great show. Here comes Monfieur Le Beau.

Enter LE BEAU.

Ros. With his mouth full of news.

CEL. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young.

Ros. Then shall we be news-cramm'd.

CEL. All the better; we shall be the more marketable. Bon jour, Monfieur le Beau: What's the news?

LE BEAU. Fair princess, you have loft much good fport.

CEL. Sport? Of what colour?

LE BEAU. What colour, madam? How shall I answer you?

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Ros. As wit and fortune will.

TOUCH. Or as the destinies decree.

CEL. Well faid; that was laid on with a trowel.4 TOUCH. Nay, if I keep not my rank,

Ros. Thou losest thy old smell.

LE BEAU. You amaze me, ladies: ' I would have

laid on with a trowel.] I suppose the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mass of big words laid upon a flight subject. JOHNSON. This is a proverbial expreffion, which is generally used to fignify a glaring falshood. See Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS.

It means a good round hit, thrown in without judgment or design. RITSON.

To lay on with a trowel is, to do any thing strongly and without delicacy. If a man flatters grossly, it is a common expreffion to say, that he lays it on with a trowel. M. MASON.

5 You amaze me, ladies:] To amaze, here, is not to aftonish or strike with wonder, but to perplex; to confuse, so as to put out of the intended narrative. JOHNSON.

So, in Cymbeline, Act IV. fc. iii :

"I am amazed with matter." STEEVENS.

told you of good wrestling, which you have loft the fight of.

Ros. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling.

LE BEAU. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your ladyships, you may fee the end; for the best is yet to do; and here, where you are, they are coming to perform it.

CEL. Well, the beginning, that is dead and buried.

LE BEAU. There comes an old man, and his three fons,

CEL. I could match this beginning with an old tale. LE BEAU. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and prefence;

Ros. With bills on their necks,-Be it known unto all men by these presents,

• With bills on their necks, Be it known unto all men by these presents, The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of cross purposes. Where the words of one speaker are wrested by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown says just before-Nay, if 1 keep not my rank. Rofalind replies-Thou losest thy old fmell. So here when Rofalind had faid-With bills on their necks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in-Know all men by these presents. She spoke of an inftrument of war, and he turns it to an instrument of law of the fame name, beginning with these words: So that they must be given to him. WARBURTON.

This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is so very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot fee why Rosalind should fuppofe, that the competitors in a wrestling match carried bills on their shoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor resemblance of prefence and presents. JOHNSON.

With bills on their necks, should be the conclufion of Le Beau's speech. Mr. Edwards ridicules Dr. Warburton, "As if people carried fuch instruments of war, as bills and guns on their necks, not on their shoulders!" But unluckily the ridicule falls upon himself. Lassels, in his Voyage of Italy, fays of tutors, " Some persuade their pupils, that it is fine carrying a gun upon their necks." LE BEAU. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles, the duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him: so he served the second, and so the third: Yonder they lie; the poor old man, their father, making such pitiful dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping.

Ros. Alas!

TOUCH. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have loft?

LE BEAU. Why, this that I speak of.

Touch. Thus men may grow wiser every day! it is the first time that ever I heard, breaking of ribs was sport for ladies.

But what is still more, the expression is taken immediately from Lodge, who furnished our author with his plot. "Ganimede on a day fitting with Aliena, (the assumed names, as in the play,) caft up her eye, and faw where Rofader came pacing towards them with his foreft-bill on his necke." FARMER.

The quibble may be countenanced by the following passage in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612:

"Good-morrow, taylor, I abhor bills in a morning-
But thou may'st watch at night with bill in hand."

"

Again, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book I:

with a fword by his fide, a forest-bille on his necke," &c.

Again, in Rowley's When you see me you know me, 1621:

"Enter King, and Compton, with bills on his back."

Again, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

Again,

" And each of you a good bat on his neck."

- are you not big enough to bear

"Your bats upon your necks?" STEEVENS.

I don't think that by bill is meant either an instrument of war, or one of law, but merely a label or advertisement as we say a play-bill, a hand-bill; unless Farmer's ingenious amendment be admitted, and these words become part of Le Beau's speech; in which cafe the word bill would be used by him to denote a weapon, and by Rofalind perverted to mean a label. M. MASON,

CEL. Or I, I promise thee.

Ros. But is there any else longs to fee this broken musick in his fides?1 is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking?-Shall we fee this wrestling, coufin?

LE BEAU. You must, if you stay here; for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it.

CEL. Yonder, fure, they are coming: Let us now stay and fee it.

Flourish. Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, ORLANDO,
CHARLES, and Attendants.

DUKE F. Come on; since the youth will not be
entreated, his own peril on his forwardness.
Ros. Is yonder the man?

1 is there any else longs to see this broken musick in his fides?] A ftupid error in the copies. They are talking here of some who had their ribs broke in wrestling: and the pleasantry of Rofalind's repartee must consist in the allusion she makes to composing in mufick. It necessarily follows therefore, that the poet wrote-SET this broken musick in his fides. WARBURTON.

If any change were necessary, I should write, feel this broken musick, for fee. But fee is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we say every day, fee if the water be hot; I will fee which is the best time; she has tried, and fees that she cannot lift it. In this sense fee may be here used. The fufferer can, with no propriety, be faid to fet the musick; neither is the allusion to the act of tuning an instrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by fetting musick. Rosalind hints at a whimfical fimilitude between the series of ribs gradually shortening, and some mufical instruments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken musick. JOHNSON.

This probably alludes to the pipe of Pan, which confifting of reeds of unequal length, and gradually lessening, bore some resemblance to the ribs of a man. M. MASON.

Broken musick either means the noise which the breaking of ribs would occafion, or the hollow found which proceeds from a person's receiving a violent fall. DOUCE.

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LE BEAU. Even he, madam.

CEL. Alas, he is too young: yet he looks fuccefsfully.

DUKE F. How now, daughter, and coufin? are you crept hither to fee the wrestling?

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Ros. Ay, my liege; so please you give us leave. DUKE F. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is such odds in the men: In pity of the challenger's youth, I would fain diffuade him, but he will not be entreated: Speak to him, ladies; fee if you can move him.

CEL. Call him hither, good Monfieur Le Beau. DUKE F. Do so; I'll not be by.

[DUKE goes apart.

LE BEAU. Monfieur the challenger, the princesses call for you."

ORL. I attend them, with all respect and duty. Ros. Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler?

ORL. No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth.

CEL. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years: You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength: if you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment, the

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odds in the men:) Sir T. Hanmer. In the old editions, the man. JOHNSON.

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princeffe calls. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

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the princesses call for you.] The old copy reads-the have you challenged Charles the wrestler?] This wrestling match is minutely described in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592. MALONE. if you faw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment,] Absurd! The sense requires that we should read,

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