[the rest shall beare this burthen]

lines, which are the burden of the song.' DYCE in his first edition says: 'Much discussion has arisen whether these words [line 14] are a portion of the song or of the stage-direction. It is a question on which I do not feel myself competent to speak with any positiveness.' Accordingly, Dyce prints the line in the margin, in smaller type merely. In his two later editions he has no note, except the remark that Grant White altered 'Then' to They. GRANT WHITE divided the song into two stanzas of four lines each, and marked them I and II; line 14 appears as a stage-direction with Then,' as has just been noted, changed to They. At the end, instead of 'Exeunt,' he reads: [They bear off the deer, singing.'] In his first edition, after giving his reasons for believing line 14 to. be a stage-direction, which are the same as those advanced by preceding editors, he says: "Then sing him home" has reference to Jaques's suggestion to present the successful hunter to the Duke "like a Roman conqueror"; for the song was "for this purpose." That there is an alternation of two lines of solo with two of chorus or burthen, the latter being in both cases lusty lines about the lusty horn, no musician or glee-singer, and it would seem no reader with an ear for rhythm, can entertain a doubt. "Then" in the original stage-direction seems plainly a misprint for they,' STAUNTON prints only 'The rest,' &c. in the margin as a stage-direction. We rather take,' he says, "Then sing him home" to form the burden, and conjecture it ought to be repeated after each couplet.' HALLIWELL says: "There can be little doubt that the greater part of this song, in fact, the last six lines, was originally intended to be sung in chorus, Jaques being indifferent to the tune, "so it make noise enough," wherefore Halliwell divides line 14 after 'beare,' thus keeping up the rhyme to 'weare'; places This burthen' in a line by itself; and assigns the rest to be sung by the whole company. He claims for this arrangement that it 'seems on the whole more likely to be correct than considering any portion of the line as a stage-direction.' BARRON FIELD (Sh. Soc Papers, 1847, iii, 135) was the first, I think, to suggest that 'This burthen' should be printed by itself, but then he said it should be in a marginal note, wherein his treatment is slightly different from Halliwell's. He also suggested 'Men sing him home,' instead of 'They.'

I have thus given all, I think, of the diverse textual arrangements of this song. Subsequent editors have ranged themselves under one or the other leader as best suited their fancy. The majority, however, agree in holding 'Then sing him home' as part of the song, and 'The rest shall beare this burthen' as a stage-direction; which is also the belief of Roffe (p. 12) and of the present ED.

15. horne] COLERIDGE, (p. 108): I question whether there exists a parallel instance of a phrase that, like this of 'horns,' is universal in all languages, and yet for which no one has discovered even a plausible origin.

Scana Tertia.

Enter Rofalind and Celia.

Rof. How fay you now, is it not past two a clock?
And heere much Orlando.

Cel. I warrant you, with pure loue, & troubled brain,
Enter Siluius.

He hath t'ane his bow and arrowes, and is gone forth

Scene V. Pope, Han. Warb. Johns. Scene continued, Theob.

2. a clock] o'clock Theob.

3. And...Orlando] I wonder much Orlando is not here. Pope +. and how much Orlando comes? Cap. and here's

5

much Orlando! Steev. '85. and here's
no Orlando. Ritson, Quincy (MS). And
here-much, Orlando! John Hunter.

4-7. Prose, Pope et seq. (except Coll.).
6. t'ane] ta'ne F. ta'en Rowe.
6, 7. forth To] forth—to Cap. et seq.

1. After the remark upon the noisy scene,' which has just passed (see the first note in preceding scene), and which was introduced to fill up the interval of two hours, JOHNSON continues: This contraction of time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the Acts this absurdity can be obviated. [This remark, if I understand it, and I am not sure that I do, is an undeserved slur on Shakespeare's dramatic art. To defend any dramatist, let alone Shakespeare, against the charge of absurdity in representing the passage of time by the shifting of scenes, is in itself an absurdity which no one, I think, would consciously commit. As this comedy is performed now-a-days, the 'noisy scene' is frequently omitted altogether, and this present scene opens in another part of the Forest;' this of itself is sufficient to indicate a flight of time, and no spectator notes an 'absurdity.' How much more pronounced is this flight when a whole scene intervenes, with new characters and wholly new action. It is to be feared that, in very truth, this Song penetrated to Dr Johnson's deaf ears only as 'noise,' and that, furthermore, Shakespeare's art in dramatic construction was in general so exquisitely concealed that when once it stood revealed with unmistakable plainness, Dr Johnson resented the attempt to sway his mood as a personal affront.—ED.]

3. heere much] WHALLEY: We have still this use of 'much,' as when we say, speaking of a person who we suspect will not keep his appointment, ‘Ay, you will be sure to see him much ľ MALONE: So the vulgar yet say, 'I shall get much by that, no doubt,' meaning that they shall get nothing. HOLT WHITE: It is spoken ironically. GIFFORD, in a note on Much wench, or much son!'-Every Man in his Humour, IV, iv, p. 117, says 'Much!' is an ironical exclamation for little or none, in which sense it frequently occurs in our old dramatists. Thus in Heywood's Edward IV: 'Much duchess! and much queen, I trow!' [On p. 40 of Edward IV, ed. Sh. Soc. there is Much queen, I trow!' but I cannot find the line as given by Gifford, who is usually accurate.-ED.]

4-7. WALKER (Crit. i, 16): These lines are printed as verse in the Folio; which,

To fleepe : looke who comes heere.

Sil. My errand is to you, faire youth,
My gentle Phebe, did bid me giue you this:
I know not the contents, but as I guesse
By the sterne brow, and waspish action
Which she did vse, as she was writing of it,
It beares an angry tenure; pardon me,

I am but as a guiltleffe messenger.

Rof. Patience her felfe would startle at this letter,
And play the swaggerer, beare this, beare all :
Shee faies I am not faire, that I lacke manners,
She calls me proud, and that she could not loue me
Were man as rare as Phenix: 'od's my will,

9. did] Mal. Cald. Knt, Coll. i, Wh. i, Dyce i. Om. Ff et cet.

10. know] knew Ff.

13. tenure] tenour Theob. et seq. 16. After reading the letter. Han.

7

10

15

19

coupled with their being followed by a dialogue, also in verse, inclines me to think Shakespeare meant them as such. [Walker makes no new division of the lines, but aids the rhythm by reading 'warrant' as warr'nt, and contracting 'and is' to and's.] COLLIER (ed. ii): [Lines 4 and 6] are underscored in the Folio (MS) as if they were a quotation, and they read like it. Celia applied them to Orlando, who had nothing to do with bows and arrows' that we are anywhere informed. [In line 6] 'is' was erased by the old annotator. [Capell introduced a dash after 'forth,' in line 6, and has been followed in every subsequent edition, I think, except the Cambridge, the Globe, Wright's, and White's second edition.]

8. faire youth] Abbott (§ 510), considers an interjectional line, and thus scans: 'Look, who comes here? | My ér | rand ís | to you || Fair youth, || My gént | le Phé | be bid | me give you this.'

9. did bid] KEIGHTLEY: Editors, myself included, follow F,, and omit 'did.' I think we are wrong. [We are, therefore, to infer that Keightley would here pronounce 'Phebe' as a monosyllable, wherein he has Collier for company. It is not impossible that it may have been the lover's pet-name, but where it occurs further on, in V, iv, 25, it seems wholly out of place from Rosalind. I think it should be pronounced uniformly as a dissyllable.-ED.]

12. writing of it] For other instances of this construction of verbal nouns, see, if need be, Abbott, § 178.

14. as] ABBOTT, § 115: As was used almost, but not quite, redundantly after 'seem' (as it is still after 'regard,' 'represent'): To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead,'-[line 123, below], and even after 'am' [as here, where it means]: 'I an here in the character of, &c.

am

18. calls... and that] ABBOTT, § 382: As in Latin, a verb of speaking can be omitted where it is implied by some other word, as here: 'She calls me proud, and (says) that,' &c.

19. man... Phenix] WALKER in his Article (LI, Vers. p. 243) on the plural of Substantives ending in a plural sound which are found without the usual addition of s

20

Her loue is not the Hare that I doe hunt,
Why writes she so to me? well Shepheard, well,
This is a Letter of your owne deuice.

Sil. No, I protest, I know not the contents,
Phebe did write it.

Rof. Come, come, you are a foole, And turn'd into the extremity of loue.

20. doe] did Ff, Rowe.

25. you are] you're Pope+, Dyce iii Huds.

25

26. turn'd into the] turned in the or turn'd so in the Cap. conj.

the extremity] th' extremity Pope +, Dyce iii, Huds.

or es, instances (p. 266) 'words ending in x,' and cites the present line thus: Were men as rare as Phoenix,' which last word he evidently thinks should be thus printed: Phoenix' as an indication of the plural. LETTSOM's foot-note is as follows: 'Walker does not say from what edition he took the reading men. I find it in a small edition published by Tilt in 1836, professedly "from the text of the corrected copies of Steevens and Malone," and therefore I suppose it is the reading of what used to be called the received text. The Four Folios, Pope, Hanmer, Theobald, Capell, Var. 1821, Knight, and Collier all read "man," but the sense seems to demand men.' Lettsom might have added, as reading 'man,' Rowe i, ii, Warburton, Johnson, the Var. 1773, 1778, 1785, Steevens, 1793, Malone, 1790, Rann, Var. 1803, 1813, Harness, Singer's First Edition, Chalmers, Campbell,—all except Hazlitt, 1851, who reads men. In Hazlitt I am inclined to think that the reading is by no means accidental.-ED.

19. Phenix] HALLIWELL: That there is but one Phoenix in the World, which after many hundred years burneth it self, and from the ashes thereof ariseth up another, is a conceit not new or altogether popular, but of great Antiquity.'-Brown's Vulgar Errors [Book III, chap. xii, p. 144, ed. 1672].

19. 'od's my will] Are not all these oaths, in which Rosalind indulges with marked freedom, her attempts to assume a swashing and a martial outside? Before she donned doublet and hose she uttered none. 'Faith' was then her strongest affirmation, but from the hour she entered Arden we hear these charming little oaths from Ganymede. This, among others, is a reason, I think, why we should not adopt Spedding's pulpiter in place of ‘Jupiter' in III, ii, 154; or Collier's 'Love, love' in lieu of Jove, Jove' in II, iv, 60.-Ed.

24. write it] MASON (p. 87): The metre of this line is imperfect, and the sense of the whole; for why should Rosalind dwell so much upon Phebe's hands unless Silvius had said something about them? I have no doubt but the line originally ran thus: Phebe did write it with her own fair hand! And then Rosalind's reply will naturally follow. COWDEN-CLARKE: Mason's conjecture is very plausible. Some allusion to the whiteness and delicacy of Phebe's hand seems requisite to account for Rosalind's abuse of its colour and texture.

26. turn'd into] CAPELL: Had Silvius been at first a cool lover, as now a hot one, the word 'turn'd' had been proper; but as this was never the case, we must either put a sense upon 'turn'd' that is not common, to wit, got or fall'n; or else suspect a corruption, and look out for amendment: [See Text. Notes] both [of these are]