know you are my eldest brother, and in the gentle con- Oli. What Boy. 46 50 (this. Orl. Come, come elder brother, you are too yong in 54 53. Boy.] boy, Cap. 47. me:] me. Johns. 50. vs:] us. Pope. 51. mee, as you,] me; as you, F2 me, as you; FF, Rowe et seq. 51, 52. your...reuerence.] you coming before me are nearer to his revenue Han. 53. menacing him with his hand. Johns. strikes at him. Wh. ii. 54. collaring him. Johns. takes him by the throat. Wh. ii. and you should so know me.' ""So" is here,' says Allen, 'equivalent to accordingly, in pursuance of the same obligation: if I am to know you as a brother (the eldest), you are bound to know me as a brother (the youngest).' According to WORDSWORTH (p. 36), 'know' is used here in the biblical sense of acknowledge. 52. reuerence] WARBURTON: That is, The reverence' due to my father is, in some degree, derived to you as the first-born. But I am persuaded that Orlando did not here mean to compliment his brother or condemn himself; something of both which there is in that sense. I rather think he intended a satirical reflection on his brother, who by letting him feed with his hinds treated him as one not so nearly related to old Sir Robert [sic] as himself was. I imagine, therefore, Shakespeare might write: Albeit your coming before me is nearer his revenue, i. e. though you are no nearer in blood, yet it must be owned, indeed, you are nearer in estate. CAPELL highly approved of this emendation, and added that 'Oliver's taking fire as he does, which gives occasion to his brother to collar him, was caused by something in the tail of this speech that gave him offence; and this he could not find in the submissive word "reverence." WHITER: Orlando uses the word in an ironical sense, and means to say that his brother by coming before him is nearer to a respectable and venerable elder of a family.' The phrase His reverence is still thus ironically applied, though with somewhat of a different meaning, and we frequently use the expression your worship, both with a grave and ludicrous signification nearly in the same manner. This sense will account for the anger of Oliver, and for the words which they mutually retort upon each other respecting their ages in the next two lines. It is extremely curious that Shakespeare has caught many words, and even turns of expression, belonging to the novel from which the play is taken; though he has applied them in a mode generally different and often very remote from the original. This has certainly taken place in the present instance, and the passage which contains it will likewise supply us with another example. Rosader or Orlando is introduced making his reflections on the indignities which he had suffered from his brother Saladine or Oliver. As he was thus ruminating his melancholy passions, in came Saladine with his men, and seeing his brother in a brown study and to forget his wonted reverence, thought to shake him out of his dumps.' Orlando says in Oli. Wilt thou lay hands on me villaine? 55 Orl. I am no villaine: I am the yongest sonne of Sir Rowland de Boys, he was my father, and he is thrice a villaine that faies such a father begot villaines wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand from thy throat, till this other had puld out thy tongue for saying fo, thou haft raild on thy felfe. Adam. Sweet Masters bee patient, for your Fathers remembrance, be at accord. Oli. Let me goe I say. Orl. I will not till I please : you shall heare mee: my father charg'd you in his will to giue me good education you haue train'd me like a pezant, obfcuring and 60 65 67 62. Adam.] Adam (coming forward) Coll. Dyce, Sta. 62. Mafters] Mafter Ff, Rowe. Shakespeare: Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up.' [It is evidently the irony in the tone, whatever the word, which inflames Oliver; as Whiter shows, that word may well be reverence.'-ED.] 53. Boy] COLERIDGE (p. 7): There is a beauty here. The word 'boy' naturally provokes and awakens in Orlando the sense of his manly powers; and with the retort of 'elder brother,' he grasps him with firm hands and makes him feel he is no boy. 54. STAUNTON: The obscurity in this line is at once cleared up by a passage in the original story: Though I am eldest by birth, yet, never having attempted any deeds of arms, I am youngest to perform any martial exploits.' Stung by the sarcastic allusion to his reverence, Oliver attempts to strike his brother, who seizes him, observing at the same time, 'You are too young at this game of manly prowess; in this, I am the elder.' NEIL: This play upon words has more in it than meets the ear. 'Elder' not only means 'one born before another,' but also the name of the plant Sambucus, the elder-tree or alder-tree, the pith of which is large, light, and little worth. Hence the Host calls Dr Caius contemptuously my heart of elder'-Merry Wives, II, iii, 3-as equal to 'faint-hearted one.' There was also a tradition 'Judas was hanged on an elder'-(Love's Lab. L., V, ii, 610), and from this it became suggestive of treachery and deceit. The phrase therefore signifies, 'My faint-hearted, deceitful first-born brother, you are too young (you give me a title betokening rather fewer years than I have attained to) in this epithet "boy!" [The action here is so distinctly set forth that stage directions, and some editors have inserted them, are wholly superfluous, if not intrusive.-ED.] 55. villaine] JOHNSON: This word is used by Oliver in its present meaning for a worthless, wicked, or bloody man; by Orlando in its original signification, for a fellow of base extraction. 67, 68. obscuring... qualities] ALLEN (MS): 'Qualities' is equivalent to qual : 68 70 hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities: the spirit of my father growes ftrong in mee, and I will no longer endure it therefore allow me fuch exercises as may become a gentleman, or giue mee the poore allottery my father left me by teftament, with that I will goe buy my fortunes. Oli. And what wilt thou do? beg when that is spent? Well fir, get you in. I will not long be troubled with you you shall haue fome part of your will, I pray you leaue me. : Orl. I will no further offend you, then becomes mee for my good. Oli. Get you with him, you olde dogge. Adam. Is old dogge my reward: most true, I haue loft my teeth in your feruice: God be with my olde mafter, he would not haue spoke fuch a word. Ex. Orl. Ad. Oli. Is it euen fo, begin you to grow vpon me? I will 68. from me] me from Pope, Han. iii. 83. Scene III. Pope +. 75 80 84 ifications. Perhaps: obscuring (ảḍaví【wv) [in me] my own gentlemanlike qualities, and hiding from me those, which I might see and imitate, from without (i. e. in the persons of others). Cf. 1 Hen. VI: V, i, 22, 'You have suborn'd this man Of purpose to obscure my noble birth.' Hen. V: I, i, 63, ‘And so the Prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness.' 74, 75. thou . . . you] Throughout this quarrel between the brothers, and throughout the subsequent conference between Oliver and Charles, it is worth while to observe, and to appreciate if we can, the use of 'thou' and 'you,' which appears, at first sight, to be almost indiscriminate. Skeat's admirable and general rule, given in his Preface to William of Palerne, p. xlii, and cited in this edition at Oth. II, ii, 275, and at Mer. of Ven. I, ii, 35, should be borne in mind: 'Thou is the language of a lord to a servant, of an equal to an equal, and expresses also companionship, love, permission, defiance, scorn, threatening; whilst ye is the language of a servant to a lord, and of compliment, and further expresses honour, submission, entreaty.' Abbott, § 235, says that in almost all cases some change of thought or some influence of euphony may be detected which will prove sufficient to account for a change of pronoun; and furthermore (§ 232), when the appellative 'sir' is used even in anger, thou generally gives place to you. It is well worth while to ponder the varying shades of emotion thus indicated here.-ED. 76. will] Is there not a contemptuous emphasis on this word, which may bear a double meaning, in its reference to their father's Will which Orlando had invoked? In a modern text, I think, it might well be printed with quotation-marks.—ED. 84. grow] COLLIER (ed. i): This is probably right, in reference to the 'rankness' mentioned in the next line; but it has been suggested to me, that possibly Shakespeare phyficke your ranckeneffe, and yet giue no thousand crownes neyther: holla Dennis. Enter Dennis. Den. Calls your worship? Oli. Was not Charles the Dukes Wraftler heere to speake with me? 85 90 Den. So please you, he is heere at the doore, and importunes accesse to you. Oli. Call him in: 'twill be a good way: and to morrow the wrastling is. Cha. Good morrow to your worship. Oli. Good Mounfier Charles: what's the new newes at the new Court? 98 89. Wraftler] Wraftle F Rowe. Wrestler 93. Exit Dennis. Johns. et seq. wrote, 'growl upon me,' following up the simile of the 'old dog,' which Oliver had just applied to Adam. [It is scarcely worth while to do more than to record this emendation, which Halliwell has adequately estimated by remarking that growl would refer to Adam, whereas this speech clearly refers to Orlando. WRIGHT interprets 'grow upon' by encroach, and cites Jul. Cæs. II, i, 107: Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises, Which is a great way growing on the south.' HALLIWELL paraphrases: 'to increase in disobedience to my authority.' I think it means simply that Oliver is beginning to find out that Orlando is growing too big on his hands to be treated any longer like a boy. NEIL, however, asserts that 'grow' is 'a provincialism for swell, become sulky, murmur, repine.'-ED.] 85. ranckenesse] WRIGHT: Luxuriant growth, exuberance; hence, insolence. 89. Wrastler] The pronunciation, as indicated by this spelling, is still general among the common people in this country, as will at once occur to all who have read -and who has not?-Bret Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp.'-ED. 97. Good] In one of Walker's excellent articles, which he rather infelicitously names 'Omission by Absorption,' it is suggested (Crit. ii, 263) that the text here should be 'Good morrow, monsieur Charles,' &c. I think there can be no doubt of it. The morrow, however, was not 'absorbed,' but omitted altogether; the compositor's eye was misled by the 'morrow' directly above in the preceding line.-ED. 97. Charles:] CAPELL (Notes, 55) says that the true punctuation here is a note of admiration, and then the force of the speech, duly pronounced, will be: "Ah, good monsieur Charles! are you here?-Well, what's the," &c.' 98. new Court] I mistrust this new.' If Oliver was aware that there was a 'new' court, Charles's information that the old duke had been banished (which fact had created the new court') would have been quite superfluous, and he would scarcely have referred to this banishment as 'old news.' Moreover, in repeating a question he who is questioned naturally repeats the very words. Charles's failure, in the text, to do this when he repeats Oliver's question, not only casts an additional Charles. There's no newes at the Court Sir, but the olde newes: that is, the old Duke is banished by his yonger brother the new Duke, and three or foure louing Lords haue put themfelues into voluntary exile with him, whose lands and reuenues enrich the new Duke, therefore he giues them good leaue to wander. Oli. Can you tell if Rofalind the Dukes daughter bee banished with her Father? Cha. O no; for the Dukes daughter her Cofen fo loues her, being euer from their Cradles bred together, that hee would haue followed her exile, or haue died to stay behind her; she is at the Court, and no leffe beloued of her Vncle, then his owne daughter, and neuer two Ladies loued as they doe. Cha. They fay hee is already in the Forrest of Arden, 114 102. into] into a F,F, Rowe. 103. reuenues] vevenues F. 105. Dukes] old Duke's Han. Johns. Coll. iii. 107. Dukes] new Duke's Han. Warb. Johns. Cap. Coll. iii. 109. hee] he F. She F2F et seq. her] their FF, Rowe. suspicion on new,' as I think, but also suggested to Lettsom (ap. Dyce, ed. iii) to ask: Ought we not to read, There's no new news, &c. ?'—Ed. 105, 107. Dukes] Hanmer's emendation (see Text. Notes), which is also found in Collier's (MS), met with Johnson's approval as 'necessary to the perspicuity of the dialogue,' and Dyce also considered it 'highly probable that Shakespeare so wrote.' But in Malone's opinion the change is unnecessary; the ambiguous use of the word "duke" in these passages is much in Shakespeare's manner.' Heath, also, disap proved of the change, which could proceed only from an itch of emendation. The words which follow, "her cousin," sufficiently distinguish the person intended.' Unquestionably, Hanmer's emendation makes the passage clearer, but, I think, any editor now-a-days would be 'temerarious' who should adopt it.-ED. 109. hee] A misprint easily detected. 109, 110. to stay] That is, in staying behind her. See II, vii, 182; III, v, 66; V, ii, 103; also, for this indefinite use of the infinitive, ABBOTT, § 356, and Shakespeare passim. 114. Forrest of Arden] MALONE: Ardenne is a forest of considerable extent in French Flanders, lying near the Meuse and between Charlemont and Rocroy. It is mentioned by Spenser in his Astrophel [1596, line 93, ed. Grosart]: Into a forest wide, and waste he came Where store he heard to be of saluage pray. So wide a forest and so waste as this, Nor famous Ardeyn, nor fowle Arlo is.' But our author was furnished with the scene of his play by Lodge's Novel. [The foregoing passage from Spenser, Malone cited as from Colin Clouts Come home againe. The citations by the earlier editors have to be so frequently corrected that I never think it worth while to call attention to the trifling and venial misprints, which nevertheless do seem |