Enter Duke fenior, AMIENS, and other Lords, drefs of Forefters. the DUKE S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, Hath not old cuftom made this life more sweet Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 7 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,] The old copy reads"not the penalty". STEEVENS. What was the penalty of Adam, hinted at by our poet? The being fenfible of the difference of the feafons. The Duke fays, the cold and effects of the winter feelingly perfuade him what he is. How does he not then feel the penalty? Doubtless, the text must be restored as I have corrected it: and it is obvious in the course of these notes, how often not and but by mistake have changed place in our author's former editions. THEOBALD. As not has here taken the place of but, fo, in Coriolanus, A& II. fc. iii. but is printed instead of not: "Cor. Ay, but mine own defire. "I Cit. How! not your own defire." Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, MALONE. Wears yet a precious jewel in his head:] It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was And this our life, exempt from publick haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks," Sermons in ftones, and good in every thing. AMI. I would not change it: Happy is your grace, That can tranflate the stubbornness of fortune Into fo quiet and fo fweet a ftyle. to be found a ftone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This ftone has been often fought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull. JOHNSON. In a book called A Green Foreft, or a Natural History, &c. by John Maplett, 1567, is the following account of this imaginary gem: "In this ftone is apparently feene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with defpotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defufedly. It is available against envenoming." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monfieur Thomas, 1639: in moft phyficians' heads, 66 "There is a kind of toadftone bred." Again, in Adrafta, or The Woman's Spleen, 1635: "Do not then forget the ftone "In the toad, nor ferpent's bone," &c. Pliny, in the 32d book of his Natural Hiftory, afcribes many wonderful qualities to a bone found in the right fide of a toad, but makes no mention of any gem in its head. This deficiency however is abundantly fupplied by Edward Fenton, in his Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to. bl. 1. 1569, who fays, "That there is founde in the heades of old and great toades, a ftone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulfe poyfons, and that it is a moft foveraigne medicine for the ftone." Thomas Lupton, in his Firft Booke of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. bears repeated teftimony to the virtues of the "Tode-ftone, called Crapaudina." In his Seventh Booke he inftructs us how to procure it; and afterwards tells us-" You fhall knowe whether the Todeftone be the ryght and perfect ftone or not. Holde the stone before a Tode, fo that he may fee it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the Tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would fnatch it. He envieth fo much that man fhould have that ftone." STEEVENS. 9 Finds tongues in trees, &c.] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book I: "Thus both trees and each thing else, be the bookes to a fancie." STEEVENS. 2 I would not change it:] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens begin-Happy is your grace. JOHNSON. DUKE S. Come, fhall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this defert city,'Should, in their own confínes, with forked heads + Have their round haunches gor'd. I LORD. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; And, in that kind, fwears you do more ufurp Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself, Did fteal behind him, as he lay along Under an oak, whofe antique root peeps out Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: " To the which place a poor fequefter'd ftag, That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt, Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, The wretched animal heav'd forth fuch groans, 3 Native burghers of this defert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called the wild burgeffes of the foreft." Again, in the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "Where, fearlefs of the hunt, the hart fecurely stood, A kindred expreffion is found in Lodge's Rofalynde, 1592: "The citizens o' the wood," Our author afterwards uses this very phrase: "Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens." MALONE. with forked heads-] i. e, with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A Mad World my Mafters: 4 "While the broad arrow with the forked head "And pore upon the brook that babbles by." Gray's Elegy,. STEEVENS. That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat DUKE S. But what faid Jaques? Did he not moralize this fpectacle? I LORD. O, yes, into a thousand fimiles. 8 To that which had too much: Then, being alone,' 6 the big round tears, &c.] It is faid in one of the marginal notes to a fimilar paffage in the 13th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, that "the harte weepeth at his dying: his tears are held to be precious in medicine." STEEVENS. 7 in the needlefs ftream;] The ftream that wanted not fuch a fupply of moisture. The old copy has into, caught probably by the compofitor's eye from the line above. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 8 To that which had too much :] Old copy-too muft. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. Shakspeare has almoft the fame thought in his Lover's Complaint: in a river. "Upon whofe weeping margin he was fet, Again, in K. Henry VI. P. III. A&t V. fc. iv: "With tearful eyes add water to the fea, "And give more ftrength to that which hath too much.” STEEVENS. Then, being alone,] The old copy redundantly reads→→ Then being there alone. STEEVENS. And never stays to greet him; Ay, quoth Jaques, 2 LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and comment ing Upon the fobbing deer. DUKE S. Show me the place; 2 LORD. I'll bring you to him ftraight. [Exeunt. 2 The body of the country,] The oldeft copy omits-the; but it is fupplied by the fecond folio, which has many advantages over the firft. Mr. Malone is of a different opinion; but let him speak for himself. STEEVENS. Country is here used as a trifyllable. So again, in Twelfth Night: "The like of him. Know'st thou this country ?" The editor of the fecond folio, who appears to have been utterly ignorant of our author's phrafeology and metre, reads-The body of the country, &c. which has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE. Is not country used elsewhere alfo as a diffyllable? See Coriolanus, A& I. fc. vi: "And that his country's dearer than himself." Befides, by reading country as a trifyllable, in the middle of a verfe, it would become rough and diffonant. STEEVENS. 3 to cope him-] To encounter him; to engage with him. JOHNSON. |