CEL. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth" firft: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's fize: To fay, ay, and no, to thefe particulars, is more than to answer in a catechifm. Ros. But doth he know that I am in this forest, and in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled? CEL. It is as easy to count atomies," as to refolve the propofitions of a lover:-but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with a good obfervance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn. Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth fuch fruit. 8 6 Garagantua's mouth-] Rofalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word. Celia tells her that a word of fuch magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais. JOHNSON. Garagantua fwallowed five pilgrims, their ftaves and all, in a fallad. It appears from the books of the Stationers' Company, that in 1592 was published, " Garagantua his Prophecie." And in 1594 A booke entitled, The Hiftory of Garagantua." The book of Garagantua is likewife mentioned in Laneham's Narrative of 2 Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenel-worth-Caftle, in 1575. Some tranflator of one of these pieces is cenfured by Hall, in his Second Book of Satires: "But who conjur'd, &c. "Or wicked Rablais dronken revellings "To grace the misrule of our tavernings?" STEEVENS. 7 to count atomies,] Atomies are thofe minute particles difcernible in a stream of funshine that breaks into a darkened room. HENLEY. "An atomie (fays Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616) is à mote flying in the funne. Any thing fo fmall that it cannot be made leffe." MALONE. 8 when it drops forth fuch fruit.] The old copy readswhen it drops forth fruit. The word fuch was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. I once fufpected the phrafe," when it drops forth," to be corrupt; but it is certainly our author's; for it occurs again in this play: CEL. Give me audience, good madam. CEL. There lay he, ftretch'd along, like a wounded knight. Ros. Though it be pity to fee fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground." CEL. Cry, holla! to thy tongue, I pr'ythee; it curvets very unfeafonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter. Ros. O ominous! he comes to kill my heart.' CEL. I would fing my fong without a burden: thou bring'ft me out of tune, Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. Sweet, fay on. "Could not drop forth fuch giant-rude invention." This paffage ferves likewife to fupport the emendation that ha been made. MALONE. fuch a fight, it well becomes the ground.] So, in Hamlet: -Such a fight as this "Becomes the field," STEEVENS, i 2 Cry, holla! to thy tongue.] The old copy has the tongue, Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Holla was a term of the manege, by which the rider restrained and stopp'd his horse. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "What recketh he his rider's angry stir, "His flattering holla, or his ftand I fay?" The word is again used in Othello, in the fame fense as here: "Holla! ftand there." MALONE. 3to kill my heart.] A quibble between heart and hart. STEEVENS. Our author has the fame expreffion in many other places. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: Why, that contempt will kill the fpeaker's heart." Again, in his Venus and Adonis: -they have murder'd this poor heart of mine." But the preceding word, hunter, fhows that a quibble was here intended between heart and hart. In our author's time the latter word was often written inftead of heart, as it is in the present inftance, in te old copy of this play. MALONE. Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES. CEL. You bring me out;-Soft! comes he not here? Ros. 'Tis he; Slink by, and note him. [CELIA and ROSALIND retire. FAQ, I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone. 1 ORL. And fo had I; but yet, for fashion fake, I thank you too for your fociety.' F42. God be with you; let's meet as little as we can. ORL. I do defire we may be better strangers. 742. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love-fongs in their barks. ORL. I pray you, mar no more of my verfes with reading them ill-favouredly. 742. Rofalind is your love's name? ORL. Yes, juft. Fag. I do not like her name. ORL. There was no thought of pleafing you, when she was chriften'd. F42. What ftature is fhe of? ORL. Juft as high as my heart. F42. You are full of pretty anfwers: Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conn'd them out of rings? ORL. Not fo; but I anfwer you right painted cloth, from whence you have studied your queftions. 4 4 but I answer you right painted cloth,] This alludes to the fashion in old tapestry hangings, of mottoes and moral sentences from the mouths of the figures worked or painted in them. The poet again hints at this custom in his poem, called, Tarquin and Lucrece: "Who fears a sentence, or an old man's faw, "Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe.” THEOBALD. 742. You have a nimble wit; I think it was made of Atalanta's heels. Will you fit down with So, in Barnaby Riche's Soldier's Wife to Britons welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, &c. 1604, p. 1: "It is enough for him that can but robbe a painted cloth of a historie, a booke of a difcourfe, a foole of a fashion," &c. The fame allufion is common to many of our old plays. So, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: " Now will I fee if my memory will ferve for fome proverbs. O, a painted cloth were as well worth a fhilling, as a thief is worth a halter." Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633: "There's a witty pofy for you. 66 -No, no; I'll have one shall favour of a faw.- "In painted cloth, the ftory of the prodigal." From this last quotation we may fuppofe that the rooms in publick houses were usually hung with what Falstaff calls water-work. On thefe hangings perhaps moral fentences were depicted as iffuing from the mouths of the different characters reprefented. Again, in Sir Thomas More's English Works, printed by Raftell, 1557: Mayfter Thomas More in hys youth devyfed in hys father's houfe in London, a goodly hangyng of fyne paynted clothe, with nine pageauntes, and verfes over every of thofe pageauntes; which verfes expreffed and declared what the ymages in thofe pageauntes reprefented: and alfo in thofe pageauntes were paynted the thynges that the verses over them dyd (in effecte) declare." Of the prefent phrafeology there is an inftance in King John: He speaks plain cannon-fire, and bounce, and smoke." STEEVENS. I anfewer you right painted cloth, may mean, I give you a true painted cloth, anfwer; as we fay, the talks right Billing/gate: that is, exactly fuch language as is ufed at Billingfgate. JOHNSON. This fingular phrase may be justified by another of the same kind in K. Henry V: "I fpeak to thee plain foldier." Again, in Twelfth Night: "He speaks nothing but madman.” There is no need of Sir T. Hanmer's alteration: "I answer you right in the file of painted cloth." We had before in this play, "It is the right butter-woman's rate to market." So, in Golding's tranflation of Ovid, 1567: me? and we two will rail against our mistress the world, and all our mifery. ORL. I will chide no breather in the world,' but myfelf; against whom I know most faults. F42. The worst fault you have, is to be in love. ORL. 'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue. I am weary of you. J42. By my troth, I was feeking for a fool, when I found you. ORL. He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you fhall fee him. J42. There I fhall fee mine own figure. ORL. Which I take to be either a fool, or a cypher. FAQ. I'll tarry no longer with you: farewell, good fignior love. I fuppofe Orlando means to fay, that Jaques's queftions have no more of novelty or fhrewdness in them than the trite maxims of the painted cloth. The following lines which are found in a book with this fantaftick title,-No whipping nor tripping, but a kind friendly fuipping, octavo, 1601, may ferve as a specimen of painted cloth language: Read what is written on the painted cloth: "And turn the colt to pafture with the mare;" &c. That moral fentences were wrought in these painted cloths, is afcertained by the following paffage in A Dialogue both pleafaunt and pitifull, &c. by Dr. Willyam Bulleyne, 1564, (fignat. H 5.) which has been already quoted: "This is a comelie parlour,and faire clothes, with pleafaunte borders aboute the fame, with many wife fayings painted upon them." MALONE. S -no breather in the world,] So, in our author's 81ft Sonnet: "When all the breathers of this world are dead.” Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "She fhows a body, rather than a life; A ftatue, than a breather." MALONE. |