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
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,"
The feafons' difference; as, the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I fmile, and fay,-
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly perfuade me what I am.
Sweet are the uses of adverfity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head: 8

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,
"And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the wood."
STEEVENS.

A kindred expreffion is found in Lodge's Rofalynde, 1592:
"About her wond'ring stood

"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
"Miffes &c. STEEVENS,

"And pore upon the brook that babbles by." Gray's Elegy,.

STEEVENS.

That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremeft verge of the fwift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

DUKE S.

But what faid Jaques? Did he not moralize this fpectacle?

I LORD. O, yes, into a thousand fimiles.
Firft, for his weeping in the needless stream;
Poor deer, quoth he, thou mak'ft a teftament
As worldlings do, giving thy fum of more

8

To that which had too much: Then, being alone,'
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends;
'Tis right, quoth he; thus mifery doth part
The flux of company: Anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pafture, jumps along by him,

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,
"Like ufury, applying wet to wet."

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,
Sweep on, you fat and greafy citizens;
'Tis just the fashion: Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?
Thus moft invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life: fwearing, that we
Are mere ufurpers, tyrants, and what's worse,
To fright the animals, and to kill them up,
In their affign'd and native dwelling place.
DUKE S. And did you leave him in this contem¬
plation?

2 LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and comment

ing

Upon the fobbing deer.

DUKE S.

Show me the place;
I love to cope him' in these fullen fits,
For then he's full of matter.

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.