amende for this scanty provision, he charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well. WARBURTON,

There is, in my opinion, nothing but a point misplaced, and an omission of a word which every hearer can supply, and which therefore an abrupt and eager dialogue naturally excludes.

I read thus: As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion bequeathed me. By will, but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou safest, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well. What is there in this difficult or obscure? The nominative my father is certainly left out, but so left out that the auditor inserts it, in spite of himself. JOHNSON.

it was on this fashion bequeathed me, as Dr. Johnson reads, is but aukward English. I would read: As I remember, Adam, it was on this fashion. He bequeathed me by will, etc. Orlando and Adam enter abruptly in the midst of a conversation on this topick and Orlando, is correcting some misapprehension of the other. As I remember (says he) it was thurs. He left me a thousand crowns; and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, etc. BLACKSTONE.

Omission being of all the errors of the press the most common, I have adopted the emendation proposed by Sir W. Blackstone. MALONE.

Being satisfied with Dr. Johnson's explanation of the passage as it stands in the old copy, I have followed it. STEEVENS.

P. 3, 1. 13. stays me, here at home unkept: I We should read stys, i. e. keeps me like a brute, The following words for call you that keeping that differs not from the stalling of an ox? confirms this emendation.

WARBURTON.

Sties is better than stays, and more likely to
JOHNSON.

be Shakspeare's,

P. 4, 1..5. certainly read

his countenance etc.] We should his discountenance.

WARBURTON.

There is no need of change; a countenance is

either good or bad.

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

P. 4, 1. 18. what make you here?] i. what do you here? P. 4, .. 24. be better employ'd, and be naught a while.] Mr. Theobald has here a`very critical note; which, though his modesty suffered him to withdraw it from his second edition, deserves to be perpetuated, i. e. (says he) be better employed, in my opinion, in being and doing nothing. Your idleness, as you call it, may be an exercise by which you make a figure, and endear yourself to the world: and I had rather you were a contemptible cypher. The poet seems to me to have that trite proverbial sentinent in his eye, quoted from Attilius, by the younger Pliny and others; satius est otiosum esse quam nihil agere. But Oliver, in the per verseness of his disposition, would reverse the doctrine of the proverb. Does the reader know what all this means? But 'tis no matter. 1 will assure him be nought awhile is only a northcountry proverbial curse equivalent to, a mischief on you. WARBURTON.

If be nought awhile has the signification here given it, the reading may certainly stand; but till I learned its meaning from this note, I read: Be better employed, and be naught awhile. In the same sense as we say, It is better to do mischief, than to do nothing. JOHNSON.

Notwithstanding Dr. Warburton's far-fetched explanation, I believe that the words be naught awhile, mean no more than this:,,Bẹ content to be a cypher, till I shall think fit to elevate you into consequence." This was certainly a proverbial saying. STEEVENS.

Naught and nought are frequently confounded in old English books. MALONE.

Malone says that nought (meaning nothing) was .formerly spelled with an a, naught; which is clearly the manner in which it ought still to be spelled, as the word aught (any thing) from whence it is derived, is spelled so. M. MASON. P. 5, 1. 8. your coming before me is nearer to his reverence?] This is sense indeed, and may be thus understood. The reverence due to my father is, in some degree, derived 10 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 Rowland as himself was. I imagine therefore Shakspeare 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. WARBURTON.

This, I apprehend, refers to the courtesy of distinguishing the eldest son of a knight, by the title of esquire. HENLEY.

P. 5, 1. 12. The word villain is used by the elder brother, it its present meaning for a worth less, wicked, or bloody man; by Orlando in its

original signification for a fellow of base extraction. JOHNSON.

P. 6, I. 29. he gives them good leave] As: often as this phrase occurs, it means a ready assent. STEEVEES.

P. 6, 1. 50. the Duke's daughter,] i. e. the banished Duke's daughter. MALONE.

The author of The Revisal is of opinion, that the subsequent words, her cousin, sufficiently distinguish the person intended. STEEVENS.

P. 6, last 1. for the Duke's daughter,] i. e. ^ the usurping Duke's daughter. Sir T. Haumer reads here the new Duke's; and in the preceding speech the old Duke's daughter; but in my opinion unnecessarily. The ambiguous use of the word Duke in these passages is much in our author's manuer. MALONE.

The words old and new inserted by Sir T. Hanmer] seem necessary to the perspicuity of the dialogue. JOHNSON.

P. 7, 1. 9. the forest of Arden,] Ardenne is a forest of considerable extent in French Flanders, lying near the Meuse, and between Charlemont and Rocroy. MALONE.

Arden is a general name for a woody country. Thus we have in England Henley in Arden, St. Mary in Arden, etc. NICHOLS.

P. 8, 1. 23. Gamester, in the present instance, s and some others, does not signify a man viciously addicted to games of chance, but a frolicksome person. Thus, in King Henry VIII:

You are a merry gamester, my Lord Sands."

STEEVENS.

P, 8. 1. 27. Sorts in this place means ranks and degrees of men.

RITSON.

P. 10, 1. 5. Fortune, from her wheel, etc.] The wheel of Fortune is not the wheel of a housewife. Shakspeare has confounded Fortune, whose wheel only figures uncertainty and vicissitude, with the destiny that spins the thread of life, though not indeed with a wheel, JOHNSON.

P. 11, 1. 26. Cel. My father's love is enough to honour him. etc.] This reply to the Clown is in all the books placed to Rosalind; but Frederick was not her father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventured to prefix the name of Celia. There is no countenance from any passage in the play, or from the Dramatis Personae, to imagine, that both the Brother-Dukes were namesakes; and one called the Old, and the other the Younger - Frederick; and without some such authority, it would make confusion to suppose it. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald seems not to know that the Dramatis Personae were first enumerated by Rowe. JOHNSON.

Frederick is here clearly a mistake, as appears by the answer of Rosalind, to whom Touchstone addresses himself, though the question was put to him by Celia. I suppose some abbreviation was used in the MS. for the name of the rightful, or old Duke, as he is called, [perhaps Fer. for Ferdinand, which the transcriber or printer con verted into Frederick. Fernardyne is one of the persons introduced in the novel on which this comedy is founded. Mr. Theobald solves the difficulty by giving the next speech to Celia, instead of Rosalind; but there is too much of filial warmth in it for Celia : besides, why should her father be called old Frederick? It appears from the last scene of this play that this was the name of the younger brother. MALONE.