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DUKE S. Stay, Jaques, stay.

JAQ. To see no pastime I:-what you would have

I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. [Exit. DUKE S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these

rites,

And we do trust they'll end, in true delights."

a

[A dance.

we do trust they'll end, in true delights] It may be observed, with concern, that Shakespeare has, on this occasion, forgot old Adam, the servant of Orlando, whose fidelity should have entitled him to notice at the end of the piece, as well as to that happiness which he would naturally have found, in the return of fortune to his master. STEEVENS.

I

EPILOGUE.

a

Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue: but it is no more unhandsome, than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, (17) 'tis true, that a good play needs no epilogue: Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate(18) with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them,) that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, com

a

furnished like a beggar] i. e. dressed: so before, he was furnished like a huntsman. JOHNSON.

66

b I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: &c.] i. e. as much of this play as is your will and pleasure; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women (and the symptoms that appear of your not being averse to them, pretty plainly show your disposition,) that by your united aid, the play may please."

Of the use of please, for does, or shall please, Malone produces many instances :

"Where every horse bears his commanding rein,

"And may direct his course, as please himself." R. III.

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"Lie like one lump before him, to be fashion'd

"Into what pitch he please." H. VIII.

plexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not:(19) and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'sy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt.

complexions that liked me] i. e. I liked.

me well." Haml. STEEVENS.

"This likes

b Of this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve of the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preserved. The comick dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of this work, Shakespeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers. JoHNSON.

NOTES

ΤΟ

AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT I.

(1) be better employed, and be naught awhile] The course of the thought leads to a sense which the phrase is said to have in some provinces; and that in the North is, according to Warburton, a curse equivalent to " a mischief on you," or be hanged to you!

No distinct idea can be collected from its combinations in any of the instances of it that the commentators have produced : but a similar phraseology is to be found in our author, and in other places:

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Shew your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!"
M. for M. V. 1. Lucio.

And M. Mason instances :

"Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst awhile.”

And Dr. Farmer says,

Ben Jonson's Barth. Fair.

"What, piper ho! be hanged awhile,"

is a line of an old madrigal.

Of the phrase "be naught" (and the addition to it cannot be considered as any thing more than expletive) B. Jonson affords instances :

Peace, and be naught! I think the woman's frantic !"

"Plain boy's play

"More manly would become him.

Lady. "You would have him

Tale of a Tub.

"Do worse, then, would you, and be naught, you varlet."

New Academy.

The whole phrase in the text appears in an equivocal sense,

B

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