of teares, full of files; for euerie paffion fomething, and for no paffion truly any thing, as boyes and women are for the most part, cattle of this colour: would now like him, now loath him: then entertaine him, then forfwear him now weepe for him, then spit at him; that I draue my Sutor from his mad humor of loue, to a liuing humor of madnes, ŵ was to forfweare the ful ftream of y world, and to liue in a nooke meerly Monaftick: and thus I cur'd 397. my] this F1, Rowe. Sutor] Suter F, Suitor FF. 392 395 399 397. liuing] loving Johns. conj. Coll. i, ii, iii, Dyce, Sta. Huds. 398. w] which Ff. 397. liuing] JOHNSON: If this be the true reading, we must by 'living' understand lasting, or permanent; but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended which is now lost; perhaps the passage stood thus: I drove my suitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of madness. Or rather thus: From a mad humour of love to a loving humour of madness, that is, From a madness that was love, to a love that was madness. This seems somewhat harsh and strained, but such modes of speech are not unusual in our poet; and this harshness was probably the cause of the corruption. FARMER: Perhaps we should read: to a humour of loving madness. MALONE: 'A living humour of madness' is, I conceive, a humour of living madness, a mad humour that operates on the mode of living; or, in other words, and more accurately, a mad humour of life; to forswear the world, and live in a nook,' &c. WHITER (p. 51): Compare: 'Give me a living reason she's disloyal.'-Oth. III, iii, 470. That is, give me a direct, absolute, and unequivocal proof. Why then may not the living humor of madness' mean a confirmed, absolute, and direct state of madness? This signification is easily deduced from the sense which the original word bears in the phrases of 'Done or expressed to the life' -ad vivum expressum. COLLIER: The antithesis is complete if, with Johnson, we read loving, which is only the change of a letter; and this reading is supported by the MS correction of the early possessor of the First Folio in the library of Lord Francis Egerton. The meaning thus is, that Rosalind drove her suitor from his mad humour of love into a humour in which he was in love with madness, and forswore the world. [It is also loving in Collier's (MS).] WHITE: Loving is plausible, and the antithetical conceit quite in the manner of Shakespeare's time. WALKER (Crit. iii, 63): Of course loving. [Walker gives five or six instances where unquestionably 'live' has been printed love, and 'love' live.] WRIGHT: But 'living' in the sense of real or actual [as Whiter suggests] gives a very good meaning, and its resemblance in sound is sufficiently near to keep up the jingle. [Wherewith the present editor entirely agrees.—ED.] 6 399. meerly Monastick] ALLEN (MS): I wonder whether it should not be written: 'to live in a nook, merely monastic'? That is, monastic' as an adjective in the nominative, he becoming merely monastic,' i. e. absolutely religious. 399. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE (April, 1833): Who could resist this? Not Orlando; for, though love-stricken [Qu. because love-stricken?—ED.], he is full of the power of life; his passion is a joy; his fear is but slight shadow, his hope strong sunshine. . . . . There is a mysterious spell breathed over his whole being from that him, and this way wil I take vpon mee to wash your Liuer as cleane as a found sheepes heart, that there shal not be one spot of Loue in't. 400 Orl. I would not be cured, youth. Rof. I would cure you, if you would but call me Rofalind, and come euerie day to my Coat, and woe me. Orlan. Now by the faith of my loue, I will; Tel me where it is. Rof. Go with me to it, and Ile fhew it you: and by the way, you shal tell me, where in the Forrest you liue: Wil you go? Orl. With all my heart, good youth. Rof. Nay, you must call mee Rofalind: Come fifter, will you go? cotte Theob. Exeunt. 405 410 408. Ile] I will Rowe+. 413 silver speech. Near the happy close of the play the Duke says to him: 'I do remember in this shepherd-boy Some lively touches of my daughter's favour.' And Orlando answers: My lord, the first time that I ever saw him, Methought he was a brother to your daughter.' That sweet thought had passed across his mind at their first meeting, although he did not tell the shepherd-boy.' And is not this shepherd-boy with lively touches of my daughter's favour' a thousand times better than a dead picture? It is a living full-length picture even of Rosalind in a fancy-dress; and 'tis easy as delightful to imagine it the very original's own self, the slender Rosalind,' the heavenly Rosalind,' 'tis 'Love's young dream!' 400, 401. STEEVENS: This is no very delicate comparison, though produced by Rosalind in her assumed character of a shepherd. HALLIWELL: The liver was considered the seat of love. WRIGHT: See The Temp, IV, i, 56: The cold white virgin snow upon my heart Abates the ardour of my liver.' Compare the 'jecur ulcerosum' of Horace, Od. I, xxv, 15. [Forgetfulness of this fact, so familiar to every student, whether English or Classical, led Dr Bucknill (p. 110) to propose that the words 'heart' and 'liver' should be transposed. Whereto attention was called by 'Speriend,' Notes & Qu. 5th S. vol. iv, p. 182.] 406. I will] NEIL: Francis, the dramatic Censor,' suggests the insertion here of the words, 'The more so as thou hast strong traces of Rosalind's favour,' justified by V, iv, 32, 33. 413. FLETCHER (p. 218): We must bear in mind that Orlando cannot be supposed to lose sight for a moment of the resemblance in feature and in voice which the supposed forest youth bears to his noble and graceful mistress. Nor does he any more wish for his own cure than Rosalind herself desires it. On the contrary, it is because he feels the lively and delicate charm which he finds in this new acquaintance, operating, by strong affinity, to nourish and deepen the impression which his real mistress's perfections have made upon his heart, that he at last accepts the sportive invitation to [will you go] visit the cottage of the fictitious Ganymede. On the other hand, Rosalind has secured to herself the pleasure of hearing under her disguise the continued addresses of her lover; while the fact of her remaining undiscovered is brought within the limits of probability by the exceeding unlikelihood to Orlando's mind of such a metamorphosis on the part of his princess, and yet more by the perfect self-possession and finished address wherewith both she and her cousin are enacting their forest and pastoral parts, as if they were as native to the scene, to borrow Rosalind's expression, 'as the concy that you see dwell where she is kindled.' But, above all, she is talking herself more deeply into love. How beautifully does this appear in her subsequent conversation with Celia, when Orlando has failed to keep his wooing appointment: 'Never talk to me, I will weep,' &c., and in her account of how she had avoided recognition by her father, although she and her cousin had set out upon their wanderings on purpose to seek him. LADY MARTIN (p. 422): I need scarcely say how necessary it is for the actress in this scene, while carrying it through with a vivacity and dash that shall divert from Orlando's mind every suspicion of her sex, to preserve a refinement of tone and manner suitable to a woman of Rosalind's high station and cultured intellect; and by occasional tenderness of accent and sweet persuasiveness of look, to indicate how it is that, even at the outset, she establishes a hold upon Orlando's feelings, which in their future intercourse in the forest deepens, without his being sensibly conscious of it, his love for the Rosalind of his dreams. I never approached this scene without a sort of pleasing dread, so strongly did I feel the difficulty and the importance of striking the true note in it. Yet when once engaged in it, I was borne along I knew not how The situation in its very strangeness was so delightful to my imagination that from the moment when I took the assurance from Orlando's words to Jaques that his love was as absolute as woman could desire, I seemed to lose myself in a sense of exquisite enjoyment. A thrill passed through me; I felt my pulse beat quicker; my very feet seemed to dance under me. That Rosalind should forget her first woman's fears about her 'doublet and hose' seemed the most natural thing in the world. Speak to Orlando she must at any hazard. But oh, the joy of getting him to pour out all his heart, without knowing that it was his own Rosalind to whom he talked, of proving if he were indeed worthy of her love, and testing, at the same time, the depth and sincerity of her own devotion! The device to which she resorted seemed to suggest itself irresistibly; and, armed with Shakespeare's words, it was an intense pleasure to try to give expression to the archness, the wit, the quick, ready intellect, the ebullient fancy, with the tenderness underlying all, which give to this scene its transcendent charm. Of all the scenes of this exquisite play, while this is the most wonderful, it is for the actress certainly the most difficult. GRANT WHITE (Studies, &c., p. 254): Now here most Rosalinds go shyly off with Celia and leave Orlando to come dangling after them; but when I read the passage I see Ganymede jauntily slip his arm into Orlando's, and lead him off, laughingly lecturing him about his name; then turn his head over his shoulder, and say, ' Come, sister!' leaving Celia astounded at the boundless cheek' of her enamored cousin. [In a foot-note:] I have used the words 'cheek' and 'chaff' in connection with Rosalind, because they convey to us of this day the nature of her goings-on as no other words would; and Shakespeare himself, who always treats slang respectfully, although he contemns and despises cant, would be the first to pardon me. Scana Tertia. Enter Clowne, Audrey, & Iaques : Clo. Come apace good Audrey, I wil fetch vp your Goates, Audrey and how Audrey am I the man yet? Doth my fimple feature content you? Aud. Your features, Lord warrant vs: what features? Scene IX. Pope + 2. Audrey] Audrie F2. 5 3. the man] ABBOTT, § 92: The used to denote notoriety. 5. features] STEEVENS: Feat and feature, perhaps, had anciently the same meaning. The Clown asks if the features of his face content her; she takes the word in another sense, i. e. feats, deeds, and in her reply seems to mean what feats, i. e. what have we done yet? Or the jest may turn on the Clown's pronunciation. In some parts, 'features' might be pronounced faitors, which signify rascals, low wretches. Pistol uses the word in 2 Hen. IV: II, iv, 173, and Spenser very frequently MALONE: In Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594: I see then artless feature can content, And that true beauty needs no ornament' [III, ii, line 729, ed. Grosart]. Again, in The Spanish Tragedy: My feature is not to content her sight; My words are rude, and work her no delight' [II, i, p. 37, ed. Hazlitt]. Feature' appears to have formerly signified the whole countenance. So, in Hen. VI: V, v, 68: Her peerless feature, joined to her birth, Approves her fit for none but for a king.' WHITER (p. 51) Feature' appears to have three senses. First, The cast and make of the face. Secondly, Beauty in general. Thirdly, The whole turn of the body. CALDECOTT: 'Feature' strictly is form or figure. NARES: This passage may as well be explained by supposing that the word 'feature' is too learned for the comprehension of the simple Audrey. Feature' is sometimes used for form or person in general: She also dofft her heavy haberieon, Which the fair feature of her limbs did hide.'-Spenser, Faerie Queene, III, ix. As a magical appearance: Stay, all our charms do nothing win Upon the night; our labour dies! Our magick feature will not rise.'-Jonson, Masque of Queens. On the preceding charm Jonson's own note says: 'Here they speake as if they were creating some new feature, which the devil persuades them to be able to do often, by the pronouncing of words, and pouring out of liquors on the earth.' DYCE: Feature' is form, person in general. WALKER (Crit. ii, 305): 'Feature,' in its earliest form, the Latin factura, signifies, in our old writers, the make of a person, his tout-ensemble. Jonson, Poetaster, II, i, Gifford, vol. ii, p. 416: ‘her fair features'; surely an error; in the very same scene, p. 418, 1. 4, we have, No doubt of that, sweet feature'; as Browne, B. P. i, Song iv, Clarke, p. 112: 'from the ruins of this mangled creature Arose so fair and so divine a feature, That envy from her heart would dote upon her,' &c.; and, I think, Milton, P L. x: 'So scented the grim feature'; abstractum pro concreto, ut persæpe in poëtt. vett. Anglicis. Uncertain Poets, Chalmers, vol. ii, p. 439, col 2, Praise of M. [Mistresse] M.: 'I woxe asto [Your features . . . what features?] nied (?) to read the feator [feature] of her shape, And wondred that a mortall hart such heavenly beames could scape.' Browne, B P. B. i, Song ii, Clarke, p. 67 (of a fountain): Not changing any other work of nature, But doth endow the drinker with a feature More lovely,' &c. Spenser, F. Q. B. iv, C. ii, St. xliv: 'And to her service bind each living creature, Through secret understanding of their feature'; i. e. their construction, their make. C. ii, of Mutabilitie, St. iv: ‘And thither also came all other creatures, Whatever life or motion do retaine, According to their sundry kinds of features.' Carew, Epitaph on the Lady S., Clarke, lviii, init. p. 76: The harmony of colours, features, grace, Resulting airs (the magic of a face) Of musical sweet tones, all which combined, To crown one sovereign beauty, lies confined To this dark vault.' Drunken Barnaby: Where I sought for George à Green a; But cou'd find not such a creature, Yet on a sign I saw his feature,' &c. [p. 19, ed. 1805]. Dubartas, i, vi, ed. 1641, p. 54, col. 2: Can you conceal the feet's rare-skilful feature, The goodly bases of this glorious creature?' WRIGHT: There is possibly some joke intended here, the key to which is lost. Feature' in Shakespeare's time signified shape and form generally, and was not confined to the face only. [In the Transactions, 1877-9, Part I, p. 100, of The New Shakspere Soc., W. WILKINS 'made Touchstone use "feature" in its etymological sense of "making," that is, the Early English making or writing of verses, as we use "composition," &c. now. Ben Jonson,' continues FURNIVALL, 'seems to use the word in the same sense when he says of his creature or creation, the play of Volpone, that two months before it was no feature: "think they can flout them, With saying he was a year about them. To this there needs no lie, but this his creature, Which was two months since no feature." -Prologue to Volpone, 1607. MR. W. A. HARRISON finds the same sense in Bp. Latimer and Pliny: "Some of them ingendred one, some other such features, and euery one in that he was deliuered of was excellent, politike, wise."-Fruitfull Sermons, &c. by Master Hugh Latimer, &c. 1596, Sig. B 4, p. 12. Feture means here "a thing made," "a production." Pliny (Præf. Lib. I) uses fetura figuratively of a literary production, and calls his work on Natural History proxima fetura: “Libros Naturalis Historiæ. . . . natos apud me proxima fetura." Nares's citations are also repeated in a foot-note.] BRINSLEY NICHOLSON (Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, Reprint, 1886, p. 548): Feature.' An example of its being used for the make of a man, and not merely of the features of his countenance, to which it is now appropriated; but till I can find-and as yet I have found none, though I have looked out for it-an example of feature used for things inanimate, I cannot accept the interpretation of song or sonnet in [the present passage.] Did it refer to verse we should expect features..... All Touchstone's reference to verse-making in this passage may readily have arisen from his reference to his new situation as like that of the honest poet Ovid among the Goths. Had he been poetical and given her verses, he could not have explained to Audrey that he, being a poet, only feigned to love her. [We know, from Steevens's note, that the jest was lost over a hundred years ago, and it seems vain to hope to find it now. We may have our own little explanations and theories, but it is doubtful that any can be now proposed which will be generally accepted. The latest that has been offered, that of Wilkins and of The New Shakspere Soc., is to me far from satisfactory, and indeed is scarcely a clue to the joke at all, which does not lie in what Touchstone says, but in Audrey's interpretation. It makes but little difference to us what Touchstone's 'feature' is; it may be anything in the world, from a sonnet to the cut of his beard, it may be 'feature' in the sense of composition, cr it |