AS YOU LIKE IT. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. DR. GREY and Mr. Upton asserted that this play was certainly borrowed from the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn, printed in Urry's Chaucer; but it is hardly likely that Shakspeare saw that in manuscript, and there is a more obvious source from whence he derived his plot, viz. the pastoral romance of "Rosalynde, or Euphues' Golden Legacy," by Thomas Lodge, first printed in 1590. From this he has sketched his principal characters, and constructed his plot; but those admirable beings, the melancholy Jaques, the witty Touchstone, and his Audrey, are of the poet's own creation. Lodge's novel is one of those tiresome (I had almost said unnatural) pastoral romances, of which the Euphues of Lyly and the Arcadia of Sidney were also popular examples. It has, however, the redeeming merit of some very beautiful verses interspersed; * and the circumstance of its hav * The following beautiful stanzas are part of what is called "Rosalynd's Madrigal," and are not unworthy of a place even in a page devoted to Shakspeare : Love in my bosom like a bee Doth suck his sweet: Now with his wings he plays with me, Now with his feet. Within mine eyes he makes his nest, His bed amidst my tender breast; My kisses are his daily feast; And yet he robs me of my rest Ah, wanton, will ye? And if I sleep, then percheth he With pretty flight, And makes a pillow of my knee The ivelong night. Strike I my lute, he tunes the string, He music plays, if so I sing; He lends me every lovely thing; Yet, cruel, he my heart doth sting. |