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Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these

rites,

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

[4 dance.

EPILOGUÉ.

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, '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 with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnish'd 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 them 78: and so I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hate them,) that betwen you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defy'd not: 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.

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ANNOTATIONS

UPON

AS YOU LIKE IT.

* As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will, but a poor thousand crowns, &c.] THE grammar, as well as sense, suffers cruelly by this reading. There are two nominatives to the verb bequeathed, and not so much as one to the verb charged: and yet, to the nominative there wanted, [his blessing] refers. So that the whole sentence is confused and obscure. A very small alteration in the reading and pointing sets all right.-As I remember, Adam, it was upon this my father bequeathed me, &c. The grammar is now rectified, and the sense also; which is this, Orlando and Adam were discoursing together on the cause why the younger brother had but a thousand crowns left him. They agree upon it; and Orlando opens the scene in this manner, As I remember, it was upon this, i. e. for the reason we have been talking of, that my father left me but a thousand crowns; however, to make amends 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 sayest, 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.

2 stays me here at home unkept :] 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. So Caliban says,

And here you sty me in this hard rock.

WARBURTON.

Sties is better than stays, and more likely to be Shakspeare's.

JOHNSON.

9 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 sentiment in his eye, quoted from Attilius, by the

younger Pliny and others; satius est otiosum esse quàm nihil agere. But Oliver, in the perverseness of his disposition, would reverse the doctrine of the proverb. Does the reader know what all this means? But 'tis no matter. I will assure him-be nought a while is only a north-country proverbial curse equivalent to, a mischief on you. So the old poet Skelton:

Correct first thy selfe, walke and be nought,

Deeme what thou list, thou knowest not my thought. But what the Oxford editor could not explain, he would amend, and reads,

-and do aught a while.

WARBURTON.

If be nought a while 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 a while.

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 nought a while mean no more than this, Be content to be a cypher till I shall think fit to elevate

you

into consequence.

STEEVENS.

4 I confess, 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 to 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

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