And fo he plays his part:The fixth age shifts With fpectacles on nofe, and pouch on fide; Re-enter Orlando, with Adam. Duke Sen. Welcome: Set down your venerable burden, s And let him feed. Orla. I thank you moft for him. I am in doubt whether modern is in this place ufed for abfurd: the meaning feems to be, that the judice is full of old fayings and late examples. JOHNSON. Modern means trite, trifling, or not to the purpose. Shakespeare is very licentious in his ufe of the word. So in K. John: "And fcorns a modern invocation." So in this play, act iv. fc. 1. 66 -betray themselves to modern cenfure." -The fixth age fhifts Into the lean and flipper'd pantalon ;] STEEVENS. There is a greater beauty than appears at first fight in this image. He is here comparing human life to a flage play, of seven acts (which was no unusual divifion before our author's time.) The fixth he calls the lean and flipper'd pantaloon, alluding to that general character in the Italian comedy, called Il i antalóne; who is a thin emaciated old man in flippers; and well defigned, in that epithet, because Pantalóne is the only character that acts in flippers. WARBURTON. -Set down your venerable burden,] Is it not likely that Shakespeare had in his mind this line of the Metamorphofes ? Patremque Fert humeris, venerabile onus Cythereius beros. JOHNSON. Adam. Adam. So had you need, I scarce can speak to thank you for myself. As yet, to question you about your fortunes. Amiens fings. SONG. Blow, blow, thou winter wind, As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not fo keen, s Because thou art not feen, Altho' thy breath be rude. Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not feen,] Heigh This fong is defigned to fuit the Duke's exiled condition, who had been ruined by ungrateful flatterers. Now the winter wind, the fong fays, is to be preferred to man's ingratitude. But why? Because it is not SEEN. But this was not only an aggravation of the injury, as it was done in fecret, not seen, but was the very cir cumftance that made the keennefs of the ingratitude of his faithless courtiers. Without doubt, Shakespeare wrote the line thus, Because thou art not SHEEN, i. e. fmiling, fhining, like an ungrateful court-fervant, who flatters while he wounds, which was a very good reafon for giving the winter wind the preference. So in the Midfummer Night's Dream, Spangled far-light SHEEN. And several other places. Chaucer ufes it in this fenfe. And Fairfax, The facred angel took his target SHENE, And by the Chriftian champion flood unfeen. The Oxford editor, who had this emendation communicated to him, takes occafion from thence to alter the whole line thus, Thou causeft not that teen. But, Heigh bo! fing, beigh ho! unto the green bolly; This life is moft jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, 6 Tho' thou the waters warp, As friend remember'd not. Heigh ho! fing, &c. Duke But, in his rage of correction, he forgot to leave the reafon, which I am afraid that no reader is fatisfied with Dr. Warburton's emendation, however vigorously enforced; and it is indeed en forced with more art than truth. Sheen, i. e. fmiling, foining. That been fignifies fhining, is eafily proved, but when or where did it fignify Jmiling yet smiling gives the fenfe neceffary in this place. Sir T. Hanmer's change is lefs uncouth, but too remote from the prefent text. For my part, I queftion whether the original line is not loft, and this fubftituted merely to fill up the measures and the rhyme. Yet even out of this line, by ftrong agitation may sense be elicited, and sense not unsuitable to the occafion. Thou winter wind, fays the Duke, thy rudenejs gives the lefs pain, as thou art not feen, as thou art an enemy that doft not brave us with thy prefence, and whofe unkindness is therefore not aggravated by infult. JOHNSON. Tho' thou the waters warp,] The surface of waters, fo long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are, this furface deviates from its exa& flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the ferface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the fides rifing higher than that in the middle. KENRICK. Perhaps the authors of the Critical Review are right in saying, that "this is an allufion drawn from the operation of weavers, who warp, i. e. fix their worsted or yarn in their looms before they work it." STEEVENS. To warp was probably, in Shakefpeare's time, a colloquial word, which conveyed no diftant allufion to any thing elfe, phyfical or medicinal. To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: T 2 when Duke Sen. If that you were the good fir Rowland's fon, As you have whispered faithfully, you were; [Exeunt. ACT III. THE SCENE I. PALACE. Enter Duke, Lords, and Oliver. DUKE. OT fee him fince?—Sir, fir, that cannot be:But were I not the better part made mercy, Ifhould not feek an abfent argument Of my revenge, thou prefent: But look to it; Seek him with candle: Bring him dead or living, Thy lands and all things that thou doft call thine, when milk is changed by curdling, we now fay, it is turned: when water is changed or turned by froft, Shakespeare fays, it is curdled. To be warp'd is only to be changed from its natural ftate. JOHNSON. An abfent argument,] An argument is used for the contents of a book, thence Shakespeare confidered it as meaning the fubje&, and then used it for fubject in yet another fenfe. JOHNSON. Worth Worth feizure, do we feize into our hands; 'Till thou canft quit thee by thy brother's mouth, Of what we think against thee. Oli. Oh, that your highness knew my heart in this: I never lov'd my brother in my life. Duke. More villain thou. Well-push him out of doors; And let my offices of fuch a nature Make an extent upon his house and lands: 8 Do this expediently, and turn him going. [Exeunt. SCENE II. THE FOREST. - Enter Orlando. Orla. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And, thou thrice-crowned queen of night, furvey, ". With thy chafte eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth fway. O Rofalind! thefe trees fhall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall fee thy virtue witnefs'd every where. Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree, The fair, the chafte, and unexpreffive fhe. * [Exit. Enter Corin and Clown. Cor. And how like you this fhepherd's life, Mafter, Touchftone? Expediently.] That is, expeditiously. JOHNSON. 9 Thrice crowned queen of night.] Alluding to the triple character of Proferpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by fome mythologifts to the fame Goddefs, and comprised in thefe memorial lines: Terret, luftrat, agit, Proferpina, Luna, Diana, Ima, fuperna, feras, fceptro, fulgore, fagittis. JOHNSON. Unexpreffive,] for inexpreffible. JOHNSON. |