Make an extent upon his house and lands:" [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Foreft. Enter ORLANDO, with a paper. ORL. Hang there, my verfe, 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. "To make an And let my officers of fuch a nature Make an extent upon his house and lands:] extent of lands," is a legal phrafe, from the words of a writ, (extendi facias,) whereby the fheriff is directed to caufe certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the perfon entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how foon the debt will be paid. MALONE. 7-expediently,] That is, expeditiously. JOHNSON. Expedient, throughout our author's plays, fignifies-expeditious. So, in King John: "His marches are expedient to this town." Again, in King Richard II: "Are making hither with all due expedience." STEEVENS. thrice-crowned queen of night,] Alluding to the triple character of Proferpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by fome mythologists to the fame goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines: Terret, luftrat, agit, Proferpina, Luna, Diana, JOHNSON. that my full life doth fway.] So, in Twelfth Night: "M.O.A.I. doth fway my life." STEEVENS. O Rofalind! these trees fhall be my books, Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE. COR. And how like you this fhepherd's life, mafter Touchstone? TOUCH. Truly, fhepherd, in refpect of itself, it is a good life; but in refpect that it is a fhepherd's life, it is naught. In refpect that it is folitary, I like it very well; but in refpect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in refpect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in refpect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my ftomach. Haft any philofophy in thee, fhepherd? COR. No more, but that I know, the more one fickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends:That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: That good pafture makes fat fheep; and that a great caufe of the night, is lack of the fun: That he, that hath learned no wit by unexpreffive-] For inexpreffible. JOHNSON. Milton alfo, in his Hymn on the Nativity, ufes unexpreffive for inexpreffible: "Harping with loud and folemn quire, "With unexpreffive notes to heaven's new-born heir." MALONE. nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.* TOUCH. Such a one is a natural philofopher.3 Waft ever in court, fhepherd? COR. No, truly. TOUCH. Then thou art damn'd. COR. Nay, I hope,— TOUCH. Truly, thou art damn'd; like an ill-roafted egg, all on one fide. 2 he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.] I am in doubt whether the cuftom of the language in Shakfpeare's time did not authorise this mode of fpeech, and make complain of good breeding the fame with complain of the want of good breeding. In the laft line of The Merchant of Venice we find that to fear the keeping is to fear the not keeping. JOHNSON. I think he means rather-may complain of a good education, for being fo inefficient, of fo little ufe to him. MALONE. 3 Such a one is a natural philofopher.] The fhepherd had faid all the philosophy he knew was the property of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a fatire on phyficks or natural philofophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely juft. For the natural philofopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient caufe of things, as the ruftic. It appears, from a thousand inftances, that our poet was well acquainted with the phyficks of his time; and his great penetration enabled him to fee this remedilefs defect of it. WARBURTON. Shakspeare is refponfible for the quibble only, let the commentator answer for the refinement. STEEVENS. The Clown calls Corin a natural philofopher, because he reasons from his obfervations on nature. M. MASON. A natural being a common term for a fool, Touchstone, perhaps, means to quibble on the word. He may however only mean, that Corin is a felf-taught philofopher, the difciple of nature. MALONE. 4 ·like an ill-roafted egg,] Of this jeft I do not fully comprehend the meaning. JOHNSON. COR. For not being at court? Your reafon. TOUCH. Why, if thou never waft at court, thou never faw'ft good manners; if thou never faw'ft good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is fin, and fin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous ftate, fhepherd. COR. Not a whit, Touchstone: thofe, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me, you falute not at the court, but you kifs your hands; that courtefy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were fhepherds. TOUCH. Inftance, briefly; come, inftance. COR. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy. TOUCH. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, fhallow: A better inftance, I fay; come. There is a proverb, that a fool is the best roafter of an egg, because he is always turning it. This will explain how an egg may be damn'd all on one fide; but will not fufficiently show how Touchstone applies his fimile with propriety; unless he means that he who has not been at court is but half educated. STEEVENS. I believe there was nothing intended in the correfponding part of the fimile, to answer to the words, "all on one fide." Shakfpeare's fimiles (as has been already obferved) hardly ever run on four feet. Touchstone, I apprehend, only means to say, that Corin is completely damned; as irretrievably deftroyed as an egg that is utterly spoiled in the roafting, by being done all on one fide only. So, in a subsequent scene," and both in a tune, like two gypfies on a horse.' Here the poet certainly meant that the fpeaker and his companion fhould fing in unifon, and thus refemble each other as perfectly as two gypfies on a horse; not that two gypfies on a horse fing both in a tune. MALONE, COR. Befides, our hands are hard. TOUCH. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow, again: A more founder instance, come. COR. And they are often tarr'd over with the furgery of our fheep; And would you have us kifs tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed with civet. TOUCH. Moft fhallow man! Thou worms-meat, in refpect of a good piece of flesh: Indeed!-Learn of the wife, and perpend: Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the inftance, fhepherd. COR. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll rest. TOUCH. Wilt thou reft damn'd? God help thee, fhallow man! God make incifion in thee!5 thou art raw.6 5 make incifion in thee !] To make incifion was a proverbial expreffion then in vogue for, to make to understand. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant: 66 O excellent king, "Thus he begins, thou life and light of creatures, i. e. to make him understand what he would be at. WARBURTON. Till I read Dr. Warburton's note, I thought the allusion had been to that common expreffion, of cutting fuch a one for the fimples; and I must own, after confulting the paffage in the Humorous Lieutenant, I have no reason to alter my fuppofition. The editors of Beaumont and Fletcher declare the phrase to be unintelligible in that, as well as in another play where it is introduced. I find the fame expreffion in Monfieur Thomas: "We'll bear the burthen proceed to incifion, fidler.” Again, (as I learn from a memorandum of my late friend, Dr. Farmer,) in The Times Whistle, or a new Daunce of Seven Satires: MS. about the end of Queen Eliz. by R. C. Gent. now at Canterbury: The Prologue ends |