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And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
And take upon command what help we have,
That to your wanting may be ministred.

Orla. Then, but forbear your food a little while,
Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,
And give it food. There is an old poor man,
Who after me hath many a weary step
Limp'd in pure love; till he be first suffic'd,-
Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger,-
I will not touch a bit.

Duke S. Go find him out,

And we will nothing waste till you return.

Orla. I thank ye; and be bless'd for your good com

fort!

[Exit.

Duke S. Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy : This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.

Jaq. All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits, and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

And then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school: And then, the lover;
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eye-brow: Then, a soldier
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, 3
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, 4
Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth: And then, the justice;
In fair round belly, with good capon lin❜d,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances,

And so he plays his part: The sixth age shifts

[3] Beards of different cut were appropriated in our author's time to dif ferent characters and professions. The soldier had one fashion, the judge another, the bishop different from both, &c. MALONE.

[4] Lest it should be supposed that these epithets are synonymous, it is ne cessary to be observed that one of the ancient senses of sudden, is violent. STEEVENS.

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon ;5
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound: Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness, and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

Re-enter ORLANDO, with ADAM.

Duke S. Welcome: Set down your venerable burden, And let him feed.

[5] There is a greater beauty than appears at first sight in this image. He is here comparing human life to a stage play of seven acts, (which is no unusual division before our author's time.) The sixth he calls the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, alluding to that general character in the Italian comedy, called Il Pantalone; who is a thin emaciated old man in slippers; and well designed, in that epithet, because Pantalone is the only character that acts in slippers.. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton boldly asserts that this was "no unusual division of a play before our author's time." One of Chapman's plays (Two wise Men and all the rest Fools) is indeed in seven acts. This, however, is the only dramatic piece that I have found so divided. But surely it is not necessary to suppose that our author alluded here to any such precise division of the drama. His comparisons seldom run on four feet. It was sufficient for him that a play was distributed into several acts, and that human life, long be fore his time, had been divided into seven periods. In The Treasury of ancient and modern Times, 1613, Proclus, a Greek author, is said to have divided the lifetime of man into seven ages; over each of which one of the seven planets was supposed to rule. The first age is called Infancy, containing the space of foure yeares.-The second age continueth ten yeares, untill he attaine to the yeares of fourteene: this age is called Childhood.-The third age consisteth of eight yeares, being named by our auncients Adolescensie or Youthhood; and it lasteth from fourteene, till two and twenty yeares be fully compleate.-The fourth age paceth on, till a man have accomplished two and fortie yeares, and is tearmed Young Manhood.-The fifth age, named Mature Manhood, hath (according to the said authour) fifteene yeares of continuance, and therefore makes his progress so far as six and fifty yeares.-Afterwards, in adding twelve yeares to fifty-sixe, you shall make up sixty-eight yeares, which reach to the end of the sixt age, and is called Old Age.-The seaventh and last of these seven ages is limited from sixty-eight yeares, so far as four-score and eight, being called weak, declining, and Decrepite Age. -If any man chance to goe beyond this age, (which is more admired than noted in many,) you shall evidently perceive that he will returne to his first condition of Infancy againe."-Hippocrates likewise divided the life of man into seven ages, but differs from Proclus in the number of years allotted to each period. See Brown's Vulgar Errors, folio, 1686, p. 173. MALONE. I have seen, more than once, an old print, entitled, The Stage of Man's Life, divided into seven ages. As emblematical representations of this sort were formerly stuck up, both for ornament and instruction, in the generality of houses, it is more probable that Shakspeare took his hint from thence, than from Hippocrates or Proclus. HENLEY,

One of the representations to which Mr. Henley alludes, was formerly in my possession; and considering the use it is of in explaining the passage before us, "I could have better spared a better print." I well remember that it exhibited the school-boy with his satchel hanging over his shoulder. STEEVENS.

Orla. I thank you most for him.

Adam. So had you need ;

I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.

Duke S. Welcome, fall to: I will not trouble you
As yet, to question you about your fortunes:
-Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing.

AMIENS sings.

SONG.

1.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh, ho! sing, heigh, ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly :
Then, heigh, ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

2.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,6
Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remember'd not.

Heigh, ho! sing, heigh, ho! &c.

Duke S. If that you are the good sir Rowland's son,As you have whisper'd faithfully, you were;

And as mine eye doth his effigies witness

[6] The surface of waters, so long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are, this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle. KENRICK.

To warp was, probably, in Shakspeare's time, a colloquial word, which conveyed no distant allusion to any thing else, physical or mechanical. To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: when milk is changed by curdling, we now say it is turned when water is changed or turned by frost, Shakspeare says, it is curdled. To be warp'd is only to be changed from its natural state. JOHNS.-The meaning is this: Though the very waters, by thy agency, are forced, against the law of their nature, to bend from their stated level, yet thy sting occasions less anguish to man, than the ingratitude of those he befriended. HENLEY.

Most truly limn'd, and living in your face,-
Be truly welcome hither: I am the duke,
That lov'd your father: The residue of your fortune,
Go to my cave and tell me.-Good old man,
Thou art right welcome, as thy master is :-
Support him by the arm.-Give me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes understand.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I-A Room in the Palace.

Enter Duke FREDERICK,

OLIVER, Lords, and Attendants.

Duke F.

NOT see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be :
But were I not the better part made mercy,
I should not seek an absent argument?
Of my revenge, thou present: But look to it;
Find out thy brother, wheresoe'er he is;

Seek him with candle ; bring him dead or living,
Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more
To seek a living in our territory.

Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine,
Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands;
Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth,
Of what we think against thee.

Oli. O, that your highness knew my heart in this! I never lov'd my brother in my life.

Duke F. More villain thou.-Well, push him out of

doors;

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent upon his house and lands :o

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Do this expediently, and turn him going.

[Exeunt.

[7] An argument is the contents of a book, thence Shakspeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in yet another sense. JOH. [8] Alluding, probably, to St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xv. 8. STEEVENS.

[9] To make an extent of lands," is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ (extendi facias) whereby the sheriff' is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid. MALONE.

[1] i. e. expeditiously. JOHNS-Expedient, throughout our author's plays, signifies expeditious. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

The Forest. Enter ORLANDO, with a paper. Orla. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And, thou, thrice-crowned queen of night,2 survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway. O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. Run, run, Orlando; carve, on every tree,

The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. [Exit. Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

Cor. And how like you this shepherd's life, master Touchstone?

Touch. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect 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 stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?

Cor. No more, but that I know, the more one sickens, 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 pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the sun: That he,that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

Touch. Such a one is a natural philosopher.3 Wast ever in court, shepherd?

[2] Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess, and comprised in these memorial ĺines:

Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana,
Ima, superna feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis.

JOHNSON.

[3] The shepherd had said all the philosophy he knew was the prop erty of things, that rain wetted, fire burnt, &c. And the Clown's reply, in a satire on physics or natural philosophy, though introduced with a quibble, is extremely just. For the natural philosopher is indeed as ignorant (notwithstanding all his parade of knowledge) of the efficient cause of things, as

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