Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;" Ami. I would not change it:4 Happy is your grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune 2 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;] It was the current opinion in Shakspeare's time, that in the head of an old toad was to be found a stone, or pearl, to which great virtues were ascribed. This stone has been often sought, but nothing has been found more than accidental or perhaps morbid indurations of the skull. Johnson. In a book called A Green Forest, or a Natural History, &c. by John Maplett, 1567, is the following account of this imaginary gem: "In this stone is apparently seene verie often the verie forme of a tode, with despotted and coloured feete, but those uglye and defusedly. It is available against envenoming." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, 1639: in most physicians' heads, "There is a kind of toadstone bred." Again, in Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen, 1635: "Do not then forget the stone "In the toad, nor serpent's bone," &c. Pliny, in the 32d Book of his Natural History, ascribes many wonderful qualities to a bone found in the right side of a toad, but makes no mention of any gem in its head. This deficiency however is abundantly supplied by Edward Fenton, in his Secrete Wonders of Nature, 4to. bl. 1. 1569, who says, "That there is founde in the heades of old and great toades, a stone which they call Borax or Stelon: it is most commonly founde in the head of a hee toad, of power to repulse poysons, and that it is a most soveraigne medicine for the stone.' Thomas Lupton, in his First Booke of Notable Things, 4to. bl. 1. bears repeated testimony to the virtues of the "Tode-stone, called Crapaudina." In his Seventh Booke he instructs us how to procure it i and afterwards tells us-"You shall knowe whether the Todestone be the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a Tode, so that he may see it; and if it be a ryght and true stone, the Tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would snatch it: He envieth so much that man should have that stone." Steevens. 3 Finds tongues in trees, &c.] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book I: "Thus both trees and each thing else, be the bookes to a fancie." Steevens. I would not change it:] Mr. Upton, not without probability, gives these words to the Duke, and makes Amiens beginHappy is your grace. Johnson. Into so quiet and so sweet a style. Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? 1 Lord. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 5 native burghers of this desert city,] In Sidney's Arcadia, the deer are called "the wild burgesses of the forest." Again, in the 18th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "Where, fearless of the hunt, the hart securely stood, "And every where walk'd free, a burgess of the wood." Steevens. A kindred expression is found in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "About her wond'ring stood "The citizens o' the wood." Our author afterwards uses this very phrase: 66 Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens." Malone. 6 with forked heads] i. e. with arrows, the points of which were barbed. So, in A mad World my Masters: "While the broad arrow with the forked head "Misses," &c. Steevens. 7 ―as he lay along Under an oak, &c. "There at the foot of yonder nodding beech Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook, Duke S. But what said Jaques? Did he not moralize this spectacle? 1 Lord. O, yes, into a thousand similes. To that which had too much:1 Then, being alone,2 'Tis just the fashion: Wherefore do you look 3 8 — the big round tears &c.] It is said in one of the marginal notes to a similar passage in the 13th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, that "the harte weepeth at his dying: his tears are held to be precious in medicine." Steevens. in the needless stream;] The stream that wanted not such a supply of moisture. The old copy has into, caught probably by the compositor's eye from the line above. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. Malone. 1 To that which had too much:] Old copy-too must. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone. Shakspeare has almost the same thought in his Lover's Complaint: in a river "Upon whose weeping margin she was set, Again, in King Henry VI, P. III, Act V, sc. iv: "With tearful eyes add water to the sea, "And give more strength to that which hath too much." Steevens. 2 Then, being alone,] The old copy redundantly readsThen being there alone. Steevens. 3 The body of the country,] The oldest/copy omits-the; but it is supplied by the second folio, which has many advantages over the first. Mr. Malone is of a different opinion; but let him speak for himself. Steevens. 1 Yea, and of this ur life: swearing, that we In their assign'd and native dwelling place. Duke S. And did you leave him in this contemplation? 2 Lord. We did my lord, weeping and commenting Upon the sobbing deer. Duke S. I love to cope him in these sullen fits, Show me the place; [Exeunt. For then he 's full of matter. 2 Lord. I'll bring you to him straight. SCENE II. A Room in the Palace. Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, and Attendants. Duke F. Can it be possible, that no man saw them? It cannot be some villains of my court Are of consent and sufferance in this. 1 Lord. I cannot hear of any that did see her. 5 2 Lord. My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft Country is here used as a trisyllable. So again, in Twelfth Night: "The like of him. Know'st thou this country?" The editor of the second folic, who appears to have been utterly ignorant of our author's phraseology and metre, reads―The body of the country, &c. which has been followed by all the subsequent editors. Malone. Is not country used elsewhere also as a dissyllable? See Coriolanus, Act I, sc. vi: "And that his country's dearer than himself." Besides, by reading country as a trisyllable, in the middle of a verse, it would become rough and dissonant. Steevens. 4 5 to cope him —] To encounter him; to engage with him. Johnson. the roynish clown,] Roynish, from rogneux, Fr. mangy, scurvy. The word is used by Chaucer, in The Romaunt of the Rose, 988: "That knottie was and all roinous." Again, ibid. 6190: "This argument is all roignous Your grace was wont to laugh, is als▸ missing. Your daughter and her cousin much commend Duke F. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither; SCENE III. Before Oliver's House. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting. Orl. Who's there? [Exeunt. Adam. What! my young master?-O, my gentle master, O, my sweet master, O you memory9 Again, by Dr. Gabriel Harvey, in his Pierce's Supererogation, 4to. 1593. Speaking of Long Meg of Westminster, he says-“ Although she were a lusty bouncing rampe, somewhat like Gallemetta or maid Marian, yet was she not such a roinish rannel, such a dissolute gillian-flirt," &c. We are not to suppose the word is literally employed by Shakspeare, but in the same sense that the French still use carogne, a term of which Moliere is not very sparing in some of his pieces. Steevens. 6 of the wrestler -] Wrestler, (as Mr. Tyrwhitt has observed in a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona) is here to be sounded as a trisyllable. Steevens. 7 Send to his brother;] I believe we should read-brother's. For when the Duke says in the following words: "Fetch that gallant hither;" he certainly means Orlando. M. Mason. 8 •quail —] To quail is to faint, to sink into dejection. So, in Cymbeline: 9 which my false spirits "s Quail to remember." Steevens. O you memory-] Shakspeare often uses memory for memorial; and Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes. So, in The Humorous Lieutenant: |