III. i. 17. extent. A legal term derived from 'extendi facias,' a writ seizing house and lands upon the forfeiture of a debt. It is not here used in its strict legal sense, since the seizure is an act of arbitrary power on the Duke's part.

III. ii. 2. thrice-crowned.

I.e., in her triple ca

pacity as Proserpina, Luna, and Diana.

III. ii. 4. huntress' name. Orlando calls his mistress one of Diana's huntresses, as being a votary of her order because a virgin (Cowden Clarke).

III. ii. 68. worms-meat. The idea that man's bodily fate is ultimately to feed worms occurs several times in Shakespeare; for example, in Hamlet, IV. iii.

III. ii. 76. incision. 'Bloodletting' by an incision was regarded by the Elizabethans as a cure for most ills.

III. ii. 88. cuckoldy. I.e., because of the symbolical horns upon his head. Another example of the inexhaustible Elizabethan jest concerning the imaginary horns upon the forehead of a husband whose wife had proved unfaithful.

III. ii. 104. butter-women's rank. I.e., these verses amble monotonously along like files of butterwomen riding nags to market.

Sayings relating to

III. ii. 137. civil sayings. orderly social life such as are illustrated by the examples cited in the lines immediately following.

III. ii. 140. span. Cf. the Prayer-Book, Psalm 39. 6. 'Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long.'

III. ii. 148. quintessence. A term in alchemy. The fifth essence of ancient and mediæval philosophy, supposed to be the substance of which the heavenly bodies were composed, and to be actually latent in all things: hence, pure essence or extract, essential part of a thing (Murray).

III. ii. 149. in little. Possibly, to adopt a sug

gestion made by Furness, Orlando means that Rosalind is in her own person the microcosm of every delightful sprite.

III. ii. 156. Atalanta's better part. To rid herself of her suitors, because an oracle had warned her not to marry, she challenged them in turn to a footrace. Overtaking them in the race she would smite them in the back with a spear, until Hippomenes finally conquered her with the aid of the three golden apples given him by Aphrodite. Her 'better part' clearly, therefore, is her swiftness of foot.

III. ii. 164. Jupiter. Spedding altered 'Jupiter' to 'pulpiter' (i.e., preacher) and in this he has been followed by many recent editors. The change though ingenious is not absolutely required by the sense or context, and therefore, the present editor has returned to the reading of the First Folio.

III. ii. 185. seven nine. There is an old proverbial saying that any marvelous event will cause 'a nine days' wonder' (Capell).

III. ii. 187. palm-tree. The strange flora and fauna of the forest of Arden have already been commented upon.

III. ii. 188.

Pythagoras'. . . rat. Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of men's souls into the bodies of animals. As for Irish rats, there are many references to the power of Irish witches and rhymers to rhyme rats to death.

III. ii. 195. hard : meet. Possibly an inverted reference to the proverb 'Friends may meet, but mountains never greet' (Steevens).

III. ii. 205. Good my complexion. An exclamation of Rosalind's that has puzzled commentators. Rosalind swears by her woman's temperament which, she explains, naturally contains a large measure of feminine curiosity, or 'Rosalind appeals to her complexion not to betray her by changing color' (Wright).

III. ii. 207. One... discovery. I.e., 'Each inch of delay makes me await the impending disclosure with the eager anticipation one has for South Sea discoveries'; or, ‘A moment's delay will dissolve my whole womanhood.' Commentators are in wide disagreement over the meaning of this sentence.

III. ii. 217. God's making. I.e., 'or his tailor's.' Cf. Twelfth Night, I. v. 256.

III. ii. 239. Gargantua's mouth. Gargantua was a giant who swallowed five pilgrims in a salad (Rabelais, Book I, chapter xxxviii). The story of Gargantua was known in England before any translation of Rabelais had appeared.

...

III. ii. 241. ay catechism. Celia means that even the shortest answers to all Rosalind's questions would be a longer task than to go through the Catechism (Furness).

III. ii. 251. Jove's tree. The oak was sacred to Jupiter.

..

III. ii. 289. goldsmiths' wives . . . rings. Rings which were given as love tokens had engraved upon the inside 'posies' or love mottoes. Cf. Hamlet, III. ii. 163. Jaques implies that Orlando has secured permission from the goldsmiths' wives to memorize the pretty sayings in the rings they had for sale.

III. ii. 291. painted cloth. Tapestries or paintings of scenes from familiar stories, often accompanied by brief explanatory legends, whence Orlando charges Jaques with having learned his commonplace sayings. Cf. Henry IV, pt. I, IV. ii. 27, ‘slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth.'

III. ii. 389. quotidian. According to Euphuistic love-making, quotidian fevers were a symptom of violent love.

III. ii. 427. dark . . . whip. This barbarous treatment was an Elizabethan method of dealing with

insanity. Cf. Malvolio's punishment in Twelfth Night.

III. ii. 449. liver. The liver was regarded by Elizabethans as the seat of love.

III. iii. 5. features. There is a jest here, caused by Audrey's misunderstanding, whose meaning has been lost. There are numerous conjectures but none satisfactory.

Goths. The pun is a

III. iii. 8. capricious double one on the word 'goats.' 'Capricious' is derived from the Latin 'capra,' a goat. 'Goths' was probably pronounced by the Elizabethans to sound like 'goats.' Ovid dwelt, during his exile, among the Getæ on the shore of the Black Sea.

III. iii. 11.

Jove in a thatch'd house. A reference to the story of Baucis and Philemon. Jove, in human form, was entertained unawares by the two peasants in their thatched house.

...

III. iii. 14. strikes . . . room. I. e., 'is more overwhelming than an excessive bill for the poor accommodation of a private room in an inn.'

III. iii. 49. gods joy. From other references in Elizabethan literature this phrase appears to be equivalent to an acknowledgment of marriage.

III. iii. 105. 'O sweet Oliver.' Possibly a quotation from an old ballad (Warburton) or the lines from an old play (Capell).

III. iv. 7. dissembling. Red or auburn hair was supposed to indicate a deceitful person.

III. iv. 8. Judas's. Medieval tradition assigns red, hence a 'dissembling colour,' to Judas' hair.

III. iv. 11. your chestnut. In this sense 'your chestnut' means 'chestnut in general.'

III. iv. 16. winter's sisterhood. Used figuratively of nuns dedicated to the 'ice of chastity.' III. iv. 43. traverse.

An allusion to the disgrace

of breaking one's lance across one's opponent's body, instead of lengthways (Onions).

III. v. 7. dies and lives. Equivalent to live and die, i.e., subsist from the cradle to the grave (Arrowsmith).

III. v. 39. dark. I.e., 'If you depend upon your beauty to illuminate you, you will be left in the dark' (Wright).

III. v. 47. bugle. 'A tube shaped glass bead, usually black' (Murray).

III. v. 62. Foul . . . scoffer. Abbott paraphrases: 'foulness is most foul when its foulness consists in being a scoffer.'

III. v. 81. Dead shepherd. The 'saw' which Phebe quotes is from Marlowe's Hero and Leander, which was first printed in 1598. The 'dead shepherd' is therefore Marlowe (d. 1593) and the reference to the poem gives a possible clue to the date of this play.

III. v. 123. mingled damask. 'Damask' was applied both to roses and to a silken material. Here, of course, the phrase refers to a color. A 'mingled damask' rose would be flush pink in tint.

IV. i. 8. censure. I.e., "Those who run to extremes either of mirth or melancholy expose themselves to the ill opinion of the everyday world worse even than do drunkards.'

IV. i. 40. swam gondola. Venice was the Mecca of the young Elizabethan fop. Rosalind means that without these affectations which travelers usually bring back from abroad, it will be difficult for her to believe that Jaques has really been to Venice and ridden in a gondola.

IV. i. 100. Troilus. He was slain by Achilles. The 'Grecian club' is an invention of Rosalind's.

IV. i. 103. Leander. He was wont to swim the