Chapter XL: Act I

SC. 1. "As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion.
_He_ bequeathed me, by will, but poor a thousand crowns,
and as thou sayest," etc.

The 2nd folio reads 'a poor thousand,' but the metre is in favour of the original reading, and we meet "What poor an instrument" (Ant. and Cleop. v. 2). It is really surprising to see with what pertinacity editors reject the necessary word _He_, first supplied by Blackstone.

* * * * *

"Or to speak more properly stays me here at home."

Warburton read _stys_, as in Temp. i. 2, which is certainly more forcible; but Orlando could not be said to be 'sty'd,' like Caliban.

* * * * *

"If Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, be banished."

Hanmer added _old_ to 'Duke,' which, however, is not necessary.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "_Ros._ My father's love is enough to honour him enough."

_Ros._ should probably be _Cel._ (so also Theobald), and the second 'enough' be rejected.

* * * * *

"Sport? Of what colour?"

The princess here plays on the similarity of sound between _spot_ and _sport_, pronounced with the _r_ nearly effaced.

* * * * *

"There is such odds in the _man_."

Hanmer properly read _men_.

* * * * *

"Mounsieur the challenger, the princess calls for you.--
I attend them," etc.

Celia had desired Le Beau to call him; Orlando, seeing two princesses, says 'them'; so the corrections of the critics are needless.

* * * * *

"If you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your
judgement."

Warburton ingeniously, but perhaps needlessly, read _our_ for 'your.'

* * * * *

"But justly, as you have exceeded all promise _here_."

Hanmer read '_here_ exceeded.'

* * * * *

"But yet indeed the taller, is his daughter."

For 'taller' Pope read _shorter_, Malone _smaller_, which is the usual reading, as Rosalind was 'the taller.' I feel, however, almost certain that the poet wrote '_less_ taller,' and have so printed it. We have, "Against the envy of _less happier_ lands" (Rich. II. ii. 1), and no one would object to _more taller_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Not a word!--No, not one to throw at a dog."

The 'No,' it will be seen, was transferred to the beginning of the next speech, where it was not wanted; while both sense and metre require it here.

* * * * *

"No, some of it for my child's father."

Rowe properly read 'father's child.' Sense, taste, and delicacy, alike commend this simple and natural transposition. Some editors, however, think otherwise.

* * * * *

"Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste."

For 'safest' Collier's folio reads _fastest_; we might also read, with Singer, _swiftest_, like "_swiftest_ expedition" (Two Gent. iii. 1); "in all _swift haste_" (Tr. and Cr. i. 1). But it is not necessary to alter the text; for _safe_ is, sure, certain, a sense which it retains in the Midland counties. "To take the safest occasion by the front" (Oth. iii. 2).

* * * * *

"Which teacheth thee, that thou and I am one."

Such was the structure of the time. "My thoughts and I _am_ for this other element" (Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1). It was the same in French:

"Ni la mort ni vous-même
Ne me _ferez_ jamais prononcer que je l'aime."
Racine, Bajazet, iv. 1.