Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
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 20, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eye-brow: Then, a soldier;
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation

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

age

shifts

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern 21 instances,
And so he plays his part: The sixth
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon 22;
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,

also divided man's life into seven degrees or stages, though he differs from Proclus in the number of years allotted to each stage. Dr. Henley mentions an old emblematical print, entitled, The Stage of Man's Life divided into Seven Ages, from which he thinks Shakespeare more likely to have taken his hint than from Hippocrates, or Proclus. Steevens refers to the Totus mundus exerceat histrioniam of Petronius, with whom probably the sentiment originated. But we have it in Withall's Shorte Dictionarie in Latin and English, 1586:-"This lyfe is a certaine enterlude or playe, the worlde is a stage, full of change everye way. Every man is a player, and therein a dealer." Shakespeare has again referred to it in The Merchant of Venice:

"I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,

A stage where every man must play his part."

20 So in Cymbeline: "He furnaceth the thick sighs from him." 21 Modern, i. e. trite, common, trivial.

22 The pantaloon was a character in the old Italian farces; it represented, as Warburton observes, a thin emaciated old man in slippers. Nashe mentions the character in his Pierce Pennilesse. And in The Plotte of the Deade Man's Fortune, printed by Malone: Enter the panteloun and pescode with spectacles."

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.

Orl.

I thank you most for him.
need;

Adam. So had you

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 musick; and, good cousin, sing.

SONG.

I.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind 23

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 24, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

II.

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

As benefits forgot:

23 That is, thy action is not so contrary to thy kind, so unna

tural, as the ingratitude of man.

24 The folios misprint The for Then.

Though thou the waters warp25,
Thy sting is not so sharp,

As friend remember'd not 26.

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

Duke S. If that you were the good Sir Rowland's

son,

As you have whisper'd faithfully you were ;
And as mine eye doth his effigies witness
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.

25 Though thou the waters warp. Mr. Holt White has pointed out a Saxon adage in Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. i. p. 221: pinter rce al gepeonpan peder, Winter shall warp water. So that Shakespeare's expression was anciently proverbial. To warp, from the Gothic Wairpan, jacere, projicere, signified anciently to weave, as may be seen in Florio's Dict. v. ordire; or in Cotgrave v. ourdir. "Though thou the waters warp" may therefore be explained, 66 Though thou weave the waters into a firm texture." The following very apt illustration occurs in Propertius:

"Africus in glaciem frigore nectit aquas.”—El. 3, lib. iv. The context of the song

"Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky"

is also in favour of this explanation; those who have seen the congelation of water by artificial means, and the fine network appearance which first takes place on the surface, would think the expression "to warp or weave the water" highly appropriate.

26 Remember'd for remembering. So afterwards in Act iii. Sc. ult. "And now I am remember'd," i. e. and now that I bethink me, &c.

ACT III.

SCENE I. A Room in the Palace.

Enter Duke FREDERICK, OLIVER, Lords, and Attendants.

N

Duke Frederick.

OT seen1 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

I never lov'd my brother in my life.

heart in this!

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

of doors;

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent3 upon his house and lands:

Do this expediently*, and turn him going. [Exeunt. The old copy misprints "Not see him since."

2 The argument is used for the contents of a book; thence Shakespeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in another sense.

An extent or extendi facias is so called because the sheriff is to cause the lands, &c. to be appraised to their full extended value before he delivers them to the plaintiff. Blackstone.

• Expediently, i. e. expeditiously. Expedient is used by Shakespeare throughout his plays for expeditious. So in K. John:"His marches are expedient to this town."

And in K. Richard II.

"Are making hither with all due expedience."

SCENE II. The Forest.

Enter ORLANDO, with a Paper.

my

Orl. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And thou, thrice-crowned queen of night1, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that 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 unexpressive2 she.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

[Exit.

Corin. 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

This passage seems to evince a most intimate knowledge of ancient mythology, but Shakespeare was doubtless familiar with the Hymns to Night and to Cynthia of that fine racy old poet, Chapman, which, though over-informed with learning, have many highly poetical passages, among which the following may have been in our poet's mind :

dost control

"Nature's bright eye-sight, and the night's fair soul, That with thy triple forehead Earth, seas, and hell." 2 Unexpressive, i. e. inexpressible. and Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 1. the Nativity:

66

Hymnus in Cynthiam, 1594.
See Act ii. Sc. 5 of this play,
So Milton in his Hymn on

Harping with loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive n tes to heaven's newborn heir."