315] Oliver. This was not counterfeit. There is too great As iv. 3. 170 testimony in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest.

317] Silvia. . . . I would have had them writ more

movingly.

Gent. ii. 1. 134

319] Sir Toby. . . . . His dishonesty appears in leaving Twel. iii. 4.421 his friend here in necessity and denying him.

Friar. . . .

. . . . And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee Rom. iv.1.76 remedy.

322] Robin Goodfellow. The King doth keep his revels

Mids. ii. 1. 18

318. flood stream. . . . . swift Severn's flood,' 1H4 i. 3.103. Etc. 319. The fairest grant is the necessity. The thought appears to be, that as necessity is the most righteous of pleas, so the relieving of it is the most honorable of grants. This is virtually the old interpretation of Warburton, and the various emendations that have been proposed-plea, ground, warrant, to necessity, etc.-are needless devices to avoid an ellipsis that is thoroughly Shakespearean. Only one other proposed interpretation merits consideration-that of Staunton: "The best boon is that which answers the necessities of the case." But this seems to me a more violent and less Shakespearean ellipsis than the other. Moreover, it turns what certainly appears to be part of the argument upon the propriety of Claudio's suit into a mere practical consideration. But the practical consideration follows, and the point of transition is plainly marked by the word Look. Furthermore, Shakespeare dwells so often on the moral duty of relieving human necessity in any form (three or four examples might be added to the two given above) that this easily falls into line as one more expression of a well-grounded idea.

320. serve.... fit. 'Will your answer serve fit to all questions?' All's ii.2.20. once = actually, once for all. Used idiomatically to postulate a definite, and frequently desperate, situation. Frequent. 'Death once dead, there's no more dying,' Sonn. 146.14. 'Nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be look'd to,' Ado. v. .1.212.

Enter Leonato and Antonio, meeting.

Leon. How now, brother! Where is my cousin, your son? Hath he provided this music?

Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dreamt not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they show well outward. The

325. in her bosom Caes. v.1.7.

326. take

=

prisoner

=

5

secretly, confidentially to her. 'I am in their bosoms,' (metaphorically) arrest, hold attent. 'Ilium. . Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear,' Hml. ii. 2.499. Of the eyes: Gent. ii.4.89; Cym. i.6.103. Cp. . . . . all men's ears grew to his tunes,' Wint. iv. 4. 186.

327. encounter = amorous onset. Several instances; see quotation above. amorous tale. Here only. ‘. . . . loving tale,' Lucr. 480; R3 iv. 4. 359.

330. put in practice. LLL i.1.308; Gent. iii. 2.89; Ado ii. 2.53.

ACT I. Sc. 2.-Line 1. cousin.... music. 'Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing,' As ii. 7. 173.

3. busy (adj.) about. Here only. Busy (vb.) with: 'Do you busy yourself with that?' Lear i. 2. 155. . . . . busied about,' Shrew iv. 4.91; Cor. i.6.34.

4. strange news (Folio omits strange). Twice elsewhere: 'I have heard strange news,' (QQ; strangenesse FF), Lear ii. 1.89; 'There's strange news come, sir,' Ant. iii. 5.2. ("Turne Herodotus, and one of his 9. Muses will tell you strange newes of our Clubb lawe." Club Law, Epilogue, 1599.)

dreamt not of. '. . . . a kind of fear Before not dreamt of,' 1H4 iv.1.75. '.... that Which he not dreams of,' Wint. iv.. 4. 180. Etc.

8. cover. Used with reference to a book at least once (. . . . this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover,' Rom. i.3.88), but there is no certainty that such a figure is intended here; it may be that of a mask (LLL ii.1.125) or of a garment (. . . . a garment Nobler than that it covers,' Cym. v.4.135).

show well outward. See quotations above; also 'show fairly outwards,' Hml. ii. 2.391; 'If these shows be not outward,' Cor. i.6.77; ['better than his outward

Ulysses.

Twel. i. 4. 13

. . O, these encounterers, so glib of Troil. iv. 5. 58

tongue,

That give accosting welcome ere it comes,

And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts
To every tickling reader!

326] Thurio..... I have a sonnet that will serve the turn

To give the onset to thy good advice.

Gent. iii. 2.93

Imogen. .... Love's counsellor should fill the bores Cym. iii. 2.59

of hearing,

To the smothering of the sense.

327] Romeo. . . . . She will not stay the siege of loving Rom. i. 1.218

terms,

Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes.

329] Falstaff. . . . . and the conclusion shall be crowned

with your enjoying her.

330] Thurio. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice.

[The passages may be compared at length.]

SCENE II

Wiv. iii. 5. 138

Gent. iii. 2.89

4] Biondello. Master, master! news, old news, and Shrew iii. 2.30 such news as you never heard of!

Romeo. .... My dreams presage some joyful news

at hand.

Rom. v.1.2

show,' Per. ii.2.48;] 'so fair an outward,' Cym. i.1.23; 'fair without,' Shrew iv.1.51; Troil v.8.1; Rom. i. 3.90.

outward. Used adverbially only in phrases show outward, here and Hml. ii. 2.391 (FF; outwards Q), and turn'd outward, Twel. iii. 1.14 and Oth. ii.3.54 (QQ; out FF).

Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-
pleached alley in mine orchard, were thus
much overheard by a man of mine. The
Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my
niece your daughter and meant to acknowl-
edge it this night in a dance; and if he found
her accordant, he meant to take the present
time by the top and instantly break with you
of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this?
Ant. A good sharp fellow. I will send for him; and

question him yourself.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appear itself; but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you and

10

15

20

9. walking.... in.. . . orchard. Ado iii. 1.5; Shrew ii. 1.112; 2H4i.1.4; Troil. iii. 2. 17. An orchard was, at an earlier date, sometimes equivalent to a garden or a shrubbery, but by this time the modern sense was firmly established. Harrison (Description of England, 1577) distinguishes a garden from an orchard as ground "wrought with the spade by man's hand." The opening scene of As You Like It is in Oliver's orchard; Romeo woos Juliet in Capulet's orchard; Justice Shallow holds a revel in his orchard with Falstaff, Silence, and others (2H4 v.3); King John is carried out to die in the orchard at Swinstead Abbey; Brutus meets the conspirators in his orchard before daylight; Hamlet's father was poisoned while sleeping in his orchard.

thick-pleached (i.e., thickly interwoven).

pleached bower,' Ado iii. 1.7; 'hedges even-pleach'd,' H5 v.2.42; 'pleach'd arms' (i.e., folded arms), Ant. iv. 14.73 'hair, With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,' Compl. 205. "Thick-grown brake,' 3H6 iii. 1.1.

10. alley. Once again in Ado (iii.1.16); twice elsewhere: 'passages of alleys,' Err. iv. 2.38; 'alleys of the body,' Hml. i. 5.67.

thus much [Q; thus Folios] = to_this_extent. The phrase is commonly substantive (hears thus much from you,' Lear iv. 5.34), occasionally adjective ('thus much moneys,' Merch. i.3.130), and at least once elsewhere adverbial (‘to be thus much o'ershot,' LLL iv.3.160)—a case, however, that is not exactly parallel, since thus much is there a measure of the excess implied in o'er. Furness would hyphenate in the present instance, 'thus-much overheard,' or else adopt the Folio reading. 14. in a dance. Once elsewhere. 'I'll make one in a dance,' LLL v.1.160. 15. accordant. Here only.

=

16. top head, or crown. Several instances. 'All the stor'd vengeance of heaven fall On her ingrateful top!' Lear ii. 4. 164. Used for forelock only here and in the parallel passage from All's Well.

19. sharp= keen-witted, discerning. Not elsewhere in this sense applied to a person; but analogous are 'sharp wit,' 'sharp discourse,' 'sharp reason,' 'sharp quillets of the law.'

21. hold . . . . as. Various instances. 'My life I never held but as a pawn,' Lear i. 1.157.

=

22. appear itself either "appear in very fact," or, more probably, "reveal itself." Once elsewhere: . . . . if you could wear a mind Dark as your fortune is,

11-14] Proteus. .... Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, Gent. iii. 1.10

19-21] Page. I will not believe such a Cataian though the priest o' the town commended him for a true

Wiv. ii. 1. 148

Ant. ii. 1. 18

21] Don John. .... Bear it coldly but till midnight, and let the issue show itself.

Ado iii. 2.132

and but disguise That which, to appear itself, must not yet be But by self-danger,' Cym. iii. 4.148. Dyce conjectured approve itself, perhaps following Steevens' conjecture in the following passage: 'You had more beard when I last saw you; but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue' [affeer'd Hanmer; appeal'd Warburton; approved Collier (Steevens conj.); appayed Singer], Cor. iv. 3.9. But seeing that we have several passages involving a similar peculiarity, it is much more probable that all are right than that all are wrong. Retaining the reading therefore, the only question is whether 'appear itself' may be reflexive. Abbott, who cites these passages (§ 296), thinks "it is perhaps used reflexively." Dr. Furness prefers to regard itself as intensive, the whole phrase being equivalent to "till it itself appear." The N.E.D. gives no example of appear used either transitively or reflexively, and there may seem to be no sufficient reason for postulating a reflexive form peculiar to Shakespeare. 'Is appear'd' (Cor.) may be explained as a case of the participle for the adjective (apparent); and 'to appear itself' (Cym.) is quite naturally equivalent to "to appear in fact, unmistakably, without disguise." Cp. I do pronounce him in that very shape He shall appear in proof,' H8 i. 1.197. Nevertheless, the familiar practice of the poet who continually employs such licences as to unfair (to deprive of fairness, Sonn. 5.4), to happy (to bestow happiness on, Sonn. 6.6), to beguile (to invest with guile, Lucr. 1544), etc., etc., creates a strong presumption that he is likewise using appear in this active, “investing” sense—“to invest or endow with appearance"; and every time I come back to these passages, my sense of Shakespeare's style not only permits but almost compels me to read them in this way. (Since writing this comment, I have noted the strongly confirmatory passage in iii. 2. 132, and I insert it above as a parallel. The evidence seems to me practically conclusive that appear is used here precisely as show might be used.)

acquaint.... withal. Various instances. 'I come hither to acquaint you withal,' As i. 1.138.