[Though thou the waters warpe]

this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is peculiarly remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave, the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle. JOHNSON: To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: when milk is changed by curdling, we say it is turned; when water is changed or turned by frost, Shakespeare says it is curdled. To be warp'd is only to be changed from its natural state. STEEVENS: Dr Farmer supposes warp'd to mean the same as curdled, and adds that a similar idea occurs in Coriol. V, iii, 66: '—the icicle That's curdled by the frost.' HOLT WHITE: Among a collection of Saxon adages in Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. i, p. 221, the succeeding appears: winter sceal geweorpan weder,' winter shall warp water. [See Wright's note, post.] So that Shakespeare's expression was anciently proverbial. WHITER: 'Warp' signifies to contract, and is so used without any allusion to the precise physical process which takes place in that contraction. Cold and winter have been always described as contracting; heat and summer as dissolving or softening. The cold is said to 'warp the waters' when it contracts them into the solid substance of ice and suffers them no longer to continue in a liquid or flowing state. NARES: It appears

that to warp' sometimes was used poetically in the sense of to weave, from the warp which is first prepared in weaving cloth. Hence [the present passage] may be explained, though thou weave the waters into a firm texture.' CALDECOTT: In III, iii, 80, Jaques says, 'then one of you will prove a shrunk pannel; and, like green timber, warp, warp;' and from the inequalities it makes in the surface of the earth the mold-warp (or mole) is so denominated. And see Golding's Ovid, II [p. 22 verso. ed. 1567]: Hir handes gan warpe and into pawes ylfauordly to grow.' 'Curvarique manus et aduncos crescere in ungues Coeperunt.' [It is proper to repeat the foregoing notes here, erroneous in the main though they be, because some of them, in whole or in part, are found in modern editions. But the note which supersedes all others, and which conclusively determines the meaning, is as follows:] WRIGHT: In the Anglosaxon weorpan, or wyrpan, from which 'warp' is derived, there are the two ideas of throwing and turning. By the former of these it is connected with the German werfen, and by the latter with Anglosaxon hweorfan and Gothic hvairban. The prominent idea of the English 'warp' is that of turning or changing, from which that of shrinking or contracting, as wood does, is derivative. So in Meas. for Meas. I, i, 15, Shakespeare uses it as equivalent to 'swerve,' to which it may be etymologically akin: There is our commission From which we would not have you warp. Hence 'warped,' equivalent to distorted, in Lear, III, vi, 56: 'And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim What store her heart is made on.' With which compare Wint. Tale, I, ii, 365: This is strange: methinks My favour here begins to warp.' And All's Well, V, iii, 49: Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me Which warp'd the line of every other favour.' In the present passage Shakespeare seems to have had the same idea in his mind. The effect of the freezing wind is to change the aspect of the water, and we need not go so far as Whiter, who insists that 'warp' here means to contract, and so accurately describes the action of frost upon water. A fragment from a collection of gnomic sayings, preserved in Anglosaxon in the Exeter (MS), has been quoted by Holt White and repeated by subsequent commentators under the impression that it illustrates this passage. This impression is founded on a mistake. [White renders the fragment winter shall warp water.'] But, unfortunately, 'water' is not mentioned, and the word so rendered is 'weather,' that is, 'fair weather,' and is moreover the subject of the following and not the object

198

Duke Sen. If that you were the good Sir Rowlands fon,
As you haue whisper'd faithfully you were,
And as mine eye doth his effigies witnesse,
Moft truly limn'd, and liuing in your face,

Be truly welcome hither: I am the Duke

That lou'd your Father, the residue of your fortune,
Go to my Caue, and tell mee. Good old man,
Thou art right welcome, as thy mafters is:
Support him by the arme: giue me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes vnderstand.

198, 199. were] are Dyce conj.

200

205

Excunt.

207

205. maflers] F ̧.

of the preceding verb. [In Caldecott's quotation from Golding's Ovid] the idea of bending or turning, and so distorting, is again the prominent one. We may, therefore, understand by the warping of the waters either the change produced in them by the action of the frost or the bending and ruffling of their surface caused by the wintry wind.

196. remembred not] CAPELL (p. 61): This is subject to great ambiguity in this place; as signifying who is not remember'd by his friend, as well as who has no remembrance of his friend; which was sometimes its signification of old, and is so here. MALONE:'Remember'd' for remembering. So afterwards, III, v, 136: ‘And now I am remembred,' i. e. and now that I bethink me.' WHITER replies to Malone: Certainly not. If ingratitude consists in one friend not remembering another, it surely must consist likewise in one friend not being remember'd by another. So in the former line, benefits forgot' by our friend, or our friend forgetting benefits, will prove him equally ungrateful. MOBERLY: As what an unremembered friend feelscompendiary comparison.

199. whisper'd] By the use of this word we are artfully told that the Duke and Orlando had carried on a subdued conversation during the music. How old this practice is, and what vitality it has!-ED.

200. effigies] A trisyllable, with the accent on the second syllable. 203. residue] By considering the unaccented in the middle of this word as dropped, Abbott, § 467, thus scans: 'That lóv'd | your fáther: | the rési | due óf | I your fortune.' [Again, I doubt.—ED.]

205. Thou] Note the change of address to a servant.-ED.

1

Actus Tertius. Scena Prima.

Enter Duke, Lords, & Oliuer.

Du. Not see him since ? Sir, fir, that cannot be :

But were I not the better part made mercie,

I should not feeke an absent argument

Of my reuenge, thou prefent : but looke to it,
Finde out thy brother wherefoere he is,

5

Seeke him with Candle: bring him dead, or liuing
Within this tweluemonth, or turne thou no more
To eke a liuing in our Territorie.

Thy Lands and all things that thou doft call thine,
Worth feizure, do we feize into our hands,

Till thou canft quit thee by thy brothers mouth,
Of what we thinke against thee.

ΟΙ. Oh that your Highnesse knew my heart in this :

I neuer lou'd my brother in my life.

Duke. More villaine thou. Well push him out of dores

1. The Palace. Rowe.

Duke] Duke junior. Cap. Duke Frederick Mal.

2. fee] seen Coll. (MS) ii, iii, Sing. Ktly, Huds.

4. Seeke] fee Ff.

10

15

7. with Candle] instantly Cartwright. 8. twelvemonth] tweluemoneth FF2. 16. Well push] Well—Push Johns.

3. the better part] See, for similar omissions of prepositions, Abbott, § 202. Cf. 'all points,' I, iii, 123.

4. argument] JOHNSON: An argument is used for the contents of a book; thence Shakespeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in yet another sense. [Cf. I, ii, 278.]

5. thou present] ABBOTT, § 381: The participle is sometimes implied in the case of a simple word, such as being.'

7. Candle] STEEVENS: Probably alluding to St Luke, xv, 8.

II. seize] The usual legal term for taking possession. It is doubtful, however, whether seizure' be used in a legal sense, although I am not sure that a nice legal point might not be herein detected by a wild enthusiast for the still wilder theory that Shakespeare was not the author of these plays. As there can be in strict law no 'seizure' until after 'forfeiture,' the forfeiture in the case before us is made alternative upon Oliver's producing the body of Orlando, in which case a verbal seizure' will hold. Clearly, therefore, it is this seizure in posse which is here intended, and not a seizure which can follow only conviction and forfeiture; the term is thus used in its strictest, choicest, legal sense, and approves the consummate legal knowledge of Ba— I should say, Shakespeare.-ED.

17

Exeunt

19

And let my officers of such a nature
Make an extent vpon his house and Lands:
Do this expediently, and turne him going.

18. extent] LORD CAMPBELL (p. 49): A deep technical knowledge of law is here displayed, howsoever it may have been acquired. The usurping Duke wishing all the real property of Oliver to be seized, awards a writ of extent against him, in the language which would be used by the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, an extendi facias applying to house and lands, as a fieri facias would apply to goods and chattels, or a capias ad satisfaciendum to the person. [I cannot but think that the present is a passage which so far from showing any deep technical knowledge of law,' shows not much more than the ordinary knowledge (perhaps even a little vague at that), which must have been almost universal in Shakespeare's day, when statutes merchant and statutes staple were in common use and wont. It may be even possible that there is here an instance of that confusion which follows like a fate dramatists and novelists who invoke the law as a Deus ex machina. That Shakespeare is wonderfully correct in general is continually manifest. But I doubt if the present be one of the happiest examples. Lord Campbell, when he says that the Duke aims at Oliver's realty by this writ of extent, overlooked the fact that the Duke had already 'seized' not only all Oliver's realty, but even all his personalty, by an act of arbitrary power. After this display on the part of the Duke that he should invoke the aid of the sheriff and proceed according to due process of law and apply for a writ of extendi facias, which could only issue on due forfeiture of a recognizance or acknowledged debt (under circumstances which had not here occurred), is inconsequential, to say the least, and betokens either a confused knowledge of law (which could be only doubtfully imputed to Shakespeare), or an entire indifference to such trivial details or sharp quillets which only load without helping the progress of the plot. It was dramatically necessary that Oliver should be set adrift, houseless and landless, in order that he and Orlando should hereafter meet; how he was to be rendered houseless and landless was of little moment, the use of a legal term or so would be all-sufficient to create the required impression; officers of the law are ordered to make an extent' upon his house and lands, and the end is gained. A 'deep technical knowledge' of the writ of extendi facias in Shakespeare's day would know that with the lands and goods of the debtor in cases where the Crown was concerned, as here, the sheriff was commanded to take the body also; but this would never do in the present case; Oliver must not himself be detained; he has to be sent forth, somewhere to meet with Orlando; either the sheriff will have to apply to the Court for instructions or the writ must be radically modified. In short, is it not clear that the law here, as it is in The Merchant of Venice, is invoked merely for dramatic purposes, and was neither intended to be shrilly sounded nor technically exact ?-ED.]

19. expediently] JOHNSON: That is, expeditiously. [For other instances of 'expedient,' in the sense of expeditious, see Schmidt, s. v.]

Scena Secunda.

Enter Orlando.

Orl. Hang there my verse, in witnesse of my loue,
And thou thrice crowned Queene of night furuey
With thy chafte eye, from thy pale fpheare aboue
Thy Huntresse name, that my full life doth fway.
O Rofalind, these Trees fhall be my Bookes,
And in their barkes my thoughts Ile charracter,
That euerie eye, which in this Forrest lookes,
Shall fee thy vertue witnest euery where.
Run, run Orlando, carue on euery Tree,
The faire, the chaste, and vnexpressiue shee.

1. The Forrest. Rowe.

Orlando] with a Paper. Cap.

Exit

3. thrice crowned] thrice-crowned Theob. et seq.

5. name] fame Anon.

3. thrice crowned Queene] JOHNSON: Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines: Terret, lustrat, agit; Proserpina, Luna, Diana; Ima, superna, feras; sceptro, fulgore, sagittis.' SINGER: Shakespeare was doubtless familiar with Chapman's Hymns, and the following from Hymnus in Cynthiam, 1594, may have been in his mind: Nature's bright eye-sight, and the night's fair soul, That with thy triple forehead dost control Earth, seas, and hell.' [Although this has been repeated by four or five subsequent editors, I fail to detect any grounds for the supposition that Shakespeare had ever seen the passage.-ED.]

5. Thy Huntresse name] CoWDEN-CLARKE: Orlando calls his mistress one of Diana's huntresses, as being a votaress of her order; a maiden lady, a virgin princess. Just as Hero is styled the 'virgin knight' of the 'goddess of the night.'

5. sway] STEEVENS: So in Twelfth N. II, v, 118: 'M, O, A, I, doth sway my life.'

11. vnexpressive] JOHNSON: For inexpressible. MALONE: Milton also: With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born Heir.'-Hymn to the Nativity, 116. CALDECOTT quotes Lycidas, 176: 'And hears the unexpressive nuptial song.' WALKER (Crit. i, 179) gives many instances of adjectives in -ive that are frequently used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, so to speak, in a passive sense.' On p. 182 he asks: Did this usage originate in the unmanageable length of some of the adjectives in able and ible, as unsuppressible, uncomprehensible? The corresponding section in Abbott is $3.

11. shee] For other instances where he and she are used for man and woman, see Abbott, § 224. See line 378, post.