[the rest shall beare this burthen]

by Lodge's Rosalynde: What newes, forrester? hast thou wounded some deere, and lost him in the fall? Care not, man, for so small a losse; thy fees was but the skinne, the shoulder, and the horns.'

14. In the arrangement of this Song, Rowe and Pope followed the Folio, and their 'sagacity' in so doing was sarcastically pronounced by Theobald admirable.' 'One would expect,' he continues, in a tone which was intended to be very bitter, 'when they were Poets, they would at least have taken care of the Rhymes, and not foisted in what has Nothing to answer it. Now where is the Rhyme to "the rest shall bear this Burthen"? Or, to ask another Question, where is the sense of it? Does the Poet mean that He, that kill'd the Deer, shall be sung home, and the Rest shall bear the Deer on their Backs? This is laying a Burthen on the Poet, which We must help him to throw off. In short, the Mystery of the Whole is, that a Marginal Note is wisely thrust into the Text; the Song being design'd to be sung by a single Voice, and the Stanza's to close with a Burthen to be sung by the whole Company.' And so Theobald printed it. The rest shall bear this burthen' was placed as a stage-direction in the margin; and then to show that he too was a Poet he thus patched and pieced out the lines: 'Then sing him home: take thou no scorn || To wear the horn, the horn, the horn.' Hanmer, Warburton, and Johnson followed him, except that Hanmer, in line 18, read: 'And thy own father bore it.' JOHNSON reprinted Theobald's note as a specimen,' he said, 'of Mr Theobald's jocularity, and of the eloquence with which he recommends his emendations;' but Johnson adopted Theobald's text nevertheless. CAPELL remodelled the whole Song thus, wherein 'I. V.' and '2. V.' stand for First and Second Voice respectively, and both' means both voices:

1. V. What shall he have, that kill'd the deer?

2. V. His leather skin, and horns to wear.

1. V. Then sing him home:

both.

Take thou no scorn

to wear the horn, the lusty horn
it was a crest ere thou wast born:-
1. V. Thy father's father wore it ;
2. V. And thy father bore it :-
cho.

The horn, the horn, the lusty horn,

is not a thing to laugh to scorn.

Capell suggested that if line 18 should be perfected' we might read: 'Ay and thy father,' &c., or 'Ay and his father bore it,'' meaning his father's father's father; which makes the satire the keener, by extending the blot to another generation.' 'Cho.' means the whole band of foresters, 'Jaques and all.' However much Steevens might laugh at Capell and his crabbed English, and Dr Johnson say of him, Sir, if he had come to me, I'd have endowed his purposes with words,' there can be no doubt that Capell's text had deservedly great influence with both of these two editors in their Variorum editions. (Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say that to Theobald and to Capell, more than to any other two editors, is due the largest share of the purity of Shakespeare's text to-day.) Accordingly, in the Variorum of 1773 the lines of the Song were numbered 1 and 2, as Capell had, numbered them, but the imitation was not carried so

[the rest shall beare this burthen]

far as to add 1. V. or 2. V., and The rest shall bear this burthen' was retained in the margin, whereas, as we have seen, Capell omitted it altogether. In the next Variorum, 1778, Capell's reading was silently adopted in line 15: To wear the horn, the lusty horn.' This, however, was rejected by Malone in 1790, and the text of the Folio substantially retained, except that 'The rest,' &c. was inserted as a stage-direction, I. and 2. as given by Capell were adopted, and before the last two lines was prefixed ‘All.' This arrangement Steevens followed in his own edition of 1793; and Boswell also in Malone's Variorum of 1821. In the latter edition BOSWELL has the following: In Playford's Musical Companion, 1673, where this is to be found set to music, the words "Then sing him home" are omitted. From this we may suppose that they were not then supposed to form any part of the song itself, but spoken by one of the persons as a direction to the rest to commence the chorus. It should be observed, that in the old copy the words in question, and those which the modern editors have regarded as a stage-direction, are given as one line.' KNIGHT, the next critical editor (Caldecott confessedly followed the Folio), omitted this line (line 14) altogether, lines 12 and 17 were numbered 1, and lines 13 and 18 were numbered 2, and to line 19 was prefixed 'All.' Knight's note is as follows: The music to this " "song [which is here reprinted from Knight at the end of this note] 'is from a curious and very rare work, entitled Catch that Catch can; or a Choice Collection of Catches, Rounds, &c., collected and published by John Hilton, Batch. in Musicke, 1652; and is there called a catch, though, as in the case of many other compositions of the kind so denominated, it is a round, having no catch or play upon the words, to give it any claim to the former designation. It is written for four bases, but by transposition for other voices would be rather improved than damaged. John Hilton, one of the best and most active composers of his day, was organist of St Margaret's, Westminster. His name is affixed to one of the madrigals in The Triumphs of Oriana, 1601, previously to which he was admitted, by the University of Cambridge, as a Bachelor in Music. Hence he was of Shakespeare's time, and it is as reasonable to presume as agreeable to believe that a piece of vocal harmony so good and so pleasing, its age considered, formed a part of one of the most delightful of the great poet's dramas. In Hilton's round the brief line, "Then sing him home," is rejected. The omission was unavoidable in a round for four voices, because in a composition of such limit, and so arranged, it was necessary to give one couplet, and neither more nor less, to each part. But it is doubtful whether that line really forms part of the original text, [where it is] printed as one line without any variation of type. Is the whole of the line a stage-direction? "Then sing him home" may be a direction for a stage procession. Mr Oliphant, in his useful and entertaining Musa Madrigalesca, 1837, doubts whether the John Hilton, the author of the Oriana madrigal, could have been the same that subsequently published Catch that Catch can, as well as another work which he names. This is a question into which we shall not enter, our only object being to give such music, as part of Shakespeare's plays, as is supposed to have been originally sung in them, or that may have been introduced in them shortly after their production.' COLLIER agrees with Knight that the whole of line 14 is clearly only a stage-direction, printed by error as a part of the song in the old copies, but instead of omitting it he places it in the margin, and has the following note: "Then sing him home" has reference to the carrying of the lord, who killed the deer, to the Duke; and we are to suppose that the foresters sang as they quitted the stage for their "home" in the wood. "The rest shall bear this burden" alludes to the last six

6

[the rest shall beare this burthen]

lines, which are the burden of the song.' DYCE in his first edition says: Much discussion has arisen whether these words [line 14] are a portion of the song or of the stage-direction. It is a question on which I do not feel myself competent to speak with any positiveness.' Accordingly, Dyce prints the line in the margin, in smaller type merely. In his two later editions he has no note, except the remark that Grant White altered Then' to They. GRANT WHITE divided the song into two stanzas of four lines each, and marked them I and II; line 14 appears as a stage-direction with 'Then,' as has just been noted, changed to They. At the end, instead of ' Exeunt,' he reads: [They bear off the deer, singing.'] In his first edition, after giving his reasons for believing line 14 to be a stage-direction, which are the same as those advanced by preceding editors, he says: "Then sing him home" has reference to Jaques's suggestion to present the successful hunter to the Duke "like a Roman conqueror"; for the song was "for this purpose." That there is an alternation of two lines of solo with two of chorus or burthen, the latter being in both cases lusty lines about the lusty horn, no musician or glee-singer, and it would seem no reader with an ear for rhythm, can entertain a doubt. "Then" in the original stage-direction seems plainly a misprint for they.' STAUNTON prints only The rest,' &c. in the margin as a stage-direction. We rather take,' he says, "Then sing him home" to form the burden, and conjecture it ought to be repeated after each couplet.' HALLIWELL says: 'There can be little doubt that the greater part of this song, in fact, the last six lines, was originally intended to be sung in chorus, Jaques being indifferent to the tune, "so it make noise enough," wherefore Halliwell divides line 14 after 'beare,' thus keeping up the rhyme to 'weare'; places This burthen' in a line by itself; and assigns the rest to be sung by the whole company. He claims for this arrangement that it 'seems on the whole more likely to be correct than considering any portion of the line as a stage-direction.' BARRON FIELD (Sh. Soc. Papers, 1847, iii, 135) was the first, I think, to suggest that This burthen' should be printed by itself, but then he said it should be in a marginal note, wherein his treatment is slightly different from Halliwell's. He also suggested 'Men sing him home,' instead of They.'

I have thus given all, I think, of the diverse textual arrangements of this song. Subsequent editors have ranged themselves under one or the other leader as best suited their fancy. The majority, however, agree in holding' Then sing him home' as part of the song, and 'The rest shall beare this burthen' as a stage-direction; which is also the belief of Roffe (p. 12) and of the present ED.

I

2

What shall he have that kill'd the deer? His leather skin, and horns to wear.

15. horne] COLERIDGE (p. 108): I question whether there exists a parallel instance of a phrase that, like this of 'horns,' is universal in all languages, and yet for which no one has discovered even a plausible origin.

Scana Tertia.

Enter Rofalind and Celia.

Rof. How fay you now, is it not past two a clock?
And heere much Orlando.

Cel. I warrant you, with pure loue, & troubled brain,
Enter Siluius.

He hath t'ane his bow and arrowes, and is gone forth

Scene V. Pope, Han. Warb. Johns. Scene continued, Theob.

2. a clock] o'clock Theob.

3. And... Orlando] I wonder much Orlando is not here. Pope+. and how much Orlando comes? Cap. and here's

5

much Orlando! Steev. '85. and here's
no Orlando. Ritson, Quincy (MS). And
here-much, Orlando! John Hunter.

4-7. Prose, Pope et seq. (except Coll.).
6. t'ane] ta'ne F. ta'en Rowe.
6, 7. forth To] forth-to Cap. et seq.

1. After the remark upon the 'noisy scene,' which has just passed (see the first note in preceding scene), and which was introduced to fill up the interval of two hours, JOHNSON continues: This contraction of time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the Acts this absurdity can be obviated. [This remark, if I understand it, and I am not sure that I do, is an undeserved slur on Shakespeare's dramatic art. To defend any dramatist, let alone Shakespeare, against the charge of absurdity in representing the passage of time by the shifting of scenes, is in itself an absurdity which no one, I think, would consciously commit. As this comedy is performed now-a-days, the 'noisy scene' is frequently omitted altogether, and this present scene opens in another part of the Forest;' this of itself is sufficient to indicate a flight of time, and no spectator notes an 'absurdity.' How much more pronounced is this flight when a whole scene intervenes, with new characters and wholly new action. It is to be feared that, in very truth, this Song penetrated to Dr Johnson's deaf ears only as 'noise,' and that, furthermore, Shakespeare's art in dramatic construction was in general so exquisitely concealed that when once it stood revealed with unmistakable plainness, Dr Johnson resented the attempt to sway his mood as a personal affront.-ED.]

3. heere much] WHALLEY: We have still this use of 'much,' as when we say, speaking of a person who we suspect will not keep his appointment, ‘Ay, you will be sure to see him much! MALONE: So the vulgar yet say, 'I shall get much by that, no doubt,' meaning that they shall get nothing. HOLT WHITE: It is spoken ironically. GIFFORD, in a note on Much wench, or much son!'-Every Man in his Humour, IV, iv, p. 117, says Much!' is an ironical exclamation for little or none, in which sense it frequently occurs in our old dramatists. Thus in Heywood's Edward IV: 'Much duchess! and much queen, I trow! [On p. 40 of Edward IV, ed. Sh. Soc. there is Much queen, I trow!' but I cannot find the line as given by Gifford, who is usually accurate.-ED.]

4-7. WALKER (Crit. i, 16): These lines are printed as verse in the Folio; which,