ACT II.
Scene 1. Page 37.
Duke S. Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
What that stone which many people suppose to come from the head of a toad really was, would be no easy task at present to determine. Various conjectures have made it the bsatrachites, chelonites, brontia, ceraunia, glossopetra, &c. Neither is it certain that the text alludes to a stone; for Gesner informs us that in his time, and in England more particularly, the common people made superstitious uses of a real jewel that always could be found in a toad's head, viz., its forehead bone. To obtain this they severed the animal in two parts, and exposed it to be devoured by ants; by which means it presently became a skeleton. The above author carefully distinguishes this bone from the toadstone, and from Pliny's bone mentioned in Mr. Steevens's note. He has likewise with great industry, as on all occasions, collected much that relates to the subject of the toadstone. See his work De quadrup. ovipar. p. 65. It must be owned that better naturalists than Shakspeare believed in the common accounts of the toadstone. Batman in his edition to the article relating to the botrax or rubeta in Bartholomæus De propr. rerum, informs us that "some toads that breed in Italy and about Naples, have in their heads a stone called a crapo, of bignes like a big peach, but flat, of colour gray, with a browne spot in the midst said to be of vertue. In times past they were much worne, and used in ringes, as the forewarning against venime." Another learned divine who is often very witty, but on this occasion perfectly grave, has told us that "some report that the toad before her death sucks up (if not prevented with sudden surprisal) the precious stone (as yet but a jelly) in her head, grudging mankind the good thereof."—Fuller's Church history, p. 151. In a medical work too we are informed that "in the head of a greate tode there is a stone, which stone being stampt and geven to the pacyent to drinke in warme wine, maketh him to pise the stone out incontinent," &c.—Lloyd's Treasure of helth, pr. by Copland, n. d. 12mo. The notion of jewels in the heads of animals is very widely spread. Mr. Wilkins has informed us that it is a vulgar notion in India that some species of serpents have precious stones in their heads. Hectopades, p. 302. The best account of the different sorts of toadstones, so far as regards the illustration of the above superstitious notions, is in Topsell's History of serpents, 1608, folio, p. 188.
Scene 1. Page 39.
1. Lord. To the which place a poor sequester'd stag
Did come to languish ...
... and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase.
The stag is said to possess a very large secretion of tears. "When the hart is arered, he fleethe to a ryver or ponde, and roreth cryeth and wepeth when he is take."—Bartholomæus De propriet. rerum, 1. xviii. c. 30. Batman, in his commentary on that work, adds, from Gesner, that "when the hart is sick and hath eaten many serpents for his recoverie, he is brought unto so great a heate, that he hasteth to the water, and their covereth his body unto the very eares and eyes, at which time distilleth many teares from which the [Bezoar] stone is gendered," &c. The translator of The noble arte of Venerie makes the hart thus address the hunter:
"O cruell, be content, to take in worth my teares,
Which growe to gumme, and fall from me; content thee with my heares,
Content thee with my hornes, which every yeare I mew,
Since all these three make medicines, some sicknesse to eschew.
My teares congeal'd to gumme, by peeces from me fall,
And thee preserve from pestilence, in pomander or ball.
Such wholesome teares shedde I, when thou pursewest me so."
Compare also Virgil's description of the wounded stag in the seventh book of the Æneid.
Scene 2. Page 43.
Duke. And let not search and inquisition quail
To bring again these foolish runaways.
"To quail," says Mr. Steevens, "is to faint, to sink into dejection;" and so it certainly is, but not in this instance; for neither search nor inquisition could very well faint or become dejected. They might indeed slacken, relax, or diminish, and such is really the present meaning of the word. Thus "Hunger cureth love, for love quaileth when good cheare faileth."—The choise of change, 1585, 4to, sign. L. i. To quail is also used in the several senses of to sink, abate, deaden, enfeeble, press down, and oppress; all of which might be exemplified from the writings of authors contemporary with Shakspeare, and some of them from his own. It seems to be a modification of to quell, i. e. to destroy altogether, to kill, from the Saxon cƿellan.
Scene 2. Page 54.
Jaq. But that they call compliment, is like the encounter of two dog-apes.
Bartholomæus, speaking of apes, says, "some be called cenophe; and be lyke to an hounde in the face, and in the body lyke to an ape."—Lib. xviii. c. 96.
Scene 5. Page 55.
Jaq. Ducdáme, ducdáme, ducdáme.
The stanza which the facetious old squire sang before Dr. Farmer has occurred in the following shape; but where is the Œdipus who shall unfold the connexion of either with Jaques's song?
"O damy what makes my ducks to die?
What can ail them, Oh!
They eat their victuals and down they lie,
What can ail them, Oh!"
Scene 7. Page 66.
Jaq. ... All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
Mr. Steevens refers to the totus mundus exerceat histrioniam of Petronius, with whom probably the sentiment originated; but this author had not been translated in Shakspeare's time. The play of Damon and Pythias, which Mr. Malone has cited, might have furnished the observation. There are likewise two other probable sources that are worthy of notice on this occasion. The first is Withal's Short dictionarie in Latine and English, several times printed in the reign of Elizabeth, where in fo. 69 of the edit. 1599, is the following passage: "This life is a certain enterlude or plaie. The world is a stage full of chang everie way, everie man is a plaier." The other is Pettie's translation of Guazzo's Civile conversation, 1586, 4to, where one of the parties introduces the saying of some philosopher "that this world was a stage, we the players which present the comedie." Shakspeare had himself used nearly the same language in the first act of The merchant of Venice:
"I hold the world, but as the world, Gratiano,
A stage, where every man must play a part."
A portion of Jaques's speech has been imitated in some lines by Thomas Heywood among the commendatory verses prefixed to his Actors vindication, 1658, 4to:
"The world 's a theater, the earth a stage,
Which God and nature doth with actors fill;
All men have parts, and each man acts his own," &c.
Scene 7. Page 66.
Jaq. And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
A print of the seven ages of men like those referred to by Messrs. Henley and Steevens may be seen in Comenius's Orbis pictus, tit. xxxvii., in which are found the infant, the boy, and the decrepid old man: the rest of Shakspeare's characters seem to be of his own invention. There is a division of the seven ages of man in Arnolde's Chronicle, fo. lix. verso, agreeing, except in the arrangement of years, with that given by Mr. Malone from The treasury of ancient and modern times.
Scene 7. Page 69.
Jaq. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
This word, introduced into our language as early as the time of Chaucer, has sometimes received on the stage a French pronunciation, which in the time of Shakspeare it certainly had not. The old orthography will serve to verify this position:
"I none dislike, I fancie some,
But yet of all the rest,
Sance envie, let my verdite passe,
Lord Buckhurst is the best."
Turbervile's verses before his Tragical tales, 1587, 4to.