384. -motley's the only wear.] It would not have been necessary to repeat that a motley or party-coloured coat was anciently the dress of a fool, had not the editor of Ben Jonson's works been mistaken in his comment on the 53d Epigram:

"where, out of motley's he

"Could save that line to dedicate to thee?"

Motley, says Mr. Whalley, is the man who out of any odd mixture, or old scraps, could save, &c. whereas it means only, Who but a fool, i. e, one in a suit of motley, &c.

See Fig. XII. in the plate of the window, with Mr. Tollet's explanation. STEEVENS.

395. Only suit;] The poet meant a quibble. So act v. "Not out of your apparel, but out of your suit." STEEVENS,

404. He, that a fool doth wisely hit,

Doth very foolishly, although he smart,

Seem senseless of the bob: if not, &c.] Besides that the third verse is defective one whole foot in measure, the tenor of what Jaques continues to say, and the reasoning of the passage, shew it no less defective in the sense. There is no doubt, but the two little monosyllables, which I have supplied, were either by accident wanting in the manuscript, or by inadvertence left out. THEOBALD.

406. if not, &c.] Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasms of a jester, they subject themselves to his power, and the wise man will have his folly anatomised, that is, dissected and

laid open by the squandering glances or random shots of a

fool.

JOHNSON.

47. As sensual as the brutish sting] Though the brutish sting is capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the brutish fly. JOHNSON.

I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in Othello,

our carnal stings, our urbitted lusts."

See Sting, catch-word Alphabet.

STEEVENS.

424. Till that the very, very) The old copy has

-weary, very.

446.the thorny point

MALONE.

Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the shew
Of smooth civility:]

We might read torn with more elegance; but elegance alone will not justify alteration.

JOHNSON.

449. And know some nurture:] Nurture is education. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616:

He shew'd himself as full of nurture as of nature."
STEEVENS.

462. -desert inaccessible,] This expression I find in The Adventures of Simonides, by Barn. Riche, 1584: " and onely acquainted himselfe with the solitari

nesse of this unaccessible desert."

HENDERSON.

477. And take upon command what help we have,] Upon command, is at your own command. STEEVENS.

492. Wherein we play in.] Thus the old copy.

Mr. Pope more correctly reads:

Wherein we play.

STEEVENS.

497. His acts being seven labours.] See Labours, or Acts, in catch-word Alphabet.

In the Treasury of Ancient and Modern Times, 1613, Proclus, a Greek author, is said to have divided the lifetime of man into seven ages; over each of which one of the seven planets was supposed to rule. "The FIRST AGE is called Infancy, containing the space of foure. yeares. The SECOND AGE continueth ten yeares, untill he attaine to the yeares of fourteene: this age is called Childhood. -The THIRD AGE consisteth of eight yeares, being named by our auncients Adolescencie or Youthhood; and it lasteth from fourteene till two and twenty years be fully compleate. -The FOURTH AGE paceth on, till a man have accomplished two and fortie yeares, and is termed Young Manhood. The FIFTH AGE, named Mature Manhood, hath (according to the said author) fifteene yeares of continuance, and therefore makes his progress so far as six and fifty yeares. -Afterwards in adding twelve to fifty-sixe, you shall make up sixty-eight yeares, which reach to the end of the SIXTH AGE, and is called Old Age. - The SEVENTH and last of these seven ages is limited from sixty-eight yeares, so far as fourscore and eight, being called weak, declining, and Decrepite Age. If any man chance to goe beyond this age (which is more admired than noted in many) you shall evidently perceive that he will returne to his first condition of Infancy againe." Hippocrates likewise divided the life of man into seven ages, but differs from Proclus in the number of years

Çij

:

MALONE.

years allotted to each period. See Brown's Vulgar Errors, folio, 1686, p. 173. I have seen, more than once, an old print entitled The Stage of Man's Life, divided into seven ages. As emblematical representations of this sort were formerly stuck up, both for ornament and instruction, in the generality of houses, it is more probable that Shakspere took his hint from thence, than from either Hippocrates or Proclus. -The sense in which the word labours is used, occurs in a passage of the Psalms.

503.

a soldier;

HENLEY.

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,] So, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson,

"Your soldier's face-the grace of this face consisteth much in a beard." STEEVENS.

510. Full of wise saws and modern instances,] It is remarkable that Shakspere uses modern in the double sense that the Greeks used καὶν, both for recens and absurdus.

WARBURTON.

I am in doubt whether modern is in this place used for absurd: the meaning seems to be, that the justice is full of old sayings and late examples to confirm them.

Modern means trite, common.

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

See Modern, in catch-word Alphabet, which points

out the different places in which it occurs.

511. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon;]

There is a greater beauty than appears at first sight

in this image. He is here comparing human life to a stage play, of seven acts (which is no unusual division before our author's time.) The sixth he calls the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, alluding to that general character in the Italian comedy, called It Pantalóne ; who is a thin emaciated old man in slippers; and well designed, in that epithet, because Pantalóne is the only character that acts in slippers. WARBURTON.

521. Set down your venerable burden,] Is it not likely that Shakspere had in his mind this line of the - Metamorphoses ?

"Patremque

"Fert humeris, venerabile onus Cythereius heros."

JOHNSON.

530. Thou art not so unkind, &c.] That is, thy

- action is not so contrary to thy kind, or to human nature, as the ingratitude of man. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis, 1593:

"O had thy mother borne so bad a mind,
"She had not brought forth thee, but dy'd unkind!”
MALONE.

532. Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Thou winter wind, says the Duke, thy rudeness gives the less pain, as thou art not seen, as thou art an enemy that dost not brave us with thy presence, and whose unkindness

is therefore not aggravated by insult.

JOHNSON.

Amiens (not the Duke) is here contrasting the effects of natural evil with moral; the sufferings to which we are exposed from the elements of nature,