I contest the status of footnote as "best footnote ever". Look at this one:
ROSALIND: I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen,
137 Barbary cock-pigeon Barb pigeons were thought to have been introduced from Barbary (northern Africa) and their place of origin suggested Muslim watchfulness over wives. In The Illustrated Book of Pigeons (ed. L. Wright, 1874-6), Robert Fulton remarks, "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that [Shakespeare] was at heart, if not in practice, a fancier, his intimate knowledge of them [i.e. pigeons], comes out in so many ways" (p.7) causing Furness to expostulate, "Is there left in the world any human trade, profession or pursuit wherein Shakespeare is not claimed as a fellow-craftsman? Did any of us ever think we should live to see him hailed as a 'pigeon-fancier'?"
From the Oxford World's Classics As You Like It (Oxford & New York 1993) pp.192-3, IV.1.137.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2005-04-29 01:04 pm (UTC)ROSALIND: I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen,
137 Barbary cock-pigeon Barb pigeons were thought to have been introduced from Barbary (northern Africa) and their place of origin suggested Muslim watchfulness over wives. In The Illustrated Book of Pigeons (ed. L. Wright, 1874-6), Robert Fulton remarks, "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that [Shakespeare] was at heart, if not in practice, a fancier, his intimate knowledge of them [i.e. pigeons], comes out in so many ways" (p.7) causing Furness to expostulate, "Is there left in the world any human trade, profession or pursuit wherein Shakespeare is not claimed as a fellow-craftsman? Did any of us ever think we should live to see him hailed as a 'pigeon-fancier'?"
From the Oxford World's Classics As You Like It (Oxford & New York 1993) pp.192-3, IV.1.137.