Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Rof. Why, then, 'tis good to be a post.

Jaq. I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; nor the foldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politick; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these ; but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many fimples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the fundry contemplation of my travels, on which my often rumination wraps me in a moft humorous fadness.

Rof. A traveller! By my faith, you have great reafon to be fad I fear, you have fold your own lands, to fee other mens; then, to have feen much, and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands. Faq. Yes, I have gain'd me experience.

Enter Orlando.

Rof. And your experience makes you fad: I had rather have a fool to make me merry, than experience to make me fad, and to travel for it too.

Orla. Good-day, and happiness, dear Rofalind! Jaq. Nay then-God b'w'y you, an you talk in blank verfe. [Exit.

Rof. Farewel, monfieur traveller; look, you lifp, and wear strange fuits; difable all the benefits of your own Country; be out of love with your nativity, and almoft chide God for making you that countenance you are; or I will fcarce think you have fwam in a Gondola +.—Why, how now, Orlando, where have

4 fwam in a Gondola.] That is, been at Venice, the feat at that time of all licentioufnefs, where the young English gentlemen wafted their fortunes, debased their morals, and fometimes loft their religion.

you

The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's time, was confider1 ed by the wifer men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely cenfured by Afcham in

you been all this while? You a lover?-an you serve me fuch another trick, never come in my fight more: Orla. My fair Rofalind, I come within an hour of my promise.

Rof. Break an hour's promise in love! he that will divide a minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the thoufandth part of a minute in the affairs of love, it inay be faid of him, that Cupid hath clapt him o' th' fhoulder, but I'll warrant him heartwhole.

Orla. Pardon me, dear Rofalind.

Rof. Nay, an you be fo tardy, come no more in my fight. I had as lief be woo'd of a snail.

Orla. Of a fnail?

Rof. Ay, of a fnail; for tho' he comes flowly, he carries his houfe on his head: a better jointure, I think, than you can make a woman. Besides, he brings his destiny with him.

Orla. What's that?

Rof. Why, horns; which fuch as you are fain to be beholden to your wives for; but he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents the flander of his wife. Orla. Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rofalind is virtuous.

Rof. And I am your Rofalind.

Cel. It pleases him to call you fo; but he hath a Rofalind of a better leer than you.

Rof. Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holyday humour, and like enough to confent. What would you fay to me now, an I were your very, very Rofalind?

Orla. I would kifs, before I spoke.

Rof. Nay, you were better speak first, and when you were gravell'd for lack of matter, you might take occafion to kifs. Very good orators, when they are out,

his Schoolmaster, and by Bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis, and is

here, and in other paffages, ridiculed by Shakespeare.

they

they will fpit; and for lovers lacking, God warns us, matter, the cleanlieft fhift is to kifs.

Orla. How if the kifs be denied?

Rof. Then the puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter.

Orla. Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress?

Rof. Marry, that should you, if I were your miftrefs; or I fhould think my honefty ranker than my wit.

Orla. What, of my fuit?

Rof. Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your fuit. Am not I your Rofalind?

Orla. I take fome joy to fay, you are; becaufe I would be talking of her.

Rof. Well, in her perfon, I fay, I will not have you. Orla. Then in mine own perfon I die.

Rof. No, faith, die by attorney; the poor world is almoft fix thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died in his own perfon, videlicet, in a love caufe. Troilus had his brains dash'd out with a Grecian club, yet he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he would have lived many a fair year, tho' Hero had turn'd nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, good youth, he went but forth to wash in the Hellefponi, and, being taken with the cramp, was drown'd; and the foolish chroniclers of that ages found it was,-Hero of Seftos. But thefe are all lyes; men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

Orla. I would not have my right Rofalind of this mind; for, I proteft, her frown might kill me. Raf. By this hand, it will not kill a fly-but come;

5-chroniclers of that age.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, coroners, by the

advice, as Dr. Warburten hints, of fome anonymous critick.

now

now I will be your Rofalind in a more coming-on dif pofition; and ask me what you will, I will grant it. Orla Then love me, Rofalind.

Rof. Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays, and all.

Orla. And wilt thou have me?

Rof. Ay, and twenty fuch.
Orla. What fay'ft thou?
Rof. Are you not good?
Orla. I hope fo.

Rof. Why then, can one defire too much of a good thing? come, fifter, you shall be the priest, and marry us. Give me your hand, Orlando: what do you fay, Sifter?

Crla. Pray thee, marry us.

Cel. I cannot fay the words.

Rof. You must begin-Will you, Orlando

Cel. Go to-Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rofalind?

Orla. I will.

Rof. Ay, but when?

Orla. Why now, as faft as fhe can marry us. Rof. Then you must fay, I take thee Rofalind for wife.

Orla. I take thee Rofalind for wife.

Rof. I might afk you for your commiffion, but I do take thee Orlando for my hufband: there's a girl goes before the priest, and certainly a woman's thought runs before her actions.

Orla. So do all thoughts; they are wing'd.

Rof. Now tell me, how long would you have her, after you have poffeft her?

Orla. For ever and a day.

December when are maids, but I will be more

Ref. Say a day, without the ever. No, no, Orlando, men are April when they woo, they wed: maids are May when they the sky changes when they are wives. jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his

hen;

hen; more clamorous than a parrot against rain; more new-fangled than an ape; more giddy in my defires than a monkey; I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain; and I will do that, when you are difpos'd to be merry; I will laugh like a hyen, and that when you are inclin'd to fleep".

Orla. But will my Rofalind do fo?

Rof. By my life, fhe will do as I do.
Orla. O, but she is wife.

Ref. Or else he could not have the wit to do this; the wifer, the waywarder: make the doors faft upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the cafement; fhut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, it will fly with the fioak out at the chimney.

Orla. A man that had a wife with fuch a wit, he might fay, Wit, whither wilt??

Rof. Nay, you might keep that check for it, 'till you meet your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed. Orla. And what wit could wit have to excufe that? Rof. Marry, to fay fhe came to feek you there. You fhall never take her without her anfwer, unless you take her without her tongue. O that woman, that cannot make her fault her husband's occafion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will breed it like a fool!

Orla. For thefe two hours, Rofalind, I will leave thee.

Rof. Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours. Orla. I must attend the Duke at dinner. By two o'clock I will be with thee again.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ZurückWeiter »