Enter HYMEN, leading ROSALIND in her proper habit, and CElia. Still music.

Hymen. Then is there mirth in Heaven,

When earthly things made even

Atone together.

Good Duke, receive thy daughter;
Hymen from Heaven brought her,
Yea, brought her hither;

That thou might'st join her hand with his,
Whose heart within her bosom is.

Ros. [To DUKE S.] To you I give myself, for
I am yours.

[To ORLANDO.] To you I give myself, for I am yours. Duke S. If there be truth in sight, you are my

daughter.

Orl. If there be truth in sight, you are my Ros

alind.

Phe. If sight and shape be true,

Why, then,

my love adieu!

Ros. [To DUKE S.] I'll have no father if you be not he:

[To ORLANDO.] I'll have no husband if you be not

[To PHEBE.] Nor ne'er wed woman if you be not she. Hym. Peace, ho! I bar confusion.

'Tis I must make conclusion

Of these most strange events:
Here's eight that must take hands,
To join in Hymen's bands,

If truth holds true contents.

[To ORLANDO and ROSALIND.

You and you no cross shall part;

[To OLIVER and CELIA.

You and you are heart in heart:

[TO PHEBE.

You to his love must accord,
Or have a woman to your lord:

[To TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.
You and you are sure together
As the Winter to foul weather.
Whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing,
Feed yourselves with questioning,
That reason wonder may diminish,
How thus we met, and these things finish.

Song.

Wedding is great Juno's crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed!
'Tis Hymen peoples every town;
High wedlock, then, be honoured:
Honour, high honour and renown,
To Hymen, god of every town!

Duke S. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me; Even daughter, welcome in no less degree.

Phe. [To SILVIUS.] I will not eat my word; now thou art mine,

Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine.

Enter JAQUES DE BOIS.

Jaques de Bois. Let me have audience for a word or two;

I am the second son of old Sir Rowland

That bring these tidings to this fair assembly:
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this Forest,
Address'd a mighty power, which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take
His brother here, and put him to the sword:

And to the skirts of this wild wood he came,
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprise and from the world:
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands restor'd to them again,
That were with him exil'd. This to be true,
I do engage my life.

Duke S.

Welcome, young man;

Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding:
To one, his lands withheld; and to the other,
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this Forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun, and well begot:

And after, every of this happy number,

That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us, Shall share the good of our returned fortune, According to the measure of their 'states.

Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,

And fall into our rustic revelry : ·

Play, music; and you brides and bridegrooms all, With measure heap'd in joy, to th' measures fall.

Jaq. Sir, by your patience: If I heard you rightly, The Duke hath put on a religious life,

And thrown into neglect the pompous Court?
Jaq. de B. He hath.

Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites
There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.
You [to DUKE S.] to your former honour I bequeath;
Your patience, and your virtue, well deserves it:
You [to ORLANDO] to a love that your true faith doth
merit :

--

You [to OLIVER] to your land, and love, and great

allies :

You [to SILVIUS] to a long and well-deserved bed:

And you [to TOUCHSTONE] to wrangling; for thy

I am for other than for dancing measures.
Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay.

Jaq. To see no pastime, I: - what

you

would have,

I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. [Exit. Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we'll begin these rites, As we do trust they'll end in true delights.

[A dance.

EPILOGUE.

Ros. It is not the fashion to see the Lady the Epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the Lord the Prologue. If it be true that 'good wine needs no bush,' 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue: Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simp'ring, none of you hates them,) that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defi'd not: and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'sy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt.

NOTES ON AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT FIRST.

SCENE I.

but poor a thousand crowns : - Thus the origi. nal; but all modern editors, except Mr. Knight, read "a poor thousand crowns," and thus destroy a textual trait characteristic of Shakespeare's time- the separation of the adjective from the noun which it qualified, by an article, or a pronoun; as " good my coz," Sc. 2, and " 'good my liege," Sc. 3, of this very play. It is almost needless to remark that the construction of this speech shows that Orlando and Adam enter in the midst of a conversation.

66

My brother Jaques he keeps at school":We are to understand school' as meaning a university, not a primary school. The schools of Oxford, or of Padua, are frequently mentioned in the literature of Shakespeare's day; and we still speak of all the learning of the schools. This Note would seem almost superfluous, had not serious efforts been made, and at no remote period, to defend Shakespeare from a charge of inconsistency in making an elder brother of his hero a school-boy! In the old tale the second brother is also at schoole."

Warburton

66 stays me here at home unkept": proposed styes,' which is but plausible. The similarity of thought between 'stay' and 'keep' is necessary to the antithetical point of the sentence.

66—

6

and be naught a while": -"Be naught,' or 'go and be naught,' was formerly a petty execration of common usage between anger and contempt, which has been supplied by others that are worse, as be hanged,' 'be cursed,' &c.; a while,' or 'the while,' was frequently added merely to round the phrase." Nares' Glossary.

66

the Duke's wrestler":

- The uniform spelling