lover?-An you my fight more. ferve me fuch another trick, never come in Orl. My fair Rofalind, I come within an hour of my promife. Rof. Break an hour's promife in love? He that will divide a minute into a thou fand parts, and break but a part of the thoufandth part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be faid of him, that Cupid hath clap'd him o' the shoulder, but I warrant him heart-whole. Orl. Pardon me, dear Rofalind. Ref. Nay, an you be fo tardy, come no more in my fight; I had as lief be woo'd of a fnail. Orl. Of a fnail? Rof. Ay, of a fnail; for though he comes flowly, he carries his houfe on his head; a better jointure, I think, than you can a make a woman: Befides, he brings his destiny with him. Orl. 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. Orl. Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rofalind is vir tuous. Rof. And I am your Rofalind. Cel. It pleafes 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 holiday humour, and like enough to consent :-What would you fay to me now, an I were your very very Rofalind? Orl. I would kifs, before I fpoke. 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, they will fpit; and for lovers, lacking (God warn us! 7) matter, the cleanlieft fhift is to kifs. Orl. 6 i. e. of a better feature, complexion, or colour than you. ToLLET. In the notes on the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Vol. IV. p. 320, lere is fuppofed to mean fkin. STEEVENS. 7 (God warn us!)] If this exclamation is not a corruption of**God ward us," i. e. defend us, it must mean, "fummon us to himself." STEEVENS, Orl. How if the kifs be denied? Rof. Then the puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter. Orl. Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress ? Rof. Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress; or I fhould think my honefty ranker than my wit. Orl. What, of my fuit? Rof. Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your fuit. Am not I your Rofalind? Orl. I take fome joy to fay you are, because I would be talking of her. Rof. Well, in her perfon, I fay-I will not have you. 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 lovecaufe. Troilus had his brains dafh'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, though Hero had turn'd nun, if it had not been for a hot midfummer night: for, good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellefpont, and, being taken with the cramp, was drown'd; and the foolish chroniclers of that age found it was-Hero of Seftos. But thefe are all lies; men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love. Orl. I would not have my right Rofalind of this mind; for, I proteft, her frown might kill me. Rof. 8 Sir T. Hanmer reads-coroners, by the advice, as Dr. Warburton hints, of fome anonymous critick. JOHNSON. Mr. Edwards propofes the fame emendation, and supports it by à paffage in Hamlet: "The coroner hath fat on her, and finds it--Chriftian burial." I believe, however, the old copy is right; though found is undoubtedly ufed in its forenfick fenfe. MALONE. I am surprised that Sir T. Hanmer's just and ingenious amendment hould not be adopted as foon as fuggefted. The allufion is evidently to a coroner's inqueft, which Rosalind fuppofes to have fat upon the body of Leander, who was drowned in croffing the Hellefpont, and that their ver dict was, that Hero of Seftos was the caufe of his death. The word found is the legal term on fuch occafions. We fay, that a jury found it Junacy, or found it manflaughter; and the verdict is called the finding of the jury. M. MASON. 3 Rof. By this hand, it will not kill a fly: But come, now I will be your Rofalind in a more coming-on difpofition ; and afk me what you will, I will grant. Orl. Then love me, Rofalind. Rof. Yes, faith will I, fridays, and faturdays, and all. Ref. Ay, and twenty fuch. Orl. What fay'st thou? Rof. Are you not good? Give Rof. Why then, can one defire too much of a good thing? Cel. I cannot fay the words. Rof. You must begin,-Will you, Orlando, Cel. Go to: Rofalind. Orl. I will. -Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rof. Ay, but when? Orl. Why now; as fast as fhe can marry us. Rof. Then you must fay,I take thee, Rofalind, for wife. Rof. I might afk you for your commiffion; but,-I do take thee, Orlando, for my husband: There a girl goes before the prieft; and, certainly, a woman's thought runs before her actions. Orl. So do all thoughts; they are wing'd. Rof. Now tell me, how long you would have her, after you have poffefs'd her. Orl. For ever, and a day. Rof. Say a day, without the ever: No, no, Orlando ; men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the fky changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen; more clamorous than a parrot against rain; more newfangled than an ape; more giddy in my defires than a monkey: I will The old copy reads There's a girl," &c. the text was propofed to me long ago by Dr. Farmer. The emendation in I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain,2 and 1 will do that when you are difpos'd to be merry; I will laugh like a hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep. Orl. But will my Rofalind do fo? Rof. By my life, the will do as I do. Orl. O, but he is wife. Rof. Or elfe fhe could not have the wit to do this: the wifer, the waywarder: Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney. Orl. A man that had a wife with fuch a wit, he might fay,-Wit, whither wilt ? s Rof. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed. Orl. 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 answer," 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 herfelf, for fhe will breed it like a fool. Orl. 2 The allufion is to the crofs in Cheapfide; the religious images with which it was ornamented, being defaced, (as we learn from Stowe,) in 1596, "There was then fet up, a curious wrought tabernacle of gray marble, and in the fame an alabafter image of Diana, and water conveyed from the Thames, prilling from her naked breaft." Stowe, in Cheap Ward. Statues, and particularly that of Diana, with water conveyed through them to give them the appearance of weeping figures, were anciently a frequent ornament of fountains. WHALLEY. 3 The bark of the hyena was anciently fuppofed to refemble a loud laugh. STEEVENS. 4 This is an expreffion ufed in feveral of the midland counties, inftead of bar the doors. STEEVENS. 5 This must be fome allufion to a story well known at that time, though now perhaps irretrievable. JOHNSON. This was an exclamation much in ufe, when any one was either talking nonfenfe, or ufurping a greater fhare in converfation than justly belonged to him. STEEVENS. 6 See Chaucer's Marchantes Tale, ver. 10,138-10,149. TYRWHITT. 7 That is, reprefent her fault as occafioned by her husband. Sir T. Hanmer reads, ber husband's accufation. JOHNSON,.. Orl. For these two hours Rofalind, I will leave thee. Orl. I must attend the duke at dinner; by two o'clock I will be with thee again. Rof. Ay, go your ways, go your ways;-I knew what you would prove; my friends told me as much, and I thought no less-that flattering tongue of yours won me:-'tis but one caft away, and fo,-come, death.-Two o'clock is your hour? Orl. Ay, fweet Rofalind. Raf. By my troth, and in good earnest, and fo God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot of your promife, or come one minute behind your hour, I will think you the most pathetical break-promife, and the moft hollow lover, and the moft unworthy of her you call Rofalind, that may be chosen out of the grofs band of the unfaithful: therefore beware my cenfure, and keep your promife. Orl. With no lefs religion, than if thou wert indeed my Rofalind: So, adieu. Rof. Well, time is the old juftice that examines all fuch offenders, and let time try: Adieu! [Exit ORLANDO. Cel. You have fimply mifus'd our fex in your love-prate : we must have your doublet and hofe pluck'd over your head, and fhow the world what the bird hath done to her own neft. Rof. O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how many fathom deep I am in love! But it cannot be founded; my affection hath an unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal. Cel. Or rather, bottomlefs; that as faft as you pour affection in, it runs out. Rof. No, that fame wicked baftard of Venus, that was begot of thought,9 conceiv'd of fpleen, and born of madness; that blind rafcally boy, that abuses every one's eyes, because his own are out, let him be judge, how deep I am in love : 8 I believe, by pathetical break-promife, Rofalind means a lover whose falfehood would most deeply affect his mistress. MALONE. 9-begot of thought,] i. e. of melancholy. STEEVENT. VOL. II, B b I'll |