CEL. By my troth, thou say'st true; for since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show. Here come monsieur le Beau.

Enter LE BEAU.

Ros. With his mouth full of news.

CEL. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young.

ROS. Then shall we be news-crammed.

100

CEL. All the better; we shall be the more marketable. Bon jour, monsieur le Beau: What's the news? LE BEAU. Fair princess, you have lost much good sport.

CEL. Sport? Of what colour?

LE BEAU. What colour, madam? How shall I answer

CEL. Well said; that was laid on with a trowel. LE BEAU. You amaze me, ladies: I would have told you of good wrestling, which you have lost the sight of. Ros. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling.

118

LE BEAU. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your ladyships, you may see the end; for the best is yet

95 Since the little wit. The puritanism of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen constantly led them to persecute the players under their jurisdiction. Collier (Annals of the Stage, i. 231) gives an epigram (which Shakspere probably had in mind here) speaking of

"Them who do maintaine
And stablishe as a rule,
Not one shall play the foole

But they, a worthye scoole."

107 Sport? Of what colour? Le Beau, as Mr. Collier suggests, probably pronounced the word mincingly, 'spot;' whence Celia's joke. So, with a finicking pronunciation, the next line would end with 'answer ye,' rhyming to 'decree.' 'Madam' is

a monosyllable.

112 Laid on with a trowei. Well rounded off into a jingle; the lines being pronounced

As wit and fortune will.
The destinies decree."

Or as

115 You amaze me. You fairly puzzle me, put me in a maze.

to do; and here, where you are, they are coming to perform it.

CEL. Well, the beginning, that is dead and buried.

LE BEAU. There comes an old man, and his three sons,―

CÉL. I could match this beginning with an old tale. LE BEAU. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence;—

130

Ros. With bills on their necks,-" Be it known unto all men by these presents,"

LE BEAU. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles, the duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him: so he served the second, and so the third: Yonder they lie; the poor old man, their father, making such pitiful dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping.

Ros. Alas!

140

TOUCH. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have lost?

LE BEAU. Why, this that I speak of.

TOUCH. Thus men may grow wiser every day! it is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies.

CEL. Or I, I promise thee.

Ros. But is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? Is there yet another dotes upon ribbreaking?-Shall we see this wrestling, cousin?

152

LE BEAU. You must, if you stay here: for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it.

127 With an old tale.

So old stories begin 'Once upon a time there came an old man,' &c.

131 With bills on their necks. In Lodge's story "Rosader came pacing toward them with his forest-bill on his neck. So in the Arcadia (p. 96), “"a forest-bill on his neck, and a chopping knife under his girdle." The pun on bills' would be imperceptible, except to readers of Lodge; but Shakspere could not resist it. By these presents; his præsentibus.' The English word, however, grew into such common use, that Bacon actually says 'to send presents,' for 'to send letters.'

150 Broken music. The music of guitars, &c., as contrasted with the continuous sound of a horn; the pun is self-evident.

CEL. Yonder, sure, they are coming: Let us now stay and see it.

Flourish. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, Lords, ORLANDO, CHARLES, and Attendants.

DUKE F. Come on; since the youth will not be entreated, his own peril on his forwardness.

Ros. Is yonder the man?

LE BEAU. Even he, madam.

160

CEL. Alas, he is too young: yet he looks successfully. DUKE F. How now, daughter and cousin? are you crept hither to see the wrestling?

Ros. Ay, my liege; so please you give us leave.

DUKE F. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is such odds in the man. In pity of the challenger's youth I would fain dissuade him, but he will not be entreated: Speak to him, ladies; see if you can move him.

CEL. Call him hither, good monsieur le Beau.

172

DUKE F. Do so; I'll not be by. [DUKE goes apart. LE BEAU. Monsieur the challenger, the princess' call for you.

159 His own peril. Let his forwardness be at his own risk (antiptosis).

163 He looks successfully. The adverb for an adjective, perhaps more accurately, as

66

'Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?" 165 Are you crept hither? For this auxiliary see Abbott's Gr. p. 206.

166 My liege. 'Lidus' or 'litus' means in medieval Latin one bound to the soil, and owing certain services to his lord. Hence a liege-lord is one who can claim such services.

170 The challenger. 'To challenge' is from the Latin 'calumniare,' to prosecute at law; and this ultimately from ‘calvor' to delay (by caveat). See Donaldson, Varr. p. 204.

175 The princess'. This is probably the correct reading; we have the same abbreviation in the Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2, and in the Arcadia, "The plurals of substantives ending in s, in certain instances, in se, ss, ce, and sometimes ge are formed without the usual addition of s or es in pronunciation at least; although in many instances the plural affix is added in printing, where the metre shews it is not to be pronounced." So we have in the Merch. of Venice, 66 are there balances here?" in Cor. iii. 3,

ORL. I attend them, with all respect and duty.
Ros. Young man, have you challenged Charles the

wrestler ?

ORL. No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth. 182

CEL. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years: You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength: if you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment, the fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise. We pray you, for your own sake, to embrace your own safety, and give over this attempt.

190

Ros. Do, young sir; your reputation shall not therefore be misprised: we will make it our suit to the duke that the wrestling might not go forward.

ORL. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, wherein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial: wherein if I be foiled, there is but one shamed that was never gracious; if killed, but one dead that is willing to be so: I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing; only in the world I fill up a place which may be better supplied when I have made it empty.

205

Ros. The little strength that I have, I would it were with you.

CEL. And mine, to eke out hers.

"the dead carcasses of unburied men," and in Surrey's Æn. iv., 'Carthage's glory.' See Abbott, p. 356, and compare the contraction of exceeded,' in line 223 of this scene.

185 If you saw yourself with your eyes. Coleridge proposes 'with our eyes:' but the meaning may well be, if your eyes had any power of seeing yourself, or your judgment of estimating yourself.' See, however, S. Walker, ii. 8.

189 Embrace your own safety. The course leading to your own safety.

196 Wherein I confess me much guilty, Punish me not with your hard thoughts for denying you anything; which I confess myself guilty in doing (constructio prægnans).

200 That was never gracious. Who never had any honour to lose.

Ros. Fare you well. Pray Heaven, I be deceived in you!

CEL. Your heart's desires be with you.

210

CHA. Come, where is this young gallant, that is so desirous to lie with his mother earth?

ORL. Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working.

DUKE F. You shall try but one fall.

CHA. No, I warrant your grace; you shall not entreat him to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first.

219

ORL. You mean to mock me after; you should not have mocked me before: but come your ways.

Ros. Now, Hercules be thy speed, young man! CEL. I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the leg. [CHARLES and ORLANDO wrestle.

225

Ros. O excellent young man ! CEL. If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who should down. [CHARLES is thrown. Shout.

DUKE F. No more, no more,

ORL. Yes, I beseech your grace; I am not yet well breathed.

DUKE F. How dost thou, Charles?
LE BEAU. He cannot speak, my lord.
DUKE F. Bear him away.

What is thy name, young man ?

230

[CHARLES is borne out.

ORL. Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of sir Rowland de Bois.

DUKE F. I would thou hadst been son to some man else. The world esteem'd thy father honourable,

But I did find him still mine enemy:

Thou shouldst have better pleas'd me with this deed 240 Hadst thou descended from another house.

But fare thee well; thou art a gallant youth;

I would thou hadst told me of another father.

[Exeunt DUKE FRED., Train, and LE BEAU.

221 You should not have mocked me before. Shakspere seems to be thinking of 1 Kings xx. II: "Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off." If the word 'girdeth' (see the note on line 57) suggested this allusion, we should have a parallel to Virgil's rendering of Hesiod's opкos by 'pallidus Orcus' (Georg. i. 277).