WE fhall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey, Aud. Faith, the prieft was good enough, for all the old gentleman's faying. Clo. A moft wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey; a most vile Mar-text. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the foreft lays claim to you. Aud. Ay, I know who 'tis ; he hath no interest in me in the world: here comes the man you mean. Enter WILLIAM. Clo. It is meat and drink to me to fee a clown: By my troth, we that have good wits, have much to answer for we fhall be flouting; we cannot hold, Wil. Good even, Audrey. Aud. God give yè good even, William. Wil. And good even to you, fir. Clo. Good even, gentle friend: Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, pr'ythee, be cover'd. you, friend? Wil. Five and twenty, fir. Clo. A ripe age: Is thy name William ? Wil. William, fir. How old are Clo. A fair name: Waft born i' the forest here? Clo. Thank God ;-a good answer: Art rich? Clo. So, fo! 'Tis good, very good, very excellent good and yet it is not; it is but fo, fo. Art thou wife? Wil. Ay, fir, I have a pretty wit. Clo. Why, thou fay'ft well. I do now remember a faying; The fool doth think he is wife, but the wife man knows himself to be a fool. The heathen philofopher,[6] when he had a defire to eat a grape, would open his lips [6] This was defigned as a fneer on the feveral trifling and infignificant fayings and actions, recorded of the ancient philofophers, by the writers of their lives, fuch as Diogenes, Laertius, Philoftratus, Eunapius, &c. as appears from its being introduced by one of their 'wife sayings,' WARB. when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and lips to open. You do love this maid? Wil. I do, fir. Clo. Give me your hand: Art thou learned? Clo. Then learn this of me; To have is to have: For it is a figure in rhetorick, that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other: For all your writers do confent, that ipfe is he; now you are not ipfe, for I am he. Wil. Which he, fir? 'Clo. He, fir, that must marry this woman: Therefore, you, clown, abandon,-which is in the vulgar, leavethe fociety, which in the boorish is, company-of this female,-which in the common is,-woman; which together is, abandon the fociety of this female; or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, dieft; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, tranflate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in poifon with thee, or in baftinado, or in fteel; I will bandy with thee in faction; I will over-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways; therefore tremble, and depart. Aud. Do, good William. Enter CORIN. [Exit. Cor. Our mafter and mistress seek you; come away, away. Clo. Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey; I attend, I attend. SCENE II. Enter ORLANDO and OLIver. [Exe. Orla. Is't poffible, that on fo little acquaintance you fhould like her? that, but seeing, you should love her? and loving, woo? and wooing, the should grant? And will you perfever to enjoy her? Oli. Neither call the giddinefs of it in queftion, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my fudden wooing, nor her fudden confenting; but fay with me, I love Aliena; fay with her, that the loves me; confent VOL. II. with both, that we may enjoy each other: it fhall be to your good; for my father's house, and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's, will I enftate upon you, and here live and die a fhepherd. Enter ROSALIND. Orla. You have my confent. Let your wedding be to-morrow; thither will I invite the duke, and all his contented followers: Go you, and prepare Aliena; for, look you, here comes my Rofalind. Rof. God fave you, brother. Oli. And you, fair fifter. Rof. Oh! my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to fee thee wear thy heart in a scarf. Orla. It is my arm. Rof. I thought, thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion. Orla. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. Rof. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to fwoon, when he fhewed me your handkerchief? Orla. Ay, and greater wonders than that. Rof. O, I know where you are :-Nay, tis true:there was never any thing fo fudden, but the fight of two rams, and Cæfar's thrafonical brag of-I came, faw, and overcame : For your brother and my fifter no fooner met, but they look'd; no sooner look'd, but they lov'd; no fooner lov'd, but they figh'd; no fooner figh'd, but they afk'd one another the reafon; no fooner knew the reafon, but they fought the remedy: and in these degrees have they made a pair of ftairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage they are in the very wrath of love, and they will together: Clubs cannot part them. Orla They fhall be married to-morrow; and I will bid the duke to the nuptial. But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes! By fo much the more fhall I to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I fhall think my brother happy, in having what he wishes for. Rof. Why, then to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rofalind? Orla. I can live no longer by thinking. Rof. I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know of me, then, (for now I fpeak to fome purpose) that I know, you are a gentleman of good conceit. I fpeak not this, that you fhould bear a good opinion of my knowledge, infomuch, I fay, I know what you are; neither do I labour for a greater efteem than may in some little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourfelf good, and not to grace me. Believe, then, if you please, that I can do ftrange things: I have, fince I was three years old, convers'd with a magician, moft profound in his art, and yet not damnable. If you do love Rofalind fo near the heart, as your gefture cries it out, when your brother marries Aliena, you shall marry her. I know into what straights of fortune fhe is driven; and it is not impoffible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to fet her before your eyes to-morrow, human as fhe is, and without any danger.[7] Orla. Speak'ft thou in fober meaning? Rof. By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I fay, I am a magician :[8] Therefore, put on your best array, bid your friends; for if you will be married tomorrow, you shall ; and to Rosalind, if you will. Enter SYLVIUS and PHEBE. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of hers. Rof. I care not, if I have: it is my ftudy Phe. Good fhepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. And fo am I for Phebe. Phe. And I for Ganimed. Syl. It is to be made all of faith and service; Phe. And I for Ganimed. Orla. And I for Rofalind. Rof. And I for no woman. [7] That is, not a phantom, but the real Rofalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to attend the rites of incantation. JOHNS. [8] Hence it appears this was written in James's time, when there was a fevere inquifition after witches and magicians. WARB.. Syl. It is to be all made of fantasy, All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,, Phe. And fo am I for Ganimed. ? [To Ros. Syl. If this be fo, why blame you me to love you? [To PHE Orla. If this be fo, why blame you me to love you? Rof. Who do you speak to, why blame you me to love you? can Orla. To her, that is not here, nor doth not hear. Ro Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon.-I will help you, if I [TO SYLVIUS]-I would love you, if I could; [To PHEBE]-To-morrow meet me all together.-I will marry you, [To PHEBE] if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married to-morrow. I will fatisfy you, [To OnLANDO] if ever I fatisfy'd man, and you fhall be married to-morrow. I will content you, [To SYLVIUS] if, what pleases you, contents you, and you fhall be married tomorrow. As you love Rofalind, meet; [To ORLANDO]. -As you love Phebe, meet; [To SYLVIUS].-And as I love no woman, I'll meet.-So fare you well; I have left you commands. Syl. I'll not fail, if I live. Phe. Orla. Nor I. [Exce SCENE III. Enter Clown and AUDREY. Clo. To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey ;-tomorrow will we be married. Aud. I do defire it with all my heart: and, I hope, it is no difhoneft defire, to defire to be a woman of the world. Here come two of the banish'd duke's pages. |