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Gor. No more, but that I know, the more one fickens, the worfe at eafe he is and that he, that wants mony, means, and content, is without three good friends. That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: that good pafture makes fat fheep; and that a great caufe of the night, is lack of the Sun: that he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

Clo. Such a one is a natural philofopher. Waft ever in Court; fhepherd?

Cor. No, truly.

Clo. Then thou art damn'd.

Cor. Nay, I hope

Clo. Truly, thou art damn'd, like an ill-roafted egg, all on one fide.

Cor. For not being at Court? your reason.

Clo. Why, if thou never waft at Court, thou never faw't good manners; if thou never faw it good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickednefs is fin, and fin is damnation: thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.

Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: thofe, that are good manners at the Court, are as ridiculous in the Country, as the behaviour of the Country is most mockable at the Court. You told me, you falute not at the Court, but you kifs your hands; that courtefie would be uncleanly, if Courtiers were shepherds.

Clo. Inftance, briefly; come, instance.

Cor. Why, we are till handling our ewes; and their fels, you know, are greafie.

Clo. Why, do not your Courtiers hands fweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholfome as the fweat of a man? fhallow, fhallow; a better inftance, I fay: come.

Cor. Befides, our hands are hard.

Clo. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow again: a more founder inftance, come.

Cor. And they are often tarr'd over with the furgery of our fheep; and would you have us kifs tar? the Courtier's hands are perfumed with civet.

Clo.

Clo. Moft fhallow man! thou worms-meat, in refpect of a good piece of flesh, indeed! learn of the wife and perpend; civet is of a bafer birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the inftance,

Thepherd.

Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll reft. Clo. Wilt thou reft damn'd? God help thee, fhallow man; God make incision in thee, thou art raw.

Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer, I earn that I eat; get that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is, to fee my. ewes graze, and my lambs fuck.

Clo. That is another fimple fin in you, to bring the ewes and the rams together; and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle; to be a bawd to a bell-weather; and to betray a fhe-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou be'ft not damn'd for this, the devil himself will have no fhepherds; I cannot see else how thou fhould'ft 'scape.

.

Cor. Here comes young Mr. Ganymed, my new miftrefs's brother.

Enter Rofalind, with a paper.

Rof. From the east to western Inde,
No jewel is like Rosalind.

Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rofalind.
All the pictures faireft lin'd,
Are but black to Rofalind;
Let no face be kept in mind,

But the face of Rosalind.

Clo. I'll rhime you fo, eight years together; dinners, and fuppers, and fleeping hours excepted: it is the right butter-women's rank to market.

Rof. Out, fool!

Clo. For a taste.
VOL. II.

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(14) If a bart doth lack a bind,
Let him feck out Rofalind.
If the cat will after kind,
So, be fure, will Rofalind.
Winter garments must be lin'd,
So muft flender Rofalind.

They, that reap, muft fheaf and bind;
Then to Cart with Rofalind.
Sweetest nut bath fowreft rind,
Such a nut is Rofalind.

He that fweeteft rofe will find,

Muft find love's prick, and Rofalind.

This is the very falfe gallop of verses; why do you intect your

felf with them?

Rof. Peace, you dull fool, I found them on a tree. Clo. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.

Rof. I'll graff it with you, and then I fhall graff it with a medler; then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medler.

Clo. You have faid; but whether wifely or no, let the Foreft judge.

Enter Celia, with a writing.

Rof. Peace, here comes my Sifter reading; ftand afide.

Cel. Why Should this a Defart be,
For it is unpeopled? No;
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,
That fhall civil fayings fhow.
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;

(14) If a Hart doth lack a bind, &c.] The Poet, in arraigning this Species of Verfification, feems not only to fatirize the Mode, that so much prevail'd in his Time, of writing Sonnets and Madrigals; but tacitly to fneer the Levity of Dr. Thomas Ladge, a grave Phyfician in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, who was very fertil of Paftoral Songs; and who wrote a whole Book of Poems in the Praise of his Mistress, whom he calls Rofalind.

That

That the ftretching of a fpan
Buckles in his fum of age;
Some of violated vows,

'Twixt the fouls of friend and friend;
But upon the fairest boughs,

Or at every fentence end,
Will I Rofalinda write;

Teaching all, that read, to know,
This Quinteffence of every Sprite
Heaven would in little show.
Therefore heaven nature charg'd,
That one body should be fill'd
With all graces wide enlarg'd;
Nature prefently diftill'd
Helen's cheeks, but not her heart,
Cleopatra's majesty';
Atalanta's better part;

Sad Lucretia's modefty.
Thus Rofalind of many parts

By heav'nly fynod was devis'd;
Of many faces, eyes and hearts,

To have the Touches dearest priz'd.
Heav'n would that she thefe gifts should have,
And I to live and die her flave.

Rof. O moft gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your Parishioners withal, and never cry'd, have patience, good people?

Cel. How now? back-friends! fhepherd, go off a little: go with him, firrah.

Clo. Come, fhepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; tho' not with bag and baggage, yet with fcrip and fcrippage. [Exeunt Cor. and Clown.

Cel. Didit thou hear these verses? Rof. O yes, I heard them all, and more too; for fome of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear.

Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verses. Rof. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verfe, and therefore ftood lamely in the verfe.

Q 2

Cel.

Cel. But didft thou hear without wondring, how thy name should be hang'd and carv'd upon these trees?

Rof. I was feven of the nine days out of wonder, before you came: for, look here, what I found on a palm-tree; I was never fo be-rhimed fince Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat, which I can hardly remember.

Cel. Tro you, who hath done this?

Rof. Is it a man?

Cel. And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck: Change you colour?

Rof. I pr'ythee, who?

Cel. O Lord, Lord, it is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and fo encounter.

Rof. Nay, but who is it?

Cel. Is it poffible?

Rof. Nay, I pr'ythee now, with moft petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is.

Cel. O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping

Rof. (15) Odd's, my complexion! doft thou think, though I am caparifon'd like a man, I have a doublet and hofe in my difpofition? (16) One inch of delay more is a South-fea off discovery. I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it; quickly, and fpeak apace; I would thou could'ft ftammer, that thou might'ft pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or

(15) Good my Complexion, doft thou think &c. -] This is a Mode of Expreffion, that I could not reconcile to Common Senfe; I have therefore ventur'd by a flight Change to read, Odd's, my Complexion! So, in another Scene of this Comedy, Rofalind again fays;

Odd's, my little Life!

And, again;

-'Odd's, my Will!

Her Love is not the Hare that I do hunt.

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(16) One Inch of Delay more is a South-fea of Discovery ;] A South-fea of Difcovery: This is ftark Nonsense; We must read off Difcovery. i. e. from Discovery. "If you delay me one Inch of Time longer, I “fhall think this Secret as far from Discovery as the South-fea is.”

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