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the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends:—that the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night is lack of the sun that he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding,1 or comes of a very dull kindred.

Touch. Such a one is a natural philosopher.

in court, shepherd?

Cor. No, truly.

Touch. Then thou art damned.

Cor. Nay, I hope

Wast ever

Touch. Truly, thou art damned; like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.

Cor. For not being at court?

Your reason ?

Touch. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest good manners; if thou never sawest good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous 2 state, shepherd.

Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: those 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 salute not at the court, but you kiss your hands; that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds.

Touch. Instance, briefly; come, instance.

Cor. Why, we are still3 handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy.

Touch. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is

1 Of good breeding] On the subject of good breeding, that is, that he has not had good breeding.

2 Parlous] A common old corruption of perilous.

3 Still] Always.

not the grease of a mutton 1 as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, shallow. A better instance, I say; come. Cor. Besides, our hands are hard.

Touch. Your lips will feel them the sooner. again. A more sounder instance, come.

Shallow

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Cor. And they are often tarred over with the our sheep; and would you have us kiss tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed with civet.

Touch. Most shallow man! Thou worms-meat, in respect of a good piece of flesh, indeed!-Learn of the wise, and perpend: 2 Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the instance, shepherd.

Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll rest. Touch. Wilt thou rest, shallow man? 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 see my ewes graze and my lambs suck. Touch. That is another simple sin in you.

Cor. Here comes young master Ganymede, my new mistress's brother.

Ros.

Enter ROSALIND, reading a paper.

From the East to western Ind,

No jewel is like Rosalind.

Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures fairest lined

Are but black to Rosalind.

Let no face be kept in mind,
But the fair of Rosalind.

A mutton] A sheep.-From the Fr. mouton. In The Merchant of Venice, i. 3, we have 'Flesh of muttons, beefs, and goats.'

2 Perpend] Ponder.-In Hamlet, ii. 2, Polonius bids the Queen perpend.'

3 The fair] The fair one. Otherwise, fair may be for fairness.

D

Touch. I'll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners and suppers and sleeping hours excepted: it is the right

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Ros. Out, fool!

Touch. For a taste:- 2

If a hart do lack a hind,
Let him seek out Rosalind.
If the cat will after kind,
So be sure will Rosalind.
Winter-garments must be lined,
So must slender Rosalind.

They that reap must sheaf and bind;
Then to cart with Rosalind.
Sweetest nut hath sourest rind,

Such a nut is Rosalind.

He that sweetest rose will find,

Must find love's prick and Rosalind.

This is the very false gallop of verses; why do you infect yourself with them?

Ros. Peace, you dull fool! I found them on a tree.
Touch. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.

Ros. I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a medlar: 3 then it will be the earliest fruit in the country: for you'll be rotten e'er you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar.

Touch. You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge.

In Lodge's novel, one of the sonnets sent by Rosader to Rosalind has the words' Her faire exceeds all thought and measure.'

1 Rank] Riding in a row one after another.—Touchstone afterwards calls his own more rapidly-spoken lines the very false gallop of verses.'-Anciently a verse or stanza was sometimes called a row, as in Hamlet, iii. 2, 'The first row of the pious chanson.'

2 For a taste] As a specimen of my ability to rhyme thus.

3 Then I shall, &c.] In so doing I shall, &c.-Medlar is wordplay allusive to meddler.

Ros. Peace!

Enter CELIA, reading a paper.

Here comes my sister, reading; stand aside.

Cel.

Why should this a desert be?
For it is unpeopled? No;
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,

That shall civil sayings1 show.
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage,3
That the stretching of a span
Buckles in his sum of age.
Some, of violated vows

'Twixt the souls of friend and friend:
But upon the fairest boughs,

Or at every sentence' end,

Will I Rosalinda write;

Teaching all that read, to know
The quintessence of every sprite
Heaven would in little show.
Therefore heaven nature charged
That one body should be filled
With all graces wide enlarged:5
Nature presently distilled

Helen's cheek, but not her heart,

Cleopatra's majesty,

Civil sayings] Sentences or maxims of civilised life. 2 Some] That is,

some of the sayings to tell.

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3 How brief, &c.] Runs brief means reduces to a brief space.— Erring means wandering, that is, characterised by man's wandering.

In little] As it were in miniature. Hamlet, ii. 2, speaks of his father's Picture in little.'

5 All graces wide enlarged] All the graces that are widely dispersed, that hitherto existed apart in a variety of persons.

6

Helen] Who eloped with Paris from her husband Menelaus.

Atalanta's better part,

Sad Lucretia's modesty.2
Thus Rosalind of many parts

By heavenly synod3 was devised;
Of many faces, eyes, and hearts,

To have the touches dearest prized.

Heaven would that she these gifts should have,
And I to live and die her slave.

Ros. O most gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cried, Have patience, good people!

Cel. How now! back, friends.-Shepherd, go off a little : -go with him, sirrah.

Touch. Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage. [Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

Cel. Didst thou hear these verses?

Ros. O yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear.

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

Cel. But didst thou hear without wondering how thy name should be hanged and carved upon these trees?

Ros. I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder 4

1 Atalanta] Atalanta was noted for her handsome form, and also for her swiftness of foot. By her better part' is probably meant her beauty. Ovid, Met. x. 562, says—

Non dicere possis,

Laude pedum, formæne bono praestantior esset.

Lucretia] The wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, ravished by Sextus Tarquinius.

3 Synod] Compare Coriolanus, v. 2, 'The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity.'

Seven of the nine days, &c.] A nine days' wonder is a customary expression.

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