deserves as well a dark house and a whip, as mad men do: and the reason why they are not so punished and cured, is, that the lunacy is so ordinary, that the whippers are in love too: yet I profess curing it by counsel. Orla. Did you ever cure any fo? Rof Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress; and I fet him every day to wooe me. At which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing, and liking; proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for every passion something, and for no paffion truly any thing, as boys and women are for the most part cattle of this colour; would now like him, now loath him; then entertain him, then forswear him; now weep for him, then spit at him; that I drave my fuitor from his mad humour of love, to a living humour of madness; which was, to forswear the full stream of the world, and to live in a nook meerly monastick; and thus I cur'd him, and this way will I take upon me to wash your liver as clear as a found sheep's heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in't. Orla. I would not be cur'd, youth. Rof. I would cure you, if you would but call me Rofalind, and come every day to my core, and wooe me. Orla. Now, by the faith of my love, I will. Tell me where it is. Rof. Go with me to it, and I will shew it you; and, to a living humour of madness;] If this be the true reading, we must by living underftand lafting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that some antithesis was intended, which is now loft; perhaps the passage flood thus, I drove my fuitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of mad ness. Or rather thus, from a mad by by the way, you shall tell me where in the Forest you live. Will you go? ..... Orla. With all my heart, good youth. Rof. Nay, nay, you must call me Rofalind-Come, fifter, will you go? [Exeunt. 1 Enter Clown, Audrey, and Jaques watching them. Clo. Come apace, good Audrey, I will fetch up your goats, Audrey; and now, Audrey, am I the man yet? doth my fimple feature content you? Aud. Your features, Lord warrant us! what features? Clo. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet honeft Ovid was among the Goths. Jaq. [afide] O knowledge ill-inhabited, worfe than Jove in a thatch'd house! Clo. When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good Wit feconded with the forward child, Understanding; it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room'; truly, I would the Gods had made thee poetical. it Arikes a iman more dead than a great reckoning in a : Aud. delicacy of our Oxford Editor would correct this into, It ftrikes a man more dead than a great reeking in a little room. This is amending with a vengeances When men are joking together in a merry humour, all are difposed to laugh. One of the company says a good thing; the jeft is not taken; all are filent, and he who said it, quite confounded. This is compared to a tavern jollity interrupted by the coming in of a great reckoning. Had not Shakespeare reason now Aud. I do not know what poetical is; is it honest in deed and word? is it a true thing? Clo. No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most feigning; and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry *, may be faid, as lovers, they do feign. Aud. Do you wish then, that the Gods had made me poetical? Clo. I do, truly; for thou swear'st to me, thou art honest: now if thou wert a poet, I might have fome hope thou didst feign. : Aud. Would you not have me honest? Clo. No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favour'd; for honesty coupled to beauty, is, to have honey a fawce to fugar. Jaq. [afide] A material fool! Aud. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the Gods makes me honeft! Clo. Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul flut, were to put good meat into an unclean dish. Aud. I am not a flut, though I thank the Gods I am foul t. Clo. Well, praifed be the Gods for thy foulness ! fluttishness may come hereafter: but be it as it may be, I will marry thee; and to that end I have been with Sir Oliver Mar-text, the vicar of the next village, who hath promis'd to meet me in this place of the foreft, and to couple us. Faq. [afide.] I would fain fee this meeting. in this case to apply his fimile, to his own case, against his critical editor? Who, 'tis plain, taking the phrase to strike dead in a literal sense, concluded, from his knowledge in philosophy, that it could not be so effectually done by a reckoning as by a reeking. poetry, &c.] This sentence seems perplexed and inconfequent; perhaps it were better read thus, What they fwear as lovers they may be said to feign as poets. may be faid to faign as poets. fool h 2 with matter in him; a fool stocked with notions. + By foul is meant coy or frowning. HANMER. Aud. Aud. Well, the Gods give us joyt Clo. Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no assembly but horn-beafts. But what tho? courage. As horns are odious, they are necessary. It is faid, many a man knows no end of his goods: right: many a man has good horns, and knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife, 'tis none of his own getting; horns even fo-poor men alone? - no, no, the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal: is the single man therefore blessed? no. As a wall'd town is more worthier than a village, fo is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence is better than no skill, fo much is a horn more precious than to want. Enter Sir Oliver Mar-text. Here comes Sir Oliver-Sir Oliver Mar-text, you are well met. Will you difpatch us here under this tree, or shall we go with you to your Chapel? Sir Oli. Is there none here to give the woman? Sir Oli. Truly, she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful. Jaq. [discovering himself] Proceed, proceed; I'll give her. Clo. Good even, good master what ye call: how do you, Sir? you are very well met: God'ild you for your laft company! I am very glad to fee you-even a toy in hand here, Sir-nay; pray be covered. Jaq. Will you be married, Motley? Clo. As the ox hath his bow, Sir, the horse his what the?] What then. * Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the University, is in the academical style called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed 2 Sir. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates affumed it in their own writings; so Trevisa the historian writes himself Syr John de Trevisa. curb, 4 curb, and the faulcon his bells, so man hath his defire; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibling. 24 Jaq. And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush like a beggar? get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is; this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a shrunk pannel, and, like green timber, warp, warp. Clo. I am not in the mind, but I were better to be married of him than of another; for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excufe for me hereafter to leave my wife. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. Clo. Come, sweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry... Farewel, good Sir Oliver; not O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, but wind away, begone, I say, I will not to wedding with thee. Sir Oli. 'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical, knave of them all shall flout me out of my Calling. [Exeunt. 5 Not O sweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old bal lad. WARBURTON. not like to marry me well, and not being well married it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife we -Come, Sweet be married, or must m Audrey, Jac. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. [they whifper. Clo. Farewel, good Sir Oliver, not O sweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, but Of this speech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the fame breath he calls his mistress to be married, and sends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has very happily observed, that O fweet Oliver is a quotation from an old fong; I believe there are two quotations put in opposition to each other. For wind I read wend, the old I will not to wedding with thee word for go. Perhaps the whole passage may be regulated thus, Clo. I am not in the mind, but it were better for me to be married of him than of another, for he is Wend away, [to-day. Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as shall appear necessary to the fenfe, or conducive to the humour. ン |