Impose fome fervice on me for my love.

Rof. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Biron,
Before I faw you; and the world's large tongue
Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks;
Full of comparisons and wounding flouts;
Which you on all eftates will execute,
That lie within the mercy of your wit:
To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain,
And therewithal to win me, if you pleafe,
(Without the which I am not to be won;)
You fhall this twelvemonth term from day to day
Vifit the speechless fick, and still converfe
With groaning wretches; and your task shall be,
With all the fierce endeavour of your wit,
T'enforce the pained impotent to fmile.

Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be, it is impoffible;

Mirth cannot move a foul in agony.

Rof. Why, that's the way to choak a gibing spirit, Whofe influence is begot of that loose grace,

Which fhallow laughing hearers give to fools:

A jeft's profperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue

Of him that makes it: then, if fickly ears,
Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear groans,
Will hear your idle fcorns; continue then,

And I will have you, and that fault withal:

But if they will not, throw away that fpirit;
And I fhall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.

Biron. A twelvemonth? well; befal, what will befal, I'll jeft a twelvemonth in an hofpital.

Prin. Ay, fweet my Lord, and fo I take my leave.

[To the King. King. No, Madam; we will bring you on your way. Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill; thefe ladies' courtesy

Might well have made our sport a comedy.

King. Come, Sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, And then, 'twill end.

Biron. That's too long for a play.

Enter

Enter Armado.

Arm. Sweet Majefty, vouchfafe me-
Prin. Was not that Hector?

Dum. That worthy knight of Troy.

Arm. I will kifs thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary: I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her fweet love three years. But, moft-esteem'd Greatnefs, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praife of the owl and the cuckow? it fhould have follow'd in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly, we will do fo. Arm. Holla! approach.

Enter all, for the fong.

This fide is Hiems, winter.

This Ver, the fpring: The one maintain❜d by the owl, The other by the cuckow.

Ver, begin.

THE SONG.

SPRING.

When daizies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-fmocks all filver-white,
And cuckor-buds of yellow buc,

Do paint the meadows much-bedight;
The cuckow then on every tree
Mocks married men; for thus fings he,
Cuckow!

Cuckow! cuckow! O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear!

When Shepherds pipe on oaten ftraws,

And merry larks are ploughmens' clocks:
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws;
And maidens bleach their fummer-fmocks
The cuckow then on every tree
Mocks married men; for thus fings he,

Cuckow!

Cuckow! cuckow! O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear!

WINTER.

WINTER.

When icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the fhepherd blows his nail;
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly fings the flaring owl,
Tu-whit! to-whoo!

A merry note,

While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parfon's faw;
And birds fit brooding in the fnow,
And Marian's nofe looks red and raw;
When roafted crabs hifs in the bowl,
Then nightly fings the ftaring owl,
Tu-whit! to-whoo!

A merry note,

While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.

Arm. The words of Mercury

Are harsh after the fongs of Apollo:
You, that way; we, this way.

[Exeunt omnes.

AS

The SCENE lies, firft, near Oliver's houfe; and afterwards, partly in the Duke's court, and partly in the forest of Arden.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Oliver's orchard.

Enter Orlando and Adam.

As I remember, Adam, it was upon

Orla. this my father bequeath'd me by will but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou fay'ft, charged my brother on his bleffing to breed me well; and there begins my fadnefs. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report fpeaks goldenly of his profit; for my part he keeps me ruftically at home; or, to speak more properly, ftys me here at home, unkept; for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my

birth,

birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better; for besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Befides this nothing that he fo plentifully gives me, the fomething that nature gave me, his discountenance feems to take from me. He lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny againft this fervitude. I will no longer endure it, tho' yet I know no wife remedy how to avoid it.

SCENE II. Enter Oliver.

Adam. Yonder comes my mafter, your brother. Orla. Go apart, Adam, and thou fhalt hear how he will shake me up.

Oli. Now, Sir, what make you here?

Orla. Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing.
Oli. What mar you then, Sir?

Orla. Marry, Sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made; a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idlenefs.

Oli. Marry, Sir, be better employ'd, and be nought a while.

Orla. Shall I keep your hogs, and eat hufks with them? What prodigal's portion have I spent, that I fhould come to fuch penury?

Oli. Know you where you are, Sir?

Orla. O, Sir, very well; here in your orchard.

Oli. Know you before whom, Sir?

Orla. Ay, better than he I am before, knows me. I know, you are my eldeft brother; and, in the gentle condition of blood, you should fo know me: the courtefy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the firft-born; but the fame tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us. VOL. 1.

T

I

have