Rof. Do you not know I am a woman? when 1 think, I must speak.-Sweet, say on.

Enter Orlando and Jaques.

Cel. You bring me out.-Soft, comes he not here?
Rof. 'Tis he; flink by, and note him.

[Celia and Rofalind retire. Jaq. I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone.

Orla. And fo had I; but yet, for fashion fake, I thank you too for your fociety.

Jaq. God be with you, let's meet as little as we

can.

Orla. I do defire we may be better strangers. Jaq. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love-fongs in their barks.

Orla. I pray you, mar no more of my verfes with reading them ill-favouredly.

Jaq. Rofalind, is your love's name?

Orla. Yes, juft.

Jaq. I do not like her name.

Orla. There was no thought of pleafing you, when fhe was chriften'd.

Jaq. What ftature is the of?

Orla. Juft as high as my heart.

Jaq. You are full of pretty anfwers: Have you not been acquainted with goldfmiths wives, and conn'd them out of rings?

Orla. Not fo: but I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have ftudied your questions.

Jaq.

2 but I answer you right painted cloth.] This alludes to the fashion, in old tapestry hangings, of mottos and moral sentences from the mouths of the figures worked or printed in them. The poet again hints at this cuftom in his poem, called, Tarquin and Lucrece:

Who fears a sentence, or an old man's far,
Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe.

THEOBALD.

Ja. You have a nimble wit; I think, it was made of Atalanta's heels. Will you fit down with me; and we two will rail against our mistress, the world, and all our misery.

Orla. I will chide no breather in the world but felf, against whom I know moft faults.

my

Jaq. The worst fault you have, is to be in love. Orla. 'Tis a fault I would not change for your best virtue. I am weary of you.

Jaq. By my troth, I was feeking for a fool, when I found you.

Orla. He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you shall see him.

Jaq. There I fhall fee mine own figure.

Orla. Which I take to be either a fool or a cypher, Faq. I'll ftay no longer with you: farewel, good fignior Love!

[Exit. Orla. I am glad of your departure: adieu, good monfieur Melancholy. [Cel. and Rof. come forward, Rof. I will fpeak to him like a fawcy lacquey, and under that habit play the knave with him.-Do you hear, forester?

Orla. Very well: What would you?

Rof. I pray you, what is't a clock?

Orla. You should ask me, what time o'day; there's no clock in the foreft.

Rof. Then there is no true lover in the foreft; elfe, fighing every minute, and groaning every hour, would detect the lazy foot of time as well as a clock.

Sir T. Hanmer reads, I anfwer you right, in the ftile of the painted cloth. Something feems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed better. I answer you right painted cloth, may mean, I give you a true painted cloth anfwer; as we fay, fhe talks right Billing/gate; that is, exactly fuch language as is ufed at Billingfgate. JOHNSON.

VOL. III.

Orla

Orla. And why not the fwift foot of time? had not that been as proper?

Rof. By no means, fir: time travels in divers paces, with divers perfons: I'll tell you whom time ambles withal, whom time trots withal, whom time gallops withal, and whom he ftands ftill withal.

Orla. I pr'ythee, whom doth he trot withal?

Rof. Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the contract of her marriage, and the day it is folemniz'd; if the interim be but a fe'ennight, time's pace is fo hard, that it feems the length of feven years. Orla. Who ambles time withal?

Ref. With a prieft that lacks Latin, and a rich man' that hath not the gout: for the one fleeps eafily, because he cannot ftudy; and the other lives merrily, because he feels no pain: the one lacking the burden of lean and wafteful learning; the other knowing no burden of heavy tedious penury. These time ambles withal.

Orla. Whom doth he gallop withal?

Rof. With a thief to the gallows: for though he go as foftly as foot can fall, he thinks himfelf too foon there.

Orla. Whom ftays it ftill withal?

Rof. With lawyers in the vacation: for they fleep between term and term, and then they perceive not how time moves.

Orla. Where dwell you, pretty youth?

Rof. With this fhepherdefs, my fifter; here in the fkirts of the foreft, like fringe upon a petticoat. Orla. Are you a native of this place?

Rof. As the cony, that you fee dwell where he is kindled.

Oria. Your accent is fomething finer, than you could purchase in fo removed a dwelling.

Rof. I have been told fo of many: but, indeed, an old religious uncle of mine taught me to fpeak, who

was

was in his youth an in-land man; one that knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love. I have heard him read many lectures against it; I thank God, I am not a woman, to be touch'd with fo many giddy offences as he hath generally tax'd their whole fex withal.

Orla. Can you remember any of the principal evils, that he laid to the charge of women?

Rof. There were none principal; they were all like one another, as half-pence are: every one fault feeming monftrous, 'till his fellow fault came to match it. Orla. I pr'ythee, recount fome of them.

Rof. No; I will not caft away my phyfick, but on those that are fick. There is a man haunts the forest, that abuses our young plants with carving Rofalind on their barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies. on brambles; all, forfooth, deifying the name of Rofalind. If I could meet that fancy-monger, I would give him fome good counfel, for he feems to bave the quotidian of love upon him.

Orla. I am he, that is fo love-fhak'd; I pray you, tell me your remedy.

Rof. There is none of my uncle's marks upon you! he taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of rufhes, I am fure, you are not prifoner. Orla. What were his marks?

Rof. A lean cheek, which you have not a blue eye and funken, which you have not: an unquestionable spirit, which you have not: a beard neglected,

4

3 —in-land man ;] Is ufed in this play for one civilifed, in oppofition to the ruftick of the priest. So Orlando before-ret am in-land bred, and know fome nurture. JOHNSON.

4 an unquestionable spirit.] That is, a fpirit not inquifitive, a mind indifferent to cominon objects, and negligent of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has ufed a paffive for an active mode of fpeech: fo in a former fcene, The Duke is too difputable for me, that is, too difputatious. JOHNSON.

May it not mean, unwilling to be converfed with? CHAMIER.

which you have not:-but I pardon you for that, for fimply your having in beard is a younger brother's revenue:-Then your hofe fhould be ungarter'd, your bonnet unbanded, your fleeve unbuttoned, your fhoe untied, and every thing about you demonftrating a careless defolation. But you are no fuch man; you are rather point-de-vice in your accoutrements; as loving yourself, than feeming the lover of any other. Orla. Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.

Rof. Me believe it? you may as foon make her, that you love, believe it; which, I warrant fhe is apter to do, than to confefs fhe does; that is one of the points, in the which women still give the lye to their confciences. But, in good footh, are you he that hangs the verfes on the trees, wherein Rofalind is fo admired?

Orla. I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rofalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he. Rof. But are you fo much in love, as your rhimes fpeak?

Orla. Neither rhime nor reafon can exprefs how much.

Rof. Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deferves as well a dark house and a whip, as madmen do: and the reason why they are not fo punish'd and cured, is, that the lunacy is fo ordinary, that the whippers are in love too: Yet I profefs curing it by counfel.

Orla. Did you ever cure any fo?

He was to

Rof. Yes, one; and in this manner. imagine me his love, his miftrefs; and I fet himevery day to woo me. At which time would 1, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing, and liking; proud, fantastical, apifh, fhallow, inconftant, full of tears, full of fmiles; for every paffion fomething, and for no paffion truly any