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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 forfwear 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 madnefs; which was to forfwear the full ftream of the world, and to live in a nook merely monaftick: and thus I cur'd him; and this way will I take upon me to wash your liver as clear as a found fheep's heart, that there fhall not be one fpot 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 cote, and woo

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 fhew it you: and, 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.

SCENE III.

Enter Clown and Audrey, Jaques watching them. Clo. Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch up your goats, Audrey: And how, Audrey? am I the man yet? doth my fimple feature content you?

-to a living humour of madness;] If this be the true reading we must by living understand lafting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that fome antithefis was intended which is now loft; perhaps the paffage ftood thus, I drove my fuitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of madness. Or rather thus, from a mad bumour of love to a loving humour of madns, that is, from a madness that was love, to a love that was madness. This feems fomewhat harsh and flrained, but fuch modes of fpeech are not unufual in our poet and this harshness was probably the cause of the corruption. JOHNSON.

U 3

Aud

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. Faq. [afide] O knowledge ill-inhabited! worse than Jove in a thatch'd house!

Clo. When a man's verfes cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit feconded with the forward child, understanding, it ftrikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room : Truly, I would the Gods had made thee poetical,

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 trueft poetry is the most feigning; and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry, 7 may be faid, as lovers, they do feign.

6 -it frikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little Tom: Nothing was ever wrote in higher humour than this fi mile. A great reckoning, in a little room, implies that the entertainment was mean, and the bill extravagant. The poet here alluded to the French proverbial phrafe of the quarter of bour of Rabelais: who faid, there was only one quarter of an hour in hu man life paffed ill, and that was between the calling for the reckoning and paying it. Yet the delicacy of our Oxford editor would correct this into, It firikes a man more dead than a great reeking in a little room. This is amending with a vengeance. When men are joking together in a merry humour, all are difpofed to laugh. One of the company fays a good thing; the jeft is not taken; all are filent, and he who faid it, quite confounded. This is compared to a tavern jollity interrupted by the coming in of a great reckoning. Had not Shakespeare reafon now in this cafe to apply his fimile to his own cafe, againft his critical editor? Who, 'tis plain, taking the phrafe to frike dead in a literal fenfe, concluded, from his knowledge in philofophy, that it could not be fo effectually done by a reckoning as by a reeking. WARBURTON.

7-and what they fwear in po.try, &c.] This fentence feems perplexed and inconfequent, perhaps it were better read thus, What bey jwear as lovers they may be faid to feign as poets. JOHNSON.

Aud

Aud. Do you wish then, that the Gods had mad me poetical?

Clo. I do, truly: for thou fwear'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 honeft?

Clo. No, truly, unless thou wert hard favour'd: for honefty coupled to beauty, is, to have honey a fauce to fugar.

Jaq. [hide] A material fool!

8

Aud. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the Gods make me honeft!

Clo. Truly, and to caft away honefty upon a foul flut, were to put good meat into an unclean difh. Aud. I am not a flut, though I thank the Gods I am foul. 9

Clo. Well, praised 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.

Aud. Well, the Gods give us joy!

Clo. Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, ftagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no affembly but horn-beasts. But what tho Courage! As horns are odious, they are neceffary. 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

A material fool!] A fool with matter in him; a fool flocked with notions. JOHNSON.

I am foul.] By foul is meant coy or frowning. HANMER.
-What the ?] What then. JOHNSON.

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deer hath them as huge as the rafcal. Is the fingle man therefore bleffed? 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 fkill, fo much is a horn more precious than to

want.

Enter Sir Oliver Mar-text.

2

Here comes fir Oliver-Sir Oliver Mar-text, you are well met. Will you difpatch us here under this tree, or fhall we go with you to your chapel ?

Sir Oli. Is there none here to give the woman?
Clo. I will not take her on gift of any man.

Sir Oli. Truly, fhe must be given, or the marriage is not lawful.

Faq. [difcovering himself] Proceed, proceed! I'll give her.

Clo. Good even, good mafter what ye call: how do you, fir? You are very well met: God'ild you for your last company! I am very glad to fee you :even a toy in hand here, fir:-Nay; pray, be co vered.

Faq. Will you be married, Motley?

Clo. As the ox hath his bow, 3 fir, the horse his curb, and the faulcon his bells, fo man hath his de fire; and as pigeons bill, fo wedlock would be nibJing.

Faq. And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bufh, like a beggar? Get you to church, and have a good prieft that can tell you what marriage is this fellow will but join you together as

2 Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the univer fity, is in the academical ftyle called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed Sr. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates affumed it in their own writings; fo Tre viia the hiftorian writes himfelf Syr John de Trevifa. JOHNSON. 3 his bow,] i, e. his yoke. STEEVENS.

they

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 counfel thee. Clo. Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry. Farewel, good fir Oliver,

Not,

O fweet Oliver,

O brave Oliver,

Leave me not behind thee;

But wend away,
Begone, I fay,

I will not to wedding with thee.

Sir

4 Not O fweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old ballad. WARBURTON.

Of this speech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the fame breath he calls his miftrefs to be married, and fends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has very happily obferved, that O fweet Oliver is a quotation from an old fong; I believe there are two quotations put in oppofition to each other. For wind I read wend, the old word for go. Perhaps the whole paffage 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 not like to marry me well, and not being well married, it will be a good excufe for me hereafter to leave wife-Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry.

my

[they whisper. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. Clo. Fareivel, good fir Oliver, not O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee,

Wend away,
Begone, 1 fay,

but

I will not to wedding with thee to-day.

Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as fhall appear neceffary to the fenfe, or conducive to the humour. I have received all but the additional words. The fong feems to be complete without them.

JOHNSON.

The

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