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Cor. No more, but that I know, the more one fickens the worfe 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 pafture makes fat fheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the fun: That he, that hath. learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

Clo. Such a one is a natural philofopher.. Wafl ever in. court, fhepherd?

Cor. No, truly.

Clo. Then thou art damn'd.

Cor. Nay, I hope

Clo. Truly, thou art damn'd, like an ill-roasted egg,. all on one fide.

Cor. For not being at court? your reafon.

Clo. Why, if thou never waft at court, thou never faw it good manners; if thou never faw'ft good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is fin, and fin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous flate, fhepherd.

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

Clo. Inftance, briefly; come, inftance.

Cor. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their. fels, you know, are greasy.

Clo. Why, do not your courtiers hands fweat? and is not the greafe of a mutton as wholfome as the fweat of a man? fhallow, fhallow;- -a better inftance, I say: Come. Cor. Befides, our hands are hard.

Clo. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow again: -a more founder inftance, come..

Gor. And they are often tarr'd over with the furgery of our fheep; and would you have us kifs tar? the courtie.'s hands are perfumed with civet.

Clo.

Clo. Moft fhallow man! thou worms-meat, in respect of a good piece of flesh, indeed! learn of the wife and perpend; civit is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the inftance, fhepherd. Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll reft. Clo. Wilt thou reft damn'd? God help thee, fhallow man; God make incision in thee, 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 fee my ewes graze, my lambs fuck.

and

Clo. That is another fimple fin in you, to bring the ewes and the rams together; and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle; to be a bawd to a bell-weather; and to betray a fhe lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou be'st not damn'd for this, the devil himself will have no fhepherds; I cannot fee elfe how thou fhould'ft 'fcape.

Cor. Here comes young Mr. Ganymed, my new mif trefs's brother.

Enter Rofalind, with a paper.

Rof From the east to western Inde,
No jewel is like Rofalind.

Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rofalind.

All the pictures fairest lin`d,

Are but black to Rofalind;

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

Clo. I'll rhime you fo, eight years together; dinners, and fuppers, and fleeping hours excepted: It is the right

butter-women's rank to market.

Rof. Out, fool!

Clo. For a tafte.

(14) If a hart doth lack a hind,
Let him feek out Rosalind.
If the cat will after kind,
So, be fure, will Rofalind.
Winter garments must be lin❜d,
So muft flender Rofalind.

They, that reap, must sheaf and bind、
Then to cart with Rofalind.

Sweetest nut hath fowrest rind,

Such a nut is Rofalind.

He that sweetest rofe will find,

Muft find love's prick, and Rofalind.

This is the very falfe gallop of verfes; why do you infect yourself with them?

Rof. Peace, you dull fool, I found them on a tree.
Clo. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.

Rof. I'll graff it with you, and then I fhall graff it with a medler; then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medler.

Clo. You have faid; but whether wifely or no, let the foreft judge.

Enter Celia, with a writing.

Rof. Peace, here comes my fifter reading; stand aside.
Cel. Why fhould this a defart be,

For it is unpeopled? no;
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,
That fhall civil fayings fhow.
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;
That the ftretching of a fpan
Buckles in his sum of age;

(14) If a bart doth lack a bind, &c.] The poet, in arraigning this fpecies of verfification, feems not only to fatirize the mode, that fo much prevail'd in his time, of writing fonnets and madrigals; but tacitly to fneer the levity of Dr. Thomas Lodge, a grave physician in Queen Elizabeth's reign, who was very fertile of paftoral fongs; and who wrote a whole book of poems in the praise of his mistress, whom he calls Rofalind.

Some

Some of violated vows,

'Twixt the fouls of friend and friend
But upon the fairest boughs,

Or at every fentence end,
Will I Rofalinda write;

Teaching all, that read, to know,
This quinteffence of every sprite
Heaven would in little fhow.
Therefore heaven nature charg'd,
That one body should be fill'd
With all graces wide enlarg'd;
Nature presently diftill'd
Helen's cheeks, but not her heart,
Cleopatra's majefty;
Atalanta's better part;

Sad Lucretia's modefty.
Thus Rofalind of many parts

By heav'nly fynod was devis'd;
Of many faces, eyes and hearts,
To have the touches deareft priz'd.
Heav'n would that the thefe gifts fhould have,
And I to live and die her fave.

Rof. O most gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and ne ver cry'd, have patience, good people?

Cel. How now? back-friends! Thepherd, go off a lit

tle: Go with him, firrah.

Clo. Come, fhepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with fcrip and fcrippage. [Exeunt Cor. and Clown. Cel. Didft thou hear these verses?

Rof. O yes, I heard them all, and more too; for fome of them had in them more feet than the verfes would bear. Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verfes Rof. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not beat themselves without the verfe, and therefore ftood lamely

in the verfe.

Cel. But didft thou hear without wondring, how thy name should be hang'd and carv'd upon thefe trees?

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Rof I was feven of the nine days out of wonder, before you came: For, look here, what I found on a palmtree; I was never fo be-rhimed fince Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat, which I can hardly remember. Cel. Tro you, who hath done this?

Rof. Is it a man?

Cel. And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck : Change you colour?

Rof. I pr'ythee, who?

Cel. O Lord, Lord, it is a hard, matter for friends to. meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and fo encounter.

Rof. Nay, but who is it?

Cel. Is it poffible?

Rof. Nay, I pr'ythee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is.

Cel. O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping

Rof. (15) Odd's, my complexion! doft thou think, though I am caparifon'd like a man, I have a doublet and hofe in my difpofition? (16) One inch of delay more is a South-fea off discovery. I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it; quickly, and fpeak apace; I would thou could'ft fammer, that thou might'ft pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at all. I pr'ythee, take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings.

(15) Good my complexion, doft thou think, &c.-] This is a mode of expreffion, that I could not reconcile to common fense; I have therefore ventur'd by a flight change to read, Odd's, my complexion & fo, in another scene of this comedy, Rosalind again says;

And again;

Odd's, my little life!

-'Odd's, my will!

Her love is not the bare that I do bunt.

(16) One inch of delay more is a South-fea of difcovery;] A fouth-fea of difcovery: This is ftark nonfenfe; we must read i. e. from difcovery. If you delay me one inch of time longer I -off discovery. “hall think this fecret as far from discovery as the South-fea is.”

Cel.

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