The rank of ofiers, by the murmuring stream, Left on your right-hand, brings you to the place; But at this hour the house doth keep it self, There's none within.

Oli. If that an eye may profit by a tongue, Then fhould I know you by description, Such garments, and fuch years: the boy is fair, Of female favour, and beftows himself Like a ripe Sifter: but the woman low, And browner than her brother. Are not you The owner of the house, I did enquire for? Cel. It is no boast, being ask'd, to fay, we are, Oli. Orlando doth commend him to you both, And to that youth, he calls his Rofalind, He fends his bloody napkin. Are you he?

Rof. I am; what must we understand by this? Oli. Some of my Shame, if you will know of me What man I am, and how, and why, and where This handkerchief was ftain'd.

Cel. I pray you, tell it.

Oli. When last the young Orlando parted from you, He left a promise to return again Within an hour; and pacing through the foreft, Chewing the food of fweet and bitter fancy, Lo, what befel! he threw his eye afide, And mark what object did prefent it felf. • Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age, And high top bald with dry antiquity;

A wretched ragged man, o'er-grown with hair, 'Lay fleeping on his back; about his neck

A green and gilded fnake had wreath'd it felf,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach'd
The opening of his mouth, but fuddenly

Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd it felf,
And with indented glides did flip away
Into a bush; under which bufh's fhade
A Lionefs, with udders all drawn dry,

• Lay

Lay couching head on ground, with cat-like watch • When that the fleeping man fhould ftir; for 'tis The royal difpofition of that beast

To prey on nothing that doth feem as dead :'
This feen, Orlando did approach the man,
And found it was his brother, his eldest brother.

Cel. O, I have heard him speak of that fame brother,
And he did render him the most unnatural
That liv'd 'mongst men.

Oli. And well he might fo do; For, well I know, he was unnatural.

Rof. But, to Orlando; did he leave him there, Food to the fuck'd and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd fo: But kindness, nobler ever than revenge, And nature ftronger than his juft occasion, Made him give battel to the lionefs,

Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling From miferable flumber I awak'd.

Cel. Are you his brother ?

Rof. Was it you he rescu'd?

Cel. Was it you that did so oft contrive to kill him?
Oli. 'Twas I; but 'tis not I; I do not fhame

To tell you what I was, fince my conversion
So fweetly taftes, being the thing I am.
Rof. But, for the bloody napkin?
Oli. By, and by.

When from the first to laft, betwixt us two,
Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd,
As how I came into that defart place;
In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me inftantly unto his cave,
There ftrip'd himself, and here upon his arm
The lionefs had torn fome flesh away,

5 hurtling. skirmishing. Mr. Pope.

Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
And cry'd, in fainting, upon Rofalind.
Brief, I recover'd him; bound up his wound;
And, after fome small space, being strong at heart,
He fent me hither, ftranger as I am,
To tell this story, that you might excuse
His broken promife; and to give this napkin,
Dy'd in his blood, unto the fhepherd youth,
That he in sport doth call his Rofalind.

Cel. Why, how now Ganimed, Sweet, Ganimed?
[Rof. faints.
Oli. Many will fwoon, when they do look on blood.
Cel. There is more in it: coufin Ganimed!
Oli. Look, he recovers.

Rof. Would, I were at home!
Cel. We'll lead you thither.

I pray you, will you take him by the arm?

Oli. Be of good cheer, youth; you a man? you lack a man's heart.

OPE

Rof. I do fo, I confefs it. Ah, Sir, a body would think, this was well counterfeited. I pray you, tell your brother how well I counterfeited: heigh ho!Oli. This was not counterfeit, there is too great teftimony in your complexion, that it was a paffion of earnest.

Rof. Counterfeit, I affure you.

Oli. Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man.

Rof. So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right.

Cel. Come, you look paler and paler; pray you, draw homewards; good Sir, go with us.

Oli. That will I; for I must bear answer back,
How you excufe my brother, Rofalind.

Rof. I fhall devife fomething; but, I pray you commend my counterfeiting to him: will you go?

[Exeunt. ACT

VOL. II.

Bb

ACT V. SCENE I.

The FOREST.

Enter Clown and Audrey.

CLOWN.

WE fhall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle

Audrey.

Aud. Faith, the Prieft was good enough, for all the old gentleman's faying.

Clo. A moft wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey; a most vile Mar-text! but Audrey, there is a youth here in the Foreft lays claim to you.

Aud. Ay, I know who 'tis, he hath no interest in me in the world; here comes the man you mean.

Enter William.

Clo. It is meat and drink to me to fee a Clown; by my troth, we, that have good wits, have much to answer for: we fhall be flouting; we cannot hold. Will. Good ev❜n, Audrey.

Aud. God ye good ev❜n, William.

Will. And good ev'n to you, Sir.

Clo. Good ev❜n, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, pr'ythee, be cover'd. How old are you, friend?

Will. Five and twenty, Sir.

Clo. A ripe age: is thy name William?

Will. William, Sir.

Clo. A fair name. Waft born i'th' forest here?

Will. Ay, Sir, I thank God.

Clo. Thank God: a good answer: art rich?

Will. 'Faith, Sir, fo, fo.

Clo. So, fo, is good, very good, very excellent

good;

it is not; it is but fo fo. Art thou

good; and yet wife?

Will. Ay, Sir, I have a pretty wit.

Clo. Why, thou fay'ft well: I do now remember a Saying; the fool doth think he is wife, but the wife man knows himself to be a fool. The heathen philofopher, when he had a defire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and lips to open. You do love this maid?

Will. I do, Sir.

Clo. Give me your hand: art thou learned?
Will. No, Sir.

Clo. Then learn this of me; to have, is to have. For it is a figure in rhetorick, that drink being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other. For all your writers do confent, that ipfe is he now you are not ipfe; for I am he. Will. Which he, Sir?

Clo. He, Sir, that must marry this woman; therefore you, Clown, abandon, which is in the vulgar, leave the fociety, which in the boorish, is company, of this female; which in the common, is woman; which together is, abandon the fociety of this female; or Clown, thou perifheft; or, to thy better understanding, dieft; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, tranflate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage; I will deal in poifon with thee, or in baftinado, or in fteel; I will bandy with thee in

1 The heathen philofopher, when he defired to eat a grape, &c.] This was defigned as a fnere on the feveral trifling and infignifi cant fayings and actions, recorded of the ancient philofophers, by the writers of their lives, fuch as Diogenes Laertius, Philo Aratus, Eunapius, &c. as appears from its being introduced by one of their wife fayings.

2 I will deal in poifon with thee, or in baftinado, or in feel I will bandy with thee in faction; &c.] All this feems to be an allufion to Sir Thomas Overbury's affair.

Bb 2

faction