ORL. For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee. Ros. Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours. ORL. I must attend the duke at dinner; by two o'clock I will be with thee again. Ros. Ay, go your ways, go your ways;-I knew what you would prove; my friends told me as much, and I thought no less-that flattering tongue of yours won me :-'tis but one cast away, and so,come, death.-Two o'clock is your hour? ORL. Ay, Sweet Rosalind. Ros. By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot of your promise, or come one minute behind your hour, I will think you the most pathetical break-promise, and the most hollow lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful: therefore beware my censure, and keep your promise. ORL. With no less religion, than if thou wert indeed my Rosalind: So, adieu. Ros. Well, time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let time try1: Adieu ! 1 [Exit ORLANDO. 9 I will think you the most PATHETICAL break-promise,] The same epithet occurs again in Love's Labour's Lost, and with as little apparent meaning: 66 most pathetical nit." Again, in Greene's Never Too Late, 1590: " having no patheticall impression in my head, I had flat fallen into a slumber." STEEVENS. I believe, by "pathetical break-promise," Rosalind means a lover whose falsehood would most deeply affect his mistress. May not pathetical have meant contemptible. pitiful in a like sense. TALBOT. I 1 MALONE. We now use TIME is the OLD JUSTICE that examines all such offenders, and let TIME try:] So, in Troilus and Cressida : CEL. You have simply misus'd our sex in your love-prate we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head, and show the world what the bird hath done to her own nest 2. Ros. O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how many fathom deep I am in love! But it cannot be sounded; my affection hath an unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal. CEL. Or rather, bottomless; that as fast as you pour affection in, it runs out. Ros. No, that same wicked bastard of Venus, that was begot of thought, conceived of spleen, and born of madness; that blind rascally boy, that abuses every one's eyes, because his own are out, let him be judge, how deep I am in love:-I'll tell thee, Aliena, I cannot be out of the sight of Orlando: I'll go find a shadow, and sigh till he come *. CEL. And I'll sleep. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest. Enter JAQUES and Lords, in the habit of Foresters. JAQ. Which is he that killed the deer? 2 "And that old common arbitrator, Time, to her own nest.] So, in Lodge's Rosalynde: And "I pray you (quoth Aliena) if your own robes were off, what mettal are you made of, that you are so satyricall against women? Is it not a foule bird defiles her owne nest?" STEEVENS. 3-begot of THOUGHT,] That is, of melancholy. See a note in Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. IV.: - she pin'd in thought." MALONE. So, in Julius Cæsar : 66 4 -I'll go Macbeth: take thought, and die for Cæsar." STEEVENS. find a shadow, and sigh till he come.] So, in "Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 66 Weep our sad bosoms empty." STEEVENS. 1 LORD. Sir, it was I. JAQ. Let's present him to the duke, like a Roman conqueror; and it would do well to set the deer's horns upon his head, for a branch of victory; -Have you no song, forester, for this purpose? 2 LORD. Yes, sir. JAQ. Sing it; 'tis no matter how it be in tune, so it make noise enough. SONG. 5 1. What shall he have, that kill'd the deer? Take thou no scorn, to wear the horn" The rest shall bear this burden. 5 His leather skin, and horns to wear.] Shakspeare seems to have formed this song on a hint afforded by the novel which furnished him with the plot of his play. "What news, Forrester? Hast thou wounded some deere, and lost him in the fall? Care not, man, for so small a losse; thy fees was but the skinne, the shoulders, and the horns." Lodge's Rosalynde, or Euphues's Golden Legacie, 1592. For this quotation the reader is indebted to Mr. Malone. So likewise in an ancient MS. entitled The Boke of Huntyng, that is cleped Mayster of Game : "And as of fees, it is to wite that what man that smyte a dere atte his tree with a dethes stroke, and he be recouered by sonne going doune, he shall haue the skyn," &c. STEEVENS. 6 Then sing him home:] In Playford's Musical Companion, 1673, where this song is to be found set to musick, the words "Then sing him home" are omitted. From this we may suppose, that they were not then supposed to form any part of the song itself, but spoken by one of the persons as a direction to the rest to commence the chorus. It should be observed, that in the old copy, the words in question, and those which the modern editors have regarded as a stage direction, are given as one line: Then sing him home; the rest shall bear this burthen." BOSWELL. 66 7 Take thou no scorn, to wear the horn ;] In King John in two parts, 1591, a play which our author had, without doubt, attentively read, we find these lines : 1 Thy father's father wore it ; All. The horn, the horn, the lusty horn, SCENE III7. The Forest. Enter ROSALIND and CELIA. [Exeunt. Ros. How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock ? and here much Orlando ! "But let the foolish Frenchman take no scorn, "If Philip front him with an English horn." MALONE. Thus also, in the old comedy of Grim the Collier of Croydon (date unknown): Unless your great infernal majesty "Do solemnly proclaim, no devil shall scorn To take scorn is a phrase that occurs in K. Henry VI. P. I. Act IV. Sc. IV. : "And take foul scorn, to fawn on him by sending." STEEVENS. 7 The foregoing noisy scene was introduced to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the Acts this absurdity can be obviated. JOHNSON. 8 — and here MUCH Orlando!] Thus the old copy. Some of the modern editors read, but without the least authority: "I wonder much, Orlando is not here." STEEVENS. The word much should be explained. It is an expression of latitude, and taken in various senses. "Here's much Orlando!" i. e. Here is no Orlando, or we may look for him. We have still this use of it, as when we say, speaking of a person who we suspect will not keep his appointment, Ay, you will be sure to see him there much!" WHALLEY. 66 So the vulgar yet say, "I shall get much by that no doubt," meaning that they shall get nothing. MALONE. "Here much Orlando! is spoken ironically on Rosalind's perceiving that Orlando had failed in his engagement. HOLT WHITE. CEL. I warrant you, with pure love, and troubled brain, he hath ta'en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth-to sleep: Look, who comes here. Enter SILVIUS. SIL. My errand is to you, fair youth ;My gentle Phebe did bid me' give you this: Giving a letter. I know not the contents; but, as I guess, By the stern brow, and waspish action Which she did use as she was writing of it, It bears an angry tenour: pardon me, I am but as a guiltless messenger. Ros. Patience herself would startle at this letter, And play the swaggerer'; bear this, bear all: She says, I am not fair; that I lack manners; She calls me proud; and, that she could not love me Were man as rare as Phoenix; Od's my will! Her love is not the hare that I do hunt: Why writes she so to me ?-Well, shepherd, well, This is a letter of your own device. SIL. No, I protest, I know not the contents; Phebe did write it. Ros. Come, come, you are a fool, And turn'd into the extremity of love. I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, A freestone-colour'd hand2; I verily did think 9 bid me-] The old copy redundantly reads-did bid me. 1 Patience herself would startle at this letter, 2 Phebe did write it. Ros. Come, come, you are a fool. I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, STEEVENS. A freestone-colour'd hand;] As this passage now stands, the metre of the first line is imperfect, and the sense of the whole; for why should Rosalind dwell so much upon Phebe's hands, un |