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Oli. Was not Charles, the Duke's Wrestler, here to fpeak with me?

Den. So pleafe you, he is here at the door, and importunes acccfs to you.

Oli. Call him in [Exit Dennis.] 'Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is.

Enter Charles.

Cha. Good morrów to your Worship.

Oli. Good monfieur Charles, what's the new news at the new Court?

Cha. There's no news at the Court, Sir, but the old news; that is, the old Duke is banifh'd by his younger brother the new Duke, and three or four loving lords have put themfelves into voluntary exile with him; whofe lands and revenues enrich the new Duke, therefore he gives them good leave to wander.

Oli. Can you tell, if Rofalind, the old Duke's daughter, be banish'd with her father?

Cha. O, no; for the new Duke's daughter her coufin fo loves her, being ever from their cradles bred together, that the would have followed her exile, or have died to ftay behind her. She is at the Court, and no lefs beloved of her uncle than his own daughter; and never two ladies loved, as they do.

Oli. Where will the old Duke live?

Cha. They fay, he is already in the foreft of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They fay, many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelefly, as they did in the golden world. Oli. What, you wreftle to-morrow before the new Duke?

7 The old Duke's daughter.] The words old and new, which feem neceffary to the perfpicuity

of the dialogue, are inferted from Sir T. Hanmer's Edition.

Cha.

Cha. Marry, do I, Sir; and I came to acquaint you with a matter. I am given, Sir, fecretly to understand, that your younger brother Orlando hath a difpofition to come in difguis'd againft me to try a Fall. To-morrow, Sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he, that escapes me without fome broken limb, fhall' acquit him well. Your brother is but young and tender, and for your love I would be loth to foil him; as I muft for mine own honour, if he come in. Therefore out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint you withal; that either you might ftay him from his intendment, or brook fuch difgrace well as he fhall run into; in that it is a thing of his own fearch, and altogether against my will.

Oli. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou fhalt find, I will moft kindly requite. I had my felf notice of my brother's purpofe herein, and have by under-hand means laboured to diffuade him from it; but he is refolute. I tell thee, Charles, he is the ftubborneft young fellow of France; full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a fecret and villainous contriver againft me his natural brother. Therefore ufe thy difcretion; I had as lief thou didft break his neck, as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if thou doft him any flight difgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poifon; entrap thee by fome treacherous device; and never leave thee, 'till he hath ta'en thy life by fome indirect means or other; for I affure thee, (and almost with tears I fpeak it) there is not one fo young and fo villanous this day living. I speak but brotherly of him; but fhould I anatomize him to thee as he is, I muft bluth and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

Cha. I am heartily glad, I came hither to you. If he come to morrow, I'll give him his payment; if ever he go alone again, I'll never wreftle for prize more. And fo, God keep your Worship. [Exit. Oli. Fare

Oli. Farewel, good Charles. Now will I ftir this gamefter: I hope, I fhall fee an end of him; for my foul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than him. Yet he's gentle; never school'd, and yet learned; full of noble device; of all Sorts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and especially of my own people who best know him, that I am altogether mifprifed. But it fhall not be fo long this wrestler shall clear all. Nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about. [Exit.

SCENE IV.

Changes to an Open Walk, before the Duke's Palace.

Enter Rofalind and Celia.

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be merry.

Gel. Rof. Dear Celia, I fhow more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? Unlefs you could teach me to forget a banish'd father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.

Cel. Herein, I fee, thou lov'ft me not with the full weight that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy uncle, the Duke my father, fo thou hadst been ftill with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine; fo wouldst thou, if the truth of thy love to me were fo righteously temper'd, as mine is to thee.

Rof. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours.

Cel. You know, my father hath no child but I, nor none is like to have; and, truly, when he dies, thou fhalt be his heir; for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine Honour, I will-and when I break

that

that oath, let me turn monster. Therefore, my fweet Rofe, my dear Rofe, be merry.

Rof. From henceforth I will, coz, and devife Sports. Let me fee-What think you of falling in love?

Cel. Marry, I pr'ythee, do, to make fport withal; but love no man in good earneit; nor no further in fport neither, than with fafety of a pure blufh thou may'st in honour come off again.

Ref. What fhall be our Sport then?

Cel. Let us fit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.

Rof. I would, we could do fo; for her benefits are mightily mifplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to women.

Cel. 'Tis true; for those, that he makes fair, 'fhe fcarce makes honeft; and thofe, that fhe makes honeft, the makes very ill-favoured.

Rof. Nay, now thou goeft from fortune's office to nature's: fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature.

Enter Touchftone, a Clown.

Cel. No! when nature hath made a fair creature, may the not by fortune fall into the fire? Though nature hath given us wit to flout at fortune, hath not fortune fent in this Fool to cut off this argument?

Rof. Indeed, there is fortune too hard for nature; when fortune makes nature's Natural the cutter off of nature's Wit.

Cel. Peradventure, this is not fortune's work, neither, but nature's; who, perceiving our natural wits too dull to reafon of fuch Goddeffes, hath fent this

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Natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnefs of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, Wit, whither wander you?

Clo. Miftrefs, you must come away to your father. Cel. Were you made the meffenger?...

Clo. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to comé for you.

Rof. Where learned you that oath, fool?

Clo. Of a certain Knight, that fwore by his honour they were good pancakes, and fwore by his honour the mustard was naught. Now I'll ftand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was good, and yet was not the Knight forfworn.

Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of knowledge?

Rof. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wifdom.

your

Clo. Stand you both forth now; ftroke your chins,

and fwear by your beards that I am a knave.

Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art.

Clo. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were; but if you fwear by That that is not, you are not forfworn; no more was this Knight fwearing by his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had fworn it away, before ever he faw thofe pancakes or that mustard.

Cel. Pr'ythee, who is that thou mean?st?

Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves.
Cel. My father's love is enough to honour him:-

Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves. Rof. My Father's Love is enough to honour him enough;] This Reply to the Clown is in all the Books plac'd to Rofalind; but Frederick was not her Father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventur'd to prefix the Name of Celia. There is no Countenance from any Paffage in the Play, or from

the Dramatis Perfonæ, to ima gine, that Both the BrotherDukes were Namefakes; and One call'd the Old, and the Other the Younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch Authority, it would make Confufion to fuppofe it.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald seems not to know that the Dramatis Perfonæ were first enumerated by Rozve.

enough!

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