deferves as well a dark house and a whip, as mad men do: and the reason why they are not fo punished and cured, is, that the lunacy is fo ordinary, that the whippers are in love too: yet I profefs curing it by counfel. Orla. Did you ever cure any fo? Ref. Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress: and I fet him every day to wooe me. At which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing, and liking; proud, fantastical, apifh, fhallow, inconftant, full of tears, full of fmiles; for every paffion fomething, and for no paffion truly any 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 meerly 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 shall 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 wooe 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, — to a living humour of madness;] If this be the true reading we must by living underftand lafting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that fome antithefis was intended which is now loft; perhaps the paffage flood thus, I drove my fuitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of mad nefs. Or rather thus, from a mað humour of love to a loving humour of madness, that is, from a madnefs that was love, to a love that was madness. This seems fomewhat harsh and strained, but such modes of fpeech are not unusual in our poet: and this harshness was probably the cause of the corruption. by by the way, you shall tell me where in the Foreft 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? SCENE IX. [Exeunt. Enter Clown, Audrey and Jaques watching them. Cla. Come apace, good Audrey, I will fetch up your goats, Audrey; and now, Audrey, am I the man yet? doth my fimple feature content you? 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. Jaq. [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 delicacy of our Oxford Editor would correct this into, It strikes 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 reason now 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 fwear in poetry, may be faid, as lovers, they do feign. Aud. Do you wish then, that the Gods had made me poetical? Clo. I do, truly; for thou fwear'ft to me, thou art honeft: 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 fawce to fugar. Jaq. [afide] A material fool 2! Aud. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I Gods make me honest! pray the Clo. Truly, and to caft away honesty 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 t. Clo. Well, praifed be the Gods for thy foulnefs! fluttiflinefs 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 forest, and to couple us. Jaq. [afide] I would fain fee this meeting. in this cafe to apply his fimile, to his own cafe, against 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. and what they fwear in F VOL. II. poetry, &c.] This fentence seems may with notions. † By foul is meant coy of frowning. HANMER. Aud. 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-beafts. 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 nobleft 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. Here comes Sir 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? Sir Oli. Truly, fhe must be given, or the marriage is not lawful. Fac. difcovering himself] Proceed, proceed; I'll give her. Clo. Good even, good mafter what ye call: how do you, Sir? you are very well met: God'ild you for your last company! I am very glad to see you-even a toy in hand here, Sir-nay; pray be covered, Jac. Will you be married, Motley? 3 Clo. As the ox hath his bow, Sir, the horse his what the ?] What then. 4 Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the Univerfity, is in the academical ftyle called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed Sir. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates affumed it in their own writings; fo Trevifa the hiftorian writes himself Syr John de Trevifa. curb, curb, and the faulcon his bells, fo man hath his defire; and as pigeons bill, fo wedlock would be nibling. Jaq. 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 they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a fhrunk 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 counsel thee. Clo. Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry. Farewel, good Sir Oliver; not O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, but wind away, begone, I fay, I will not to wedding with thee. Sir Oli. 'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantaftical knave of them all fhall flout me out of my Calling. [Exeunt. 3 Not O fweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old ballad. WARBURTON. Of this fpeech, as it now ap. pears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the fame breath he calls his mi. ftrefs to be married, and fends away the man that should marry them. Dr.Warburton has very happily observed, that Ofweet 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 F 2 SCENE |