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 will 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 Forest judge.

SCENE V.

Enter Celia, with a writing.

Rof. Peace, here comes my Sifter reading; ftand afide.

Cel. Why Should this a Defert be,
For it is unpeopled? No;
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,
That fhall civil fayings show 3.
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;
That the ftretching of a Span
Buckles in his fum of age;
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 show.

That fall civil fayings fhow.] Civil is here used in the fame fenfe as when we fay civil wifdom or civil life, in oppofition to a folitary state, or to the state

E 3

of nature. This defart shall not appear unpeopled, for every tree fhall teach the maxims or incidents of focial life.

There

Sad Lucretia's modesty.

Thus Rofalind of many parts

By heav'nly fynod was devis'd;
Of many faces, eyes and hearts,

9

To have the Touches deareft priz'd.
Heav'n would that she thefe gifts fhould have,
And I fhould live and die her flave.

Rof. O moft gentle Jupiter'!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your Parishioners withall, and never cry'd, Have patience, good people?

Therefore heaven nature charg'd.] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments

of Pandora.

Πανδώρην, ὅτι πάνιες ολύμπια δώματ' ἔχοντες

Δῶρον ἐδώρησαν.
So before,

But thou

better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was fo bad that Rofalind would not thank her lover for the comparifon. There is a more obfcure Atalanta, a Huntress and a Heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was the better part.

So perfect, and fo peerless art Shakespeare was no defpicable My

counted

Of ev'ry creature's best.

Tempeft. Perhaps from this paffage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd.

Atalanta's better part.] I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here afcribed to Rofalind. Of the Atalanta moft celebrated, and who therefore must be in tended here where the has no epithet of difcrimination, the

thologist, yet he feems here to have mistaken fome other character for that of Atalanta.

8

Sad, is grave, fober, not light. 9 The Touches.] The features; les traits.

O moft gentle JUPITER !] We should read JUNIPER, as the following words fhew, alluding to the proverbial term of a Juniper lecture: A fharp or unpleafing one! Juniper being a rough prickly plant. WARBURTON.

Surely Jupiter may stand.

EX

Cel. How now? back-friends!-fhepherd, go off a little-go with him, firrah.

Clo. Come, fhepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; tho' not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and fcrippage. [Exeunt Corin and Clown.

SCENE VI

Cel. Didft thou hear thefe verses?

Rof, O yes, I heard them all, and more too; for fome of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear.

Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verfes.

Rof. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verse, and therefore stood lamely in the verse.

(

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

Rof. I was feven of the nine days out of wonder, before you came; for, look here, what I found on a palm-tree; I was never fo be-rhimed fince Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat, which I can hardly remember.

Col. Trow you, who hath done this?
Rof. Is it a man?

2 I was never fo be-rhymed fince Pythagoras's time, that I was an Irish rat.] Rofalind is a very learned Lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine which teaches that fouls tranfmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time fhe was an bib rat, and by fome metrical racharm was rhymed to death.

The power of killing rats with
rhymes Donne mentions in his
fatires, and Temple in his trea-
tifes. Dr. Gray has produced a
fimilar paffage from Randolph.
My Poets

E 4

Sball with a faytire fteeped in
vinegar
Rhyme them to death, as they do
rats in Ireland.

Cel.

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 remov'd with earthquakes, and fo encounter.

Rof. Nay, but who is it?

Cel. Is it poffible?

Rof. Nay, I pr'ythee now, with moft 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

3

Rof. Good my complexion! doft thou think, though I am caparifon'd like a man, I have a doublet and hofe in my difpofition? One inch of delay more is a South-fea of difcovery. I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it; quickly, and fpeak apace; I would thou couldst ftammer, that thou might'ft pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrowmouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at

3 Good my complexion!] This is a mode of expreffion, Mr. Theobald fays, which he cannot reconcile to common fenfe. Like enough: and fo too the Oxford Editor. But the meaning is, Hold good my complexion, i. e. let me not blufh. WARBURTON. 4 One inch of delay more is a South fea of difcovery.] This is ftark nonfenfe; we must readoff discovery, i. e. from difcovery. you delay me one "inch of time longer, I fhall "think this fecret as far from "discovery as the South fea is."

"If

WARBURTON. This fentence is rightly noted by the Commentator as nonfenfe, but not fo happily reftored to

fenfe. I read thus:

One Inch of delay more is a South fea. Discover, I pr'ythee: tell me who is it quickly!—When the tranfcriber had once made difcovery from difcover, I, he cafily put an article after Southfea. But it may be read with ftill lefs change, and with equal probability. Every Inch of delay more is a South fea discovery: Every delay, however short, is to me tedious and irkfome as the longest voyage, as a voyage of difcovery on the South-fea. How much voyages to the South-fea, on which the English had then firft ventured, engaged the converfation of that time, may be easily imagined.

all

all. I pr'ythee take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings.

Cel. So you may put a man in your belly.

Rof. Is he of God's making? what manner of man? is his head worth a hat? or his chin worth a beard?

Cel. Nay, he hath but a little beard.

Rof. Why, God will fend more, if the man will be thankful; let me ftay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin.

Cel. It is young Orlando, that tripp'd up the wreftler's heels and your heart both in an inftant.

Ref. Nay, but the devil take mocking; fpeak, fad brow, and true maid.

Cel. I'faith, coz, 'tis he.

Ref. Orlando!

Cel. Orlando.

Rof. Alas the day, what fhall I do with my doublet and hofe? what did he, when thou faw'ft him? what faid he? how look'd he? wherein went he? what makes he here? did he afk for me? where remains he? how parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see him again? anfwer me in one word.

5.

Cel. You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth first; 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's fize. To fay, ay, and no, to thefe particulars, is more than to anfwer in a catechifm.

Rof. But doth he know that I am in this Foreft, and in man's apparel? looks he as frefhly as he did the day he wrestled?

Cel. It is as eafy to count atoms, as to refolve the propofitions of a lover: but take a taste of my find

5-Garagantua's mouth.] Rofalind requires nine questions to be answered in one word, Celia tells her that a word of fuch

magnitude is too big for any mouth but that of Garagantua the giant of Rabelais.

ing