Orla. "I pray you, mar no more of my verfes with "reading them ill-favouredly."

Faq. Rofalind, is your love's name?

Orla. Yes, jui.

Jaq. I do not like her name.

Orla. There was no thought of pleafing you when fhe was chriften'd.

Jaq. What ftature is fhe of?

Orla. Juft as high as my heart.

Jaq. You are full of pretty anfwers; have you not been acquainted with goldfimiths wives, and conn'd them out of rings?

Orla. Not fo: but I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have ftudied your questions.

Jaq. You have a nimble wit; I think it was made of Atalanta's heels. Will you fit down with me, and we two will rail against our mistress, the world, and all our mifery.

Orla. I will chide no breather in the world but myfelf, against whom I know moît faults.

Jaq. The worst fault you have is to be in love, Orla. 'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue; I am weary of you.

Jaq. By my troth, I was feeking for a fool when I found you.

Orla. He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you fhall fee him.

Jaq. There I fhall fee mine own figure.

Orla. Which I take to be cither a fool or a cypher. Jaq. I'll ftay no longer with you; farewel, good Signior Love! [Exit.

Orla. I am glad of your departure; adieu, good Monfieur Melancholy! [Cel. and Rof. come forward. Rof. I will fpeak to him like a fawcy lacquey, and under that habit play the knave with him. Do you hear, forefter ?

Orla. Very well; what would you?

Ref. I pray you, what is't a clock?

Orla. You thould ask me, What time o' day? there's

no clock in the foreft.

Rof.

Rof. Then there is no true lover in the foreft; else, fighing every minute, and groning every hour, would detect the lazy foot of Time, as well as a clock.

Orla. And why not the swift foot of Time? had not that been as proper ?

Ref. By no means, Sir. Time travels in divers paces with divers perfons. I'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he ftands ftill withal.

Orla. I pr'ythee, whom doth he trot withal?

Rof. Marry, he trots hard with a young maid be tween the contract of her marriage and the day it is folemniz'd: if the interim be but a fe'nnight, Time's pace is fo hard, that it feem's the length of feven years. Orla Who ambles Time withal?

Rof. With a priest that lacks Latin, and a rich man that hath not the gout: for the one fleeps eafily, because he cannot study; and the other lives merrily, because he feels no pain: the one lacking the burthen of lean and wafteful learning, the other knowing no burthen of heavy tedious penury. Thefe Time ambles withal.

Orla. Whom doth he gallop withal?

Rof. With a thief to the gallows: for though he go as foftly as foot can fall, he thinks himself too foon there.

Orla. Whom stays it ftill withal ?

Rof. With lawyers in the vacation; for they fleep between term and term, and then they perceive not how Time moves.

Orla. Where dwell you, pretty youth?

Ref. With this fhepherdefs, my fifter; here in the fkirts of the foreft, like fringe upon a petticoat. Orla. Are you native of this place?

Rof. As the coney, that you fee dwell where the is kindled.

Orla. Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in fo removed a dwelling.

Rof. I have been told fo of many; but, indeed, an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in his youth an inland man, one that knew courtfhip too well; for there he fell in love. I have heard

him read many lectures against it; I thank God I am not a woman to be touch'd with fo many giddy offences as he hath generally tax'd their whole fex withal, Orla. Can you remember any of the principal evils that he laid to the charge of women?

Rof. There were none principal, they were all like one another, as half-pence are; every one fault feeming monftrous, till his fellow fault came to match it.

Orla. I pr'ythee, recount fome of them.

Rof. No; I will not caft away my phyfic, but on thofe that are fick. There is a man haunts the foreft, that abuses our young plants with carving Rosalind on their barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles; all, forfooth, deifying the name of Rofalind. If I could meet that fancy-monger, I would give him fome good counfel, for he feems to have the quotidian of love upon him.

Orla. I am he that is fo love-fhak'd; I pray you, tell me your remedy.

Ref. There is none of my uncle's marks upon you; he taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of rushes I am fure you are not prisoner.

Orla. What were his marks?

Rof. A lean cheek, which you have not; a blue eye and funken, which you have not; an unquestionable fpirit, which you have not; a beard neglected, which you have not;-but I pardon you for that, for fimply your having in beard is a younger brother's revenue: -then your hofe fhould be ungarter'd, your bonnet unbanded, your fleeve unbutton'd, your hoe untied, and every thing about you demonftrating a careless defolation but you are no fuch man; you are rather, point-device in your accoutrements, as loving yourself, than feeming the lover of any other.

:

Orla Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.

Rof. Me believe it? you may as foon make her that you love, believe it; which, I warrant, fhe is apter to do, than to confefs fhe does; that is one of the points in the which women ftill give the lie to their confciences. But, in good footh, are you he that hangs the verfes on the trees, wherein Rofalind is fo admired? VOL. II.

Kk

Orla.

Orla. I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rofalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he.

Rof. but are you so much in love as your rhimes fpeak?

Orla. Neither rhime nor reason can exprefs how much.

Rof. Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deferves as well a dark house and a whip, as madmen do: and the reason why they are not fo punish'd and cured, is, that the lunacy is fo ordinary, that the whippers are in love too. Yet I profess curing it by counfel.

Orla. Did you ever cure any fo? Rof. Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress: and I fet him every day to woo 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 eve ry 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 lothe him ; then entertain him, then forfwear him; now weep for him, then fpit at him; that I drave my fuitor from his mad humour of love, to a living humour of madness; which was, to forfwear the full stream of the world, and to live in a nook merely monaftic: 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 fhall not be one fpot of love in it.

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 woo 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, by the way, you fhall tell me where in the foreft you live. Will you go?'

Orla. With all my heart, good youth.

Ref. Nay, nay, you must call me Rofalind. Come,

fifter, will you go ?.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE IX. Enter Clown, Audrey, and Jaques,

Clo. 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. O knowledge ill-inhabited, worfe than Jove in a thatch'd houfe.

Clo. When a man's verfes cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit feconded with the forward child, un» derstanding; it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room: truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical.

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?

Cho. I do, truly; for thou fwear'st to me, thou art honest: now, if thou wert a poet, I might have fome hope thou didst feign.

Aud. Would you not have me honest?

Glo. No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favour'd; for honefty coupled to beauty, is, to have honey a fauce to fugar.

Jaq. A material fool!

Aud. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the gods make me honest!

Clo. Truly, and to caft away honefty upon a foul fut, were to put good meat into an unclean dish. Aud. I am not a flut, though I thank the gods I am foul.

Clo. Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness! fluttishness may come hereafter! but be that 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 foreft, and to couple us. K k 2

Faq.