should like her? that, but seeing, you should love her? and, loving, woo? and, wooing, she should grant? and will you perséver to enjoy her? Oli. Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me, I love Aliena: say with her, that she loves me; consent with both, that we may enjoy each other: it shall be to your good; for my father's house, and all the revenue that was old sir Rowland's, will I estate upon you, and here live and die a shepherd. Enter ROSALIND. Orl. You have my consent. Let your wedding be tomorrow: thither will I invite the duke, and all his contented followers: Go you, and prepare Aliena; for, look you, here comes my Rosalind. Ros. God save you, brother. Ros. O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf. Orl. It is my arm. Ros. I thought, thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion. Orl. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. Ros. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon, when he showed me your handkerchief? Orl. Ay, and greater wonders than that. Ros. Ó, I know where you are:-Nay, 'tis true: there was never any thing so sudden, but the fight of two rams,3 and Cæsar's thrasonical brag of—I came, saw, and overcame: For your brother and my sister no sooner met, but they looked; no sooner looked, but 1- nor her sudden consenting;] Old copy-nor sudden. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. 2 And you, fair sister.] I know not why Oliver should call Rosalind sister. He takes her yet to be a man. I suppose we should read-And you, and your fair sister. Johnson. Oliver speaks to her in the character she had assumed, of a woman courted by Orlando his brother. Chamier. 3 never any thing so sudden, but the fight of two rams,] So in Laneham's Account of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kennelworth Castle, 1575: "- ootrageous in their racez az rams at their rut." Steevens. they loved; no sooner loved, but they sighed; no sooner sighed, but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason, but they sought the remedy: and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage: they are in the very wrath of love, and they will together; clubs cannot part them.* Orl. They shall be married to-morrow; and I will bid the duke to the nuptial. But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes! By so much the more shall I to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think my brother happy, in having what he wishes for. Ros. Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind? Orl. I can live no longer by thinking. Ros. I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know of me then, (for now I speak to some purpose) that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I speak not this, that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge, insomuch, I say, I know you are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourself good, and not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things: I have, since I was three years old, conversed with a magician, most profound in his art, and yet not damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out, when 4 clubs cannot part them.] It appears from many of our old dramas, that, in our author's time, it was a common custom, on the breaking out of a fray, to call out " Clubs-Clubs," to part the combatants. So, in Titus Andronicus: "Clubs, clubs; these lovers will not keep the peace." The preceding words-"they are in the very wrath of love,” show that our author had this in contemplation. Malone. So, in the First Part of K. Henry VI, when the Mayor of London is endeavouring to put a stop to the combat between the partisans of Glocester and Winchester, he says, "I'll call for clubs, if you will not away." And, in Henry VIII, the Porter says, "I missed the meteor once, and hit that woman, who cried out Clubs! when I might see from far some forty truncheoneers draw to her succour." M. Mason. your brother marries Aliena, you shall marry her: I know into what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is not impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set her before your eyes to-morrow, human as she is, and without any danger. Orl. Speakest thou in sober meanings? Ros. By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I say I am a magician: Therefore, put you in your best array, bid your friends;7 For if you will be married to-morrow, you shall; and to Rosalind, if you will. Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of hers. Ros. I care not, if I have: it is my study, Phe. Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. And so am I for Phebe. Phe. And I for Ganymede. Orl. And I for Rosalind. Ros. And I for, no woman. Sil. It is to be all made of faith and service; And so am I for Phebe. 5 Phe. And I for Ganymede. human as she is,] That is, not a phantom, but the real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally conceived to attend the rites of incantation. Johnson. 6 which I tender dearly, though I say I am a magician:] Though I pretend to be a magician, and therefore might be supposed able to elude death. Malone. This explanation cannot be right, as no magician was ever supposed to possess the art of eluding death. Dr. Warburton properly remarks, that this play "was written in King James's time, when there was a severe inquisition after witches and magicians." It was natural therefore for one who called herself a magician, to allude to the danger, in which her avowal, had it been a serious one, would have involved her. Steevens. 7 bid your friends;] i. e. invite your friends. Reed. So, in Titus Andronicus: "I am not bid to wait upon this bride." Steevens. Orl. And I for Rosalind. Ros. And I for no woman. Sil. It is to be all made of fantasy, All made of passion, and all made of wishes; All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, Phe. And so am I for Ganymede. Orl. And so am I for Rosalind. Phe. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? [To Ros. Sil. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? [To PHE. Orl. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? Ros. Who do you speak to.9 why blame you me to love you? Orl. To her, that is not here, nor doth not hear. Ros. Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon.'-I will help you, [to SIL.] if I can:-I would love you, [to PHE.] if I could.— To-morrow meet me all together. I will marry you, [to PHE.] if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married to-morrow:-I will satisfy you, [to ORL.] if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow:-I will content you, [to SIL.] if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married to-morrow. As you [to ORL.] love Rosalind, meet;-as you [to SIL.] love 8 - all trial, all observance ;] I suspect our author wroteall obedience. It is highly probable that the compositor caught observance from the line above; and very unlikely that the same word should have been set down twice by Shakspeare so close to each other. Malone. Read-obeisance. The word observance is evidently repeated by an error of the press. Ritson. 9 Who do you speak to,] Old copy-Why do you speak too. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. 1 -'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon.] This is borrowed from Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "I tell thee, Montanus, in courting Phabe, thou barkest with the wolves of Syria, against the moone." Malone. Phebe, meet; And as I love no woman, I'll meet. So, fare you well; I have left Phe, you commands. Orl. Nor I. Nor I. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Touch. To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow will we be married. Aud. I do desire it with all my heart: and I hope it is no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of the world. Here come two of the banished duke's pages. Enter two Pages. 1 Page. Well met, honest gentleman. Touch. By my troth, well met: Come, sit, sit, and a song. 2 Page. We are for you: sit i' the middle. 1 Page. Shall we clap into 't roundly, without hawking, or spitting, or saying we are hoarse; which are the only prologues to a bad voice? 2 Page. I' faith, i' faith; and both in a tune, like two gypsies on a horse. SONG.3 I. It was a lover, and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o'er the green corn-field did pass In the spring time, the only pretty rank time,⭑ 2 — a woman of the world.] To go to the world, is to be married. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Thus (says Beatrice) every one goes to the world, but I." An anonymous writer supposes, that in this phrase there is an allusion to Saint Luke's Gospel, xx. 34: "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage." Steevens. 3 The stanzas of this song are in all the editions evidently transposed: as I have regulated them, that which in the former copies was the second stanza is now the last. |