SCENE III.

Before Oliver's House.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting.

ORL. Who's there?

ADAM. What! my young master?-O, my gentle

master,

O, my sweet master,

9 you memory' Of old sir Rowland! why, what make

you here? Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you? And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant? Why would you be so fond' to overcome

2

The bony priser of the humorous duke?

9

O you memory-] Shakspeare often uses memory for memorial; and Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes. So, in The Humorous Lieutenant :

"I knew then how to seek your memories."

Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, by C. Turner, 1611: "And with his body place that memory

"Of noble Charlemont."

Again, in Byron's Tragedy:

1

"That statue will I prize past all the jewels
"Within the cabinet of Beatrice,

The memory of my grandame." STEEVENS.

so fond-] i. e. so indiscreet, so inconsiderate. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

66

I do wonder,

"Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond

"To come abroad with him

"

STEEVENS.

The bony priser -] In the former editions-The bonny priser. We should read-bony priser. For this wrestler is characterised for his strength and bulk, not for his gaiety or good humour. WARBURTON.

So, Milton:

"Giants of mighty bone." JOHNSON,

you.

Your praise is come too swiftly home before
Know you not, master, to some kind of men
Their graces serve them but as enemies?
No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you.

O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it?

ORL. Why, what's the matter?

ADAM.
O unhappy youth,
Come not within these doors; within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives:

Your brother-(no, no brother; yet the son-
Yet not the son;-I will not call him son-
Of him I was about to call his father,)—
Hath heard your praises; and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie,
And you within it: if he fail of that,

He will have other means to cut you off:
I overheard him, and his practices.

4

This is no place, this house is but a butchery;
Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

So, in the Romance of Syr Degore, bl. 1. no date: "This is a man all for the nones,

"For he is a man of great bones."

Bonny, however, may be the true reading. So, in King Henry VI. P. II. Act V:

"Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well." STEEvens. The word bonny occurs more than once in the novel from which this play of As you like it is taken. It is likewise much used by the common people in the northern counties. I believe, however, bony to be the true reading. MALONE.

3

-to some kind of men-] Old copy-seeme kind. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

*This is no place,] Place here signifies a seat, a mansion, a residence. So, in the first Book of Samuel: "Saul set him up a place, and is gone down to Gilgal."

ORL. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have

me go?

ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here. ORL. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food?

Or, with a base and boisterous sword, enforce
A thievish living on the common road?
This I must do, or know not what to do:
Yet this I will not do, do how I can;
I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother.

5

ADAM. But do not so: I have five hundred

crowns,

The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father,

Again, in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales: "His wonning was ful fayre upon an heth,

"With grene trees yshadewed was his place."

We still use the word in compound with another, as-St. James's place, Rathbone place; and Crosby place, in King Richard III. &c. STEEVENS.

Our author uses this word again in the same sense in his Lover's Complaint:

"Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place." Plas, in the Welch language, signifies a mansion-house.

MALONE.

Steevens's explanation of this passage is too refined. Adam means merely to say-" This is no place for you." M. MASON. diverted blood,] Blood turned out of the course of JOHNSON.

nature.

So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

"Sometimes diverted, their poor

balls are tied

"To the orbed earth-." MALONE.

To divert a water-course, that is, to change its course, was a common legal phrase, and an object of litigation in Westminster Hall, in our author's time, as it is at present.

Again, in Ray's Travels: "We rode along the sea coast to Ostend, diverting at Nieuport, to refresh ourselves, and get a sight of the town;" i. e. leaving our course. REED.

VOL. VIII.

E

Which I did store, to be my

foster-nurse,

6

When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown ;
Take that and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold;
All this I give you: Let me be your servant;
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty:
For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; "
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly: let me go with you;
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

ORL. O good old man; how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat, but for promotion;
And having that, do choke their service up
Even with the having: it is not so with thee.

6

and He that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, &c.] See Saint Luke, xii. 6, and 24. DOUCE.

7

rebellious liquors in my blood;]

That is, liquors

which inflame the blood or sensual passions, and incite them to rebel against reason. So, in Othello:

"For there's a young and sweating devil here,

"That commonly rebels." MAlone.

Perhaps he only means liquors that rebel against the constitution. STEEvens.

Even with the having:] Even with the promotion gained by service is service extinguished. JOHNSON.

But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree,
That cannot so much as a blossom yield,
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry:

But come thy ways, we'll go along together;
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We'll light upon some settled low content.

ADAM. Master, go on; and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.-
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years many their fortunes seek;
But at fourscore, it is too late a week:
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better,
Than to die well, and not my master's debtor.

[Exeunt.

9 From seventeen years] The old copy reads-seventy. The correction, which is fully supported by the context, was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.