O, what a world is this, when what is comely Orl. Why, what's the matter? O unhappy youth, Your brother (no, no brother: yet the son― This is no places; this house is but a butchery; 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? I rather will subject me to the malice Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother. Adam. But do not so: I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse, When service should in my old limbs lie lame, • Practices, i. e. treacherous devices. 5 Place here signifies a seat, a mansion, a residence: it is not yet obsolete in this sense. ❝ i. e. blood turned out of a course of nature. Affections alienated. Yea, providently caters for the sparrow7, Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; In all your business and necessities. Orl. O good old man; how well in thee appears But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree, Adam. Master, go on, and I will follow thee, 7 See St. Luke, xii. 6 and 24. Even with Do choke their service up even with the having. the promotion gained by service is service extinguished. In lieu of, i. e. in return for. See note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 7. 10 The old copies read seventy, an obvious error. Rowe made the necessary corrections. 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 SCENE IV. The Forest of Arden, Enter ROSALIND for Ganymede, CELIA for Aliena, and Clown, alias TOUCHSTONE. Ros. O Jupiter! how weary1 are my spirits! Touch. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, and to cry like a woman: but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat: therefore, courage, good Aliena. Cel. I pray you, bear with me; I can go no further. Touch. For my part, I had rather bear with you, than bear you; yet I should bear no cross3, if I did bear you; for, I think, you have no money purse. in your Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden, Touch. Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I: when I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content. Ros. Ay, be so, good Touchstone:— :-Look you, who comes here; a young man, and an old, in solemn talk. Enter CORIN and SILVIUS. Cor. That is the way to make her scorn you still. Sil. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her! Cor. I partly guess; for I have lov'd ere now. The old copy reads merry, an easy mistake for weary, which the context shows to be the word required. Theobald corrected it. 2 The first folio has cannot, it was corrected in the second folio. 3 A cross was a piece of money stamped with a cross; on this Shakespeare often makes his comic characters quibble. Sil. No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess; Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow: But if thy love were ever like to mine, (As sure I think did never man love so), How many actions most ridiculous Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy? Cor. Into a thousand that I have forgotten. Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, Or if thou hast not broke from company, O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe! [Exit SILVIUS. Ros. Alas, poor shepherd! searching of thy wound, I have by hard adventure found mine own. Touch. And I mine: I remember, when I was in love, I broke my sword upon a stone, and bid him take that for coming anight to Jane Smile: and I remember the kissing of her batlet, and the cow's dugs that her pretty chopp'd hands had milk'd: and I remember the wooing of a peascod? instead of her; from whom I took two cods, and giving her them again, said, with weeping tears, Wear these for my sake. We, that are true lovers, run into strange capers: but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortalR in folly. 4 Thus the second folio; the first has wearying. 5 The first folio prints they would; the second, their wound. 6 Batlet, the instrument with which washers beat clothes. 7 A peascod. This was the ancient term for peas growing or gathered, the cod being what we now call the pod. 8 In the middle counties they use mortal as a particle of am Ros. Thou speak'st wiser than thou art 'ware of. 9 Touch. Nay, I shall ne'er be 'ware of mine own wit, till I break my shins against it. Ros. Jove! Jove! this shepherd's passion Is much upon my fashion. Touch. And mine; but it grows something stale with me. Cel. I pray you, one of you question yond man, If he for gold will give us any food; I faint almost to death. Touch. Holla; you, clown! Cor. And to you, gentle sir, and to you all. Cor. Fair sir, I pity her, And wish for her sake, more than for mine own, graze; My fortunes were more able to relieve her: to heaven mortal tall, mortal little. So the meaning here may ure in love, abounding in folly." An equivoque ร ind takes the Clown's equivoque seriously, and hat possession is the grave of love, which exfolly. i. e. little heeds, or cares for. So in Hamlet:"And recks not his own rede." |