SCENE III. Before OLIVER's House. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, Orla. Who's there? meeting. Adam. What! my young master ?-O, my gentle master, O, my sweet master, O you memory Of old sir Rowland! why, what make you here? The bony priser of the humorous duke? Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master, O, what a world is this, when what is comely Orla. Why, what's the matter? Come not within these doors; within this roof Your brother-(no, no brother; yet the son- Hath heard your praises; and this night he means He will have other means to cut you off: This is no place,' this house is but a butchery; Orla. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go? Orla. 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: I rather will subject me to the malice We still use [1] 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." the word in compound with another, as St. James's place, &c. STEEVENS. Plas in the Welch language, signifies a mansion-house. MALONE. Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother.* Adam. But do not so: I have five hundred crowns, Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Orla. O good old man; how well in thee appears Adam. Master, go on; and I will follow thee, [Exé. [2] Blood turned out of the course of nature. JOHNS. To divert a watercourse, 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. REED [3] See Saint Luke, xii. 6, and 24. DOUCE SCENE IV. The forest of Arden. Enter ROSALIND in boy's clothes, CELIA drest like a shepherdess, and TOUCHSTONE. Ros. O Jupiter! how weary 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, hear with me; I cannot go no farther. Touch. For my part, I had rather bear with you, than bear you: yet I should bear no cross, if I did bear you; for, I think, you have no money in your purse. 4 Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden. Touch. Ay, now I am 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 it 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. Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy. Cor. Into a thousand that I have forgotten. That ever love did make thee run into, Thou hast not lov'd: Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, Wearying thy hearer in my mistress' praise Thou hast not lov'd: Or if thou hast not broke from company [4] A cross was a piece of money stamped with a cross. On this our author is perpetually quibbling. STEEVENS Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, [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 chop'd nands 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 mortal in folly. Ros. Thou speak'st wiser than thou art 'ware of. Touch. Nay, I shall ne'er be 'ware of mine own wit, till 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! Ros. Peace, fool; he's not thy kinsman. Cor. Who calls? Touch. Your betters, sir. Cor. Else are they very wretched. Ros. Peace, I say :— Good even to you, friend. Cor. And to you, gentle sir, and to you all." Can in this desert place buy entertainment, JOHNS. [5] Batlet, the instrument with which washers beat coarse clothes. [6] For cods it would be more like sense to read peas, which having the shape of pearls, resembled the common presents of lovers. JOHNSON. In a schedule of jewels in the 15th Vol. of Rymer's Fadera, we find, "Item, two peascoddes of gold with 17 pearles." FARMER. The peascod certainly means the whole of the pea as it hangs upon the stalk. It was formerly used as an ornament in dress, and was represented with the shell open exhibiting the peas. The passage cited from Rymer, by Dr. Farmer, shows that the peas were sometimes made of pearls, and rather overturns Dr. Johnson's conjecture, who probably imagined that Touchstone took the cods from the peascods, and not from his mistress. DOUCE. [7] A ridiculous expression from a sonnet in Lodge's Rosalynd, the novel on which this comedy is founded. STEEVENS. Bring us where we may rest ourselves, and feed: Cor. Fair sir, I pity her, And wish for her sake, more than for mine own, But I am shepherd to another man, And do not sheer the fleeces that I graze; Besides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed, Ros. What is he that shall buy his flock and posture? Cor. That young swain that you saw here but ere while, That little cares for buying any thing. Ros. I pray thee, if it stand with honesty, Buy thou the cottage, pasture, and the flock, And thou shalt have to pay for it of us. Cel. And we will mend thy wages: I like this place, And willingly could waste my time in it. Cor. Assuredly, the thing is to be sold: Go with me; If you like, upon report, The soil, the profit, and this kind of life, I will your very faithful feeder be, And buy it with your gold right suddenly. SCENE V. [Exeunt. The same. Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others. SONG. Ami. Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me, And tune his merry note Unto the sweet bird's throat, Come hither, come hither, come hither, Here shall he see No enemy, But winter and rough weather. |