Cel. 'Tis true for thofe, that fhe makes fair, fhe fcarce makes honest: and those, that she makes honeft, she makes very ill-favour'dly. Rof. Nay, now thou goeft from Fortune's office to nature's: Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature. Enter Touchstone, a clown. Cel. No! when nature hath made a fair creature, may she not by fortune fall into the fire? Though nature hath given us wit to flout at fortune, hath not fortune fent in this fool to cut off the argument? Rof. Indeed, there is fortune too hard for nature; when fortune makes nature's natural the cutter off of nature's wit. Cel. Peradventure, this is not fortune's work neither, but nature's; who, perceiving our natural wits too dull to reafon of fuch Goddeffes, hath fent this natural for our whetstone : for always the dulness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, wit? whither wander you? Clo. Mistress, you must come away to your father. Cel. Were you made the meffenger? Clo. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to come for you. Rof. Where learned you that oath, fool? Clo. Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught. Now, I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was good, and yet was not the knight forfworn. Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge? Rof. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wisdom. Clo. Stand you both forth now: ftroke your chins, and fwear by your beards that I am a knave. Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. Cle. Clo. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were: but if you fwear by that that is not, you are not forfworn: no more was this knight fwearing by his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had fworn it away, before ever he saw those pancakes or that mustard. Cel. Pr'ythee, who is that thou mean'ft? I Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves. Cel. My father's love is enough to honour him: -enough! fpeak no more of him, you'll be whipt for taxation, one of these days. Clo. The more pity, that fools may not speak wifely what wife men do foolishly. 2 Cel. By my troth, thou fay'ft true: for fince the little wit that fools have, was filenc'd, the little foolery that wife men have, makes a great show. Here comes Monfieur Le Beau. Enter Le Beau. Rof. With his mouth full of news. Clo. One that old Frederick your father lowes. This reply to the Clown is in all the books placed to Rofalind'; but Frederick was not her father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventured to prefix the name of Celia. There is no countenance from any passage in the play, or from the Dramatis Perfonæ, to imagine, that Both the Brother-Dukes were Namefakes; and One call'd the Old, and the Other the Younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch authority, it would make confufion to suppose it. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald feems not to know that the Dramatis Perfonæ were first enumerated by Rowe. JOHNSON. 2-fince the little wit that fools have was filenc'd,] Shakefpeare probably alludes to the ufe of fools or jefters, who for fome ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of cenfure and mockery, and about this time began to be lefs tolerated. JOHNSON. Col. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young. Rof. Then fhall we be news-cramm'd. Cel. All the better; we fhall be the more marketable. Bon jour, Monfieur le Beau; what news? Le Beau. Fair princess, you have loft much good sport. Cel. Sport? of what colour? Le Beau. What colour, madam? How fhall I answer you? Rof. As wit and fortune will. Clo. Or as the deftinies decree. Cel. Well faid; that was laid on with a trowel. 3 Rof. Thou lofeft thy old smell. Le Beau. You amaze me, ladies: I would have told you of good wrestling, which you have loft the fight of. Rof. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling. Le Beau. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your ladyships, you may see the end; for the beft is yet to do; and here where you are, they are coming to perform it. -- Cel. Well, the beginning, that is dead and buried. Le Beau. There comes an old man and his three fons,- Cel. I could match this beginning with an old tale. Le Beau. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and prefence ;-- 3 laid on with a trowel.] I fuppofe the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mafs of big words laid upon a flight subject. JOHNSON. + You amaze me, ladies.] To amaze, here, is not to altonish or firike with wonder, but to perplex; to confufe; as, to put out of the intended narrative. JOHNSON, Rof. Rof. With bills on their necks: Be it known unto all men by thefe presents, —— Le Beau. The eldeft of the three wrestled with Charles the Duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him: fo he ferv'd the fecond, and fo the third. Yonder they lie; the poor old man, their father, making fuch pitiful dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping. Rof. Alas! Clo. But what is the fport, Monfieur, that the ladies have loft? Le Beau. Why this, that I speak of. Clo. Thus men may grow wifer every day! It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. Cel. Or I, I promise thee. Rof. But is there any elfe longs to fee this broken mufick 5 With BILLS on their necks: Be it known unto all men by thefe preJents,- -] The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of cross purposes. Where the words of one speaker are wretted by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown fays just before- Nay, if I keep not my rank. Rofalind replies- -thou lojeft thy old smell. So here when Rofalind had faid, With bills on their nicks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in, Know all men by theft prefents. She fpoke of an inftrument of war, and he turns it to an instrument of law of the fame name, beginning with thefe words: fo that they muft be given to him. WARBURTON. This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is fo very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot fee why Rofalind fhould fuppofe, that the competitors in a wrestling match carried bills on their fhoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor resemblance of presence and prefents. JOHNSON. • -is there any elje longs to SEE this broken mufick in his fides?] A ftupid error in the copies. They are talking here of fome who had their ribs broke in wrestling: and the pleasantry of Rofalind's VOL. III. R re mufick in his fides? is there yet another doats upon rib-breaking? Shall we fee this wrestling, coufin? Le Beau. You must if you stay here; for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. Cel. Yonder, fure, they are coming. Let us now stay and fee it. Flourish. Enter Duke Frederick, Lords, Orlando, Charles, and attendants. Duke. Come on. Since the youth will not be entreated, his own peril on his forwardness. Rof. Is yonder the man? Le Beau. Even he, Madam. Cel. Alas, he is too young: yet he looks faccessfully. Duke. How now, daughter and coufin? are you crept hither to fee the wrestling? Rof. Ay, my liege, so please you give us leave. Duke. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is fuch odds in the 7 men in pity of the challenger's youth, I would fain diffuade him, but he repartee must confift in the allufion fhe makes to composing in mufick. It neceffarily follows therefore, that the poet wrote—SET this broken mufick in his fides. WARBURTON. If any change were neceffary, 1 fhould write, feel this broken" mufick, for fee. But fee is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we fay every day, fee if the water be hot; I will fee which is the best time; fhe has tried, and fees that the cannot lift it. In this fenfe fee may be bere used. The fufferer can, with no propriety, be faid to fer the mufick; neither is the allufion to the act of tuning an inftrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by fetting mufick. Rofalind hints at a whimsical fimilitude between the feries of ribs gradually fhortening, and some musical inftruments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken mufick. JOHNSON. 7 -odds in the men.] Sir T. Hanmer. In the old editions, the man. JOHNSON. |