Sir Oli. 'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all fhall flout me out of my calling. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A cottage in the foreft. Enter Rofalind and Celia. Rof. Never talk to me-I will weep. Cel. Do, I pr'ythee; but yet have the grace to confider, that tears do not become a man. Rof. But have I not caufe to weep? Cel. As good caufe as one would defire; therefore weep. Rof. His very hair is of the diffembling colour. Cel. Something browner than Judas's: marry his kiffes are Judas's own children. Rof. I'faith, his hair is of a good colour. 5 Cel. An excellent colour: your chefnut was ever the only colour. Rof. And his kiffing is as full of fanctity, as the touch of holy beard." 'The Clown difmiffes fir Oliver only becaufe Jaques had put him out of conceit with him, by alarming his pride and raifing doubts, touching the validity of a marriage folemnized by one who appears only in the character of an itinerant preacher; though he intends to have recourfe to fome other of more dignity in the fame profeffion. Dr. Johnfor's fuppofition, that the latter part of the Clown's fpeech is only a repetition from fome other, or per haps a different part of the fame ballad, is I believe right. STEEVENS. 5 I'faith, his hair is of a good colur.] There is much of nature in this petty perverfenefs of Rofalind; fhe finds faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia in sportive malice too readily feconds her accufations, fhe contradicts herself rather than fuffer her favourite to want a vindication. JOHNSON. 6 -as the touch of holy bread.] We should read beard, that is, as the kifs of an holy faint or hermit, called the kiss of charity : This makes the comparison just and decent; the other impious and abfurd. WARBURTON. Cel. Cel. He hath bought a pair of caft lips of Diana: a nun of winter's fifterhood 7 kiffes not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them. Rof. But why did he fwear he would come this morning, and comes not? Cel. Nay certainly, there is no truth in him. Cel. Yes. I think he is not a pick-purfe nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet, or a worm-eaten nut. Rof. Not true in love? 8 Cel. Yes, when he is in; but, I think, he is not in. Rof. You have heard him fwear downright, he was. Cel. Was, is not is: befides, the oath of a lover is 7-a nun of winter's fiflerhood] This is finely expreffed. But Mr. Theobald fays, the words give him no ideas. And 'tis certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them. However, to mend the matter, he fubftitutes Winifred's fifter bond. And, after fo happy a thought, it was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakespeare meant an unfruitful fiflerhood, which had devoted itself to chastity. For as thofe who were of the fifterhood of the fpring were the votaries of Venus; thofe of fummer, the votaries of Ceres; thofe of autumn, of Pomona: fo thefe of the fifterhood of winter were the votaries of Diana: called, of uinter, becaufe that quarter is not, like the other three, productive of fruit or increase. On this account it is, that when the poet fpeaks of what is most poor, he inftances in winter, in these fine lines of Othello, But riches endless is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. The other property of winter that made him term them of its fifterhood is its coldness. So in Midfummer Night's Dream, To be a barren fifter all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless macn. WARBURTON. -as concave as a cover'd goblet,] Why a cover'd? Because a goblet is never kept cover'd but when empty. Shakespeare never throws out his expreffions at random. WARBURTON. no no stronger than the word of a tapfter; they are both the confirmers of falfe reckonings. He attends here in the forest on the Duke your father. Rof. I met the Duke yefterday, and had much queftion with him: He asked me, of what parentage I was, I told him, of as good as he: fo he laugh'd, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there is fuch a man as Orlando. Cel. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, fpeaks brave words, fwears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite travers, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that fpurs his horse but one fide, breaks his staff like a noble goofe: but all's brave, that youth mounts, and folly guides: Who comes here? -quite travers, athwart, &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puny tilter, to whom it was a difgrace to have his lance broken acrofs, as it was a mark either of want of courage or addrefs. This happened when the horse flew on one fide, in the career and hence, I fuppofe, arofe the jocular proverbial phrafe of Spurring the borse only on on fide. Now as breaking the lance against his adverfary's breaft, in a direct line, was honourable, fo the breaking it acres against his breaft was, for the reafon above, difhonourable: hence it is, that Sidney, in his Arcadia, fpeaking of the mock-combat of Clinias and Dametas fays, The wind took juch hold of his fteff that it croft quite over his breast, &e.. And to break across was the ufual phrafe, as appears from fome wretched verfes of the fame author, fpeaking of an unfkilful tilter, Methought fome flavs he mist: if so, not much amifs : One faid be brake acrofs, full well it jo might be, &c. This is the allufion. So that Orlando, a young gallant, affecting the fashion (for brave is here ufed, as in other places, for fafhionable) is reprefented either unfkilful in courtship, or timorous. The lover's meeting or appointment correfponds to the tilter's career; and as the one breaks flaves, the other breaks oaths. The bufinefs is only meeting fairly, and doing both with address: apd 'tis for the want of this, that Orlando is blamed. WARBURTON. Enter Enter Corin. Cor. Mistress, and mafter, you have oft enquired After the fhepherd that complain'd of love; Whom you faw fitting by me on the turf, Praifing the proud difdainful fhepherdess That was his miftrefs. Cel. Well, and what of him? Cor. If you will fee a pageant truly play'd, Rof. Come, let us remove; The fight of lovers feedeth those in love: SCENE V. Changes to another part of the foreft. Enter Silvius and Phebe. [Exeunt. Sil. Sweet Phebe, do not fcorn me;-do not, Phebe: Say, that you love me not; but fay not so In bitterness: The common executioner, Whose heart the accuftom'd fight of death makes hard, Falls not the ax upon the humbled neck, But firft begs pardon: Will you fterner be ' Enter This is fpoken of the executioner. He lives indeed by bloody drops, if you will: but how does he die by bloody drops? The poet muft certainly have wrote-that deals and lives, &c. i. e. that gets Enter Rofalind, Celia, and Corin. Phe. I would not be thy executioner; Ify thee, for I would not injure thee. Thou gets his bread by, and makes a trade of cutting off heads: but the Oxford editor makes it plainer. He reads, Than be that lives and thrives by bloody drops. WARBURTON. Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word reals, wants its proper conftruction, or that of fir T. Hanmer may ferve the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read, Than he that dies his lips by bloody drops? Will you speak with more fternness than the executioner, whose lips are used to be Sprinkled with blood? The mention of drops implies fome part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped. JOHNSON. I am afraid our bard is at his quibbles again. To dye means as well to dip a thing in a colour foreign to its own, as to expire. In this fenfe, contemptible as it is, the executioner may be faid to die as well as live by bloody drops. Shakespeare is fond of oppofing thefe words to each other. In K. John is a play on words not unlike this. -all with purpled bands Dy'd in the dying flaughter of their foes. Camden has preferved an epitaph on a dyer, which has the fame play on words; "He that dyed fo oft in fport, Dyed at laft, no colour for't." So Heywood, in his epigrams, 1562. "Is thy husband a dyer, woman? alack, So Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589: "We once fported upon a country fellow, who came to run for "the beft game, and was by his occupation a dyer, and had very big fwelling legs. " He |