Can a woman rail thus ?

Sil. Call you this railing?

Ref. [Reads.] Why, thy Godhead laid apart,
War't thou with a woman's heart?

Did you ever hear fuch railing?

Whiles the eye of man did woo me,
That could do no vengeance to me.

Meaning me a beast.

If the fcorn of your bright eyne
Have power to raife fuch love in mine,
Alack, in me, what strange effect
Would they work in mild aspect?
Whiles you chid me, I did love;
How then might your prayers move?

He, that brings this love to thee,
Little knows this love in me:
And by him feal up thy mind,
Whether that thy youth and kind ↑
Will the faithful offer take
Of me, and all that I can make 3
Or elfe by him my love deny,

And then I'll study how to die.]

Sil. Call you this chiding?
Cel. Alas, poor shepherd!

Rof. Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity. Wilt thou love fuch a woman?-What, to make thee an inftrument, and play false strains upon thee? not to be endured !-Well, go your way to her; (for I fee love hath made thee a tame fnake) and say this

3 Vengeance is used for mischief. JOHNSON.

↑ Youth and kind] Kind is the old word for nature. JoHNSON.

to

to her; "that if fhe love me, I charge her to love "thee: if fhe will not, I will never have her, un"less thou intreat for her." If you be a true lover, hence, and not a word; for here comes more company. [Exit Silvius.

Enter Oliver.

Oli. Good-morrow, fair ones: pray you, if you know

Where, in the purlieus of this foreft, ftands
A fheep-cate fenc'd about with olive-trees?

Cel. Weft of this place, down in the neighbour bottom,

The rank of ofiers, by the murmuring ftream,
Left on your right-hand, brings you to the place:
But at this hour the house doth keep itself,
There's none within.

Oli. If that an eye doth profit by a tongue, Then should I know you by defcription, Such garments, and fuch years: "the boy is fair, "Of female favour, and bestows himself "Like a ripe fifter: but the woman low, "And browner than her brother." Are not you The owner of the house, I did enquire for?

Cel. It is no boast, being afk'd, to fay, we are.
Oli. Orlando doth commend him to you both,
And to that youth, he calls his Rosalind,
He fends this bloody napkin. Are you he?

Rof. I am: what must we understand by this? Oli. Some of my fhame; if you will know of me What man I.am, and how, and why, and where This handkerchief was ftain'd.

Cel. I pray you, tell it.

Oli. When laft the young Orlando parted from you, He left a promise to return again

Within an hour; and pacing through the foreft,'

• Within an hour;] We must read, within two hours. JOHNSON.

I

Chewing

Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befel! he threw his eye afide,
And, mark, what object did prefent itself.
Under an oak, whose boughs were mofs'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,

A wretched ragged man, o'er-grown with hair,
Lay fleeping on his back: about his neck
A green and gilded fnake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but fuddenly
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,

And with indented glides did flip away
Into a bush: under which bufh's fhade
A lionefs, with udders all drawn dry,

Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch
When that the fleeping man should stir; for 'tis
The royal difpofition of that beaft

To prey on nothing that doth feem as dead :
This feen, Orlando did approach the man,

And found it was his brother, his elder brother.

Cel. O, I have heard him speak of that fame brother;

And he did render him the most unnatural

That liv'd 'mongst men.

Oli. And well he might so do;

For, well I know he was unnatural.

Rof. But, to Orlando ;-did he leave him there,

Food to the fuck'd and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd fo: But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

And nature, stronger than his just occafion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,

Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling
From miferable flumber I awak'd.

Cel. Are you his brother?

Rof. Was it you he rescu'd?

Cel. Was't you that did fo oft contrive to kill him?

Oli. 'Twas I; but 'tis not I: I do not fhame
To tell you what I was, fince my converfion
So fweetly tastes, being the thing I am.
Rof. But, for the bloody napkin ?—
Oli. By, and by.

When from the first to laft, betwixt us two,
Tears our recountments had moft kindly bath'd,
As how I came into that defert place ;-
In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke,
Who gave me fresh array, and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me inftantly unto his cave,
There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
The lionefs had torn fome flesh away,

Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted, And cry'd, in fainting, upon Rofalind.

Brief, I recover'd him; bound up

his wound;

And, after some small space, being strong at heart,
He fent me hither, ftranger as I am,

To tell this ftory, that you might excuse
His broken promife; and to give this napkin,
Dy'd in his blood, unto the fhepherd youth,
That he in sport doth call his Rofalind.

Cel. Why, how now? Ganymed!Sweet!-[Rofalind faints.

Ganymed!

Oli. Many will fwoon when they do look on blood. Cel. There is more in it :-coufin-Ganymed!

Oli. Look, he recovers.

Rof. I would, I were at home!

Cel. We'll lead you thither:

-I pray you, will you take him by the arm? Oli. Be of good cheer, youth :-You a man?you lack a man's heart.

Rof. I do fo, I confefs it. Ah, fir, a body would

coufin-Ganymed!] Celia in her firft fright forgets Rofalind's character and difguife, and calls out coufin, then recollects herfelf, and fays Ganymed. JOHNSON.

VOL. III.

Y

think

think this was well counterfeited. I pray you, tell your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh ho!Oli. This was not counterfeit; there is too great teftimony in your complexion, that it was a paffion

of earnest.

Rof. Counterfeit, I affure you.

Oli. Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man.

Rof. So I do; but, i'faith, I fhould have been a woman by right.

Cel. Come, you look paler and paler; pray you, draw homewards :-Good fir, go with us.

Oli. That will I; for I must bear answer back, How you excufe my brother, Rofalind.

Ref. I fhall devife fomething. But, I pray you, commend my counterfeiting to him.-Will you go?

[Exeunt.

A CT V. SCENE I.

THE FOREST.

Enter Clown and Audrey.

CLOWN.

E fhall find a time, Audrey;-patience, gentle
Audrey.

WE

Aud. Faith the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman's faying.

Clo. A moft wicked fir Oliver, Audrey; a moft vile Mar-text. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the foreft lays claim to you.

Aud. Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no intereft in me in the world: here comes the man you mean.

Enter