Clo. No truly; for the trueft poetry is the most feigning; and lovers are given to poetry; and what they fwear in poetry *, may be faid, as lovers, they do feign. Aud. Do you with then, that the Gods had made me poetical ? Cle. I do, truly; for thou fwear'ft to me, thou art honeft now if thou wert a poet, I might have some hope thou didst feign. : Aud. Would you not have me honest? Clo. No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favour'd: for honefty coupled to beauty, is, to have honey a fawce to fugar. Faq. [afide] A material fool (2) ! Aud. Well, I am not fair and therefore I ; Gods make me honest ! pray the Clo. Truly, and to caft away honefty upon a foul flut, were to put good meat into an unclean difh. Aud. I am not a flut, though I thank the Gods I am foul t. Clo. Well, praifed be the Gods for thy foulness! Aluttishnefs may come hereafter but be it as it may be, I will marry thee; and to that end I have been with Sir Oliver Mar-text; the vicar of the next village, who hath promis'd to meet me in this place of the foreft, and to couple us. faq [afide] I would fain fee this meeting. Aud. Well, the Gods give us joy! Clo. Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, ftagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no affembly but horn-beafts. But what tho' (3) courage. As horns are odious, they are neceffary. It is faid, many a man knows no end of his goods right many a man has good horns, and knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife, and what they fwear in petry, &c.] This fente ace feems perplexed and inconfequent, perhaps it were better read thus, What they fwear as lovers they may be faid to feign as poets. (2) A material fool!] A fool with matter in him; a fool ftocked with notions. (3) By foul is meant coy or frowning. what the' ?] What then. HANMER. 'tis none of his own getting; horns? even fo-poor men alone?-no, no, the nobleft deer hath them as huge as the rafcal: is the fingle man therefore blessed? по. As a walled town is more worthier than a village, fo is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence is better than no fkill, fo much is a horn more precious than to want. Enter Sir Oliver Mar-text. Here comes Sir Oliver-Sir Oliver Mar-text (4), you Sir Oliv. Is there none here to give the woman ? Sir Oliv. Truly, the muft be given, or the marriage is not lawful. Jag. [difcovering himself] Proceed, proceed; I'll give her. Clo. Good even, good mafter what ye call: how do you, Sir, you are very well met: God'ild you for your laft company! I am very glad to fee you even a toy in hand here, Sir-nay; pray be covered. Jaq. Will you be married, Motley? Clo. As the ox hath his bow, Sir, the horse his curb, and the faulcon his bells, fo man hath his defire; and as pigeons bill, fo wedlock would be nibling. Jaq. And will you being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush like a beggar? get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is; this fellow will but join you together they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a fhrunk pannel, and, like green timber, warp, warp. s Clo. I am not in the mind, but I were better to be married of him than of another; for he is not like to (4) Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the Univerfity, is in the academical flyle called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed Sir. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates affumed it in their own writings j. fo Trevifa the hiftorian writes himfelf Syr John de Trevifa. marry marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excufe for me hereafter to leave my wife. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. Clo. Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry. Farewel, good Sir Oliver; not (5) O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, but wind away, begone, I fay, I will not to wedding with thee. Sir Oliv. "Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my Calling. [Exeunt. Rof. N SCENE X. Changes to a Cottage in the Foreft. Enter Rofalind and Celia. Ever 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. (5) Not O fweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old ballad. WARBURTON, Of this fpeech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the fame breath he calls his miftrefs to be married, and fends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has very happily obferved, that O sweet Oliver is a quotation from an old fong, I believe there are two quotations put in oppofition to each other. For wind I read wend, the old word forgo Perhaps the whole paffage may be regulated thus, Clo. I am not in the mind, but it were better for me to be married of him than of an another, for be is not like to marry me well, and not being well married it will be a good excuse for me bereafter to. leave my wife Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in barvdry. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. [they whifper. Clo. Farewel, good Sir Oliver, not O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, Wend away, but I will not to wedding with thee to-day. Of this conjecture the reader may take as much as fhall ap pear neceffary to the fenfe, or conducive to the humour. 1 Rof. Rof. His very hair is of a diffembling colour. Cel. Something browner than Judas's: marry his kifles are Judas's own children. Rof. I'faith, his hair is of a good colour (6). 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 (7).1 Cel. He hath bought a pair of caft lips of Diana; a nun of Winter's fifterhood (8) kiffes not more religioufly; the very ice of chastity is in them. Ro But why did he wear he would come this morning, and comes not ? Cel. Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him. (6) There is much of nature in this petty perverfeness of Rofalind; he finds faults in her lover, in hope, to be contradicted, and when Celia in fportive malice too readily feconds her accufations, The contradicts herfelf, rather than fuffer her favourite to want a vindication. (7) as the touch of boly bread.] We should read beard, that is, as the kifs of an holy faint or hermit, called the kifs of charity: This makes the comparison juft and decent; the other impious and abfurd. WARBURTON. (8) -a nun of Winter's fifterhood-] This is finely expressed. But Mr. Theobald says, the words give him no idea. And 'tis certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them, However, to mend the matter, he fubftitutes Winifred's fifterhood. And, after fo happy a thought was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakespeare meant an unfruitful fifterhood, which had devoted itself to chaltity. For as thofe who were of the fifterhood of the spring 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 winter, because 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 moft poor, he inftances in winter, in these fine lines of Othello, But riches endless is as poor as winter, To him that ever fears be fhall be poor. The other property of winter that made him term them of its fifterhood is its coldness. So in Midfummer's Night's Dream. To be a barren fifter all your life, WARBURTON. Cel Cel. Yes. I think he is not a pick-purse nor a horfe ftealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet (9), or a worm-eaten nut. Rof. Not true in love? 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 no ftronger than the word of a tapfter; they are both the confirmers of falfe reckonings. He attends here in the Foreft on the Duke your Father. Rof. I met the Duke yefterday, and had much queftion with him; he asked me, of what parentage I 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. was; Cel. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, fpeaks brave words, fwears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite travers, athwart (1) the heart of his (9) -as concave as a cover'd goblet,] Whyla cover'd? Because a goblet is never kept cover'd but when empty. Shakespeare never throws out his expreffions at random, WARBURTON, (1) quite travers, atbwart, &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puifny Tilter, to whom it was a disgrace to have his Lance broken acrofs, as it was a mark either of want of Courage or Addrefs. This happen'd 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 one fide. Now as breaking the Lance against his Adverfary's breast, in a direct line, was bonourable, fo the breaking it across 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 fuch bold of his Staff that it croft quite over his breaft, &c. And to break across was the ufual phrafe, as appears from fome wretched verses of the fame author, fpeaking of an unfkilful Tilter, Metbought fome Staves be mift: if fe, not much amifs: One faid he brake across, full well it so 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 fashionable) is represented either unskilful in courtship, or timorous. The Lover's meeting or appointment corresponds to the Tilter's Career: And as the one breaks Staves, the other breaks Oaths. The business is only meeting fairly, and doing both with Addrefs: And 'tis for the want of this, that Orlando is blamed. WARBURTON. |
