Re-enter LE BEAU.

O poor Orlando! thou art overthrown;

Or Charles, or something weaker, masters thee. LE BEAU. Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you To leave this place: Albeit you have deserv'd High commendation, true applause, and love; Yet such is now the duke's conditiona,

That he misconstrues all that you have done. The duke is humorous b; what he is, indeed, More suits you to conceive, than I to speak of. ORL. I thank you, sir; and, pray you, tell me this; Which of the two was daughter of the duke

That here was at the wrestling?

LE BEAU. Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners;

d

But yet, indeed, the shorter is his daughter:
The other is daughter to the banish'd duke,
And here detain'd by her usurping uncle,
To keep his daughter company; whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.
But I can tell you, that of late this duke
Hath ta'en displeasure 'gainst his gentle niece;
Grounded upon no other argument

But that the people praise her for her virtues,
And pity her for her good father's sake;
And, on my life, his malice 'gainst the lady
Will suddenly break forth.—Sir, fare you well;
Hereafter, in a better world than this,

I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
ORL. I rest much bounden to you: fare you well!
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother:—
But heavenly Rosalind!

[Exit LE BEAU.

[Exit.

SCENE III.—A Room in the Palace.

Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.

CEL. Why, cousin; why, Rosalind ;-Cupid have mercy!—not a word?

Ros. Not one to throw at a dog.

a Condition-temper.

с

b Humorous-capricious.

I. So the original. In the modern copies it is corrected to me.

a The shorter. The original has the taller; but the reading is certainly erroneous, for in the next scene Rosalind describes herself as more than common tall," and in the fourth Act Oliver describes Celia as "low." Malone would read smaller; but we prefer Pope's correction of shorter. Shakspere uses short with reference to a woman-" Leonato's short daughter” ('Much Ado about Nothing').

CEL. No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs; throw some of them at me: come, lame me with reasons.

Ros. Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one should be lamed with reasons, and the other mad without any.

CEL. But is all this for your father?

Ros. No, some of it is for my father's childa: O, how full of briars is this working-day world!

CEL. They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery; if we

walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats will catch them.

Ros. I could shake them off my coat; these burs are in my heart.

CEL. Hem them away.

Ros. I would try; if I could cry hem, and have him.

CEL. Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.

Ros. O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.

CEL. O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in despite of a fall.-But, turning these jests out of service, let us talk in good earnest: Is it possible, on such a sudden, you should fall into so strong a liking with old sir Rowland's youngest son?

Ros. The duke my father loved his father dearly.

CEL. Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly b; yet I hate not Orlando.

Ros. No, 'faith, hate him not, for my sake.

CEL. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well¢?

Ros. Let me love him for that; and do you love him, because I do:—Look, here comes the duke.

CEL. With his eyes full of anger.

Enter Duke FREDERICK, with Lords.

DUKE F. Mistress, despatch you with your safest haste,
And get you from our court.

Ros.

DUKE F.

Me, uncle?

You, cousin :

Within these ten days if that thou be'st found

So near our public court as twenty miles,

a My father's child. In the original, my child's father. This is interpreted by Theobald, "for him whom I hope to marry," who will be the father of my children. We have ventured to alter the text as it was altered by Rowe and other of the early editors. Coleridge says, “Who can doubt that it is a mistake for my father's child,' meaning herself?"

• Hate him not, for my sake.

CEL. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?

Caldecott's interpretation of this passage is as follows:-"Upon a principle stated by yourself; 'because my father hated his father, does he not well deserve by me to be hated?' while Rosalind, taking the words simply, and without any reference, replies, 'Let me love him for that;' i. e., for that he well deserves.”

Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
If with myself I hold intelligence,

Or have acquaintance with mine own desires;

If that I do not dream, or be not frantic,
(As I do trust I am not,) then, dear uncle,
Never, so much as in a thought unborn,
Did I offend your highness.
DUKE F.

Thus do all traitors;

If their purgation did consist in words,
They are as innocent as grace itself:

Let it suffice thee, that I trust thee not.
Ros. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor :
Tell me, whereon the likelihood depends.

DUKE F. Thou art thy father's daughter, there 's enough.
Ros. So was I when your highness took his dukedom;
So was I when your highness banish'd him :
Treason is not inherited, my lord;

Or, if we did derive it from our friends,

What's that to me? my father was no traitor:
Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
To think my poverty is treacherous.

CEL. Dear sovereign, hear me speak.

DUKE F. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake,
Else had she with her father rang'd along.
CEL. I did not then entreat to have her stay,
It was your pleasure, and your own remorse2;
I was too young that time to value her,
But now I know her: if she be a traitor,
Why so am I; we still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,

Still we went coupled, and inseparable.

DUKE F. She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness,

Her very silence, and her patience,

Speak to the people, and they pity her.

Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name;

And thou wilt show more bright, and seem more virtuous,

When she is gone: then open not thy lips;

Firm and irrevocable is my doom

Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd.

CEL. Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege;

I cannot live out of her company.

a Remorse-compassion.

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

ہووا

DUKE F. You are a fool :-You, niece, provide yourself;
If you outstay the time, upon mine honour,
And in the greatness of my word, you die.

[Exeunt Duke FREDERICK and Lords.

CEL. O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
I charge thee, be not thou more griev'd than I am.
Ros. I have more cause.

CEL.

Thou hast not, cousin;
Prithee, be cheerful; know'st thou not the duke
Hath banish'd me, his daughter?

Ros.
That he hath not.
CEL. No? hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth theea that thou and I am one:
Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl?
No; let my father seek another heir.
Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
Whither to go, and what to bear with us:

b

And do not seek to take your change upon you,
To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out;
For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.
Ros. Why, whither shall we go?

CEL. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.
Ros. Alas, what danger will it be to us,

Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
CEL. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber smirch my face,
The like do you; so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants.

a Warburton would read, and we think he has reason, "which teacheth me." Johnson defends the original reading of thee. He says, "Where would be the absurdity of saying, You know not the law which teaches you to do right?”

All the ordinary reprints of the text are here mutilated by one of Steevens's hateful corrections. In them we read,—because “we have been already informed by Charles the wrestler that the banished Duke's residence was in the forest of Arden,”

And so the two poor ladies are to go forth to seek the banished Duke through the wide world, and to meet with him at last by chance, because Steevens holds that this indication of their knowledge of the place of his retreat is "injurious to the measure!"

A boar-spear in my hand; and (in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will)
We'll have a swashing a and a martial outside ;
As many other mannish cowards have,

That do outface it with their semblances.

CEL. What shall I call thee, when thou art a man?
Ros. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page,
And therefore look you call me Ganymede.

But what will you be call'd?

CEL. Something that hath a reference to my state ;
No longer Celia, but Aliena.

Ros. But, cousin, what if we essay'd to steal

The clownish fool out of your father's court?
Would he not be a comfort to our travel?
CEL. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
Leave me alone to woo him: Let's away,
And get our jewels and our wealth together;
Devise the fittest time, and safest way
To hide us from pursuit that will be made
After my flight: Now go in we content,
To liberty, and not to banishment.

a Swashing. To swash is to make a noise of swords against targets. In 'Romeo and Juliet' we have "the swashing blow."

b In we content. This is the reading of the first folio; that of the second, we in content. Malone holds content to be a substantive, in the reading of the second folio. Adopting the original reading, we must receive it as an adjective.