knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love. I have heard him read many lectures against it; and I thank God, I am not a woman, to be touch'd with fo many giddy offences as he hath generally tax'd their whole fex withal.

ORL. Can you remember any of the principal evils, that he laid to the charge of women?

Ros. There were none principal; they were all like one another, as half-pence are: every one fault feeming monftrous, till his fellow fault came to match it.

ORL. I pr'ythee, recount fome of them.

Ros. No; I will not caft away my physick, but on those that are fick. There is a man haunts the foreft, that abuses our young plants with carving Rofalind on their barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles; all, forfooth, deifying the name of Rofalind: if I could meet that fancy-monger, I would give him fome good counfel, for he seems to have the quotidian of love upon him. ORL. I am he that is fo love-fhaked; I pray you, tell me your remedy.

Ros. There is none of my uncle's marks upon you he taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage of rufhes, I am fure, you are not prifoner.

ORL. What were his marks?

Ros. A lean cheek; which you have not: a blue eye, and funken; which you have not: an unquef

66

Again, in Puttenham's Arte of Poefie, 4to. 1589, fol. 120:

or finally in any uplandish village or corner of a realm, where is no refort but of poor rufticall or uncivill people."

MALONE.

STEEVENS.

a blue eye,] i. e. a blueness about the eyes.

tionable spirit; which you have not: a beard neglected; which you have not:-but I pardon you for that; for, fimply, your having in beard is a younger brother's revenue:-Then your hofe should be ungarter'd,' your bonnet unbanded, your fleeve unbuttoned, your fhoe untied, and every thing about you demonstrating a careless defolation. But you

7 an unqueftionable Spirit;] That is, a fpirit not inquifitive, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences. Here Shakspeare has ufed a paffive for an active mode of speech: fo in a former fcene, " The Duke is too disputable for me, that is, too difputatious." JOHNSON.

May it not mean, unwilling to be converfed with? CHAMIER. Mr. Chamier is right in fuppofing that it means a spirit averse to converfation.

So, in The Midfummer Night's Dream, Demetrius fays to Helena"I will not stay your question."

And in The Merchant of Venice, Antonio says

"I pray you, think you question with the Jew."

In the very next fcene, Rofalind fays I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with him." And in the last scene, Jaques de Bois fays" The Duke was converted after fome question with a religious man." In all which places, queftion means difcourfe or converfation. M. MASON.

8

your having-] Having is poffeffion, eftate. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "The gentleman is of no having."

STEEVENS.

Then your hofe fhould be ungarter'd, &c.] Thefe feem to have been the established and characteristical marks by which the votaries of love were denoted in the time of Shakspeare. So, in The Fair Maid of the Exchange, by Heywood, 1637: " Shall I that have jefted at love's fighs, now raife whirlwinds! Shall I, that have fouted ah me's once a quarter, now practise ah me's every minute? Shall I defy hat-bands, and tread garters and shoe-ftrings under my feet? Shall I fall to falling bands, and be a ruffian no longer? I muft; I am now liegeman to Cupid, and have read all thefe informations in the book of his ftatutes." Again, in A pleafant Comedy how to chufe a good Wife from a bad, 1602: I was once like thee

"A figher, melancholy humorist,

"Croffer of arms, a goer without garters,

"A hat-band hater, and a busk-point wearer." MALONE.

are no fuch man; you are rather point-device in your accoutrements; as loving yourself, than feeming the lover of any other.

ORL. Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.

Ros. Me believe it? you may as foon make her that you love believe it; which, I warrant, fhe is apter to do, than to confefs fhe does: that is one of the points in the which women still give the lie to their confciences. But, in good footh, are you he that hangs the verfes on the trees, wherein Rofalind is fo admired?

ORL. I fwear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rofalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he. Ros. But are you so much in love as your rhimes speak?

ORL. Neither rhime nor reafon can exprefs how much.

Ros. Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deferves as well a dark house and a whip, as madmen do: and the reason why they are not fo punished and cured, is, that the lunacy is fo ordinary, that the whippers are in love too: Yet I profefs curing it by counfel.

ORL. Did you ever cure any fo?

He was to

Ros. Yes, one; and in this manner. imagine me his love, his miftrefs; and I fet him every day to woo me: At which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing, and liking; proud, fantastical, apish,

9-point-device-] i. e. exact, dreft with finical nicety. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "I hate fuch infociable and point-device companions." STEEVENS.

2

—a moonish youth,] i. e. variable. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Ofwear not by the moon, th' inconftant moon." STEEVENS.

part

fhallow, inconftant, full of tears, full of fmiles; for every passion something, and for no paffion truly any thing, as boys and women are for the most cattle of this colour: would now like him, now loath him; then entertain him, then forfwear him; now weep for him, then spit at him; that I drave my fuitor from his mad humour of love, to a living humour of madness;' which was, to forfwear the full ftream of the world, and to live in a nook merely monaftick: And thus I cured him; and this way will I take upon me to wash your liver as clean as a found fheep's heart,' that there fhall not be one fpot of love in't.

ORL. I would not be cured, youth.

Ros. I would cure you, if you would but call me

2- to a living bamour of madness;] If this be the true reading we muft by living understand lafting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that fome antithefis was intended which is now loft; perhaps the paffage ftood thus-I drove my fuitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of madness. Or rather thus From a mad humour of love to a loving humour of madness, that is, " from a madness that was love, to a love that was madness.' This seems somewhat harsh and ftrained, but fuch modes of fpeech are not unusual in our poet: and this harshness was probably the caufe of the corruption. JOHNSON.

Perhaps we should read—to a humour of loving madness. FARMER. Both the emendations appear to me inconfiftent with the tenour of Rofalind's argument. Rofalind by her fantastick tricks did not drive her fuitor either into a loving humour of madness, or a humour of loving madness; (in which he was originally without her aid ;) but she drove him from love into a fequefter'd and melancholy retirement. A living humour of madness is, I conceive, in our author's licentious language, a humour of living madness, a mad humour that operates on the mode of living; or, in other words, and more accurately, a mad bumour of life; "to forfwear the world, and to live in a nook merely monaftick." MALONE.

3 ——— as clean as a found sheep's heart,] This is no very delicate comparison, though produced by Rofalind in her affumed character of a fhepherd. A jheep's heart, before it is dreft, is always fplit and washed, that the blood within it may be diflodged. STEEVENS.

Rofalind, and come every day to my cote, and woo

me.

ÓRL. Now, by the faith of my love, I will; tell me where it is.

Ros. Go with me to it, and I'll fhow it you: and, by the way, you shall tell me where in the foreft you live: Will you go?

ORL. With all my heart, good youth.

Ros. Nay, you must call me Rofalind :-Come, fifter, will you go?

2

[Exeunt.

Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES at a distance, obferving them.

TOUCH. Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch up your goats, Audrey: And how, Audrey? am I the man yet? Doth my fimple feature content you?3

2

Audrey;] Is a corruption of Etheldreda. The faint of that name is fo ftyled in ancient calendars. STEEVENS.

3 Doth my fimple feature content you?] fays the Clown to Audrey. "Your features! (replies the wench,) Lord warrant us! what features?" I doubt not, this fhould be-your feature! Lord warrant us! what's feature? FARMER.

Feat and feature, perhaps had anciently the fame meaning. The Clown afks, if the features of his face content her, she takes the word in another fense, i. e. feats, deeds, and in her reply feems to mean, what feats, i. e. what have we done yet? The courtship of Audrey and her gallant had not proceeded further, as Sir Wilful Witwood fays, than a little mouth-glue; but the supposes him to be talking of fomething which as yet he had not performed. Or the jeft may turn only on the Clown's pronunciation. In fome parts, features might be pronounced, faitors, which fignify rafcals, low wretches. Piftol ufes the word in the second Part of King Henry IV. and Spenfer very frequently. STEEVENS.

In Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594, is the following couplet : "I fee then, artless feature can content,

"And that true beauty needs no ornament."