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ORL. But will my Rofalind do fo?

Ros. By my life, she will do as I do.
ORL. O, but she is wife.

Ros. Or elfe fhe could not have the wit to do this the wifer, the waywarder: Make the doors? upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement; fhut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; ftop that, 'twill fly with the fmoke out at the chimney.

ORL. A man that had a wife with fuch a wit, he might fay,-Wit, whither wilt?

Ros. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed.

ORL. And what wit could wit have to excufe that?

9 Make the doors-] This is an expreffion ufed in feveral of the midland counties, inftead of bar the doors. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"The doors are made against you." STEEVENS.

2- Wit, whither wilt?] This must be some allufion to a ftory well known at that time, though now perhaps irretrievable. JOHNSON.

This was an exclamation much in ufe, when any one was either talking nonfenfe, or ufurping a greater share in conversation than justly belonged to him. So, in Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602: "My fweet, Wit whither wilt thou, my delicate poetical fury," &c. Again, in Heywood's Royal King, 1637:

"Wit:-is the word ftrange to you? Wit?

"Whither wilt thou?"

Again, in the Preface to Greene's Groats-worth of Wit, 1621: “Wit whither wilt thou? woe is me,

"Thou haft brought me to this miferie."

The fame expreffion occurs more than once in Taylor the waterpoet, and feems to have been the title of fome ludicrous performance.

STEEVENS.

If I remember right, these are the firft words of an old madrigal. MALONE.

Ros. Marry, to fay,-fhe came to feek you there. You shall never take her without her answer,' unless you take her without her tongue. O, that woman that cannot make her fault her husband's occafion,+ let her never nurfe her child herself, for fhe will breed it like a fool.

ORL. For these two hours Rosalind, I will leave thee.

Ros. Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours. ORL. I must attend the duke at dinner; by two o'clock I will be with thee again.

Ros. Ay, go your ways, go your ways; I knew what you would prove; my friends told me as much, and I thought no lefs:-that flattering tongue of yours won me:-'tis but one caft away, and fo,— come, death.-Two o'clock is your hour?

ORL. Ay, fweet Rofalind.

Ros. By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot of your promise,

3 You shall never take her without her answer,] See Chaucer's Marchantes Tale, ver. 10,138-10,149:

4

"Ye, fire, quod Proferpine, and wol ye fo?
"Now by my modre Ceres foule I fwere,
"That I fhall yeve hire fuffifant answere,
"And alle women after for hire fake;
"That though they ben in any gilt ytake,
"With face bold they fhul hemselve excufe,
"And bere hem doun that wolden hem accufe.
"For lack of anfwere, non of us fhall dien.
"Al had ye seen a thing with bothe youre eyen,
"Yet fhul we fo vifage it hardely,

"And wepe and fwere and chiden fubtilly,
"That ye fhul ben as lewed as ben gees."

TYRWHITT.

make her fault her husband's occafion,] That is, represent

her fault as occafioned by her husband. Sir her husband's accufation. JOHNSON.

T. Hanmer reads,

or come one minute behind your hour, I will think you the most pathetical break-promife, and the moft hollow lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rofalind, that may be chofen out of the grofs band of the unfaithful: therefore beware my cenfure, and keep your promife.

ORL. With no lefs religion, than if thou wert indeed my Rofalind: So, adieu.

Ros. Well, time is the old justice that examines all fuch offenders, and let time try: Adieu!

[Exit ORLANDO,

CEL. You have fimply mifus'd our fex in your love-prate we must have your doublet and hofe pluck'd over your head, and show the world what the bird hath done to her own neft."

Ros. O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how many fathom deep I am in love! But it cannot be founded; my affection hath an unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal.

CEL. Or rather, bottomlefs; that as faft as you pour affection in, it runs out.

5 — I will think you the most pathetical break-promife,] The fame epithet occurs again in Love's Labour's Loft, and with as little apparent meaning:

moft pathetical nit." STEEVENS.

I believe, by pathetical break-promise, Rofalind means a lover whofe falfehood would moft deeply affect his mistress.

MALONE.

time is the old juftice that examines all fuch offenders, and

let time try:] So, in Troilus and Creffida:

"And that old common arbitrator, Time,

"Will one day end it," STEEVENS.

7 to her own neft.] So, in Lodge's Rofalynde: And “ I pray you (quoth Aliena) if your own robes were off, what mettal are you made of, that you are fo fatyricall againft women? Is it not a foule bird defiles her owne neft?" STEEVENS,

Ros. No, that fame wicked baftard of Venus, that was begot of thought,' conceiv'd of spleen, and born of madness; that blind rafcally boy, that abufes every one's eyes, because his own are out, let him be judge, how deep I am in love:--I'll tell thee, Aliena, I cannot be out of the fight of Orlando: I'll go find a fhadow, and figh till he come. CEL. And I'll fleep. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Foreft.

Enter JAQUES and Lords, in the habit of Forefters.

F42. Which is he that kill'd the deer?
I LORD. Sir, it was I.

8

F42. Let's present him to the duke, like a Roman conqueror; and it would do well to fet the deer's horns upon his head, for a branch of victory :Have you no fong, forester, for this purpose?

2 LORD. Yes, fir.

4. Sing it; 'tis no matter how it be in tune, fo it make noise enough.

7

Cafar:

66

begot of thought,] i. c. of melar holy. So, in Julius

take thought, and die for Cæfar."

STEEVENS.

-I'll go find a shadow, and figh till he come. So, in Macbeth:

"Let us feek out fome defolate fade, and there

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Weep our fad bofoms empty." STEEVENS.

SONG.

1. What shall be have, that kill'd the deer?
2. His leather skin, and horns to wear.3

1. Then fing him home:
Take thou no fcorn, to wear the born;
It was a creft ere thou waft born.
1. Thy father's father wore it;
2. And thy father bore it:

All. The born, the horn, the lufty born,
Is not a thing to laugh to fcorn.

The reft fhall

bear this bur

den.

[Exeunt.

His leather fkin, and horns to wear.] Shakspeare feems to have formed this fong on a hint afforded by the novel which furnished him with the plot of his play. "What news, Forrefter? Haft thou wounded fome deere, and loft him in the fall? Care not, man, for fo fmall a loffe; thy fees was but the skinne, the shoulders, and the horns." Lodge's Rofalynde, or Euphues's Golden Legacie 1592. For this quotation the reader is indebted to Mr. Malone.

So likewife in an ancient MS. entitled The Boke of Huntyng, that is cleped Mayfter of Game: " And as of fees, it is to wite that what man that myte a dere atte his tree with a dethes ftroke, and he be recouered by fonne going doune, he shall haue the skyn, &c." STEEVENS,

9 Take thou no fcorn, to wear the born;] In King John in two parts, 1591, a play which our authour had without doubt atten, tively read, we find thefe lines:

"But let the foolish Frenchman take no fcorn,

"If Philip front him with an English born." MALONE. To take fcorn is a phrafe that occurs again in King Henry VI, P. I. Act IV. fc. iv:

"And take foul fcorn, to fawn on him by fending."

STEEVENS,

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