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SCENE III.2

The Foreft.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA.

Ros. How fay you now? Is it not past two o'clock and here much Orlando! 3

CEL. I warrant you, with pure love, and troubled brain, he hath ta'en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth to fleep: Look, who comes here.

Enter SILVIUS.

SIL. My errand is to you, fair youth ;

2 The foregoing noify fcene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to reprefent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rofalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando fending his excufe. I do not fee that by any probable divifion of the acts this abfurdity can be obviated. JOHNSON.

3_

Some

and here much Orlando!] Thus the old copy. of the modern editors read, but without the least authority: I wonder much, Orlando is not here. STEEVENS. The word much fhould be explained. It is an expreffion of latitude, and taken in various fenfes. Here's much Orlando—i. e. Here is no Orlando, or we may look for him. We have ftill this ufe of it, as when we fay, fpeaking of a perfon who we fufpect will not keep his appointment, Ay, you will be fure to fee him there much!" WHALLEY.

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So the vulgar yet fay, "I fhall get much by that no doubt," meaning that they fhall get nothing. MALONE.

Here much Orlando! is fpoken ironically on Rofalind perceiving that Orlando had failed in his engagement. HOLT WHITE. Much, in our author's time, was an expreffion denoting admiration. So, in King Henry IV. P. II. A&t II. sc. iv :

"What, with two points on your shoulder? much!” Again, in The Taming of the Shrew:

""Tis much!-Servant, leave me and her alone." MALONE. Much! was more frequently used to indicate difdain. See notes on the first of the two paffages quoted by Mr. Malone. STEEVENS.

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My gentle Phebe bid me give you this:

[Giving a letter. I know not the contents; but, as I guess, By the ftern brow, and waspish action Which she did ufe as fhe was writing of it, It bears an angry tenour: pardon me, I am but as a guiltless meffenger.

Ros. Patience herself would startle at this letter, And play the swaggerer;' bear this, bear all: She fays, I am not fair; that I lack manners; She calls me proud; and, that she could not love me Were man as rare as phoenix; Od's my will! Her love is not the hare that I do hunt:

Why writes fhe fo to me?-Well, fhepherd, well, This is a letter of your own device.

SIL. No, I protest, I know not the contents; Phebe did write it.

Ros.

Come, come, you are a fool, And turn'd into the extremity of love.

I saw her hand: fhe has a leathern hand,

A freeftone-colour'd hand; I verily did think That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands; She has a hufwife's hand: but that's no matter:

bid me-] The old copy redundantly reads-did bid me.

STEEVENS.

5 Patience herself would ftartle at this letter, And play the fwaggerer;] So, in Meafure for Meafure: "This would make mercy fwear, and play the tyrant." STEEVENS.

6 Phebe did write it.

---

Rof. Come, come, you are a fool,-
I faw her hand: he has a leathern hand,

A freeftone-colour'd hand;] As this paffage now ftands, the metre of the first line is imperfect, and the fenfe of the whole; for why should Rofalind dwell fo much upon Phebe's hands, unless Silvius had faid fomething about them?—I have no doubt but the line originally ran thus:

Phebe did write it with her own fair hand.

And then Rofalind's reply will naturally follow. M. MASON.

I fay, she never did invent this letter;
This is a man's invention, and his hand.
SIL. Sure, it is hers.

Ros. Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel ftile,
A ftile for challengers; why, the defies me,
Like Turk to Christian: woman's gentle brain'
Could not drop forth fuch giant-rude invention,
Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect
Than in their countenance :-Will you hear the
letter?

SIL. So please you, for I never heard it yet; Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty.

Ros. She Phebes me: Mark how the tyrant writes.

Art thou god to fhepherd turn'd,

[Reads.

That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?—

Can a woman rail thus?

SIL. Call you this railing?

Ros. Why, thy godhead laid apart,

Warr'ft 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.

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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 afpéct?
Whiles you chid me, I did love;

How then might your prayers move?

woman's gentle brain-] Old copy-women's. Cor

rected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

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vengeance] is ufed for mischief. JOHNSON,

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

And then I'll study how to die.

SIL. Call you this chiding?

CEL. Alas, poor fhepherd!

Ros. Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity.Wilt thou love fuch a woman?-What, to make thee an instrument, and play falfe ftrains upon thee! not to be endured!-Well, go your way to her, (for, I fee, love hath made thee a tame snake,) and say this to her;-That if the love me, I charge her to love thee: if she will not, I will never have her, unless thou entreat 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,

know

if you

- youth and kind—] Kind is the old word for nature.

JOHNSON. So, in Autony and Cleopatra: "You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his kind." STEEVENS.

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all that I can make ;] i. e. raife as profit from any thing. So, in Measure for Meafure: "He's in for a commodity of brown paper; of which he made five marks ready money." STEEVENS. 7 — I fee, love hath made thee a tame snake,] This term was, in our author's time, frequently used to exprefs a poor contemptible fellow. So, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: poor fnakes, come feldom to a booty."

Again, in Lord Cromwell, 1602:

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and you,

MALONE.

Where, in the purlieus of this forest, stands
A fheep-cote, 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 may profit by a tongue,
Then I should know you by description;
Such garments, and fuch years: The boy is fair,
Of female favour, and bestows himself

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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 ask'd, to say, we are.
OLI. Orlando doth commend him to you both;

6 purlieus of this foreft,] Purlieu, fays Manwood's Treatife on the Foreft Laws, c. xx. "Is a certaine territorie of ground adjoyning unto the foreft, meared and bounded with unmoveable marks, meeres, and boundaries: which territories of ground was alfo foreft, and afterwards difaforefted againe by the perambulations made for the fevering of the new forest from the old."

REED.

Bullokar, in his Expofitor, 1616, defcribes a purlieu as "a place neere joining to a foreft, where it is lawful for the owner of the ground to hunt, if he can difpend fortie fhillings by the yeere, of freeland." MALONE.

7 Left on your right hand,] i, e. paffing by the rank of oziers, and leaving them on your right hand, you will reach the place. MALONE.

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beftows himself

Like a ripe fifter:] Of this quaint phrafeology there is an example in King Henry IV. P. II: "How might we see Falstaff beflow himself to-night in his true colours?" STEEVENS.

9 but the woman low,] But, which is not in the old copy, was added by the editor of the fecond folio, to fupply the metre. I fufpect it is not the word omitted, but have nothing better to propofe. MALONE.

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