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CHA. O, no; for the duke's daughter,' her coufin, fo loves her,-being ever from their cradles bred together, that fhe would have followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter; and never two ladies loved as they do.

OLI. Where will the old duke live?

CHA. They fay, he is already in the foreft of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they fay, many young gentlemen flock to him every day; and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

OLI. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke?

CHA. Marry, do I, fir; and I came to acquaint you with a matter. I am given, fir, fecretly to un

· the duke's daughter,] i. e. the banished duke's daughter. MALONE. The author of The Revifal is of opinion, that the fubfequent words, her coufin, fufficiently diftinguish the perfon intended. STEEVENS.

3 - for the duke's daughter,] i. e. the ufurping duke's daughter. Sir T. Hanmer reads here-the new duke's; and in the preceding fpeech-the old duke's daughter; but in my opinion unneceffarily. The ambiguous ufe of the word duke in these passages is much in our author's manner. MALONE.

4 in the foreft of Arden,] Ardenne is a forest of confiderable extent in French Flanders, lying near the Meufe, and between Charlemont and Rocroy. It is mentioned by Spenfer, in his Colin Clout's come home again, 1595:

"Into a foreft wide and wafte he came,

"Where store he heard to be of favage prey;

"So wide a forest, and so waste as this,

"Not famous Ardeyn, nor foul Arlo is."

But our author was furnished with the scene of his play by Lodge's Novel. MALONE.

derstand, that your younger brother, Orlando, hath a difpofition to come in difguis'd against me to try a fall: To-morrow, fir, I wrestle for my credit; and he that escapes me without fome broken limb, fhall acquit him well. Your brother is but young, and tender; and, for your love, I would be loth to foil him, as I muft, for my own honour, if he come in therefore, out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint you withal; that either you might stay him from his intendment, or brook fuch difgrace well as he fhall run into; in that it is a thing of his own search, and altogether against my will.

OLI. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou fhalt find I will moft kindly requite. I had myself notice of my brother's purpose herein, and have by underhand means laboured to diffuade him from it; but he is refolute. I'll tell thee, Charles, -it is the ftubborneft young fellow of France; full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a fecret and villainous contriver against me his natural brother; therefore use thy difcretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger: And thou wert beft look to't; for if thou doft him any flight difgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practife against thee by poison, entrap thee by fome treacherous device, and never leave thee till he hath ta'en thy life by fome indirect means or other: for, I affure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one so young and fo villainous this day living. I fpeak but brotherly of him; but fhould I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

CHA. I am heartily glad I came hither to you: If he come to-morrow, I'll give him his payment:

If ever he go alone again, I'll never wrestle for prize more: And fo, God keep your worship!

[Exit, QLI. Farewell good Charles. Now will I ftir this gamefter:' I hope, I fhall fee an end of him; for my foul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never school'd, and yet learned; full of noble device; of all forts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, fo much in the heart of the world, and efpecially of my own people, who best know him, that I am altogether mifprised: but it shall not be fo long; this wrestler fhall clear all : nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither,' which now I'll go about.

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[Exit.

CEL. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.

Ros. Dear Celia, I fhow more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier?"

3 this gamefter:] Gamefter, in the prefent inftance, and fome others, does not fignify a man viciously addicted to games of chance, but a frolick fome perfon. Thus, in King Henry VIII:

"You are a merry gamefter, my lord Sands." STEEVENS. of all forts-] Sorts in this place means ranks and RITSON.

degrees of men.

-kindle the boy thither,] A fimilar phrafe occurs in Macbeth, A& I. fc. iii:

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enkindle you unto the crown." STEEVENS. I were merrier?] I which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was inferted by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.

CEL. Herein, I fee, thou loveft me not with the full weight that I love thee: if my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy uncle, the duke my father, fo thou hadst been ftill with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine; fo would'ft thou, if the truth of thy love to me were fo righteously temper'd as mine is to thee.

Ros. Well, I will forget the condition of my eftate, to rejoice in yours.

CEL. You know, my father hath no child but I, nor none is like to have; and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt be his heir: for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honour, I will; and when I break that oath, let me turn monster: therefore, my sweet Rofe, my dear Rose, be merry.

Ros. From henceforth I will, coz, and devife sports; let me fee; What think you of falling in love?

CEL. Marry, I pry'thee, do, to make sport withal: but love no man in good earneft; nor no further in sport neither, than with fafety of a pure blush thou may'st in honour come off again.

Ros. What fhall be our sport then?

CEL. Let us fit and mock the good housewife, Fortune, from her wheel,' that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.

7-mock the good houferwife, Fortune, from her wheel,] The wheel of Fortune is not the wheel of a housewife. Shakspeare has confounded Fortune, whofe wheel only figures uncertainty and

Ros. I would, we could do fo; for her benefits are mightily misplaced: and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to women.

CEL. 'Tis true: for those, that the makes fair, she scarce makes honest; and those, that she makes honeft, fhe makes very ill-favour'dly.

Ros. Nay, now thou goeft from fortune's office to nature's fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature.

Enter TOUCHSTONE.

CEL. No? When nature hath made a fair creature, may she not by fortune fall into the fire?— Though nature hath given us wit to flout at fortune, hath not fortune fent in this fool to cut off the argument?

Ros. Indeed, there is fortune too hard for nature; when fortune makes nature's natural the cutter off of nature's wit.

CEL. Peradventure, this is not fortune's work neither, but nature's; who perceiving our natural wits too dull to reafon of fuch goddeffes, hath fent this natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnefs of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.-How now, wit? whither wander you?

viciffitude, with the deftiny that spins the thread of life, though not indeed with a wheel. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare is very fond of this idea. He has the fame in Antony and Cleopatra:

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and rail fo high,

"That the falfe housewife, Fortune, break her wheel."

STEEVENS.

8 who perceiving our natural wits too dull to reason of fuch goddeffes, bath fent, &c.] The old copy reads perceiveth.” Mr. Malone retains the old reading, but adds-" and hath fent," &c. STEEVENS.

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