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thus: Why how now gentle Forrester, what winde hath kept you from hence? that being so newly married, you haue no more care of your Rosalynde, but to absent your selfe so manie dayes? Are these the passions you painted out so in your Sonnets and roundelaies? I see hote loue is soone colde, and that the fancie of men, is like to a loose feather that wandreth in the aire with the blast of eurie winde. You are deceiued Mistress quoth Rosader, twas a coppie of vnkindnesse that kept me hence, in that I being married, you carried away the Bryde: but if I haue giuen anie occasion of offence by absenting my selfe these three dayes, I humblie sue for pardon: which you must grant of course, in that the fault is so friendly confest with penaunce. But to tell you the truth (faire Mistresse, and my good Rosalynde) my eldest Brother by the iniurie of Torismond is banished from Bourdeaux, and by chance hee and I met in the Forrest. And heere Rosader discourst vnto them what had hapned betwixt them: which reconcilement made them gladde, especially Ganimede. But Aliena hearing of the tyrannie of her Father, grieued inwardly, and yet smothred all things with such secrecie, that the concealing was more sorrow than the conceipt : yet that her estate might be hid still, shee made faire weather of it, and so let all passe.

Importunate Shepheard, whose loues are lawlesse because restlesse: are thy passions so extreame that thou canst not conceale them with patience? Or art thou so folly-sick, that thou must needes be fancie-sicke? and in thy affection tied to such an exigent, as none serues but Phoebe. Well sir, if your market may be made no where els, home again, for your Mart is at the fairest. Phoebe is no lettice for your lippes, and her grapes hangs so high, that gaze at them you may, but touch them you cannot. Yet Montanus I speake not this in pride, but in disdaine; not that I scorne thee, but that I hate Loue: for I count it as great honour to triumph ouer Fancie, as ouer Fortune. Rest thee content therefore Montanus, cease from thy loues, and bridle thy lookes; quench the sparkles before they grow to a further flame: for in louing me thou shalt liue by losse, & what thou vtterest in words, are all written in the winde. Wert thou (Montanus) as faire as Paris, as hardie as Hector, as constant as Troylus, as louing as Leander; Phoebe could not loue, because she cannot loue at all: and therefore if thou pursue me with Phoebus, I must flie with Daphne.

I know not (quoth Saladyne) who that Rosalynde is, but whatsoever she is, her name is never out of his mouth; but amidst the deepest of his passions he useth Rosalynde as a charme to appease all sorrows with patience. Insomuch that I conjecture my brother is in love, and she some Paragon that holdes his hart perplexed: whose name he oft records with sighs, sometimes with teares, straight with ioy, then with smiles; as if in one person Love had lodged a Chaos of confused passions. Wherein I have noted the variable disposition of Fancie, that like the Polype in colours, so it changeth into sundrie humours: being as it should seeme a combate mixed with disquiet, and a bitter pleasure wrapt in a sweete prejudice, like to the Sinophe tree, whose blossomes delight the smell, and whose fruite infects the tast.

Thou seekest with Phoebus to winne Daphne, and shee flies faster than thou canst followe: thy desires soare with the Hobbie, but her disdaine reacheth higher than thou canst make wing. I tell thee Montanus, in courting Phoebe thou barkest with the Wolues of Syria against the Moone, and roauest at such a marke with thy thoughtes, as is beyond the pitch of thy bow, praying to Loue when Loue is pitilesse, and thy maladie remedilesse.

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DRAMATIS PERSONE1

DUKE, living in banishment.

FREDERICK, his brother, and usurper of his dominions.
AMIENS,} lords attending on the banished duke.
JAQUES,

LE BEAU, a courtier attending upon Frederick.
CHARLES, wrestler to Frederick.

[blocks in formation]

SILVIUS,} Shepherds.

WILLIAM, a country fellow, in love with Audrey.

A person representing Hymen.

ROSALIND, daughter to the banished duke.

CELIA, daughter to Frederick.

PHEBE, a shepherdess.

AUDREY, a country wench.

Lords, pages, and attendants, &c. .

SCENE: Oliver's house; Duke Frederick's court; and the Forest of Arden.

1 Not in Ff. First in Rowe, imperfectly.

2

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ACT I

SCENE I.-The orchard of Oliver's house.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.

Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will, but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better, for besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth, for the which his animals on his

5

ΙΟ

ACT 1. SCENE 1.] Actus Primus, Scana Prima Ff 1, 2; Scena Ff 3, 4. The Orchard. ] Capell; An Orchard Rowe; Oliver's House Pope; Oliver's Orchard Theobald. I. fashion] my father Warburton; fashion. He Malone; fashion;- Grant White; fashion,-he Dyce iii. 2. me by] Ff; me. By Johnson. poor a] FI; a poore F 2; a poor Ff3, 4. 8. stays] F4; staies F1; stayes Ff 2, 3; stys Warburton.

1-3. fashion ... charged] The various proposed emendations seem strained, since the sense is obvious. For the omission of nominative, vide Abbott, 399.

2. poor a] The common transposition of the indefinite article, vide Abbott, 422, though Abbott considers poor an adverbial use, 85.

5. school] University, as in Hamlet, 1. ii. 113.

8. stays] detains. Compare

Romeo and Juliet, v. iii. 187: "Stay the friar too.'

12. manage] Old French manége. Schmidt gives (s.v.) "he will not manage her, although he mount her," Venus and Adonis, 598. Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1. vii. 37:

"and could menage faire

His stubborne steed."

for another form. Compare also 1 Henry IV. 11. iii. 52, and Richard II. III. iii. 179.

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