Clo. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never faw'st good manners; if thou never faw'ft good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is fin, and fin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd. X Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: thofe, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is moft mockable at the court. You told me, you falute not at the court, but you kifs your hands; that courtefy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds. Clo. Inftance, briefly; come, inftance. Cor. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells you know are greafy. Clo. Why, do not your courtiers' hands fweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, fhallow: A better inftance, I fay; come. Cor. Befides, our hands are hard. Clo. Your lips will feel them the fooner. Shallow again: A more founder inftance, come. Cor. And they are often tarr'd over with the furgery of our sheep; And would you have us kifs tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed with civet. Clo. Moft fhallow man! Thou worms-meat, in respect of a good piece of flesh :-indeed!-Learn of the wife, and perpend: Civet is of a baser birth than tar; the very uncleanly flux of a çat. Mend the inftance, fhepherd. Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll reft. Clo. Wilt thou reft damn'd? God help thee, fhallow man! God make incifion in thee! thou art raw. X Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer; I earn that I eat, get x parlous]-perilous. Y make incifion in thee !]-grant thee more understanding; thou fhouldft be cut for the fimples. that that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm: and the greatest of my pride is, to see my ewes graze, and my lambs fuck. Clo. That is another fimple fin in you: to bring the ewes and rams together, and to offer to get your liv. ing by the copulation of cattle: to be bawd to a bellwether: and to betray a fhe-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated, old, cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou be'ft not damn'd for this, the devil himself will have no fhepherds; I cannot fee elfe how thou fhouldft 'scape. Cor. Here comes young Mr. Ganimed, my new mistress's brother. Enter Rofalind with a paper. Rof. From the east to western Inde, No jewel is like Rofalind. Her worth, being mounted on the wind, But the fair of Rofalind. Clo. I'll rhime you fo, eight years together; dinners, and fuppers, and fleeping hours excepted: it is the right 'butter-women's rate to market. 2 the fair]-the beauty. "Demetrius loves your fair." MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, A&I, S. 1. Hel. "A funny look of his would foon repair." COMEDY OF ERRORS, A&t II, S. 1. Adr. 1 butter-women's rate to market.]—ambling pace. at market-speed of tongue, flow, volubility. rant at market. rank to-order obferved by them in travelling thither, all in one track, with their horfes at equal intervals; this refembles the formal jingle of Rofalind's verses. Rof. Rof. Out, fool! Clo. For a taste : If a bart do lack a bind, If the cat will after kind, They that reap, must sheaf and bind; Sweetest nut bath sowrest rind, Such a nut is Rofalind. He that fweetest rofe will find, Muft find love's prick, and Rofalind. This is the very falfe gallop of verfes; Why do you infect yourself with them? Rof. Peace, you dull fool; I found them on a tree. Clo. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit. Rof. I'll graff it with you, and then I fhall graff it with a medler: then it will be the earliest fruit i'the country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medler. Clo. You have faid; but whether wifely or no, let the foreft judge. Rof. Peace! Enter Celia, with a writing. Here comes my fifter, reading; ftand aside. Cel. Why Should this defert filent be? For-Because. civil fayings fhow.]-relate ferious, grave maxims. That That the ftretching of a Span Buckles in bis fum of age. Some, of violated vows 'Twixt the fouls of friend and friend : But upon the fairest boughs, Or at every fentence' end, Will I Rofalinda write; Teaching all that read, to know Helen's cheek, but not her heart; е Sad Lucretia's modefty. Thus Rofalind of many parts By beavenly fynod was devis'd; f To have the touches dearest priz'd. Heaven would that she thefe gifts should have, And I to live and die ber flave. Rof. O most gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cry'd, Have patience, good people! g Cel. How now! back-friends?-Shepherd, go off a little-Go with him, firrah. Clo. Come, fhepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with fcrip and fcrippage. [Exeunt Corin, and Clown. • better part ;]-swiftness of mind, fprightly wit; virtue, virgin chaftity; beauty, graceful elegance. touches-traits, features. Sad ]-Grave, sober. back-friends?]-lifteners. Cel. Cel. Didft thou hear thefe verses? Rof. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for fome of them had in them more feet than the verfes would bear. Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verses. Rof. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verse, and therefore ftood lamely in the verse. Cel. But didft thou hear, without wondring, how thy name fhould be hang'd and carv'd upon these trees? Rof. I was feven of the nine days out of wonder, before you came; for look here what I found on a palm-tree: I was never fo be-rhimed fince Pythagoras' time, that I was h an Irish rat, which I can hardly remember. Cel. Trow you, who hath done this? Rof. Is it a man? Cel. And a chain that you once wore, about his neck: Change you colour? Rof. I pr'ythee, who? Cel. O lord, lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and fo encounter. Rof. Nay, but who is it? Cel. Is it poffible? Rof. Nay, I pr'ythee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is. Cel. O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping! k Rof. Good my complexion! doft thou think, though I am caparifon'd like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition? One inch of delay more is a Southfea off discovery. I py'ythee, tell me, who is it? quickly, and speak apace: I would thou couldst stammer, that thou h an Irish rat,]-These are faid to be deftroyed, or charmed away by rhimes. i Good my complexion !]-Have fome regard to my fex. South-fea off difcovery.]-As far off as the South-fea. might'st |