that oath, let me turn monfter. Rofe, my dear Kofe, be merry. Therefore, my sweet Rof. From henceforth I will, coz, and devife Sports. Let me fee-What think you of falling in love? Cel. Marry, I pr'ythee, do, to make fport withal; but love no man in good earnest; nor no further in fport neither, than with fafety of a pure blush thou may it in honour come off again. Rof. What fhall be our Sport then? Cel. Let us fit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel (8), that her gifts may henceforth be beftowed equally. Rof. I would we could do fo; for her benefits are mightily mifplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth moft mistake in her gifts to women. Cel. 'Tis true; for thofe, that the makes fair, he fcarce makes honeft; and those, that she makes honeft,, fhe makes very ill-favoured. Rof. Nay, now thou goeft from fortune's office to nature's fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature.. may Enter Touchstone, a Clown. Cel. No! when nature hath made a fair creature, fhe 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 this argument ? Rof. 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 reason of such Goddeffes, hath fent this Natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnefs of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, whither wander you? Wit, (8) mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel,] The wheel of fortune is not the wheel of a bousewife. Shakespeare has confounded fortune whose wheel only figures uncertainty and viciffi tude, with the destiny that fpins the thread of life, though indeed not with a wheel. Clo. Mistress, you must come away to your father. Cel. Were you made the meffenger? Clo. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to come for you. Rof. Where learned you that oath, fool? Clo. Of a certain Knight, that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and fwore by his honour the mustard was naught. Now I'll ftand to it, the pancakes were naught and the muftard was good, and yet was not the Knight forfworn. Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge? ; your wisdom. chins, Rof. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle Clo. Stand you both forth now and fwear by your beards that I am a knave. Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. Clo. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were; but if you fwear by That that is not, you are not forfworn; no more was this Knight fwearing by his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had fworn it away, before ever he saw those pancakes or that mustard. Cel. Pr'ythee, who is that thou mean'st ? Clo. (9) One, that old Frederick your father loves. Cel. My father's love is enough to honour him :enough! speak no more of him, you'll be whipt for taxation one of these days. Clo. The more pity, that fools may not speak wifely what wife men do foolishly. Cel. By my troth, thou fay'ft true; for fince the lit (9) Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves. Rof. My father's love is enough to honour bim: enough!] This Reply to the Clown is in all the Books plac'd to Rosalind; but Frederick was not her Father, but Celia's: I have therefore ventur'd to prefix the name of Celia. There is no Countenance from any Paffage in the Play, or from the Dramatis Perfonæ, to imagine, that both the Brother-Dukes were Namefakes; and One call'd the Old, and the Other the Younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch Authority, it would make Confufion to suppose it. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald seems not to know that the Dramatis Perfonæ were firft enumerated by Rowe. tle tle wit that fools have was filenc'd (1), the little foolery that wife men have makes a great Show: here comes Monfieur Le Beu. SCENE V. Enter Le Beu. Rof. With his mouth full of news. Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young. Rof. Then fhall we be news-cram'd. Cel. All the better, we fhall be the more marketable. Bon jour, Monfieur Le Beu; what news? Le Beu. Fair Princefs, you have loft much good Sport. Cel. Sport; of what colour? Le Beu. What colour, Madam ? how shall I answer you? Rof. As wit and fortune will. a trowel (2) Le Beu. You amaze me, ladies (3). I would have told you of good wrestling, which you have loft the fight of. Rof. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling Le Beu. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your Ladyships, you may fee the end, for the beft is yet to do; and here where you are, they are coming to perform it. Cel. Well-the beginning that is dead and buried. Le Beu. There comes an old man and his three fons, (1) —fince the little wit that fools have was filenc'd,] Shake Speare probably alludes to the ufe of fools or jefters, who for fome ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of cenfure and mockery, and about this time began to be lefs tolerated. (2) laid on with a trowel.] I fuppofe the meaning is, that there is too heavy a mass of big words laid upon a flight fubject. (3) You amaze me, ladies.] To amaze, here is not to aftonish or ftrike with wonder, but to perplex; to confule; as to put out of the intended narrative. Cel. Cel. I could match this beginning with an old tale. Le Beu. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and prefence ; Rof. With bills on their necks: Be it known unto all men by these presents (4), Le Beu. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charlesthe Duke's Wreftler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, and there is little hope of life in him: fo he ferv'd the Second, and fo the Third. Yonder they lie, the poor old man their father making fuch pitiful Dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping. Rof. Alas! Clo. But what is the Sport, Monfieur, that the ladies have lost? Le Beu. Why this, that I fpeak of Clo. Thus men may grow wifer every day! It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was fport for ladies. Cel. Or I, I promise thee. Rof. But (5) is there any elfe longs to fee this broken mufick (4) With BILLS on their necks: Be it known unto all men by these prefents, The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of cro's purposes. Where the words of one speaker are wrefted by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown fays just before-Nay, if I keep not my rank. Rofalind replies-thou lofeft thy old smell. So here when Rofalind had faid, With bills on their necks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in, Know all men by thefe prefents. She spoke of an inftrument of war, and he turns it to an inftrument of law of the fame name, beginning with thefe words. So that they must be given to him. WARBURTON, This conjecture is ingenious. Where meaning is so very thin, as in this vein of jocularity, it is hard to catch, and therefore I know not well what to determine; but I cannot fee why Rofalind fhould fuppofe, that the competitors in a wrestling match carried bills on their fhoulders, and I believe the whole conceit is in the poor refemblance of prefence and prefents. (5) is there any elfe longs to SEE this broken music in bis fides ?] A ftupid error in the copies. They are talking here of fome who had their ribs broke in wrestling: and the pleasantry of Rofalind's repartee must confist in the allution fhe makes to compofing in mufick. It neceffarily follows therefore, that the poet wrote-SET this broken mufick in kis fides. WARBURTON. If mufick in his fides? is there yet another doats upon rib-breaking? Shall we fee this wrestling, Cousin ? Le Beu. You must if you stay here; for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. Cel. Yonder, fure, they are coming. Let us now ftay and fee it. Flourish. Enter Duke Frederick, Lords, Orlando, Charles, and Attendants. Duke. Come on. Since the Youth will not be entreated, his own peril on his forwardness. Rof. Is yonder the man? Le Beu. Even he, Madam. Cel. Alas, he is too young; yet he looks fuccefffully. Duke. How now, Daughter and Coufin; are you crept hither to see the wrestling? Rof. Ay, my liege, fo please you give us leave. Duke. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is fuch odds in the men in pity of the challenger's youth, I would feign diffuade him, but he will not be entreated. Speak to him, ladies, fee if you can move him. Cel. Call him hither, good Monfieur Le Beu. [Duke goes apart. Le Beu. Monfieur the Challenger, the Princeffes call for you. Orla. I attend them with all refpect and duty. If any change were neceffary. I fhould write, feel this broken mufick, for fee. But fee is the colloquial term for perception or experiment. So we fay every day, fee if the water be hot; I will fee which is the best time; he has tried, and fees that the cannot lift it. In this fenfe fee may be here used The fufferer can, with no propriety, be faid to fet the mufick; neither is the allufion to the act of tuning an inftrument, or pricking a tune, one of which muft be meant by fetting mufick. Rofalind hints at a whimfical fimilitude between the series of ribs gradually fhortening, and some musical in struments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken mufick. * Sir T. Hanmer. In the old Editions, the man. |