the second, the Quip modest; the third the Reply churlish; the fourth, the Reproof valiant; the fifth, the Countercheck quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with circumstance; the seventh the Lie direct. All these you may avoid but the lie direct; and you may avoid that too, with an If. I knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel: but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an If, as If you said so, then I said so; and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your If is the only peace maker; much virtue in If. Jaq. Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? he's as good at any thing, and yet a fool. Duke S. He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit. Enter HYMEN, leading ROSALIND in woman's clothes; and CELIA. Still Music. Hym. Then is there mirth in heaven, Good duke, receive thy daughter, Yea, brought her hither; That thou mightst join her hand with his Pos To you I give myself, for I am yours. [To Duke S. fo you I give myself, for I am yours. [TO ORLANDO. Duke S. If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. Orl. If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind. Phe. If sight and shape be true, Why then, my love, adieu ! : Ros. I'll have no father, if you be not he :[To Duke S. 'll have no husband, if you be not he:[To ORLANDO. Nor ne'er wed woman, if you be not she. [TO PHEBE. Hym. Peace, ho! I bar confusion: "Tis I must make conclusion Of these most strange events: If truth holds true contents." [To ORLANDO and ROSALIND. You and you are heart in heart: [TO OLIVER and CELIA. [To TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Wedding is great Juno's crown; O blessed bond of board and bed! 'Tis Hymen peoples every town · High wedlock then be honored: • Unless truth fail of veracity. Jaq. de B. Let me have audience for a word, o I am the second son of old sir Rowland, Play, music;-and you brides and bridegrooms all, Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.You to your former honor I bequeath; [To Duke S Your patience, and your virtue, well deserves it:— You [To ORLANDO.] to a love, that your true faith doth merit: You [TO OLIVER.] to your land, and love, and great allies: EPILOGUE. Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue: but it is no more unhandsome, than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true, that a good play needs no epilogue: Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll 4 Dressed. begin with the woinen. I charge ycu, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases them: and so I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hate them,) that between you and the women, the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, and complexions that liked me and breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'sy, bid me farewell. [Exrin That I liked. SCENE I.-Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, in mourning. Countess. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband. Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward,' evermore in subjection. Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam;--you, sir, a father: He that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such cundarge. Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? Laf. He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time. Count. This young gentlewoman had a father, (0, that had! how sad a passage 'tis!) whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. 'Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I think, it would be the death of the king's disease. Laf. How called you the man you speak of, Adam? Count. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon. Laf. He was excellent, indeed, madam; the king very lately spoke of him, admiringly, and mournngly; he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality. Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? Laf. A fistula, my lord. Under his particular care, as my guardian. Ber. I heard not of it before. Laf. I would, it were not notorious.-Was tula gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good, that her education promises: her dispositions she inherits, which make fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty, and achieves her goodness. Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Count. "Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart, but the tyranny of her sor. rows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow, than to have. Hel. I do affect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too. Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal. Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. In manners, as in shape! thy blood, and virtue, Laf Ber. The best wishes that can be forged in your thoughts, [To HELENA.] be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. Count. Heaven bless him!—Farewell, Bertram. | infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is [Exit COUNTESS. a virgin: virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified liinit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't; Out with't: within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the prin cipal itself not much the worse: Away with't. Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the cre- One that goes with him: I love him for his sake; Hel. And you, monarch. Par. No. Hel. And no. Par. Are you meditating on virginity? Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance. Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up. Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men? Par. Virginity, being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the cominonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin. Par. There's little can be said in't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers: which is most Peculiarity of feature, Countenance. Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking? Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that There shall your master have a thousand loves, Hel. That I wish well.-"Tis pity- Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't, Enter a Page. Hel. Monsieur Parolles, you were borr under a charitable star. Par. Under Mars, I. Hel. I especially think, under Mars. Hel. The wars have so kept you under, that you must needs be born under Mars. Par. When he was predominant. Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valor and • Forbidden. A quibble on date, which means age, and candied fruit fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well. Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away: farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast none, remember thy friends: get thee a good husband, and use him as he uses thee: so farewell. [Exit. Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. What power is it, which mounts my love so high, That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye? The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things,-" Impossible be strange attempts, to those That weigh their pains in sense; and do suppose, What hath been cannot be: Who ever strove To show her merit, that did miss her love? The king's disease-my project may deceive me, But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me. [Exit. SCENE II.-Paris. A Room in the King's Palace. Flourish of Cornets. Enter the KING OF FRANCE with letters; Lords and others attending. King. The Florentines and Senoys' are by the ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue A braving war. 1 Lord. So 'tis reported, sir. King. Nay, 'tis most credible; we here receive it A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria, With caution, that the Florentine will move us For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend Prejudicates the business, and would seem To have us make denial. 1 Lord. His love and wisdom, Approv'd so to your majesty, may plead For amplest credence. King. He hath arm'd our answer, And Florence is denied before he comes: Yet, for our gentlemen, that mean to see The Tuscan service, freely have they leave To stand on either part. 2 Lora. It may well serve What's he comes here? King. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; Frank nature, rather curious than in haste, Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts May'st thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris. Ber. My thanks and duty are your majesty's. King. I would I had that corporal soundness now, As when thy father, and myself, in friendship First try'd our soldiership! He did look far Into the service of the time, and was •Things forried by nature for each other. The citizens of the small republic of which Sienna is the capital | Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long; In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man King. 'Would, I were with him! He would always say, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home. 2 Lord. SCENE III.-Rousillon, A Room in the Coun tess's Palace. Enter COUNTESS, Steward, and Clown. Count. I will now hear: what say you of this gentlewoman? content, I wish might be found in the calendar of Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your my past endeavors; for then we wound our mo desty, and make foul the clearness of our deserv ings, when of ourselves we publish them. Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone To act up to your desires Approbation. |