Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Duke F. More villain thou. Well, push him out

of doors;

-

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent 4 upon his house and lands:
Do this expediently5, and turn him going.

SCENE II.

The Forest.

Enter ORLANDO, with a paper.

[Exeunt.

Orl. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And, thou, thrice-crowned queen of night, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway. O! Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree, The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.

Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.

[Exit.

Cor. And how like you this shepherd's life, master Touchstone?

Touch. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life.

4 Make an extent-] "To make an extent of lands," is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ, (extendi facias,) whereby the sheriff is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the person entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid. MALONE.

[blocks in formation]

Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd ?

Cor. No more, but that I know, the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends: That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: That good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the sun: That he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.

Touch. Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?

Cor. No, truly.

Touch. Then thou art damn'd.

Cor. Nay, I hope,

Touch. Truly, thou art damn'd; like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.

Cor. For not being at court? Your reason.

Touch. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never saws't good manners; if thou never saw'st good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.

Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: those, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me, you salute not at the court, but you kiss your hands; that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds.

Touch. Instance, briefly: come, instance.

7 may complain of good breeding,] May complain of a good education, for being so inefficient, of so little use to him. MALONE. 8 like an ill-roasted egg,] Of this jest I do not fully comprehend the meaning. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare's similes hardly ever run on four feet. MALONE.

Cor. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells, you know, are greasy.

Touch. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, shallow: A better instance, I say; come.

Cor. Besides, our hands are hard.

Touch. Your lips will feel them the sooner. Shallow, again: A more sounder instance, come.

Cor. And they are often tarr'd over with the surgery of our sheep; And would you have us kiss tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed with civet.

Touch. Most shallow man! Thou worms-meat, in respect of a good piece of flesh: Indeed! Learn of the wise, and perpend: Civet is of a baser birth than tar ; the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the instance,

shepherd.

Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me: I'll rest. Touch. Wilt thou rest damn'd? God help thee, shallow man! God make incision in thee !9 thou art raw.

Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer; I earn that I eat, get 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 suck.

Touch. That is another simple sin in you; to bring the ewes and the rams together, and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle: to be bawd to a bellwether2; and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth, to a crooked-pated, old cuckoldy ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou be'st not damn'd for this, the devil

9 - make incision in thee!] Warburton says, to make incision was a proverbial expression then in vogue for to make to understand. But Steevens thinks the allusion is to that common expression, of cutting such a one for the simples. In either case we regret the profaneness.

1

2

thou art raw.] i. e. thou art ignorant, unexperienced.

bawd to a bell-wether;] Wether and ram had anciently the same meaning. JOHNSON.

himself will have no shepherds; I cannot see else how thou should 'scape,

Cor. Here comes young master Ganymede, my new mistress's brother.

Enter ROSALIND, reading a paper.

Ros. From the east to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind.

Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures, fairest lin❜d,3
Are but black to Rosalind.

Let no face be kept in mind,

4

But the fair of Rosalind.

Touch. I'll rhyme you so, eight years together; dinners, and suppers, and sleeping hours excepted; it is the right butter woman's rank to market."

Ros. Out, fool!

Touch. For a taste:

3

If a hart do lack a hind,
Let him seek out Rosalind.
If the cat will after kind,
So, be sure, will Rosalind.
Winter-garments must be lin'd,
So must slender Rosalind.

They that reap, must sheaf and bind,
Then to cart with Rosalind.

Sweetest nut hath sowrest rind,

Such a nut is Rosalind.

He that sweetest Rose will find,

Must find love's prick, and Rosalind.

- fairest lin❜d,] i. e. most fairly delineated.

4 But the fair-] Fair is beauty, complexion.

5

rank to market] Sir T. Hanmer reads -rate to market, which Mr. Malone adopts. The hobbling metre of these verses, (says Touchstone,) is like the ambling, shuffling pace of a butter woman's horse going to market.

This is the very false gallop of verses; Why do you infect yourself with them?

Ros. Peace, you dull fool; I found them on a tree.
Touch. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.

6

Ros. I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a medlar: then it will be the earliest fruit in the country: for you'll be rotten e'er you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar.

Touch. You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge.

Enter CELIA, reading a paper.

Ros. Peace!

Here comes my sister, reading; stand aside.

6

CEL. Why should this desert silent be?
For it is unpeopled? No;

Tongues I'll hang on every tree,

That shall civil sayings show.7
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;
That the stretching of a span
Buckles in his sum of age.
Some, of violated vows

'Twixt the souls of friend and friend:

But upon the fairest boughs,

Or at every sentence' end,

Will I Rosalinda write;

Teaching all that read, to know

The quintessence of every sprite

Heaven would in little show.8

the earliest fruit-] Shakspeare seems to have had little knowledge in gardening. The medlar is one of the latest fruits, being uneatable till the end of November. STEEVENS.

7 That shall civil sayings show.] Civil, I believe, is not designedly opposed to solitary. It means only grave, or solemn. STEEVENS. in little show.] The allusion is to a miniature-portrait. The current phrase in our author's time was "painted in little."

8

MALONE.

« PředchozíPokračovat »