And by him seal up thy mind;

Whether that thy youth and kind:
Will the faithful offer take

Of me, and all that I can make;
Or else by him my love deny,
And then I'll study how to die.'

Sil. Call you this chiding?

Cel. Alas, poor shepherd!

Ros. Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity. Wilt thou love such a woman?-What, to make thee an instrumert, and play false strains upon thee! not to be endured!-Well, go your way to her, (for, I see, love hath made thee a tame snake) and say this to her;— That if she love me, I charge her to love thee: if she will not, I will never have ber, unless thou entreat for her.'-If you be a true lover, hence, and not a word; for here comes more company. [Exit Silvius.

Enter OLIVER.

Oli. Good-morrow, fair ones. Pray you, if you know

Where, in the purlieus of this forest, stands

A sheep-cote, fenced about with olive-trees?

Cel. West of this place, down in the neighbor bottom,

The rank of osiers, by the murmuring stream,

Left on your right hand, brings you to the place :
But at this hour the house doth keep itself;
There's none within.

Oli. If that an eye may profit by a tongue,
Then I should know you by description;

Such garments, and such years: The boy is fair
Of female favor, and bestows himself

Like a ripe sister; but the woman low,
And browner than her brother.'

Are not you

The owner of the house I did inquire for?
Cel. It is no boast, being ask'd, to say, we are.
Oli. Orlando doth commend him to you both.
And to that youth, he calls his Rosalind,
He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he?

:

Ros. I am what must we understand by this? Oli. Some of my shame, if you will know of me What man I am, and how, and why, and where This handkerchief was stain'd.

Cel.

I

pray you, tell it.

Oli. When last the young Orlando parted from

you,

He left a promise to return again

Within an hour; 1 and, pacing through the forest, Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,

Lo, what befel! he threw his eye aside,

And, mark, what object did present itself!

Under an old oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,

1 Within a certain time.

2 Love.

And high top bald with dry antiquity,

A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back: about his neck

A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but suddenly,
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush; under which bush's shade
A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,

Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch,
When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis
The royal disposition of that beast

To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead:
This seen, Orlando did approach the man,

And found it was his brother, his elder brother.
Cel. O, I have beard him speak of that same

brother;

And he did render 1 him the most unnatural

That lived 'mongst men.

Oli.

And well he might so do.

For well I know he was unnatural.

Ros. But, to Orlando :—did he leave him there,

Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back, and purposc.l

so:

But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

And nature, stronger than his just occasion,

West del

AS YOU LIKE IT
Orlando & Olivet.

Aut IV. Scene III.