Oli. What mar you then, sir?

Orl. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

Oli. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.

Orl. Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury?

Oli. Know you where you are, sir?

Orl. O, sir, very well, here in your orchard.
Oli. Know you before whom, sir?

40

Orl. Aye, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are my eldest brother; and, in the gentle condition of blood, you should so know me. The courtesy of na- 50 tions allows you my better, in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me as you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence. Oli. What, boy!

Orl. Come, come, elder brother, you are too
young in this.

Oli. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?
Orl. I am no villain; I am the youngest son of
Sir Rowland de Boys; he was my father,
and he is thrice a villain that says such a
father begot villains. Wert thou not my

60

brother, I would not take this hand from
thy throat till this other had pulled out thy
tongue for saying so; thou hast railed on
thyself.

Adam. Sweet masters, be patient: for your
father's remembrance, be at accord.

Oli. Let me go, I say.

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Orl. I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My father charged you in his will to give me good education: you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me 80 by testament; with that I will go buy my

fortunes.

Oli. And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent? Well, sir, get you in: I will not long be troubled with you; you shall have some part of your will: I pray you, leave

me.

Orl. I will no further offend you than becomes
me for my good.

Oli. Get you with him, you old dog.
Adam. Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true,
I have lost my teeth in your service. God
be with my old master! he would not have
spoke such a word.

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[Exeunt Orlando and Adam. Oli. Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me?

I will physic your rankness, and yet give no
thousand crowns neither. Holla, Dennis!

Enter Dennis.

Den. Calls your worship?

Oli. Was not Charles, the Duke's wrestler, here to speak with me?

Den. So please you, he is here at the door and importunes access to you.

Oli. Call him in. [Exit Dennis.] "Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is.

Enter Charles.

Cha. Good morrow to your worship.
Oli. Good Monsieur Charles, what's the new
news at the new court?

Cha. There's no news at the court, sir, but the

100

old news: that is, the old Duke is banished
by his younger brother the new Duke; and 110
three or four loving lords have put them-
selves into voluntary exile with him, whose
lands and revenues enrich the new Duke;
therefore he gives them good leave to
wander.

Oli. Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke's
daughter, be banished with her father?
Cha. O, no; for the Duke's daughter, her
cousin, so loves her, being ever from their
cradles bred together, that she would have 120
followed her exile, or have died to stay be-

118. "Duke's daughter"; that is, the usurping duke's daughter.— H. N. H.

1

hind her. She is at the court, and no less
beloved of her uncle than his own daughter;

and never two ladies loved as they do.

Oli. Where will the old Duke live?

Cha. They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young gentle

126. "forest of Arden"; Ardenne is a forest of considerable extent in French Flanders, lying near the river Meuse, and between Charlemont and Rocroy. Spenser, in his Colin Clout, mentions it.

"So wide a forest, and so waste as this,

Not famous Ardeyn, nor foul Arlo was.”

In Lodge's Rosalynde the exiled king of France is said to be living as "an outlaw in the forest of Arden."-H. N. H.

128. "old Robin Hood of England"; this prince of outlaws and "most gentle theefe" lived in the time of Richard I, and had his chief residence in Sherwood forest, Notinghamshire. Wordsworth aptly styles him "the English ballad-singer's joy"; and in Percy's Reliques is an old ballad entitled Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, showing how his praises were wont to be sung. Of his mode of life the best account that we have seen is in the twenty-sixth song of Drayton's Poly-Olbion, where the nymph of Sherwood forest,

“All self-praise set apart, determineth to sing
That lusty Robin Hood, who long time like a king
Within her compass liv'd, and when he list to range
For some rich booty set, or else his air to change,
To Sherwood still retir'd, his only standing court.
The merry pranks he play'd would ask an age to tell,
And the adventures strange that Robin Hood befell.
In this our spacious isle I think there is not one,
But he hath heard some talk of him and Little John;
And to the end of time the tales shall ne'er be done,
Of Scarlock, George-a-Green, and Much the miller's son,
Of Tuck the merry friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws and their trade.
An hundred valiant men had this brave Robin Hood
Still ready at his call, that bow-men were right good,
All clad in Lincoln green, with caps of red and blue;
His fellow's winded horn not one of them but knew,
When, setting to their lips their little bugles shrill,

men flock to him every day, and fleet the 130 time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

Oli. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new Duke?

Cha. Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint
you with a matter. I am given, sir, secretly
to understand that your younger brother,
Orlando, hath a disposition to come in dis-
guised against me to try a fall. To-mor-
row, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he that 140
escapes me without some broken limb shall
acquit him well. Your brother is but young
and tender; and for your love, I would be
loath to foil him, as I must, for my own
honor, if he come in: therefore, out of my
love to you, I came hither to acquaint you
withal; that either you might stay him from
his intendment, or brook such disgrace well

The warbling Echoes wak'd from every dale and hill.
And of these archers brave there was not any one,
But he could kill a deer his swiftest speed upon,
Which they did boil and roast, in many a mighty wood,
Sharp hunger the fine sauce to their more kingly food.
Then taking them to rest, his merry men and he
Slept many a summer's night under the greenwood tree.
From wealthy abbots' chests, and churls' abundant store,
What oftentimes he took, he shar'd amongst the poor:
The widow in distress he graciously reliev'd,
And remedied the wrongs of many a virgin griev'd:
He from the husband's bed no married woman wan,

But to his mistress dear, his loved Marian,

Was ever constant known, which, wheresoe'er she came,
Was sovereign of the woods, chief lady of the game."

Robin Hood's mode of life is well set forth in Ben Jonson's Sad
Shepherd.-H. N. H.