young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelefly, 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, fecretly to underfland, that your younger brother Orlando hath a difpofition to come in difguis'd against me to try a fall; to-morrow, Sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he, that escapes me without fome broken limb, fhall acquit him well. Your brother is but young and tender, and for your love I would be loth to foil him; as I muft for mine own honour, if he come in; therefore out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint you withal; that either you might ftay him from his intendment, or brook fuch difgrace well as he fhall run into; in that it is a thing of his own fearch and altogether against my will.

Oli. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt find, I will moft kindly requite. I had myfelf notice of my brother's purpofe herein, and have by under-hand means laboured to diffuade him from it; but he is refolute. I tell thee, Charles, he is the ftubborneft young fellow of France; full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a fecret and villanous contriver againft me his natural brother; therefore ufe thy difcretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck, as his finger. And thou wert beft look to't; for if thou doft him any fight difgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poifon; entrap thee by fome treacherous device; and never leave thee 'till he hath ta'en thy life by fome indirect means or other; for I affure thee, (and almoft with tears I fpeak it) there is not one fo young and fo villanous this day Hiving. I fpeak but brotherly of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blufh and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

Cha. I am heartily glad, I came hither to you: if he come to-morrow, I'll give him his payment; if ever

he go alone agair, I'll never wrefle for prize more and fo, God keep your worship.

[Exit Oli. Farewel, good Charles. Now will I ftir this gamefter: I hope, I fhall fee an end of him; for my foul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never fchoal'd, and yet learned; full of noble device, of all forts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, fo much in the heart of the world, and efpecially of my own people who beft know him, that I am altogether mifprifed. But it fhall not be fo, long; this wrestler fhall clear all; nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about.[Exit.

SCENE changes to an Open Walk, before the Duke's Palace.

Enter Rofalind and Celia.

Col. I Pray thee, Rofalind, fweet my coz, be merry.

Ref. Dear Celia, I fhow more mirth than I am miftrefs of; and would you yet I were merrier? unless you could teach me to forget a banish'd father, you muft not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.

Cel. Herein, I fee, thou lov't, me not with the full weight that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy uncle the Duke, my father, fo thou hadst been ftill with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine; so would't thou if the truth of thy love to me were fo righteously tem per'd, as mine is to thee..

Rof. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours.

Cel. You know, my father hath no child but I, nor none is like to have; and, truly, when he dies, thou fhalt be his heir; for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honour, I will; and when I break that oath, let me turn monfter: therefore, my fweet Rafe, my dear Rofe, be merry.

Ref

Rof. From henceforth I will, coz, and devife fports: 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 earneft, nor no further in fport neither, than with fafety of a pure blufh thou may'ft in honour come off again.

Rof. What fhall be our fport then?

Cel. Let us fit and mock the good housewife fortune. from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be beftowed equally.

Ref. I would, we could do fo; for her benefits are: mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman. doth most mistake in her gifts to women.

Gel. 'Tis true; for thofe, that he makes fair, fhe fcarce makes honeft; and those, that she makes honest, 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.

Enter Clown

Cel. No; when nature hath made a fair creature, may the not by fortune fall into the fire? tho' 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 fuch goddeffes, hath fent this natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnefs of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, wit, whither wander you?

Clo. Miftrefs,, 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.

Ro. Where learned you that oath, fool?

Clo.. Of a certain Knight, that fwore by his honour

M.;

they

*

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 mustard was good, and yet was not the Knight forfworn.

Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge?

Rof. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wisdom.

Clo. Stand you both forth now; ftroke your chins, 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 were; but if you fwear by that that is not, you are not forsworn; 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 faw thofe pancakes or that mustard.

Cel. Pr'ythee, who is that thou mean'ft?

Clo. (3) One, that old Frederick your father loves. Gel. My father's love is enough to honour him enough; fpeak no more of him, you'll be whipt for taxation one of thefe days.

Clo. The more pity, that fools may not fpeak wifely what wife men do foolishly.

Cel. By my troth, thou fay'ft true; for fince the little wit that fools have was filenc'd, the little foolery that wife men have makes a great show: here comes Monfieur Le Beu.

Enter Le Beu.

Ref. With his mouth full of news.

Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed theis.

young.

Ref. Then fhall we be news-cram'd.

(3) Clo. One, that old Frederick your father loves.

Rof. My father's love is enough to honour him enough;] This reply to the Clozon is in all the books plac'd to Rofalind; 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 Pofinæ, to imagine, that both the brother-dukes were namefakes, and the one call'd the old, and the other the younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch authority, it would make confufion to fuppofe it.

Cel

Cel. All the better, we fhall be the more marketable. Bonjour, Monfieur Le Beus what news?

Le Beu. Fair Princess, you have loft much good sport. Cel. Sport; of what colour?

Le Beu. What colour, Madam? how fhall I answer you?

Rof. As wit and fortune will.

Clo. Or as the deftinies decree.

Cel. Well faid; that was laid on with a trowel.
Clo. Nay, if I keep not my rank,-

Rof. Thou lofeft thy old fmell.

Le Beu. You amaze me, Ladies; 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 Ladyfhips, you may fee the end, for the best 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,

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 allmen by thefe prefents,

Le Beu. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles the Duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him: fo he ferv'd the fecond, 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.

Ref. Alas!

Clo. But what is the fport, Monfieur, that the Ladies have loft ?

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.