Sir Oli. 'Tis no matter: ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling.

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

Another Part of the Forest. Before a Cottage.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA.

Ros. Never talk to me; I will weep.

Cel. Do, I pr'ythee; but yet have the grace to consider that tears do not become a man.

Ros. But have I not cause to weep?

Cel. As good cause as one would desire; therefore weep. Ros. His very hair is of the dissembling colour.

1

Cel. Something browner than Judas's: marry, his kisses are Judas's own children.

Ros. I'faith, his hair is of a good colour.

Cel. An excellent colour: your chestnut was ever the only colour.

Ros. And his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch of holy bread.

Cel. He hath bought a pair of chaste lips of Diana: a nun of Winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them.

Ros. But why did he swear he would come this morning, and comes not?

Cel. Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him.

Ros. Do you think so?

Cel. Yes; I think he is not a pick-purse nor a horsestealer; but, for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut.

Ros. Not true in love?

Cel. Yes, when he is in; but I think he is not in.

1 Judas was represented in old paintings and tapestry, with red hair and beard. So in The Insatiate Countess: "I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas."

Ros. You have heard him swear downright he was.

Cel. Was is not is: besides, the oath of a lover is no stronger than the word of a tapster; 2 they are both the confirmers of false reckonings. He attends here in the forest on the Duke your father.

Ros. I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question 3 with him he ask'd me, of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good as he; so he laugh'd, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there is such a man as Orlando?

Cel. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble goose: 4 but all's brave that youth mounts and folly guides. Who comes here?

Enter CORIN.

Cor. Mistress and master, you have oft inquired

After the shepherd that complain'd of love,

Whom you saw sitting by me on the turf,

Praising the proud disdainful shepherdess
That was his mistress.

Cel.

Well, and what of him?

Cor. If you will see a pageant truly play'd,
Between the pale complexion of true love
And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain,
Go hence a little, and I shall conduct you,
If you will mark it.

Ros.

O, come, let us remove:

2 So the ancient proverb, "At lovers' perjuries Jove laughs."

8 Question, here, is talk or conversation. See vol. iii., page 193, note 18. 4 An allusion to tilting, where it was held disgraceful for a knight to break his lance across the body of his adversary, instead of by a push of the point. See vol. iv., page 238, note 12.

The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. Bring us to see this sight, and you shall say prove a busy actor in their play.

[Exeunt.

Sil. Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe:

Say that you love me not; but say not so

In bitterness. The common executioner,

Whose heart th' accustom'd sight of death makes hard,
Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck

But first begs pardon: 1 will you sterner be
Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops? 2

Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, behind.

Phe. I would not be thy executioner:

I fly thee, for I would not injure thee.

Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye :

'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable,

That eyes that are the frail'st and softest things,
Who shut their coward gates on atomies —
Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers !

Now I do frown on thee with all my heart;

1 It was customary for the executioner to kneel down and ask pardon of the victim, before striking him. Here, again, but begs means without begging. See page 55, note 10.

2 This is a phrase of frequent occurrence in old writers, and seems to have been a common hysteron-proteron for to live and die. Its meaning has been somewhat disputed. One explanation is, "subsist from the cradle to the grave"; another, "being constant to a thing to the end." I prefer the explanation given by Dr. Sebastian Evans to Dr. C. M. Ingleby: "It means of course, to make the thing a matter of life and death. The profession or calling of a man is that by which he dies and lives; that is, by which he lives, and failing which he dies."

And, if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee:
Now counterfeit to swoon; why, now fall down;

Or, if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,

Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers!

Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee:
Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
Some scar of it; lean but upon a rush,
The cicatrice and capable impressure 3

Thy palm some moment keeps: but now mine
Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not;
Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes
That can do hurt.

eyes,

You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,4

Then shall you know the wounds invisible

That love's keen arrows make.

Phe.

But, till that time,

Come not thou near me; and, when that time comes,

Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not;

As, till that time, I shall not pity thee.

Ros. [Coming forward.] And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,

That you insult, exult, and all at once,

Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty, — As, by my faith, I see no more in you

Than without candle may go dark to bed,

Must you be therefore proud and pitiless? 5

8 Cicatrice is scar, or skin-mark. Capable impressure is sensible impres sion. So the Poet has incapable for insensible or unconscious; Hamlet, iv. 4: "As one incapable of her own distress."

4 The use of fancy for love is very frequent in Shakespeare.

6 Rosalind knows that to tell Phebe she ought not to be proud because she has beauty, would but make her the prouder; she therefore tells her she

Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?

I see no more in you than in the ordinary
Of Nature's sale-work : 6-'Od's my little life,7
I think she means to tangle my eyes too!-
No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it:
'Tis not your inky brows, your black-silk hair,
Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
That can entame my spirits to your worship. —
You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain?
You are a thousand times a properer man

8

Than she a woman: 'tis such fools as you
That make the world full of ill-favour'd children:
'Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her;
And out of you she sees herself more proper
Than any of her lineaments can show her.
But, mistress, know yourself: down on your knees,
And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love :
For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
Sell when you can: you are not for all markets:
Cry the man mercy; 9 love him; take his offer:
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.10
So, take her to thee, shepherd: - fare you well.

Phe. Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together:

ought not to be proud because she lacks it. The best way to take down people's pride often is, to assume that they cannot be so big fools as to think they have any thing to be proud of.

6 Meaning, apparently, work made for the general market, and not to

particular order or for any special purpose or purchaser.

7 A petty oath; 'Od's being a diminutive or disguise of God's.

8 Proper, again, for handsome. See page 18, note 9.

9 To cry one mercy is to ask his pardon. A frequent usage.

10 To be is another instance of the infinitive used gerundively. So that the meaning is, the ugly are most ugly when they add further ugliness by being scoffers. See page 20, note 16.