I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.

Ros. He's fallen in love with her foulness, and she'll fall in love with my anger :- if it be so, as fast as she answers thee with frowning looks, I'll sauce her with bitter words. — Why look you so upon me?

Phe. For no ill will I bear you.

Ros. I pray you, do not fall in love with me,

For I am falser than vows made in wine :

Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,

'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by.

Will you go, sister? - Shepherd, ply her hard. —

Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better,

And be not proud: though all the world could see,

None could be so abused in sight as he.11.

Come, to our flock. [Exeunt ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN. Phe. Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, —

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?12

Sil. Sweet Phebe,

Phe.

Ha, what say'st thou, Silvius?

Sil. Sweet Phebe, pity me.

Phe. Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.

Sil. Wherever sorrow is, relief would be :

If you do sorrow at my grief in love,

By giving love, your sorrow and my grief

Were both extermined.

Phe. Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly?
Sil. I would have you.

Phe.

Why, that were covetousness.

11" If all men could see you, none but he could be so deceived as to think you beautiful." To abuse often has that sense.

12 This line is from Marlowe's translation of Hero and Leander, which was not printed till 1598, though the author was killed in 1593. The poem was deservedly popular, and the words "dead shepherd" look as though Shakespeare remembered him with affection.

Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
And yet it is not that I bear thee love :
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure; and I'll employ thee too :
But do not look for further recompense
Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd.
Sil. So holy and so perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,

That I shall think it a most plenteous crop

To glean the broken ears after the man

That the main harvest reaps: loose now and then

A scatter'd smile, and that I'll live upon.

Phe. Know'st thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile?

Sil. Not very well, but I have met him oft;

And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds

That the old carlot 13 once was master of.

Phe. Think not I love him, though I ask for him : 'Tis but a peevish boy:—yet he talks well;

But what care I for words? yet words do well,

When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
It is a pretty youth:

- not very pretty:

But, sure, he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him :
He'll make a proper man: the best thing in him

Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue

Did make offence, his eye did heal it up.
He is not tall; yet for his years he's tall:
His leg is but so-so; and yet 'tis well:
There was a pretty redness in his lip,

A little riper and more lusty red

Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference

13 Churl, carle, and carlot are all words of the same origin and meaning. The same person has already been described as "of a churlish disposition."

Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.14
There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him
In parcels 15 as I did, would have gone near

To fall in love with him: but, for my part,

I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet

I have more cause to hate him than to love him :

For what had he to do to chide at me?" 16

He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black;
And, now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me:

I marvel why I answer'd not again :

But that's all one; omittance is no quittance.17
I'll write to him a very taunting letter,

And thou shalt bear it; wilt thou Silvius?

Sil. Phebe, with all my heart.
Phe.

I'll write it straight;

[Exeunt.

The matter's in my head and in my heart:
I will be bitter with him and passing short.
Go with me, Silvius.

14 Shakespeare has reference to the red rose, which is red all over alike, and the damask rose, in which various shades of colour are mingled.

15 In parcels is in detail; part by part.

16 That is, "What business had he to chide me?"

17 Quittance is acquittance, release, or discharge. The saying appears to have been proverbial.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.- The Forest of Arden.

Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and JAQUES.

Jaq. I pr'ythee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with thee.

Ros. They say you are a melancholy fellow.

Jaq. I am so; I do love it better than laughing.

Ros. Those that are in extremity of either are abominable fellows, and betray themselves to every modern1 censure worse than drunkards.

Jaq. Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing.

Ros. Why, then 'tis good to be a post.

Jaq. I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; nor the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; 2 nor the lover's, which is all these is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples,3 extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels, on which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

:

but it

Ros. A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad I fear you have sold your own lands, to see other men's; then, to have seen much, and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

1 Modern, again, for common or ordinary. See page 50, note 20.- - Extremity, in the line before, is excess or too much.

2 Nice here means fastidious, dainty, or squeamish. Repeatedly so. 3 Simples is the old word for herbs; here it has the sense of elements.

Jaq. Yes, I have gain'd my experience.

Ros. And your experience makes you sad: I had rather have a Fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad; and to travel for it too!

Enter ORLANDO.

Orl. Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind !

Jaq. Nay, then, God b' wi' you, an you talk in blank

verse!

Ros. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller: look, you lisp, and wear strange suits; disable all the benefits of your own country; be out of love with your nativity, and almost chide God for making you that countenance you are; or I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola.5 [Exit JAQUES.] Why, how now, Orlando! where have you been all this while? You a lover! An you serve me such another trick, never come in my sight more.

Orl. My fair Rosalind, I come within an hour of my promise.

Ros. Break an hour's promise in love! He that will divide a minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the thousandth part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said of him that Cupid hath clapp'd him o' the shoulder, but I'll warrant him heart-whole.

Orl. Pardon me, dear Rosalind.

Ros. Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight : I had as lief be woo'd of a snail.

Orl. Of a snail!

Ros. Ay, of a snail; for, though he comes slowly, he carries his house on his head, a better jointure, I think, than

4 Disable in the sense of disparage, detract from, or depreciate.

5 In Shakespeare's time, Venice was the common resort of travellers, as much as Paris is now. And of course all who went to Venice sailed or swam in a gondola."