Phe. That will I, should I die the hour after.
Ros. But, if you do refuse to marry me,
You'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd ?
Phe. So is the bargain.

Ros. You say, that you'll have Phebe, if she will?
[To Silvius.
Sil. Though to have her and death were both one
thing.

Ros. I have promis'd to make all this matter even.
Keep you your word, O duke, to give your daughter;-
You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter :-
Keep your word, Phebe, that you'll marry me
Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd-
Keep your word, Silvius, that you'll marry her,
If she refuse me and from hence I go,
To make these doubts all even.

[Exeunt Rosalind and Celia.
Duke S. I do remember in this shepherd-boy
Some lively touches of my daughter's favour.
Orl. My lord, the first time that I ever saw him,
Methought he was a brother to your daughter:
But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born;
And hath been tutor'd in the rudiments
Of many desperate studies by his uncle,
Whom he reports to be a great magician,
Obscured in the circle of this forest.

Enter Touchstone and Audrey.

Jaq. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark! Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.

Touch. Salutation and greeting to you all! Jaq. Good, my lord, bid him welcome; This is the motley-minded gentleman, that I have so often met in the forest: he hath been a courtier, he swears.

Touch. If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation. I have trod a measure; I have flattered a lady; I have been politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy; I have undone three tailors; I have had four quarrels, and like to have fought one.

Jaq. And how was that ta'en up?

Touch. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was apon the seventh cause.

Jaq. How seventh cause?-Good, my lord, like this fellow?

Duke S. I like him very well.

Touch. God 'ild you, sir; I desire you of the like. I press in here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, to swear and to forswear; according as marriage binds, and blood breaks :-A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own; a poor humour of mine, sir, to take that that no man else will: Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor-house; as your pearl, in your foul oyster.

Duke S. By my faith, he is very swift and sen

tentious.

Touch. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and sach dulcet diseases.

Jaq. But, for the seventh cause; how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?

Touch. Upon a lie seven times removed ;-Bear your body more seeming, Audrey:-as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was: This is called the retort courteous. If I sent him word again, it was not well cut, he would send me word, he cut it to please himself: This is called the quip modest. If again, it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment: This is called the reply churlish. If again, it was not well cut, he would answer, I spake not true: This is called the reproof valiant. If again, it was not well cut, he would say, I lie: This is called the countercheck quarrelsome: and so to the lie circumstantial, and the lie direct.

Jaq. And how oft did you say, his beard was not well cut?

Touch. I durst go no further than the lie circumstantial, nor he durst not give me the lie direct; and so we measured swords and parted.

Jaq. Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie?

you may avoid, but the lie direct; and you may avoid that too, with an if. I knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel; but when the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an if, as if you said so, then I said so; and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your if is the only peace-maker; much virtue in if.

Jaq. Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? he's as good at any thing, and yet a fool.

Duke S. He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that, he shoots his wit. Enter Hymen, leading Rosalind in Woman's Clothes; and Celia.

daughter.

Orl, If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind.
Why then, my love, adieu!
Phe. If sight and shape be true,

Ros. I'll have no father, if you be not he :-
I'll have no husband, if you be not he
[To Duke S.

[To Orlando. Nor ne'er wed woman, if you be not she. [To Phebe. Hym. Peace, ho! I bar confusion:

'Tis I must make conclusion

Of these most strange events:
Here's eight that must take hands,
To join in Hymen's bands,

If truth holds true contents.
You and you no cross shall part:

[To Orlando and Rosalind.

You and you are heart in heart:

[To Oliver and Celia.
You [To Phebe] to his love must accord,
Or have a woman to your lord:
You and you are sure together,

[To Touchstone and Audrey.
As the winter to foul weather.
Whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing,
Feed yourselves with questioning;
That reason wonder may diminish,
How thus we met, and these things finish.
SONG.

Wedding is great Juno's crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed!
'Tis Hymen peoples every town:
High wedlock then be honoured:
Honour, high honour and renown,
To Hymen, god of every town!
Duke S. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me;
Even daughter, welcome in no less degree.

Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine. [To Silvius.
Phe. I will not eat my word, now thou art mine;
Enter Jaques de Bois.

Jaq. de B. Let me have audience for a word or two;
I am the second son of old sir Rowland,
That bring these tidings to this fair assembly:-
Duke Frederick hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Address'd a mighty power; which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take
His brother here and put him to the sword:
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came;
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprise and from the world:
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands restor'd to them again
That were with him exil'd: This to be true,
I do engage my life.
Duke S.
Welcome, young man ;

Touch. O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; as
you have books for good manners: I will name you
the degrees. The first, the retort courteous; the se-Thou offer'st fairly to thy brother's wedding:
cond, the quip modest; the third, the reply churlish; To one, his lands withheld; and to the other,
the fourth, the reproof valiant; the fifth, the coun- A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
tercheck quarrelsome; the sixth, the lie with cir- First, in this forest, let us do those ends
cumstance; the seventh, the lie direct. All these That here were well begun, and well begot:

All's Well that Ends Well.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Several young French Lords, that serve with Bertram Mariana, J Neighbours and Friends to the Widow.

SCENE, partly in France, and partly in Tuscany.

Laf. Farewell, pretty lady: You must hold the
credit of your father. [Exeunt Bertram and Lafeu.
Hel. O, were that all!-I think not on my father;
And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in it, but Bertram's.
I am undone; there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind, that would be mated by the lion,
Must die for love. "Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here ?

Hel. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the defence, yet is weak: unfold to us some warlike resistance.

Par. There is none; man, sitting down before you, will undermine you, and blow you up.

Hel. Bless our poor virginity from underminers, and blowers up!-Is there no military policy, how virgins might blow up men?

while 'tis vendible: answer the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unsuitable: just like the brooch and tooth-pick, which wear not now: Your date is better in your pie and your porridge, than in your cheek: And your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French withered pears; it looks ill, it eats dryly; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was formerly better; marry, yet, 'tis a withered pear: Will you any thing with it?

Hel. Not my virginity yet.

There shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother, and a mistress, and a friend,
A phoenix, captain, and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear;
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious Christendoms,
That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he

I know not what he shall:-God send him well-
The court's a learning-place;-and he is one-
Par. What one, i'faith?

Hel. That I wish well.-Tis pity

Par. What's pity?

Hel. That wishing well had not a body in't,
Which might be felt that we, the poorer born,
Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes,
Might with effects of them follow our friends,
And show what we alone must think; which never
Returns us thanks.

Par. Under Mars, 1.

Hel. I especially think, under Mars..

Par. Why under Mars?

Hel. The wars have so kept you under, that you

must needs be born under Mars.

Par. When he was predominant.

Hel. When he was retrograde, I think, rather,
Par. Why think you so?

Hel. You go so much backward, when you fight.
Par. That's for advantage.

Hel. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: But the composition, that your valour and fear makes in you, is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear well.

thee acutely: I will return perfect courtier; in the which, my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else

Par. I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer

rance makes thee away: farewell. When thou hast
leisure, say thy prayers; when thou hast none, re-
member thy friends: get thee a good husband, and
use him as he uses thee: so farewell.
[Brit.

Par. Virginity, being blown down, man will quick-thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignolier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature, to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational inerease; and there was never virgin got, till virginity was first lost. That, you were first made of, is metal to make virgins. Virginity, by being once lost, may be ten times found: by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with it. Hel. I will stand for't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

Par. There's little can be said in't: 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He, that hangs himself, is virgin virginity murders itself; and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't: Out with't: within ten years it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: Away with't.

Hel. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?

Par. Let me see: Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it likes. "Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with't,

Hel. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it, which mounts my love so high;
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?"
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes, and kiss like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts, to those
That weigh their pains in sense; and do suppose
What hath been cannot be: Who ever strove
To show her merit, that did miss her love!
The king's disease-my project may deceive me.
But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me.

(Exit.

SCENE II. Paris. A Room in the King's Palace.
Flourish of Cornets. Enter the King of France,

with Letters; Lords and others attending.
King. The Florentines and Senoys are by the ears;
Have fought with equal fortune, and continue
A braving war.

1 Lord. So 'tis reported, sir. E ANY
King, Nay, 'tis most credible; we here receive it
A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria,
With caution that the Florentine will move us
For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend