I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood and bloody brother.
Adam. But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,
The thrifty hire I saved under your father,
Which I did store to be my foster-nurse
When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown;
Take that; and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold;
All this I give you. Let me be your servant :
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty,
For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood,
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly let me go with you;
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

:

Orl. O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that, do choke their service up
Even with the having: it is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree,

40

45

50

55

60

37. blood] proud Collier MS. 49. in] to Capell conj. 57. service] fashion Keightley; virtue Neil conj.; temper Lettsom conj. 58. meed] Ff 2, 3; neede Ff 1, 4; Rowe i.

37. diverted blood] Collier suggests "proud" for "blood," a compositor's error for "bloud," the common Elizabethan spelling. But no change is needed. Johnson interprets "blood turned out of the course of nature." Compare Hamlet, III. ii. 74.

39. thrifty hire] the savings of thrift; a curious adjectival use. Wright quotes II. vii. 131: "two weak evils, age and hunger," though the analogy is not quite perfect. Furness also quotes "youthful wages," post, line 67, though here again the adjective has no instrumental application.

43, 44. ravens . . . sparrow] See Psalm cxlvii. 9, St. Matthew x. 29.

That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways; we'll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We'll light upon some settled low content.
Adam. Master, go on, and I will follow thee,

To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years many their fortunes seek,
But at fourscore it is too late a week:
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well and not my master's debtor.

SCENE IV.-The Forest of Arden.

65

70

75

[Exeunt.

Enter ROSALIND for GANYMEDE, CELIA for ALIENA,
and TOUCHSTONE.

Ros. O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!
Touch. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.
Ros. I could find it in my heart to disgrace my man's
apparel and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort
the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show
itself courageous to petticoat: therefore courage,
good Aliena!

71. seventeen] Rowe; seaventie F 1; seventy Ff 2-4.

SCENE IV.

5

Cel. I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further.
Touch. For my part, I would rather bear with you than

bear you; yet I should bear no cross if I did bear ΙΟ
you, for I think you have no money in your purse.

Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden.

Touch. Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I; when I was at home I was in a better place: but travellers must be content.

Ros. Ay, be so, good Touchstone.

Enter CORIN and SILVIUS.

Look you, who comes here; a young man and an old
in solemn talk.

Cor. That is the way to make her scorn you still.
Sil. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her!
Cor. I partly guess; for I have loved ere now.
Sil. No, Corin; being old, thou canst not guess,

Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover
As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow:
But if thy love were ever like to mine—
As sure I think did never man love so-
How many actions most ridiculous

Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?
Cor. Into a thousand that I have forgotten.
Sil. O thou didst then never love so heartily!
If thou remember'st not the slightest folly
That ever love did make thee run into,
Thou hast not loved :

Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,

Wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise,
Thou hast not loved:

talk.

15

20

25

30

35

16-18. Ay 25. ever]

.] after line 15 Ff.
here
34. sat] F 1; sate Ff 2-4;

8. cannot] F 1; can Ff 2-4. 16. Enter . talk] Ff; Walker suggests dividing at Ay F1; ere Ff 2-4. 30. never] Ff; ne'er Rowe. spake Collier MS. 35. Wearing] F 1; Wearying Ff 2-4.

8. cannot... no] Compare ante, II. iii. 50.

10. bear no cross] St. Matthew x. 38. The silver coins of Elizabeth had a double cross and crest on the reverse. Compare 2 Henry IV. 1. ii. 253:

Falstaff. Will your lordship lend
me a thousand pound to furnish
me forth?
Chief Justice. Not a penny, not a
penny; you are too impatient to
bear crosses."

28. fantasy] Here, liking, affection. The earliest quotation of this form of the word is dated 1325 in New Eng. Dict., but there the meaning is rather "illusion."

35. Wearing] The reading of F I upheld by the following quotation from Jonson, The Gipsies Metamorphosed (p. 419, ed. Gifford):

"Or a long pretended fit,

Meant for mirth, but is not it;
Only time and ears out-wearing."

Or if thou hast not broke from company,

Abruptly as my passion now makes me,
Thou hast not loved :

O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe.

Ros. Alas, poor shepherd! searching of thy wound,

[Exit. 40

I have by hard adventure found mine own. Touch. And I mine. I remember, when I was in love, I broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to Jane Smile; and I re- 45 member the kissing of her batler and the cow's dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milk'd; and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I took two cods and, giving them her again, said with weeping tears, "Wear these for my 50 sake." We that are true lovers run into strange capers but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature

in love mortal in folly.

Ros. Thou speak'st wiser than thou art ware of.

Touch. Nay, I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I 55 break my shins against it.

Ros. Jove, Jove! this shepherd's passion

Is much upon my fashion.

41. thy wound] Rowe; they would F 1; their wound Ff 2-4. 45. a-night] Steevens; a night F 1; a nights Ff 2-4; o'nights Capell; o'night Malone. 16. batler] F 1; batlet Ff 2-4. 55, 56. till... it] As Ff; one line Collier. 57, 58. Jove fashion] Ff; Prose, Pope.

41. searching... wound] A medical metaphor; the modern probing.

46. batler] a diminutive of "bat." Wright gives many forms of the word, which means usually the wooden clublike instrument used by washerwomen to beat clothes; colloquially the word has been superseded by "peggy" or "dolly."

47. chopt] chapped, as in Sonnet lxii.: "Beated and chopt with tand antiquity." The two forms still exist side by side in Lancashire.

48. peascod] A means of divination in rustic courtship. See Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 99, quoted by Wright. Compare also Browne, Britannia's Pastorals (ii. Song 3):

"The peascod greene oft with no little toyle

Hee'd seek for in the fattest fertil'st soile

And in her bosome for acceptance wooe her."

But, as Staunton points out, Touchstone woos a peascod as an image of Jane Smile, the peascod being the whole plant, as Malone shows by quoting Camden's Remains, ed. 1614: "He [Richard II.] also used a peascod branch with the cods open, but the peas out, as it is upon his robe in his monument at Westminster."

52, 53. mortal . . . mortal] Touchstone puns upon the real and the secondary dialect meaning of the word. Dyce refers to Carr, Craven Glossary,

Mortal, exceeding, very; 'He's mortal rich.'" But the usage is quite widespread.

58. upon my fashion] Compare Much Ado About Nothing, III. ii. 242: "Much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the

And rend it from the stalke to world." bring it to her,

Touch. And mine; but it grows somewhat stale with me.
Cel. I pray you, one of you question yond man

If he for gold will give us any food:

I faint almost to death.

Touch.

Holla, you clown!

Who calls?

Ros. Peace, fool: he's not thy kinsman.

Cor.

Touch. Your betters, sir.
Cor.
Else are they very wretched.
Ros. Peace, I say. Good even to you, friend.
Cor. And to you, gentle sir, and to you all.
Ros. I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold

Can in this desert place buy entertainment,
Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed:
Here's a young maid with travel much oppress'd
And faints for succour.

60

65

70

Cor.

Fair sir, I pity her,

And wish, for her sake more than for mine own,

My fortunes were more able to relieve her;

But I am shepherd to another man

And do not shear the fleeces that I graze:

75

My master is of churlish disposition

And little recks to find the way to heaven
By doing deeds of hospitality:

Besides, his cote, his flocks and bounds of feed
Are now on sale, and at our sheep-cote now,
By reason of his absence, there is nothing
That you will feed on; but what is, come see,
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.

80

59. it... me] Ff; Collier MS. adds And begins to fail with me, dividing at but, me... me. 60. yond] Rowe; yon'd Ff; yon Capell.

...

65. Good

. friend] one line Capell. you,] Ff 2-4; your F 1. 77. recks] Hanmer; wreakes Ff 1, 2; wreaks Ff 3, 4. 79, 80. cote] Hanmer; coate Ff.

70, 71. Here's... succour] The meaning is plain, though the grammar halts. Either a nominative before "faints," or "who is " before "with travel" may be supplied. For "faints for succour," compare post, II. vi. 1-2: "I die for food."

77. recks] takes pains for, or simply, cares. See New Eng. Dict., s.v., for the various spellings. The Ff read "wreakes." In Hamlet, 1. iii. 51, the Ff read "reaks," the Qq "reakes." Compare Hellowes' translation of Guevara, Familiar Letters (1574), p.

290: "Such as be of good government and reck not to follow physick" (New Eng. Dict.).

83. in my voice] Johnson explains: "as far as I have a voice or vote, as far as I have power to bid you welcome." Compare Hamlet, v. ii. 343: "Fortinbras has my dying voice." Wright quotes also Measure for Measure, 1. ii. 185:

"Implore her in my voice that she
make friends
To the strict deputy."