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SCENE IV.

There are fome paffages very tender, generous, and affecting, in the first part of the dialogue between Rofalind and Celia, who had been bred up from their infancy in friendship together; the firft, daughter to the exiled Duke; and the other, child to his brother, the Ufurper.

Cia. I pray thee, Rofalind, fweet my coz, be merry.

Rejalind. Dear Celia, I fhew more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? Unless you could teach me to forget a banifhed father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.

Celia. Herein I fee thou loveft me not with the full weight that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banifhed father, had banished thy uncle, the Duke my father, fo thou hadst been still with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine; and fo wouldst thou, if the truth of thy love to me were fo righteously tempered, as mine is to thee.

Rofalind. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, and rejoice in yours.

Celia. You know, my father hath no child but me, nor none is like to have; and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt 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 monster-Therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rofe, be merry.

The fame fondness between them is repeated in the tenth Scene of the fame Act, upon Rofalind's being commanded to quit the dominions of the Ufurper.

Cel a. O my poor Rofalind, where wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine-
I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.
Ralind. I have more caufe.

Cela. Thou haft not, coufin ;

Prithee, be chearful knowest thou not, the Duke
Has banished me, his daughter?

Refund. That he hath not.

C. No? Hath not? Rofalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth me that thou and I are one-

Shall we be fundered? Shall we part, fweet girl?
No, let my father feek another heir-

Therefore devife with me, how we may By;

Whither

Whither to go, and what to bear with us;
And do not feek to take your change upon you,
To bear your griefs yourfeif, and leave me out:
For by this heaven, now at our forrows pale,
Say what thou canft, I'll go along with thee.

As there are many vices in morals that are injurious to fociety, and which the laws have not ftigmatized, or poffibly cannot fufficiently provide against, the reprehenfions of Satire, under proper reftrictions, may perhaps be deemed a neceffary fupplement to legiflation. The moft worthlefs perfon would chufe to fin in fecret, as not being able to endure the being rendered an object of public deteftation or ridicule; the fear of being pointed at has often laid a restraint on vice; in which fenfe the finger may he faid to be ftronger than the arm, Othello pathetically defcribes fuch a fituation;

"But, alas! to make me

"A fixed figure for the hand of Scorn
"To point his flow unmoving finger a:."

The paffage which gave rife to thefe reflections, is in this fourth Scene, where Celia interrupts Touchftone, in his abufe of an abfent perfon:

Enough! Speak no more of him; you'll be whipt for taxation, one of thefe days.

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

Celia. By my troth, thou fayeft true; for fince the little wit that fools have was filenced, the little foolery that wife men have makes a great show.

SCENE VIII.

There is a very proper hint given here to women, not to deviate from the prefcribed rules and decorums of their fex, Whenever they venture to step

*Alluding to the jefters, that were formerly entertained by kings, and were the only courtiers that were fuffered to fpeak their minds. This office has been lag abolished.

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the leaft out of their walk, in life, they are too generally apt to wander aftray.

Rofalind. Ch, how full of briars is this working-day world!

Celia. They are but burs, coufin, thrown upon thee, in holiday foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats will catch them.

SCENE X.

Rofalind, fpeaking of difguifing herself in man's apparel, gives a good description of a swaggering bully:

Were it not better,

Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did fuit me all points like a man?,
A gallant curtle-ax upon my thigh,

A boar-fpear in my hand, (and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will)
I'll have a swashing and a martial outfide,
As many other mannish cowards have,
That do out-face it with their femblances †.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The firft fpeech in this Scene is rich in reflection upon the new-moulding faculty of ufe or habit, the preference of a fincere country life to a falfe city one, the advantages of adverfity, and the benefits of retired contemplation.

The Duke, Amiens, and other Lords, in the foreft of Arden. Duke. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile,

Hath not old cuftom made this life more sweet,

Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The feafors' difference; as, the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even 'till I fhrink with cold, I fmi'e, and fay,
This is no flattery; thefe are counsellors,
That feelingly perfuade me what I am.
Sweet are the ufes of adversity,

+ See Portia's speech in the fifth Scene, Third Act, of the Merchant of Venice, in this Work, for a parallel paffage of female sportive humour.

I See first obfervation on Scene IV, A& V. of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, on the power of Ufe or Habit.

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Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head:
And this our life, exempt from public haurt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in Alones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

Amiens. Happy is your Grace,

That can tranflate the stubbornness of fortune
Into fo quiet and so sweet a ftile.

In the continuation of the fame dialogue, fome humane fentiments are thrown out on the fubject of hunting, with an affecting defcript on given of a wounded deer; and alfo fome moral allufions from human life to the different circumstances and fituations of the poor victim, which must equally engage the thought and feeling of the reader. Duke. Come, fhall we go and kill us venifon? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this defart city, Should in their own confines, with forked heads Have their round haunches gored.

Firft Lord. Indeed, my Lord,

The melancholy Jaques + grieves at that;
And in that kind fwears you no more ufurp
Than doth your brother that hath banished you ‡.
To day my Lord of Amiens and myself,
Did fteal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood;
To the which place a poor fequeftered flag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and indeed, my Lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth fuch groans,
That their discharge did firetch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Courfed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chafe-And thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremeft verge of the fwift brook,
Augmenting it with tears-

Duke. But what faid Jaques?

Did he not moralize this fpectacle

This was an ancient notion.

A character diftinguished for humanity, contemplation, and contempt of the world, and confequently, for fingularity.

That is, you ufurp as much.

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First

Firft Lord. O yes, into a thousand fimilies.
Firft, for his weeping in the needless stream--
Poor Deer, quoth he, thou makest a testament,
As worldlings do, giving thy fam of more
To that which had too much. Then, being alone,
Left and abandoned of his velvet friends-
"Tis right, quoth he, thus mifery doth part
The flux of company. Anon, a carelets herd,
Full of the paftere, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him-Ay, quoth Jaques,
Sweep on, ye fat and greafy citizens,

'Tis juft the fashion; wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?
Thus moft invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life; fwearing, that we
Are mere ufurpers, tyrants, and, what's worse,
To fright the animals, and to kill them up
In their affigned and native dwelling place.

Duke. And did you leave him in this contemplation?
Second Lord. We did, my Lord, weeping and commenting,
Upon the jobbing Deer-

Duke. Shew me the place;

I love to cope him in these fullen fits,
For then he's full of matter,

Whoever could read the above defcription, and eat venifon, on the fame day, muft have a better ftomach, or a ftouter heart, than they would do well to boast of Such melancholy, fuch fullen fits, as these of Jaques, have fomething more charming in them,

than all

"The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears."

SCENE

III.

The dangers of pre-eminence and virtue in a wicked and envious world, are finely noted here.

Adam meeting Orlando, after he had conquered the Ufurper's champion :

What! my young master? Oh, my gentle master,
Oh, my fweet mafter! Oh, you memory

Of old Sir Rowland! why, what make you here?
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?

And

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