Re-enter LE BEAU.

O poor Orlando! thou art overthrown;
Or Charles, or something weaker, masters thee.

LE BEAU. Good fir, I do in friendship counsel you To leave this place: Albeit you have deserv'd High commendation, true applause, and love; Yet such is now the duke's condition, That he misconstrues all that you have done. The duke is humorous; what he is, indeed, More fuits you to conceive, than me to speak of.

ORL. I thank you, fir: and, pray you, tell me this; Which of the two was daughter of the duke That here was at the wrestling?

LE BEAU. Neither his daughter, if we judge by

manners;

But yet, indeed, the shorter is his daughter:

8 the duke's condition,) The word condition means character, temper, disposition. So Antonio, the merchant of Venice, is called by his friend the best condition'd man. JOHNSON.

9

than me to speak of.] The old copy has than 1. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

2

the shorter-] Thus Mr. Pope. The old copy readsthe taller. Mr. Malone-the smaller. STEEVENS.

Some change is absolutely necessary, for Rosalind, in a subsequent scene, expressly says that she is "more than common tall," and affigns that as a reason for her assuming the dress of a man, while her coufin Celia retained her female apparel. Again, in Act IV. fc. iii. Celia is described by these words" the woman low, and browner than her brother;" i. e. Rofalind. Mr. Pope reads" the shorter is his daughter;" which has been admitted in all the subsequent editions: but furely shorter and taller could never have been confounded by either the eye or the ear. present emendation, it is hoped, has a preferable claim to a place in the text, as being much nearer to the corrupted reading. MALONE.

The

Shakspeare sometimes speaks of little women, but I do not recollect that he, or any other writer, has mentioned small ones. Otherwife, Mr. Malone's conjecture should have found a place in our text, STEEVENS,

The other is daughter to the banish'd duke,
And here detain'd by her ufurping uncle,
To keep his daughter company; whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of fifters.
But I can tell you, that of late this duke
Hath ta'en displeasure 'gainst his gentle niece;
Grounded upon no other argument,
But that the people praise her for her virtues,
And pity her for her good father's fake;
And, on my life, his malice 'gainst the lady
Will fuddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well;
Hereafter, in a better world than this,"
I shall defire more love and knowledge of you.
ORL. I rest much bounden to you: fare you well!
[Exit LE BEAU.

Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
From tyrant duke, unto a tyrant brother :-
But heavenly Rosalind!

SCENE III.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.

[Exit.

CEL. Why, coufin; why, Rofalind; - Cupid have mercy!-Not a word?

Ros. Not one to throw at a dog.

CEL. No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs, throw fome of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.

Ros. Then there were two coufins laid up; when the one should be lamed with reasons, and the other mad without any.

2

in a better world than this, So, in Coriolanus, Act III.

31

CEL. But is all this for your father?
Ros. No, some of it is for my child's father:
O, how full of briars is this working-day world!

CEL. They are but burs, coufin, thrown upon thee in holyday foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats will catch them. Ros. I could shake them off my coat; these burs are in my heart.

CEL. Hem them away.

Ros. I would try; if I could cry hem, and have him. CEL. Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. Ros. O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.

CEL. O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in defpite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of service, let us talk in good earnest: Is it possible, on fuch a fudden, you should fall into so strong a liking with old fir Rowland's youngest son ?

Ros. The duke my father lov'd his father dearly.

CEL. Doth it therefore ensue, that you should love his fon dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando.

Ros. No 'faith, hate him not, for my fake.

CEL. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?s

3 for my child's father:] i. e. for him whom I hope to marry, and have children by. THEOBALD.

4 By this kind of chase,] That is, by this way of following the argument. Dear is used by Shakspeare in a double sense for beloved, and for hurtful, hated, baleful. Both senses are authorised, and both drawn from etymology; and hateful is dere. Rosalind uses dearly in the good, and Celia in but properly, beloved is dear, the bad sense. JOHNSON.

$ Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?] Celia answers Rofalind, (who had defired her "not to hate Orlando, for her

!

1

1

!

Ros. Let me love him for that; and do you love him, because I do:-Look, here comes the duke. CEL. With his eyes full of anger.

Enter Duke FREDERICK, with Lords.

DUKE F. Mistress, despatch you with your fafeft

hafte,
And get you from our court.

Ros.

DUKE F.

Me uncle?

You, coufin:

Within these ten days if that thou be'st found

So near our publick court as twenty miles,

Thou dieft for it.

Ros.

I do beseech your grace,

Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
If with myself I hold intelligence,

:

Or have acquaintance with mine own defires;

If that I do not dream, or be not frantick,
(As I do trust I am not,) then, dear uncle,

Never, so much as in a thought unborn,

Did I offend your highness.

Thus do all traitors;

DUKE F.

If their purgation did consist in words,
They are as innocent as grace itself:-
Let it fuffice thee, that I trust thee not.

Ros. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:

Tell me, whereon the likelihood depends.

fake,") as if she had faid" love him, for my fake:" to which the former replies, "Why should I not [i. e. love him] ? So, in the following passage, in King Henry VIII:

Which of the peers

Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at least
Strangely neglected?"

Uncontemn'd must be understood as if the author had written-not
contemn'd; otherwise the subsequent words would convey a mean-
ing directly contrary to what the speaker intends. MALONE.

DUKE F. Thou art thy father's daughter, there's

enough.

Ros. So was I, when your highness took his dukedom;

So was I, when your highness banish'd him:
Treason is not inherited, my lord;
Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
What's that to me? my father was no traitor:
Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much,
To think my poverty is treacherous.

CEL. Dear sovereign, hear me fpeak.
DUKE F. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your fake,
Else had she with her father rang'd along.

CEL. I did not then entreat to have her stay, It was your pleasure, and your own remorse;" I was too young that time to value her, But now I know her: if she be a traitor, Why so am I; we still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;" And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, Still we went coupled, and infeparable.

DUKE F. She is too fubtle for thee; and her

fmoothness,

Her very filence, and her patience,
Speak to the people, and they pity her.

Thou art a fool: the robs thee of thy name;

6

remorse;] i. e. compassion. So, in Macbeth: Stop the access and passage to remorse." STEEVENS. 7 we still have slept together,

Rofe at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;] Youthful friendship is described in nearly the fame terms in a book published the year in which this play first appeared in print. "They ever went together, plaid together, eate together, and usually flept together, out of the great love that was between them." Life of Guzman de Alfarache, folio, printed by Edward Blount, 1623, P. I. B. I. c. viii. p. 75. REED.