Ros. To you I give myself, for I am To you I give myself, for I am yours. [TO ORLANDO. Duke S. If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. Orl. If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosa lind. Phe. If sight and shape be true, Why then, my love adieu! 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. If truth holds true contents.1 [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. How thus we met, and these things finish. 1 i. e. unless truth fails of veracity; if there be truth in truth. SONG. Wedding is great Juno's crown; Duke S. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me; Even daughter, welcome in no less degree. Phe. I will not eat my word, now thou art mine, Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine. Enter JAQUES DE BOIS. [TO SILVIUS. 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 Duke S. 1 i. e. prepared. That here were well begun, and well begot ; That have endured shrewd days and nights with us, Play, music; and you, brides and bridegrooms all, Jaq. Sir, by your patience; if I heard you rightly, The duke hath put on a religious life, And thrown into neglect the pompous court? Jaq. To him will I; out of these convertites merit : You [To OLIVER.] to your land and love, and great allies: You [To SILVIUS.] to a long and well deserved bed :And you [To TOUCHSTONE.] to wrangling; for thy lov ing voyage Is but for two months victualed.-So to your pleasures; I am for other than for dancing measures. Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay. Jaq. To see no pastime, I.-What you would have, I'll stay to know at your abandoned cave.1 [Exit. Duke S. Proceed, proceed. We will begin these rites, And we do trust they'll end in true delights. [A dance. The reader feels some regret to take his leave of Jaques in this manner; and no less concern at not meeting with the faithful old Adam, at the close. It is the more remarkable that Shakspeare should have forgotten him, because Lodge, in his novel, makes him captain of the king's guard. EPILOGUE. Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome, than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush,' 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue : yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished like a beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: 3 and I charge you, 0 men, for the love you bear to women, (as I perceive, by your simpering, none of you hate them,) that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not; and I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make courtesy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt. 1 It was formerly the general custom in England, as it is still in France and the Netherlands, to hang a bush of iry at the door of a vintner. 2 Furnished, dressed. 3 This is the reading of the old copy, which has been altered to "as much of this play as please them," but surely without necessity. It is only the omission of the s at the end of please, which gives it a quaint appearance; but it was the practice of the Poet's age. 4 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakspeare's time. 5 i. e. that I liked. Or this play the fable is wild and pleasing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rosalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroism of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preserved. The comic dialogue is very sprightly, with less mixture of low buffoonery than in some other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By hastening to the end of this work, Shakspeare suppressed the dialogue between the usurper and the hermit, and lost an opportunity of exhibiting a moral lesson, in which he might have found matter worthy of his highest powers. JOHNSON. |