Why writes fhe fo to me?-Well, fhepherd, well,
This is a letter of your own device.

Sil. No, I proteft, I know not the contents;
Phebe did write it.

Rof. Come, come, you are a fool,
And turn'd into the extremity of love.

I faw her hand: fhe has a leathern hand,
A freeftone-coloured hand;. I verily did think
That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;
She has a hufwife's hand: but that's no matter;
I fay, fhe never did invent this letter;

This is a man's invention, and his hand.
Sil. Sure, it is hers.

Ref. Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel ftile,
A file for challengers; why, the defies me,
Like Turk to Chriftian: woman's gentle brain
Could not drop forth fuch giant-rude invention,.
Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect

Than in their countenance: Will you hear the letter?
Sil. So pleafe you, for I never heard it yet;
Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty.
Mark how the tyrant
Rof. She Phebe's me:

writes.

[Reads.] Art thou god to Shepherd turn'd,
That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?-

Can a woman rail thus ?

Sil. Call you this railing?

Ref. [Reads.] Why, thy godhead laid apart,
War' thou with a woman's heart?

Did you ever hear fuch railing ?

Whiles the eye of man did woo me,
That could do no vengeance to me..

Meaning me a beast.

8

8 Vengeance is used for mischief. JOHNSON.

If

If the fcorn of your bright eyne
Have power to raife fuch love in mine,
Alack, in me what strange effect
Would they work in mild afpect?
Whiles chid me,
you
I did love;

How then might your prayers move?
He, that brings this love to thee,
Little knows this love in me:
And by him feal up thy mind;
Whether that thy youth and kind?
Will the faithful offer take
Of me, and all that I can make ;
Or elfe by him my love deny,
And then I'll fudy here to die.

Sil. Call you this chiding?
Cel. Afas, poor fhepherd!

Rof. Do you pity him? no, he deferves no pity. Wilt you love fuch a woman?-What, to make thee an inftrument, and play falfe ftrains upon thee! not to be endured !-Well, go your way to her, (for 'I fee love hath made thee a tame fnake) and fay this to her ;-"That if the love me, I charge her to love "thee if fhe will not I will never have her, un"lefs thou intreat for her." If you be a true lover, hence, and not a word; for here comes more company. [Exit Silvius.

Enter Oliver.

Oli. Good-morrow, fair ones: Pray you, if

know

you

• Youth and kind] Kind is the old word for nature. JOHNSON. I fee that love has made thee a tame fnake.] This term was in our author's time frequently used to exprefs a poor contemptible fellow. So, in Lord Cromwell, 1602:

66

-the pooreft fake

"That feeds on lemons, pilchards, &c.

Again, in Sir John Oldeafile, 1600: "and you, poor fnakes, come feldom to a booty.' MALONE.

19

Where

2

Where, in the purlieus of this forest, stands
A fheep-cote, fenc'd about with olive-trees?
Cel. Weft of this place, down in the neighbour
bottom,

The rank of ofiers, by the murmuring ftream,
Left on your right hand, brings you to the place:
But at this hour the houfe doth keep itfelf,
There's none within.

Oli. If that an eye may profit by a tongue,
Then fhould I know you by defcription;
Such garments and fuch years: The boy is fair,
Of female favour, and beflows himself
Like a ripe fifier: but the woman low,

And browner than her brother. Are not you
The owner of the houfe I did enquire for?

Cel. It is no boaft, being afk'd, to fay, we are.
Oli. Orlando doth commend him to you both;
And to that youth, he calls his Rofalind,
He fends this bloody napkin'; Are you he?

Rof. I am: What must we understand by this?
Oli. Some of my fhame; if you will know of me
What man I am, and how, and why, and where
This handkerchief was ftain'd.

Cel. I pray you, tell it.

Oli. When laft the young Orlando parted from you, He left a promife to return again

2 Purlieu, fays, Manhood's Treatife on the Foreft Laws, c. 20. "Is a certaine territorie of ground adjoyning unto the forest, meared and bounded with unmoveable marks, meeres, and bounaries which territories of ground was alfo foreft, and afterwards difaforetted againe by the perambulations made for the fevering of the new foreft from the old. EDITOR.

:

3-napkin, i.e. handkerchief] Ray fays, that a pocket handkerehiet is fo called about Sheffield in Yorkshire. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: I can wet one of my new lockram

napkins with weeping.

·

Napery fignifies linen in general. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635 "pr'ythee put me into wholefome napery." Again, in Chapman's May-Day, 1611 Belides your munition of manchet napery plates." Naperia Ital. STEEVENS.

I

Within

5 Within an hour; and, pacing through the foreft,
Chewing the food of fweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befel! he threw his eye afide,
And, mark, what object did prefent itself!
Under an oak, whofe boughs were mois'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,

A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay fleeping on his back: about his neck

A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach'd

s Within an hour;] We must read, within two hours. JOHNSON. May not within an hour fignify within a certain time? TYRWHITT. 6 of feet and bitter fancy.] i. e. love, which is always thus defcribed by our old poets, as compofed of contraries. See a note on Romeo and Juliet, act i.

So, in Lodge's Rojalynde, 1592: "I have noted the variable difpofition of fancy,a bitter pleafüre wrapt in weet prejudice.” MALONE.

7 Under an oak, &c.] The paffage ftands thus in Lodge's Novel.Saladyne wearie with wandering up and downe, and hungry with long fafting, finding a little cave by the fide of a thicket, eating fuch fruite as the forreft did affoord, and contenting himfelf with fuch drinke as nature had provided, and thirst made delicate, after his repaft he fell into a dead fleepe. As thus he lay, a hungry lyon came hunting down the edge of the grove for pray, and efpying Saladyne, began to ceaze upon him but feeing he lay ftill without any motion, he left to touch him, for that lyons hate to pray on dead carkaffes: and yet defirous to have fome foode, the lyon lay downe and watcht to fee if he would firre. While thus Saladyne flept fecure, fortune that was careful of her champion, began to fmile, and brought it so to paffe, that Rofader (having tricken a deere that but lightly hurt fled through the thicket) came pacing downe by the grove with a boare speare in his hande in great hafte, he efpyed where a man lay afleepe, and a lyon faft by him: amazed at this fight, as he stood gazing, his nofe on the fodaine bledde, which made him conjecture it was fome friend of his. Whereupon drawing more nigh, he might eafily difcerne his vifage, and perceiving by his phitnomie that it was his brother Saladyne, which drave Rofader into a deepe paffion, as a man perplexed, &c.— -But the prefent time craved no fuch doubting ambages: for he muft eyther refolve to hazard his life for his reliefe, or elfe fteale away and leave him to the crueltie of the lyon, In which doubt hee thus briefly debated, &c." STEEVENS.

VOL. III.

Cc

The

The opening of his mouth; but fuddenly
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did flip away
Into a bufh: under which bufh's fhade
A lionefs, with udders all drawn dry 7,
Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch,
When that the fleeping man fhould stir; for 'tis
The royal difpofition of that beast,

To prey on nothing that doth feem as dead :
This feen, Orlando did approach the man,

And found it was his brother, his elder brother.
Cel. O, I have heard him speak of that fame bro-
ther;

And he did render him the most unnatural

That liv'd 'mongst men.

Oli. And well he might fo do,

For well I know he was unnatural.

Rof. But, to Orlando ;-Did he leave him there,

Food to the fuck'd and hungry lioness?

"

Oli. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd fo:

But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

And nature, ftronger than his juft occafion,
Made him give battle to the lionefs,

Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling
From miferable flumber I awak'd.

7 Alioness, with udders all drawn dry,] So, in Arden of FeverSham, 1592:

8

66

the ftarven lioness

"When she is dry-fuckt of her eager young."

STEEVENS.

in which hurtling] To hurtle is to move with impetuo

fity and tumult. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"A noite of battle burtled in the air."

Again, in Nafh's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

"-hearing of the gangs of good fellows that hurtled and bustled thither, &c.”

Again, in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, B. i. c. 4:

All burten forth, and fhe with princely pace, &c.". Again, B. i. c. 8:

"Came burtling in full fierce, and forc'd the knight retire." STLEVENS.

Cel.