Enter Duke FREDERICK, with Lords.

DUKE F. Mistress, despatch you with your

hafte,

And get you from our court.

Ros.

DUKE F.

fafeft

Me, uncle?

You, coufin:

Within these ten days if that thou be'ft 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 truft I am not,) then, dear uncle,
Never, fo much as in a thought unborn,
Did I offend your highness.

DUKE F

Thus do all traitors;

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.

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 fovereign, hear me speak.

DUKE F. Ay, Celia; we ftay'd her for your fake, Elfe had the with her father rang'd along.

CEL. I did not then entreat to have her stay, It was your pleafure, and your own remorfe; I was too young that time to value her, But now I know her: if she be a traitor, Why fo am I; we still have flept together, Rofe at an inftant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;' And wherefoe'er we went, like Juno's fwans, Still we went coupled, and infeparable.

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

Her very filence, and her patience,

Speak to the people, and they pity her.

Thou art a fool: the robs thee of thy name;
And thou wilt fhow more bright, and feem more
virtuous,1

When she is gone: then open not thy lips;
Firm and irrevocable is my doom

Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. CEL. Pronounce that fentence then on me, my liege;

I cannot live out of her company.

8

-remorfe;] i. e. compaffion. So, in Macbeth:

Stop the access and paffage to remorse." STEEVENS. we still have flept together,

Rofe at an inftant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;] Youthful friendship is defcribed in nearly the fame terms in a book publifhed the year in which this play firft appeared in print:

They ever went together, plaid together, eate together, and ufually lept 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.

1 And thou wilt Show more bright, and feem more virtuous,] When he was feen alone, fhe would be more noted. JOHNSON.

If

DUKE F. You are a fool:-You, niece, provide

yourself;

you out-ftay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatnefs of my word, you die.

[Exeunt Duke FREDERICK and Lords. CEL. O my poor Rofalind! whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more griev'd than I am. Ros. I have more cause.

CEL. Thou haft not, cousin;2 Pr'ythee, be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me his daughter?

Ros.

That he hath not.

CEL. No? hath not? Rofalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: 3 Shall we be funder'd? fhall we part, fweet girl? No; let my father feek another heir. Therefore devife with me, how we may fly, Whither to go, and what to bear with us: And do not feek to take your change upon you,4

2

Thou haft not, coufin;] Some word is wanting to the
Perhaps our author wrote:
Indeed thou haft not, coufin.

metre.

3 Rofalind lacks then the love

STEEVENS.

Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:] The poet certainly wrote-which teacheth me. For if Rofalind had learnt to think Celia one part of herself, fhe could not lack that love which Celia complains the does. WARBURTON.

Either reading may ftand. is not remote or obfcure. faying, You know not the law

The fenfe of the established text Where would be the abfurdity of which teaches you to do right? JOHNSON.

4 to take your change upon you,] i. e. to take your change or reverfe of fortune upon yourself, without any aid or participation. MALONE,

To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out;
For, by this heaven, now at our forrows pale,
Say what thou canft, I'll go along with thee.

Ros. Why, whither shall we go?

CEL.

To feek my uncle.5

Ros. Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth fo far?
Beauty provoketh thieves fooner than gold.
CEL. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber fmirch my face; 6
The like do you; fo fhall we pass along,
And never ftir affailants.

Ros.

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-spear in my hand; and (in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,)
We'll have a swashing and a martial outfide;

I have inserted this note, but without implicit confidence in the reading it explains. The fecond folio has-charge.

STEEVENS.

To feek my uncle.] Here the old copy adds in the foreft of Arden. But these words are an evident interpolation, without use, and injurious to the measure:

Why, whither hall we go?—To seek my uncle, being a complete verfe. Befides, we have been already informed by Charles the wrestler, that the banished Duke's refidence was

in the foreft of Arden. STEEVENS.

6

And with a kind of umber fmirch my face;] Umber is a dufky yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in Italy. See a note on the umber'd fires," in King Henry V. A& III. MALONE. curtle-ax-] Or cutlace, a broad fword. JOHNSON. We'll have a fwashing &c.] Afwashing outfide is an appearance of noify, bullying valour. Swashing blow is men

7

As many other mannifh cowards have,
That do outface it with their femblances.

CEL. What fhall I call thee, when thou art a man?

Ros. I'll have no worfe a name than Jove's own page,

And therefore look you call me, Ganymede.
But what will you be call'd?

CEL. Something that hath a reference to my state; No longer Celia, but Aliena.

Ros. But, coufin, what if we affay'd to steal The clownish fool out of your father's court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

CEL. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
Leave me alone to woo him: Let's away,
And get our jewels and our wealth together;
Devife the fitteft time, and fafeft way

To hide us from pursuit that will be made
After my flight: Now go we in content,"
To liberty, and not to banishment.

[Exeunt.

tioned in Romeo and Juliet; and, in King Henry V. the Boy fays:- "As young as I am, I have obferved these three fwashers;" meaning Nym, Piftol, and Bardolph. STEEVENS.

9

·

Now go we in content,] The old copy reads-Now go in we content. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. I am not sure that the tranfpofition is neceffary. Our author might have used content as an adjective. MALONE.