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ADAM. What, my young master? O my gentle master!

O my sweet master! O you memory

Of old Sir Rowland! why, what make you here?
Why are you virtuous? why do people love you?
And wherefore are you gentle, strong and valiant?
Why would you be so fond to overcome
The bonny priser of the humorous Duke?

Your praise is come too swiftly home before you.
Know you not, master, to some kind of men
Their graces serve them but as enemies?

No more do yours: your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you.

O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!

ORL. Why, what's the matter?

ADAM.

O unhappy youth!

Come not within these doors; within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives:

Your brother-no, no brother; yet the son-
Yet not the son, I will not call him son,

8 bonny priser] strong prizefighter (i. e., contender for a prize). The word bonny is the reading of all the Folios, and is doubtless right. The epithet is frequently used in the sense of "strong" as well as in that of " comely." Warburton's widely adopted correction, boney, i. e., "muscular," is unnecessary.

Of him I was about to call his father,

Hath heard your praises, and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie

And you within it: if he fail of that,

He will have other means to cut you off.

I overheard him and his practices.

This is no place; this house is but a butchery:

Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

ORL. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me

go?

ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here.

ORL. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my

food?

Or with a base and boisterous sword enforce

A thievish living on the common road?

This I must do, or know not what to do:
Yet this I will not do, do how I can;

I rather will subject me to the malice

Of a diverted blood and bloody brother.

ADAM. But do not so. I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I saved under your father,

Which I did store to be my foster-nurse

When service should in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in corners thrown:
Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,

27 This is no place] Cf. Lover's Complaint, 82: "Love made him her place, [i. e., her home, place to dwell in]."

37 diverted blood] blood (or natural affection) turned from the course of nature.

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Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold;

All this I give you. Let me be your servant:
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood,
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly: let me go with you;
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

ORL. O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that do choke their service up
Even with the having: it is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree,
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways; we'll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We'll light upon some settled low content.

ADAM. Master, go on, and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.

71 seventeen] This is Rowe's emendation for the seventy of the Folios.

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At seventeen years many their fortunes seek;
But at fourscore it is too late a week:
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well and not my master's debtor.

SCENE IV-THE FOREST OF ARDEN

[Exeunt.

Enter ROSALIND for GANYMEDE, CELIA for ALIENA, and
TOUCHSTONE

Ros. O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!

TOUCH. I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.

Ros. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat: therefore, courage, good Aliena.

CEL. I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further.

TOUCH. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you: yet I should bear no cross, if I did bear 10 you; for I think you have no money in your purse. Ros. Well, this is the forest of Arden.

TOUCH. Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I;

1 weary] Theobald's emendation of the merry of the Folios. 6 doublet and hose] the chief features of male attire in Shakespeare's day. 10 bear no cross] a quibble on the two meanings of the phrase, viz.,

"endure hardship" and "carry a coin," specifically known as a "cross," from the stamp upon it of a cross. Cf. 2 Hen. IV, I, ii, 212-213: "you are too impatient to bear crosses.'

when I was at home, I was in a better place: but travellers must be content.

Ros. Ay, be so, good Touchstone.

Enter CORIN and SILVIUS

Look you, who comes here; a young man and an old in solemn talk.

COR. That is the way to make her scorn you still.
SIL. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her!
COR. I partly guess; for I have loved ere now.
SIL. No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess,
Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover
As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow:
But if thy love were ever like to mine,
As sure I think did never man love so,
How many actions most ridiculous
Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?

COR. Into a thousand that I have forgotten.
SIL. O, thou didst then ne'er love so heartily!
If thou remember'st not the slightest folly
That ever love did make thee run into,
Thou hast not loved:

Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,
Wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise,
Thou hast not loved:

Or if thou hast not broke from company
Abruptly, as my passion now makes me,

28 fantasy] Used like the cognate form "fancy" in the sense of

affection or love.

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