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Natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnefs of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, Wit, whither wander you?

Clo. Miftrefs, you must come away to your father.
Cel. Were you made the meffenger?

Clo. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to come for you.

Rof. Where learned you that oath, fool?

Clo. Of a certain Knight, that fwore by his honour they were good pancakes, and fwore by his honour the mustard was naught. Now I'll ftand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the muftard was good, and yet was not the Knight forfworn.

Cel. How prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge?

Rof. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wifdom. Clo. Stand you both forth now; ftroke your chins, and fwear by your beards that I am a knave.

if

Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art.
Clo. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were; but

you fwear by That that is not, you are not forfworn; no more was this Knight fwearing by his honour, for he never had any: or if he had, he had fworn it away, before ever he faw thofe pancakes or that mustard.

Cel. Pr'ythee, who is that thou méan’ft ?

Clo. One that old Frederick your father loves.
Cel. My father's love is enough to honour him :-

9 Clo. One, that old Frederick
your father loves.
Rof. My Father's Love is enough

to honour him enough;] This Reply to the Clown, is in all the Books placed to Rofalind; but Frederick was not her Father, but Celia's I have therefore ventur'd to prefix the Name of Celia. There is no Countenance from any Paffage in the Play, or from

the Dramatis Perfonæ, to imagine, that Both the BrotherDukes were Namefakes; and One call'd the Old, and the Other the Younger Frederick; and, without fome fuch Authority, it would make Confufion to fuppofe it. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald feems not to know that the Dramatis Perfona. were first enumerated by Rowe. enough!

enough! fpeak no more of him, you'll be whipt for taxation one of these days.

Clo. The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wife men do foolishly.

Cel. By my troth, thou fay'ft true; for fince the little wit that fools have was filenced', the little foolery that wife men have makes a great show: here comes Monfieur Le Beu.

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Rof. With his mouth full of news.

Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young.

Rof. Then fhall we be news-cram'd.

Cel. All the better, we shall be the more marketable. Bon jour, Monfieur le Beu; what news?

Le Beu. Fair Princefs, you have loft much good Sport.

Cel. Sport; of what colour?

Le Beu. What colour, Madam? How fhall I anfwer you?

I

Rof. As wit and fortune will.

Clo. Or as the deftinies decree.

Cel. Well faid; that was laid on with a trowel 2. Clo. Nay if I keep not my rank,-—

Rof. Thou lofeft thy old smell.

Le Beu. You amaze me, ladies'. I would have

fince the little wit that fools have was filenc'd.] ShakeSpeare probably alludes to the ufe of fools or jefters, who for fome ages had been allowed in all courts an unbridled liberty of cenfure and mockery, and about this time began to be lefs tolerated.

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told you of good wrestling, which you have loft the fight of.

Rof. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling.

Le Beu. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your Ladyfhips, you may fee the end, for the beft is yet to do; and here where you are, they are coming to perform it.

Cel. Well-the beginning that is dead and buried. Le Beu. There comes an old man and his three fons,

Cel. I could match this beginning with an old tale. Le Beu. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and prefence;

Rof. With bills on their necks: Be it known untö all men by these presents 4,

Le Beu. The eldeft of the three wrestled with Charles the Duke's Wreftler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, and there is little hope of life in him: fo he ferved the Second, and fo the Third. Yonder they lie, the poor old man their father making fuch pitiful Dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping. Rof. Alas!

4 With BILLS on their necks: Be it known unto all men by these prefents;] The ladies and the fool, according to the mode of wit at that time, are at a kind of crofs purposes. Where the words of one fpeaker are wrefted by another, in a repartee, to a different meaning. As where the Clown fays juft before-Nay, if I keep not my rank. Rofalind replies thou lofet thy old smell: So here when Rofalind had faid, With bills on their necks, the Clown, to be quits with her, puts in, Know all men by these preJents. She fpoke of an inftru

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Clo. But what is the Sport, Monfieur, that the ladies have loft?

Le Beu. Why this, that I fpeak of.

Clo. Thus men may grow wifer every day! It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies.

Cel. Or I, I promife thee.

Ref. But is there any elfe, longs to fee this broken mufick in his fides? is there yet another doats upon rib-breaking? Shall we fee this wrestling, coufin?

Le Beu. You must if you stay here: for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it.

Cel. Yonder, fure, they are coming. Let us now stay and see it.

SCENE VI.

Flourish. Enter Duke Frederick, Lords, Orlando, Charles, and Attendants.

Duke. Come on.. Since the Youth will not be entreated, his own peril on his forwardness.

Rof. Is yonder the man?

5 is there any elfe longs to SEE this broken mufic in his fides?] A ftupid error in the copies. They are talking here of fome who had their ribs broke in wrestling and the pleafantry of Rofalind's repartee must confift in the allufion fhe makes to compofing in mafick It neceffarily follows therefore, that the poet wrote SET this broken mufick in his fides.

WARBURTON. If any change were neceffary Ifhould write, feel this broken mufick, for fee. But fee is the colloquial term for perception or

experiment. So we say every day, fee if the water be hot; I will fee which is the best time; fhe has tried, and fees that the cannot lift it. In this fenfe fee may be here ufed. The fufferer can, with no propriety, be faid to fet the mufick; neither is the allufion to the act of tuning an inftrument, or pricking a tune, one of which must be meant by fetting mufick. Rofalind hints at a whimfical fimilitude between the series of ribs gradually fhortening, and fome mufical inftruments, and therefore calls broken ribs, broken mufick.

Le Beu.

Le Beu. Even he, Madam.

Cel. Alas, he is too young; yet he looks fuccefffully.

Duke. How now, Daughter and Coufin; are you crept hither to see the wrestling?

Rof. Ay, my liege, so please you give us leave.

Duke. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is fuch odds in the * men: in pity of the challenger's youth, I would fain diffuade him, but he will not be entreated. Speak to him, ladies, see if you

can move him.

Cel Call him hither, good Monfieur Le Beu.
Duke. Do fo, I'll not be by.

[Duke goes apart. Le Beu. Monfieur the Challenger, the Princeffes call for

you.

Orl. I attend them with all respect and duty.
Rof. Young man, have you challenged Charles the

wrestler?

Orla. No, fair Princefs; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the ftrength of my youth.

Cel. Young Gentleman, your fpirits are too bold for your years. You have feen cruel proof of this man's ftrength. If you faw yourself with your own eyes °; or knew yourself with your judgment, the fear of your adventure would counfel you to a more equal enterprize. We pray you, for your own fake, to embrace your own fafety, and give over this attempt.

* Sir T. Hanmer. In the old Editions, the man.

6

If you faw yourself with YOUR eyes, or knew yourself with YOUR judgment.] Abfurd! The fenfe requires that we should read, ou Reyes, and OUR judgment. The argument is, Your Spirits are too bold, and therefore your judgment deceives you; but did you fee and know yourself with our more

impartial judgment, you would forbear. WARBURTON.

I cannot find the abfurdity of the prefent reading. If you were not blinded and intoxicated, fays the princefs, with the Spirit of enterprife, if you could use your own eyes to fee, or your own judgment to know yourself, the fear of your adventure would counsel you.

Rof.

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