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Cel. Why should this desert silent12 be?
For it is unpeopled? No;
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,
That shall civil13 sayings show.
Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;
That the stretching of a span
Buckles in his sum of age.
Some, of violated vows

'Twixt the souls of friend and friend: But upon the fairest boughs,

Or at every sentence' end,

Will I Rosalinda write;

Teaching all that read, to know
The quintessence of every sprite
Heaven would in little14 show.
Therefore heaven nature charg'd15
That one body should be fill'd
With all graces wide enlarg'd:
Nature presently distill'd
Helen's cheek, but not her heart;
Cleopatra's majesty;

Atalanta's better part16;

Sad Lucretia's modesty.

12 The word silent is not in the old copy. Pope corrected the passage by reading

"Why should this a desert be?"

The present reading was proposed by Tyrwhitt, who observes that the hanging of tongues on every tree would not make it less a desert.

13 Civil, says Johnson, 'is here used in the same sense as when we say, civil wisdom and civil life, in opposition to a solitary state. This desert shall not appear unpeopled, for every tree shall teach the maxims or incidents of social life."

14 i. e. in miniature. So in Hamlet: a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little.

16 The hint is probably taken from the Picture of Apelles, or the Pandora of the Ancients.

16 There is a great diversity of opinion among the commentators about what is meant by the better part of Atalanta, for which I must refer the reader, who is desirous of seeing this knotty point discussed, to the Variorum editions of Shakspeare. There is a very ingenious disquisition on this passage in Mr. Whiter's

Thus Rosalind of many parts
By heavenly synod was devis'd;
Of many faces, eyes, and hearts,

To have the touches dearest priz'd. Heaven would that she these gifts should have, And I to live and die her slave.

Ros. O most gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cry'd, Have patience, good people! Cel. How now! back friends; Shepherd, go off a little:-Go with him, sirrah.

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Touch. Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage.

[Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE. Cel. Didst thou hear these verses?

Ros. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear.

Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the

verses.

Ros. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verse, and therefore stood lamely in the verse.

Cel. But didst thou hear, without wondering how thy name should be hang'd and carv'd upon these trees?

Ros. I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder, before you came; for look here what I found on a palm-treel: I never was so be-rhymed

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Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare. Whalley thinks the following old Epitaph may have suggested it:

She who is dead and sleepeth in this tomb

Had Rachel's comely face, and Leah's fruitful womb,
Sarah's obedience, Lydia's open heart,

And

11 A Po8 care, and Mary's better part.

in the forest of Arden is as much out of its

place as the lioness in a subsequent scene.

since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat18, which I can hardly remember.

Cel. Trow you, who hath done this?

Ros. Is it a man?

Cel. And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck; Change you colour?

Ros. I pr'ythee, who?

Cel. O lord, lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet: but mountains may be removed with earthquakes, and so encounter19.

Ros. Nay, but who is it?

Cel. Is it possible?

Ros. Nay, I pray thee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is.

Cel. O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping20?

Ros. Good my complexion21! dost thou think, though I am caparison'd like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition? One inch of

18 Johnson has called Rosalind a very learned lady for this trite allusion to the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls. It no less common than the other allusion of rhyming was rats to death in Ireland. This fanciful idea probably arose from some metrical charm or incantation used there for ridding houses of rats. We find it mentioned by Ben Jonson, Randolph, and Marmion. Thus in the Poetaster:

Rhime them to death, as they do Irish rats
In drumming tunes,'

19 Alluding ironically to the proverb:

'Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.

In Holland's translation of Pliny, Shakspeare found that 'Two hills (removed by an earthquake) encountered together, charging as it were and with violence assaulting one another, and retyring again with a most mighty noise.

20 To whoop or hoop is to cry out, to exclaim with astonishment. So in K. Henry V. Act ii, Sc. 2:

"That admiration did not whoop at them.'

Out of all cry seems to have been a similar phrase for the expression of vehement admiration.

21 Good

only a little complexion! This singular phrase was probably unmeaning exclamation similar to Goodness me! many such have been current in familiar speech at all times.

delay more is a South-sea of discovery 22, I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it? quickly, and speak apace: I would thou couldst stammer, th that thou might'st pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle;

either too much at once, or none at all. 1. Ipr'ythee take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may

thy tidings.org data

Cel. So you may put a
t a man in your belly.

drink

Ros. Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard?

Cel. Nay, he hath but a little beard. Ros. Why, God will send more, if the man will be thankful; let me stay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin. Cel. It is young Orlando, that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels, and your heart, both in an instant. Ros. Nay, but the devil take mocking; speak sad brow, and true maid23.

Cel. I'faith, coz, 'tis he.

Ros. Orlando?

Cel. Orlando.

Ros. Alas the day! what shall I do with my doublet and hose?

him? What said

did he, when thou saw'st How look'd he? Wherein went he24? What makes he here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word.

Cel. You must borrow me Garagantua's25 mouth

222 A South-sea of discovery, is not a discovery as far off, but as comprehensive as the South Sea, which being the largest in the world, affords the widest scope for exercising curiosity. Johnson, however, proposed to read a South-sea discovery, which, if change be necessary, is sufficiently plausible.

23 Speak sad brow, and true maid. Speak seriously and honestly; or in other words, 'speak with a serious countenance, and as truly as thou art a virgin.

24 i. e. how was he dressed?

25 Garagantua. The giant of Rabelais, who swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all in a salad.

first: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size: To say, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechism.

Ros. But doth he know that I am in this forest, and in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled?

Cel. It is as easy to count atomies26, as to resolve the propositions of a lover:-but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with a good observance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn. Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth such fruit.

Cel. Give me audience, good madam.

Ros. Proceed.

Cel. There lay he, stretch'd along, like a wounded knight,

Ros. Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well becomes the ground.

Cel. Cry, holla27! to thy tongue, I pr'ythee; it curvets very unseasonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter.

Ros. O ominous! he comes to kill my heart28. Cel. I would sing my song without a burden: thou bring'st me out of tune.

Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. Sweet, say on.

Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES.

Cel. You bring me out:-Soft! comes he not here? Ros. Tis he; slink by, and note him.

[CELIA and ROSALIND retire.

26 An atomie is a mote flying in the sunne. Any thing so small that it cannot be made. lesse. Bullokar's English ExpoBitor, 1616.

27 Holla! This was a term of the manège, by which the rider restrained and stopped his horse. So in Venus and Adonis:

"What recketh he his rider's angry stir
His flattering holla, or his stand I say.

And in Cotton's Wonders of the Peak:

'But I must give my muse the holla there.'

28 A quibble between hart and heart, then spelt the same.

Vol. III.

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