Enter HYMEN 14. leading ROSALIND in women's clothes; and CELIA. Still Musick. Hym. Then is there mirth in heaven, Good duke, receive thy daughter, That thou might'st join her hand with his Ros. To you I give myself, for I am yours: To you I give myself, for I am yours. [To Duke S. [To ORLANDO. Duke S. If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. Orl. If there be truth in sight, you lind. Phe. If sight and shape be true, Why then, my love, adieu! Ros. I'll have no father, if you be not he : [To Duke S. I'll have no husband, if you be not he : [To ORLANDO. Nor ne'er wed woman, if you be not she : [TO PHEBE. 14 Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aërial being in the character of Hymen. 15 i. e. at one; accord, or agree together. This is the old sense of the phrase, an attonement, a loving againe after a breach or falling out. Reditus in gratia cum aliquo.'—Baret. Hym. Peace, ho! I bar confusion : "Tis I must make conclusion Of these most strange events: [To ORLANDO and ROSALIND. You and you are heart in heart: [To OLIVER and CELIA. : [To TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. As the winter to foul weather. SONG. Wedding is great Juno's crown; Duke S. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me; Even daughter, welcome in no less degree. Phe. I will not eat my word, now thou art mine; Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine 18. [TO SILVIUS. 16 i.e. unless truth fails of veracity; if there be truth in truth. 17 i. e. take your fill of discourse. 18 i. e. unite, attach. Enter JAQUES de Bois. Jaq. de B. Let me have audience for a word or two; His brother here, and put him to the sword: Duke S. That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us, Play, musick;-and you, brides and bridegrooms all, And thrown into neglect the pompous court? 19 i. e. prepared. Jaq. de B. He hath. Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.You to your former honour I bequeath: [To Duke S. Your patience and your virtue well deserves it :You [To ORLANDO] to a love, that your true faith doth merit: You [To OLIVER] to your land, and love, and great allies: You [ToSILVIUS] to a long and well deserved bed:And you [To TOUCHSTONE] to wrangling; for thy loving voyage Is but for two months victual'd:-So to your plea sures; I am for other than for dancing measures. Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay. Jaq. To see no pastime, I :- -what you would have I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave 20. [Exit. Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, And we do trust they'll end in true delights. EPILOGUE. [A dance. Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue: but it is no more unhandsome, than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush 21, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue: Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the 20 The reader feels some regret to take his leave of Jaques in this manner; and no less concern at not meeting with the faithful old Adam at the close. It is the more remarkable that Shakspeare should have forgotten him, because Lodge, in his novel, makes him captain of the king's guard. 21 It was formerly the general custom in England, as it is still in France and the Netherlands, to hang a bush of ivy at the door of help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnished 22 like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is, to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you 23: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women (as I perceive, by your simpering, none of you hate them), that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman 24, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me 25, and breaths that I defied not: and I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'sy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt. a vintner: there was a classical propriety in this; ivy being sacred to Bacchus. So in Summer's last Will and Testament, 1600: 'Green ivy-bushes at the vintners' doors.' Again in The Rival Friends, 1632: "Tis like the ivy-bush unto a tavern.' The custom is still observed in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, at statute-hirings, wakes, &c. by people who sell ale at no other time. The manner in which they were decorated appears from a passage in Florio's Italian Dictionary, in voce Tremola: gold foile or thin leaves of gold or silver, namely, thinne plate, as our vintners adorn their bushes with.' Nash, in his Lenten stuffe, describes A London vintner's signe thicke jagged and fringed round with theaming arsadine, i. e. glittering foil or orsedew, and not a yellow pigment as Mr. Gifford has supposed.-v. Ben Jonson's Works, vol. iv. p. 405. 22 Furnished, dressed. 23 This is the reading of the old copy, which has been altered to as much of this play as please them,' but surely without necessity. It is only the omission of the s at the end of please, which gives it a quaint appearance, but it was the practice of the poet's age. 24 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakspeare's time. 25 i. e. that I liked. |