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Enter HYMEN 14. leading ROSALIND in women's

clothes; and CELIA.

Still Musick.

Hym. Then is there mirth in heaven,
When earthly things made even,
Atone 15 together.

Good duke, receive thy daughter,
Hymen from heaven brought her,
Yea, brought her hither;

That thou might'st join her hand with his
Whose heart within her bosom is.

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!

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Ros. I'll have no father, if you be not he :

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[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:
Here's eight that must take hands,
To join in Hymen's bands,
If truth holds true contents 16
You and you no cross shall part:

[To ORLANDO and ROSALIND.

You and you are heart in heart:

[To OLIVER and CELIA.
You [To PHEBE] to his love must accord,
Or have a woman to your lord:-
You and you are sure together,

:

[To TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.

As the winter to foul weather.
Whilęs a wedlock-hymn we sing,
Feed yourselves with questioning 17
That reason wonder may diminish,
How thus we met, and these things finish.

SONG.

Wedding is great Juno's crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed!
'Tis Hymen peoples every town;
High wedlock then be honoured:
Honour, high honour and renown,
To Hymen, god of every town!

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;
I am the second son of old Sir Rowland,
That bring these tidings to this fair assembly :-
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Address'd19 a mighty power! which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take

His brother here, and put him to the sword:
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came;
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprize, and from the world:
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands restor❜d to them again
That were with him exil'd: This to be true,
I do engage my life.

Duke S.
Welcome, young man;
Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding:
To one, his lands withheld; and to the other,
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this forest, let us do those ends
That here were well begun, and well begot :
And after, every of this happy number,

That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us,
Shall share the good of our returned fortune,
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity,
And fall into our rustick revelry:-

Play, musick;-and you, brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.
Jaq. Sir, by your patience; If I heard you rightly,
The duke hath put on a religious life,

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:

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"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.

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24 The parts of women were performed by men or boys in Shakspeare's time.

25 i. e. that I liked.

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