DUKE F. Do so; I'll not be by. [Duke goes apart. LE BEAU. Monsieur the challenger, the princesses call for you. 9 ORL. I attend them, with all respect and duty. Ros. Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler?i ORL. No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth. 2 CEL. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years: You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength: if you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment, the fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise. We pray you, for your own sake, to embrace your own safety, and give over this attempt. 9 Ros. Do, young sir; your reputation shall not the princesses call for you.] The old copy reads-the princesse calls. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 1 have you challenged Charles the wrestler?] This wrestling match is minutely described in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592. MALONE. 2 if you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment,] Absurd! The sense requires that we should read, our eyes, and-our judgment. The argument is, Your spirits are too bold, and therefore your judgment deceives you; but did you see and know yourself with our more impartial judgment, you would forbear. Warburton. I cannot find the absurdity of the present reading. If you were not blinded and intoxicated, says the princess, with the spirit of enterprise, if you could use your own eyes to see, or your own judgment to know yourself, the fear of your adventure would counsel you. JOHNSON. therefore be misprised: we will make it our suit to the duke, that the wrestling might not go forward. ORL. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts; wherein I confess me much guilty, to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. But let your fair eyes, and gentle wishes, go with me to my trial: wherein if I be foiled, there is but one shamed that was never gracious; if killed, but one dead that is willing to be so: I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing; only in the world I fill up a place, which may be better supplied when I have made it empty. 3 I beseech you, punish me not &c.] I should wish to read, I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Therein I confess myself much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. JOHNSON. The As the word wherein must always refer to something preceding, I have no doubt but there is an error in this passage, and that we ought to read herein, instead of wherein. hard thoughts that he complains of are the apprehensions expressed by the ladies of his not being able to contend with the wrestler. He beseeches that they will not punish him with them; and then adds, "Herein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial." M. MASON. The meaning I think is, " punish me not with your unfavourable opinion (of my abilities); which, however, I confess, I deserve to incur, for denying such fair ladies any request.' The expression is licentious, but our author's plays furnish many such. MALone. let your gentle wishes, go with me to my trial:] Addison might have had this passage in his memory, when he put the following words into Juba's mouth: Marcia, may I hope "That thy kind wishes follow me to battle?" STEEVENS. Ros. The little strength that I have, I would it were with you. CEL. And mine, to eke out hers. Ros. Fare you well. Pray heaven, I be deceived in you! CEL. Your heart's desires be with you. CHA. Come, where is this young gallant, that is so desirous to lie with his mother earth? ORL. Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working. DUKE F. You shall try but one fall. CHA. No, I warrant your grace; you shall not entreat him to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first. ORL. You mean to mock me after; you should not have mocked me before: but come your ways. Ros. Now, Hercules be thy speed, young man! CEL. I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the leg. [CHARLES and ORLANDO wrestle. Ros. O excellent young man! CEL. If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, tell who should down. I can [CHARLES is thrown. Shout. DUKE F. No more, no more. ORL. Yes, I beseech your grace; I am not yet well breathed. DUKE F. How dost thou, Charles? LE BEAU. He cannot speak, my lord. DUKE F. Bear him away. [CHARLES is borne out.] What is thy name, young man? ORL. Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of sir Rowland de Bois. DUKE F. I would, thou hadst been son to some man else. The world esteem'd thy father honourable, Thou shouldst have better pleas'd me with this deed, Hadst thou descended from another house. [Exeunt Duke FRED. Train, and LE BEAU. CEL. Were I my father, coz, would I do this? ORL. I am more proud to be sir Rowland's son, His youngest son; and would not change that calling, 6 To be adopted heir to Frederick. Ros. My father lov'd sir Rowland as his soul, And all the world was of my father's mind: Had I before known this young man his son, I should have given him tears unto entreaties, Ere he should thus have ventur❜d. CEL. Gentle cousin, Let us go thank him, and encourage him: My father's rough and envious disposition Sticks me at heart.-Sir, you have well deserv'd: do keep your promises in love, If you His youngest son;] The words "than to be descended from any other house, however high," must be understood. Orlando is replying to the duke, who is just gone out, and had said 6 "Thou should'st have better pleas'd me with this deed, "Hadst thou descended from another house." MALONE. ❝ — that calling,] i. e. appellation; a very unusual, if not unprecedented sense of the word. STEEVENS. But justly, as you have exceeded promise," Ros. Gentleman, 8 [Giving him a chain from her neck. Wear this for me; one out of suits with fortune; That could give more, but that her hand lacks means. Shall we go, coz? CEL. Ay:-Fare you well, fair gentleman. ORL. Can I not say, I thank you? My better parts Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up, Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block." 7 as you have exceeded promise,] The old copy, without regard to the measure, reads-all promise. STEEVENS. one out of suits with fortune;] This seems an allusion to cards where he that has no more cards to play of any particular sort, is out of suit. JOHNSON. Out of suits with fortune, I believe, means, turned out of her service, and stripped of her livery. STEEVENS. So afterwards Celia says, "but turning these jests out of service, let us talk in good earnest." MALONE. 9 Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.] A quintain was a post or butt set up for several kinds of martial exercises, against which they threw their darts and exercised their arms. The allusion is beautiful. I am, says Orlando, only a quintain, a lifeless block on which love only exercises his arms in jest; the great disparity of condition between Rosalind and me, not suffering me to hope that love will ever make a serious matter of it. The famous satirist Regnier, who lived about the time of our author, uses the same metaphor, on the same subject, though the thought be different: "Et qui depuis dix ans jusqu'en ses derniers jours, "Lasse en fin de servir au peuple de quintaine, "Elle" &c. WARBURTON. This is but an imperfect (to call it no worse) explanation of a beautiful passage. The quintain was not the object of the |