Rob. I pray you, friends, do you hear and fee as I do? Did the fame accents ftrike your ears? and objects Your eyes, as mine? Alk. We tafte the fame reproaches! Lio. Have feen the changes! Rob. Are we not all chang'd, Transformed from ourselves? Lio. I do not know! The beft is filence! Alk. And to await the iffue. Rob. The dead or lazy wait for't: I will find it. The ARGUMENT of the Second A&t. TH HE witch Maudlin having taken the shape of Marian to abuse Robin Hood, and perplex "his guests, cometh forth with her daughter Douce, "reporting in what confufion fhe had left them; de"frauded them of their venifon, made them fufpicious "each of the other; but most of all, Robin Hood fo "jealous of his Marian, as the hopes no effect of love "would ever reconcile them; glorying fo far in the extent of her mischief, as the confeffeth to have "furpriz'd Earine, ftripp'd her of her garments, "to make her daughter appear fine at this feaft " in them; and to have fhut the maiden up in a "tree, as her fon's prize, if he could win her; or "his prey, if he would force her. Her fon, a rude bragging fwineherd, comes to the tree to woo her "(his mother and fifter ftepping afide to over-hear "him), and firft boasts his wealth to her, and his "poffeffions; which move not. Then he prefents "her gifts, fuch as himself is taken with, but she ❝ utterly fhows a fcorn and lothing both of him and them. His mother is angry, rates him, instructs "him what to do the next time, and perfuades her daughter to how herself about the bower: tells "how the fhall know her mother, when she is trans"form'd, by her broidered belt. Mean while the "young fhepherdefs Amie, being kift by Karolin, "Earine's brother, before, falls in love; but knows "not what love is: but defcribes her disease fo inno"cently, that Marian pities her. When Robin Hood "and the rest of his guests invited enter to Marian, upbraiding her with fending away their venison to "mother Maudlin by Scathlock, which fhe denies ; "Scathlock affirms it; but feeing his mistress weep, "and to forfwear it, begins to doubt his own under standing, rather than affront her father; which makes "Robin Hood and the reft to examine themselves "better. But Maudlin entering like herself, the witch "comes to thank her for her bounty: at which Marian "is more angry, and more denies the deed. Scathlock "enters, tells he has brought it again, and delivered "it to the cook. The witch is inwardly vext the "venifon is fo recover'd from her by the rude huntf(6 man, and murmurs and curfes; bewitches the cook, "mocks poor Amie and the reft; discovereth her ill "nature, and is a means of reconciling them all. "For the fage fhepherd fufpecteth her mifchief, if she "be not prevented: and fo perfuadeth to feize on her. "Whereupon Robin Hood dispatcheth out his wood men to hunt and take her. Which ends the act. ACT Mau. ACT II. SCENE I. H SCENE, Lorel's Oak. Enter Maudlin aud Douce. AVE I not left 'em in a brave confufion? [nifon? I ha' poffeffed fo with fyke diflikes Of his own Marian, that all-be he know her, Dou. Did you so diftaste him? Mau. As far as her proud fcorning him could 'bate Or blunt the edge of any lover's temper. Dou. But were ye like her, mother? Mau. So like Douce, As had fhe feen me her fel', her fel' had doubted This can your mother do, I tell you, daughter! Did you fo DISTATE him?] We have here the fame corruption as in the prologue; the true reading is distaste. 4 Shall upon ! Shall fhow too flippery to be look'd Lorel enters, releafes Earine from the Tree. Lor. Ye kind to others, but ye coy to me, Smoother 2 This is true courtship, and becomes his RAY.] All the copies give us the line as it ftands above; but it is difficult to know what is the acceptation of the word ray. I can align it two fenfes, both which comport well enough with the place it stands in. The first conjecture is, that the poet might poffibly have written ra', for rank, or ftation, and this abbreviature of the word agrees with the rest of the dialect ufed in the play. The other, which I think moft preferable, is this that ray hold be marked with an apostrophe at the beginning, 'ray; as the abbrevation of array, dress. The word occurs in Chaucer, and the gloffary interprets it by array, order : "With ladies faire, in carrolling to gone, Teftament of Crefcide, v. 26. 3 Lor. Ve kind to others, but ye coy to me, Deft miftrefs! whiter than the cheese new preft!] There is much natural beauty in thefe fpeeches of Lorel; and the ruftic caft Smoother than cream! and fofter than the curds! Am caft of the imagery is entirely conformable to the grotesque character of the speaker. I must not omit obferving that the whole is fketch'd out from the fong of Polyphemus to his mistress Galatea in Ovid's Metarmorphofes, lib. 13. but Jonfon hath with great judg ment omitted many of the turns of wit which occur in Ovid, and preferved that Doric fimplicity which appears in Theocritus, from whom the fobject is taken. Mollior & cycni plumis, & latte coacto, fays the Latin poet; but Jonfon's whiter than the cheese new preft, is borrowed from the Greek, Λευκοτερα πακίας πελιδειν. Theocr. idyll. xi. And in general, he feems more taken with the defcription in Theocritus, than with the fancies of Ovid. 4 And though my na'se be camus'd, my lips thick, And my chin brifiled.] Ovid has felected part of thefe cir cumftances, but given a very puerile turn to them at the end: Nec, mea quod duris horrent denfiffima fetis Corpora, turpe puta; turpis fine frondibus arbor. The flatnefs of his nofe is wholly from Theocritus: Πλατεια δε εις επι χείλει What follows of his likeness to the god Pan, is inferted with great art; and what Virgil himfelf, if we may judge from his Alexis, would probably have mentioned, had he touched upon the fame fubject. The oftentation of his wealth, and number of his cattle, are in both the Latin and the Greek poets. 5 And bring me wax and honey in LY LIVE.] The two last words |