Ros. With this shepherdess, my sister; here
in the skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a
petticoat.
Orl. Are you native of this place? 360
Ros. As the cony, that you see dwell where
she is kindled.
Orl. Your accent is something finer than you
could purchase in so removed a dwelling. 364
Ros. I have been told so of many: but indeed
an old religious uncle of mine taught me to
speak, who was in his youth an inland man;
one that knew courtship too well, for there he 368
fell in love. I have heard him read many
lectures against it; and I thank God, I am not
a woman, to be touched with so many giddy
offences as he hath generally taxed their whole
sex withal. 373
Orl. Can you remember any of the principal
evils that he laid to the charge of women?
Ros. There were none principal; they were
all like one another as half-pence are; every one
fault seeming monstrous till his fellow fault
came to match it.
Orl. I prithee, recount some of them. 380
Ros. No, I will not cast away my physic, but
on those that are sick. There is a man haunts
the forest, that abuses our young plants with
carving 'Rosalind' on their barks; hangs odes
upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles; all,
forsooth, deifying the name of Rosalind: if I
could meet that fancy-monger, I would give him
361 cony: rabbit
362 kindled: brought forth
364 purchase: acquire
removed: remote, secluded
366 religious: i.e., belonging to a religious order (?)
368 courtship: courtliness of manners, with quibble on 'wooing'
370 lectures: admonitions
387 fancy-monger: dealer in love
