“_Biron._ And what to me, my love? and what to me?
_Ros._ You must be purged too, your sins are rank;
You are attaint with fault and perjury:
Therefore, if you my favour mean to get,
A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,
But seek the weary beds of people sick.”
There can be no doubt, indeed, about the propriety of expunging this
speech of Rosaline’s; it soils the very page that retains it. But I do not
agree with Warburton and others in striking out the preceding line also.
It is quite in Biron’s character; and Rosaline, not answering it
immediately, Dumain takes up the question for him, and, after he and
Longaville are answered, Biron, with evident propriety, says:—
“_Studies_ my mistress?” &c.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream.”