| AS YOU LIKE IT |
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| DRAMATIS PERSONAE |
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| DUKE SENIOR living in banishment. |
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| DUKE FREDERICK his brother, an usurper of his dominions. |
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| AMIENS | |
| | lords attending on the banished duke. |
| JAQUES | |
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| LE BEAU a courtier attending upon Frederick. |
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| CHARLES wrestler to Frederick. |
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| OLIVER | |
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| JAQUES (JAQUES DE BOYS:) | sons of Sir Rowland de Boys. |
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| ORLANDO | |
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| ADAM | |
| | servants to Oliver. |
| DENNIS | |
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| TOUCHSTONE a clown. |
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| SIR OLIVER MARTEXT a vicar. |
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| CORIN | |
| | shepherds. |
| SILVIUS | |
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| WILLIAM a country fellow in love with Audrey. |
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| A person representing HYMEN. (HYMEN:) |
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| ROSALIND daughter to the banished duke. |
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| CELIA daughter to Frederick. |
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| PHEBE a shepherdess. |
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| AUDREY a country wench. |
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| Lords, pages, and attendants, &c. |
| (Forester:) |
| (A Lord:) |
| (First Lord:) |
| (Second Lord:) |
| (First Page:) |
| (Second Page:) |
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| SCENE Oliver's house; Duke Frederick's court; and the |
| Forest of Arden. |
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| AS YOU LIKE IT |
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| ACT I |
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| SCENE I Orchard of Oliver's house. |
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| [Enter ORLANDO and ADAM] |
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| ORLANDO As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion |
| bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, |
| and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his |
| blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my |
| sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and |
| report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, |
| he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more |
| properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you |
| that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that |
| differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses |
| are bred better; for, besides that they are fair |
| with their feeding, they are taught their manage, |
| and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his |
| brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the |
| which his animals on his dunghills are as much |
| bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so |
| plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave |
| me his countenance seems to take from me: he lets |
| me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a |
| brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my |
| gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that |
| grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I |
| think is within me, begins to mutiny against this |
| servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I |
| know no wise remedy how to avoid it. |
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| ADAM Yonder comes my master, your brother. |
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| ORLANDO Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will |
| shake me up. |
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| [Enter OLIVER] |
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| OLIVER Now, sir! what make you here? |
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| ORLANDO Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing. |
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| OLIVER What mar you then, sir? |
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| ORLANDO Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God |
| made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. |
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| OLIVER Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile. |
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| ORLANDO Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? |
| What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should |
| come to such penury? |
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| OLIVER Know you where your are, sir? |
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| ORLANDO O, sir, very well; here in your orchard. |
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| OLIVER Know you before whom, sir? |
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| ORLANDO Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know |
| you are my eldest brother; and, in the gentle |
| condition of blood, you should so know me. The |
| courtesy of nations allows you my better, in that |
| you are the first-born; but the same tradition |
| takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers |
| betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me as |
| you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is |
| nearer to his reverence. |
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| OLIVER What, boy! |
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| ORLANDO Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. |
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| OLIVER Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? |
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| ORLANDO I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir |
| Rowland de Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice |
| a villain that says such a father begot villains. |
| Wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand |
| from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy |
| tongue for saying so: thou hast railed on thyself. |
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| ADAM Sweet masters, be patient: for your father's |
| remembrance, be at accord. |
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| OLIVER Let me go, I say. |
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| ORLANDO I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My |
| father charged you in his will to give me good |
| education: you have trained me like a peasant, |
| obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like |
| qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in |
| me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow |
| me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or |
| give me the poor allottery my father left me by |
| testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes. |
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| OLIVER And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent? |
| Well, sir, get you in: I will not long be troubled |
| with you; you shall have some part of your will: I |
| pray you, leave me. |
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| ORLANDO I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good. |
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| OLIVER Get you with him, you old dog. |
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| ADAM Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true, I have lost my |
| teeth in your service. God be with my old master! |
| he would not have spoke such a word. |
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| [Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM] |
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| OLIVER Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will |
| physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand |
| crowns neither. Holla, Dennis! |
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| [Enter DENNIS] |
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| DENNIS Calls your worship? |
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| OLIVER Was not Charles, the duke's wrestler, here to speak with me? |
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| DENNIS So please you, he is here at the door and importunes |
| access to you. |
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| OLIVER Call him in. |
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| [Exit DENNIS] |
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| 'Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is. |
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| [Enter CHARLES] |
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| CHARLES Good morrow to your worship. |
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| OLIVER Good Monsieur Charles, what's the new news at the |
| new court? |
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| CHARLES There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news: |
| that is, the old duke is banished by his younger |
| brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords |
| have put themselves into voluntary exile with him, |
| whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke; |
| therefore he gives them good leave to wander. |
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| OLIVER Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be |
| banished with her father? |
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| CHARLES O, no; for the duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves |
| her, being ever from their cradles bred together, |
| that she would have followed her exile, or have died |
| to stay behind her. She is at the court, and no |
| less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter; and |
| never two ladies loved as they do. |
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| OLIVER Where will the old duke live? |
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| CHARLES They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and |
| a many merry men with him; and there they live like |
| the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young |
| gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time |
| carelessly, as they did in the golden world. |
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| OLIVER What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke? |
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| CHARLES Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a |
| matter. I am given, sir, secretly to understand |
| that your younger brother Orlando hath a disposition |
| to come in disguised against me to try a fall. |
| To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he that |
| escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him |
| well. Your brother is but young and tender; and, |
| for your love, I would be loath to foil him, as I |
| must, for my own honour, if he come in: therefore, |
| out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint you |
| withal, that either you might stay him from his |
| intendment or brook such disgrace well as he shall |
| run into, in that it is a thing of his own search |
| and altogether against my will. |
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| OLIVER Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which |
| thou shalt find I will most kindly requite. I had |
| myself notice of my brother's purpose herein and |
| have by underhand means laboured to dissuade him from |
| it, but he is resolute. I'll tell thee, Charles: |
| it is the stubbornest young fellow of France, full |
| of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's |
| good parts, a secret and villanous contriver against |
| me his natural brother: therefore use thy |
| discretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck |
| as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if |
| thou dost him any slight disgrace or if he do not |
| mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise |
| against thee by poison, entrap thee by some |
| treacherous device and never leave thee till he |
| hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other; |
| for, I assure thee, and almost with tears I speak |
| it, there is not one so young and so villanous this |
| day living. I speak but brotherly of him; but |
| should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must |
| blush and weep and thou must look pale and wonder. |
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| CHARLES I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come |
| to-morrow, I'll give him his payment: if ever he go |
| alone again, I'll never wrestle for prize more: and |
| so God keep your worship! |
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| OLIVER Farewell, good Charles. |
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| [Exit CHARLES] |
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| Now will I stir this gamester: I hope I shall see |
| an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, |
| hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle, never |
| schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of |
| all sorts enchantingly beloved, and indeed so much |
| in the heart of the world, and especially of my own |
| people, who best know him, that I am altogether |
| misprised: but it shall not be so long; this |
| wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains but that |
| I kindle the boy thither; which now I'll go about. |
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| [Exit] |
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| AS YOU LIKE IT |
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| ACT I |
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| SCENE II Lawn before the Duke's palace. |
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| [Enter CELIA and ROSALIND] |
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| CELIA I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry. |
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| ROSALIND Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of; |
| and would you yet I were merrier? Unless you could |
| teach me to forget a banished father, you must not |
| learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure. |
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| CELIA Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight |
| that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, |
| had banished thy uncle, the duke my father, so thou |
| hadst been still with me, I could have taught my |
| love to take thy father for mine: so wouldst thou, |
| if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously |
| tempered as mine is to thee. |
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| ROSALIND Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to |
| rejoice in yours. |
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| CELIA You know my father hath no child but I, nor none is |
| like to have: and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt |
| be his heir, for what he hath taken away from thy |
| father perforce, I will render thee again in |
| affection; by mine honour, I will; and when I break |
| that oath, let me turn monster: therefore, my |
| sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry. |
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| ROSALIND From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. Let |
| me see; what think you of falling in love? |
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| CELIA Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal: but |
| love no man in good earnest; nor no further in sport |
| neither than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst |
| in honour come off again. |
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| ROSALIND What shall be our sport, then? |
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| CELIA Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from |
| her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. |
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| ROSALIND I would we could do so, for her benefits are |
| mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman |
| doth most mistake in her gifts to women. |
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| CELIA 'Tis true; for those that she makes fair she scarce |
| makes honest, and those that she makes honest she |
| makes very ill-favouredly. |
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| ROSALIND Nay, now thou goest from Fortune's office to |
| Nature's: Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, |
| not in the lineaments of Nature. |
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| [Enter TOUCHSTONE] |
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| CELIA No? when Nature hath made a fair creature, may she |
| not by Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature |
| hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not |
| Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument? |
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| ROSALIND Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when |
| Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of |
| Nature's wit. |
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| CELIA Peradventure this is not Fortune's work neither, but |
| Nature's; who perceiveth our natural wits too dull |
| to reason of such goddesses and hath sent this |
| natural for our whetstone; for always the dulness of |
| the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How now, |
| wit! whither wander you? |
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| TOUCHSTONE Mistress, you must come away to your father. |
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| CELIA Were you made the messenger? |
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| TOUCHSTONE No, by mine honour, but I was bid to come for you. |
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| ROSALIND Where learned you that oath, fool? |
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| TOUCHSTONE Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they |
| were good pancakes and swore by his honour the |
| mustard was naught: now I'll stand to it, the |
| pancakes were naught and the mustard was good, and |
| yet was not the knight forsworn. |
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| CELIA How prove you that, in the great heap of your |
| knowledge? |
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| ROSALIND Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom. |
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| TOUCHSTONE Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, and |
| swear by your beards that I am a knave. |
| |
| CELIA By our beards, if we had them, thou art. |
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| TOUCHSTONE By my knavery, if I had it, then I were; but if you |
| swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn: no |
| more was this knight swearing by his honour, for he |
| never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away |
| before ever he saw those pancakes or that mustard. |
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| CELIA Prithee, who is't that thou meanest? |
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| TOUCHSTONE One that old Frederick, your father, loves. |
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| CELIA My father's love is enough to honour him: enough! |
| speak no more of him; you'll be whipped for taxation |
| one of these days. |
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| TOUCHSTONE The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what |
| wise men do foolishly. |
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| CELIA By my troth, thou sayest true; for since the little |
| wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery |
| that wise men have makes a great show. Here comes |
| Monsieur Le Beau. |
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| ROSALIND With his mouth full of news. |
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| CELIA Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young. |
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| ROSALIND Then shall we be news-crammed. |
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| CELIA All the better; we shall be the more marketable. |
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| [Enter LE BEAU] |
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| Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau: what's the news? |
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| LE BEAU Fair princess, you have lost much good sport. |
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| CELIA Sport! of what colour? |
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| LE BEAU What colour, madam! how shall I answer you? |
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| ROSALIND As wit and fortune will. |
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| TOUCHSTONE Or as the Destinies decree. |
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| CELIA Well said: that was laid on with a trowel. |
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| TOUCHSTONE Nay, if I keep not my rank,-- |
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| ROSALIND Thou losest thy old smell. |
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| LE BEAU You amaze me, ladies: I would have told you of good |
| wrestling, which you have lost the sight of. |
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| ROSALIND You tell us the manner of the wrestling. |
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| LE BEAU I will tell you the beginning; and, if it please |
| your ladyships, you may see the end; for the best is |
| yet to do; and here, where you are, they are coming |
| to perform it. |
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| CELIA Well, the beginning, that is dead and buried. |
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| LE BEAU There comes an old man and his three sons,-- |
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| CELIA I could match this beginning with an old tale. |
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| LE BEAU Three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence. |
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| ROSALIND With bills on their necks, 'Be it known unto all men |
| by these presents.' |
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| LE BEAU The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles, the |
| duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him |
| and broke three of his ribs, that there is little |
| hope of life in him: so he served the second, and |
| so the third. Yonder they lie; the poor old man, |
| their father, making such pitiful dole over them |
| that all the beholders take his part with weeping. |
| |
| ROSALIND Alas! |
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| TOUCHSTONE But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies |
| have lost? |
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| LE BEAU Why, this that I speak of. |
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| TOUCHSTONE Thus men may grow wiser every day: it is the first |
| time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport |
| for ladies. |
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| CELIA Or I, I promise thee. |
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| ROSALIND But is there any else longs to see this broken music |
| in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon |
| rib-breaking? Shall we see this wrestling, cousin? |
| |
| LE BEAU You must, if you stay here; for here is the place |
| appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to |
| perform it. |
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| CELIA Yonder, sure, they are coming: let us now stay and see it. |
| |
| [Flourish. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, Lords, ORLANDO, |
| CHARLES, and Attendants] |
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| DUKE FREDERICK Come on: since the youth will not be entreated, his |
| own peril on his forwardness. |
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| ROSALIND Is yonder the man? |
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| LE BEAU Even he, madam. |
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| CELIA Alas, he is too young! yet he looks successfully. |
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| DUKE FREDERICK How now, daughter and cousin! are you crept hither |
| to see the wrestling? |
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| ROSALIND Ay, my liege, so please you give us leave. |
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| DUKE FREDERICK You will take little delight in it, I can tell you; |
| there is such odds in the man. In pity of the |
| challenger's youth I would fain dissuade him, but he |
| will not be entreated. Speak to him, ladies; see if |
| you can move him. |
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| CELIA Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau. |
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| DUKE FREDERICK Do so: I'll not be by. |
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| LE BEAU Monsieur the challenger, the princesses call for you. |
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| ORLANDO I attend them with all respect and duty. |
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| ROSALIND Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler? |
| |
| ORLANDO No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I |
| come but in, as others do, to try with him the |
| strength of my youth. |
| |
| CELIA 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. |
| |
| ROSALIND Do, young sir; your reputation shall not therefore |
| be misprised: we will make it our suit to the duke |
| that the wrestling might not go forward. |
| |
| ORLANDO 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 was 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. |
| |
| ROSALIND The little strength that I have, I would it were with you. |
| |
| CELIA And mine, to eke out hers. |
| |
| ROSALIND Fare you well: pray heaven I be deceived in you! |
| |
| CELIA Your heart's desires be with you! |
| |
| CHARLES Come, where is this young gallant that is so |
| desirous to lie with his mother earth? |
| |
| ORLANDO Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK You shall try but one fall. |
| |
| CHARLES No, I warrant your grace, you shall not entreat him |
| to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him |
| from a first. |
| |
| ORLANDO An you mean to mock me after, you should not have |
| mocked me before: but come your ways. |
| |
| ROSALIND Now Hercules be thy speed, young man! |
| |
| CELIA I would I were invisible, to catch the strong |
| fellow by the leg. |
| |
| [They wrestle] |
| |
| ROSALIND O excellent young man! |
| |
| CELIA If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who |
| should down. |
| |
| [Shout. CHARLES is thrown] |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK No more, no more. |
| |
| ORLANDO Yes, I beseech your grace: I am not yet well breathed. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK How dost thou, Charles? |
| |
| LE BEAU He cannot speak, my lord. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Bear him away. What is thy name, young man? |
| |
| ORLANDO Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK I would thou hadst been son to some man else: |
| The world esteem'd thy father honourable, |
| But I did find him still mine enemy: |
| Thou shouldst have better pleased me with this deed, |
| Hadst thou descended from another house. |
| But fare thee well; thou art a gallant youth: |
| I would thou hadst told me of another father. |
| |
| [Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK, train, and LE BEAU] |
| |
| CELIA Were I my father, coz, would I do this? |
| |
| ORLANDO I am more proud to be Sir Rowland's son, |
| His youngest son; and would not change that calling, |
| To be adopted heir to Frederick. |
| |
| ROSALIND My father loved 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 ventured. |
| |
| CELIA 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 deserved: |
| If you do keep your promises in love |
| But justly, as you have exceeded all promise, |
| Your mistress shall be happy. |
| |
| ROSALIND Gentleman, |
| |
| [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? |
| |
| CELIA Ay. Fare you well, fair gentleman. |
| |
| ORLANDO 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. |
| |
| ROSALIND He calls us back: my pride fell with my fortunes; |
| I'll ask him what he would. Did you call, sir? |
| Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown |
| More than your enemies. |
| |
| CELIA Will you go, coz? |
| |
| ROSALIND Have with you. Fare you well. |
| |
| [Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA] |
| |
| ORLANDO What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue? |
| I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference. |
| O poor Orlando, thou art overthrown! |
| Or Charles or something weaker masters thee. |
| |
| [Re-enter LE BEAU] |
| |
| LE BEAU Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you |
| To leave this place. Albeit you have deserved |
| High commendation, true applause and love, |
| Yet such is now the duke's condition |
| That he misconstrues all that you have done. |
| The duke is humorous; what he is indeed, |
| More suits you to conceive than I to speak of. |
| |
| ORLANDO I thank you, sir: and, pray you, tell me this: |
| Which of the two was daughter of the duke |
| That here was at the wrestling? |
| |
| LE BEAU Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners; |
| But yet indeed the lesser is his daughter |
| The other is daughter to the banish'd duke, |
| And here detain'd by her usurping uncle, |
| To keep his daughter company; whose loves |
| Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters. |
| But I can tell you that of late this duke |
| Hath ta'en displeasure 'gainst his gentle niece, |
| Grounded upon no other argument |
| But that the people praise her for her virtues |
| And pity her for her good father's sake; |
| And, on my life, his malice 'gainst the lady |
| Will suddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well: |
| Hereafter, in a better world than this, |
| I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. |
| |
| ORLANDO I rest much bounden to you: fare you well. |
| |
| [Exit LE BEAU] |
| |
| Thus must I from the smoke into the smother; |
| From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother: |
| But heavenly Rosalind! |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT I |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE III A room in the palace. |
| |
| |
| [Enter CELIA and ROSALIND] |
| |
| CELIA Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! not a word? |
| |
| ROSALIND Not one to throw at a dog. |
| |
| CELIA No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon |
| curs; throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons. |
| |
| ROSALIND Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one |
| should be lamed with reasons and the other mad |
| without any. |
| |
| CELIA But is all this for your father? |
| |
| ROSALIND No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how |
| full of briers is this working-day world! |
| |
| CELIA They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in |
| holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden |
| paths our very petticoats will catch them. |
| |
| ROSALIND I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my heart. |
| |
| CELIA Hem them away. |
| |
| ROSALIND I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have him. |
| |
| CELIA Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. |
| |
| ROSALIND O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself! |
| |
| CELIA O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in |
| despite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of |
| service, let us talk in good earnest: is it |
| possible, on such a sudden, you should fall into so |
| strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son? |
| |
| ROSALIND The duke my father loved his father dearly. |
| |
| CELIA Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son |
| dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, |
| for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate |
| not Orlando. |
| |
| ROSALIND No, faith, hate him not, for my sake. |
| |
| CELIA Why should I not? doth he not deserve well? |
| |
| ROSALIND Let me love him for that, and do you love him |
| because I do. Look, here comes the duke. |
| |
| CELIA With his eyes full of anger. |
| |
| [Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords] |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste |
| And get you from our court. |
| |
| ROSALIND Me, uncle? |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK You, cousin |
| Within these ten days if that thou be'st found |
| So near our public court as twenty miles, |
| Thou diest for it. |
| |
| ROSALIND I do beseech your grace, |
| Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me: |
| If with myself I hold intelligence |
| Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, |
| If that I do not dream or be not frantic,-- |
| As I do trust I am not--then, dear uncle, |
| Never so much as in a thought unborn |
| Did I offend your highness. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Thus do all traitors: |
| If their purgation did consist in words, |
| They are as innocent as grace itself: |
| Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. |
| |
| ROSALIND Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor: |
| Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. |
| |
| ROSALIND So was I when your highness took his dukedom; |
| So was I when your highness banish'd him: |
| Treason is not inherited, my lord; |
| Or, if we did derive it from our friends, |
| What's that to me? my father was no traitor: |
| Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much |
| To think my poverty is treacherous. |
| |
| CELIA Dear sovereign, hear me speak. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, |
| Else had she with her father ranged along. |
| |
| CELIA I did not then entreat to have her stay; |
| It was your pleasure and your own remorse: |
| I was too young that time to value her; |
| But now I know her: if she be a traitor, |
| Why so am I; we still have slept together, |
| Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together, |
| And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans, |
| Still we went coupled and inseparable. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, |
| Her very silence and her patience |
| Speak to the people, and they pity her. |
| Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; |
| And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous |
| When she is gone. Then open not thy lips: |
| Firm and irrevocable is my doom |
| Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. |
| |
| CELIA Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege: |
| I cannot live out of her company. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself: |
| If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, |
| And in the greatness of my word, you die. |
| |
| [Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords] |
| |
| CELIA O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? |
| Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. |
| I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am. |
| |
| ROSALIND I have more cause. |
| |
| CELIA Thou hast not, cousin; |
| Prithee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke |
| Hath banish'd me, his daughter? |
| |
| ROSALIND That he hath not. |
| |
| CELIA No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love |
| Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: |
| Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? |
| No: let my father seek another heir. |
| Therefore devise with me how we may fly, |
| Whither to go and what to bear with us; |
| And do not seek to take your change upon you, |
| To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out; |
| For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, |
| Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why, whither shall we go? |
| |
| CELIA To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. |
| |
| ROSALIND Alas, what danger will it be to us, |
| Maids as we are, to travel forth so far! |
| Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. |
| |
| CELIA I'll put myself in poor and mean attire |
| And with a kind of umber smirch my face; |
| The like do you: so shall we pass along |
| And never stir assailants. |
| |
| ROSALIND Were it not better, |
| Because that I am more than common tall, |
| That I did suit me all points like a man? |
| A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, |
| A boar-spear in my hand; and--in my heart |
| Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will-- |
| We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, |
| As many other mannish cowards have |
| That do outface it with their semblances. |
| |
| CELIA What shall I call thee when thou art a man? |
| |
| ROSALIND I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page; |
| And therefore look you call me Ganymede. |
| But what will you be call'd? |
| |
| CELIA Something that hath a reference to my state |
| No longer Celia, but Aliena. |
| |
| ROSALIND But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal |
| The clownish fool out of your father's court? |
| Would he not be a comfort to our travel? |
| |
| CELIA He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; |
| Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away, |
| And get our jewels and our wealth together, |
| Devise the fittest time and safest way |
| To hide us from pursuit that will be made |
| After my flight. Now go we in content |
| To liberty and not to banishment. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE I The Forest of Arden. |
| |
| |
| [Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and two or three Lords, |
| like foresters] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, |
| Hath not old custom made this life more sweet |
| Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods |
| More free from peril than the envious court? |
| Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, |
| The seasons' difference, as the icy fang |
| And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, |
| Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, |
| Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say |
| 'This is no flattery: these are counsellors |
| That feelingly persuade me what I am.' |
| Sweet are the uses of adversity, |
| Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, |
| Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; |
| And this our life exempt from public haunt |
| Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, |
| Sermons in stones and good in every thing. |
| I would not change it. |
| |
| AMIENS Happy is your grace, |
| That can translate the stubbornness of fortune |
| Into so quiet and so sweet a style. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Come, shall we go and kill us venison? |
| And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, |
| Being native burghers of this desert city, |
| Should in their own confines with forked heads |
| Have their round haunches gored. |
| |
| First Lord Indeed, my lord, |
| The melancholy Jaques grieves at that, |
| And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp |
| Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. |
| To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself |
| Did steal behind him as he lay along |
| Under an oak whose antique root peeps out |
| Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: |
| To the which place a poor sequester'd stag, |
| That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, |
| Did come to languish, and indeed, my lord, |
| The wretched animal heaved forth such groans |
| That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat |
| Almost to bursting, and the big round tears |
| Coursed one another down his innocent nose |
| In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool |
| Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, |
| Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook, |
| Augmenting it with tears. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR But what said Jaques? |
| Did he not moralize this spectacle? |
| |
| First Lord O, yes, into a thousand similes. |
| First, for his weeping into the needless stream; |
| 'Poor deer,' quoth he, 'thou makest a testament |
| As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more |
| To that which had too much:' then, being there alone, |
| Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends, |
| ''Tis right:' quoth he; 'thus misery doth part |
| The flux of company:' anon a careless herd, |
| Full of the pasture, jumps along by him |
| And never stays to greet him; 'Ay' quoth Jaques, |
| 'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; |
| 'Tis just the fashion: wherefore do you look |
| Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?' |
| Thus most invectively he pierceth through |
| The body of the country, city, court, |
| Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we |
| Are mere usurpers, tyrants and what's worse, |
| To fright the animals and to kill them up |
| In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR And did you leave him in this contemplation? |
| |
| Second Lord We did, my lord, weeping and commenting |
| Upon the sobbing deer. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Show me the place: |
| I love to cope him in these sullen fits, |
| For then he's full of matter. |
| |
| First Lord I'll bring you to him straight. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE II A room in the palace. |
| |
| |
| [Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords] |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Can it be possible that no man saw them? |
| It cannot be: some villains of my court |
| Are of consent and sufferance in this. |
| |
| First Lord I cannot hear of any that did see her. |
| The ladies, her attendants of her chamber, |
| Saw her abed, and in the morning early |
| They found the bed untreasured of their mistress. |
| |
| Second Lord My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft |
| Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing. |
| Hisperia, the princess' gentlewoman, |
| Confesses that she secretly o'erheard |
| Your daughter and her cousin much commend |
| The parts and graces of the wrestler |
| That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles; |
| And she believes, wherever they are gone, |
| That youth is surely in their company. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither; |
| If he be absent, bring his brother to me; |
| I'll make him find him: do this suddenly, |
| And let not search and inquisition quail |
| To bring again these foolish runaways. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE III Before OLIVER'S house. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting] |
| |
| ORLANDO Who's there? |
| |
| ADAM What, my young master? O, my gentle master! |
| O my sweet master! O you memory |
| Of old Sir Rowland! why, what make you here? |
| Why are you virtuous? why do people love you? |
| And wherefore are you gentle, strong and valiant? |
| Why would you be so fond to overcome |
| The bonny priser of the humorous duke? |
| Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. |
| Know you not, master, to some kind of men |
| Their graces serve them but as enemies? |
| No more do yours: your virtues, gentle master, |
| Are sanctified and holy traitors to you. |
| O, what a world is this, when what is comely |
| Envenoms him that bears it! |
| |
| ORLANDO Why, what's the matter? |
| |
| ADAM O unhappy youth! |
| Come not within these doors; within this roof |
| The enemy of all your graces lives: |
| Your brother--no, no brother; yet the son-- |
| Yet not the son, I will not call him son |
| Of him I was about to call his father-- |
| Hath heard your praises, and this night he means |
| To burn the lodging where you use to lie |
| And you within it: if he fail of that, |
| He will have other means to cut you off. |
| I overheard him and his practises. |
| This is no place; this house is but a butchery: |
| Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it. |
| |
| ORLANDO Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go? |
| |
| ADAM No matter whither, so you come not here. |
| |
| ORLANDO What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food? |
| Or with a base and boisterous sword enforce |
| A thievish living on the common road? |
| This I must do, or know not what to do: |
| Yet this I will not do, do how I can; |
| I rather will subject me to the malice |
| Of a diverted blood and bloody brother. |
| |
| ADAM But do not so. I have five hundred crowns, |
| The thrifty hire I saved under your father, |
| Which I did store to be my foster-nurse |
| When service should in my old limbs lie lame |
| And unregarded age in corners thrown: |
| Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed, |
| Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, |
| Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold; |
| And all this I give you. Let me be your servant: |
| Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; |
| For in my youth I never did apply |
| Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood, |
| Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo |
| The means of weakness and debility; |
| Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, |
| Frosty, but kindly: let me go with you; |
| I'll do the service of a younger man |
| In all your business and necessities. |
| |
| ORLANDO O good old man, how well in thee appears |
| The constant service of the antique world, |
| When service sweat for duty, not for meed! |
| Thou art not for the fashion of these times, |
| Where none will sweat but for promotion, |
| And having that, do choke their service up |
| Even with the having: it is not so with thee. |
| But, poor old man, thou prunest a rotten tree, |
| That cannot so much as a blossom yield |
| In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry |
| But come thy ways; well go along together, |
| And ere we have thy youthful wages spent, |
| We'll light upon some settled low content. |
| |
| ADAM Master, go on, and I will follow thee, |
| To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty. |
| From seventeen years till now almost fourscore |
| Here lived I, but now live here no more. |
| At seventeen years many their fortunes seek; |
| But at fourscore it is too late a week: |
| Yet fortune cannot recompense me better |
| Than to die well and not my master's debtor. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE IV The Forest of Arden. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND for Ganymede, CELIA for Aliena, |
| and TOUCHSTONE] |
| |
| ROSALIND O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. |
| |
| ROSALIND I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's |
| apparel and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort |
| the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show |
| itself courageous to petticoat: therefore courage, |
| good Aliena! |
| |
| CELIA I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear |
| you; yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you, |
| for I think you have no money in your purse. |
| |
| ROSALIND Well, this is the forest of Arden. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I; when I was |
| at home, I was in a better place: but travellers |
| must be content. |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, be so, good Touchstone. |
| |
| [Enter CORIN and SILVIUS] |
| |
| Look you, who comes here; a young man and an old in |
| solemn talk. |
| |
| CORIN That is the way to make her scorn you still. |
| |
| SILVIUS O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her! |
| |
| CORIN I partly guess; for I have loved ere now. |
| |
| SILVIUS No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess, |
| Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover |
| As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow: |
| But if thy love were ever like to mine-- |
| As sure I think did never man love so-- |
| How many actions most ridiculous |
| Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy? |
| |
| CORIN Into a thousand that I have forgotten. |
| |
| SILVIUS O, thou didst then ne'er love so heartily! |
| If thou remember'st not the slightest folly |
| That ever love did make thee run into, |
| Thou hast not loved: |
| Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, |
| Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praise, |
| Thou hast not loved: |
| Or if thou hast not broke from company |
| Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, |
| Thou hast not loved. |
| O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe! |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| ROSALIND Alas, poor shepherd! searching of thy wound, |
| I have by hard adventure found mine own. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE And I mine. I remember, when I was in love I broke |
| my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for |
| coming a-night to Jane Smile; and I remember the |
| kissing of her batlet and the cow's dugs that her |
| pretty chopt hands had milked; and I remember the |
| wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I took |
| two cods and, giving her them again, said with |
| weeping tears 'Wear these for my sake.' We that are |
| true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is |
| mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly. |
| |
| ROSALIND Thou speakest wiser than thou art ware of. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Nay, I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I |
| break my shins against it. |
| |
| ROSALIND Jove, Jove! this shepherd's passion |
| Is much upon my fashion. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE And mine; but it grows something stale with me. |
| |
| CELIA I pray you, one of you question yond man |
| If he for gold will give us any food: |
| I faint almost to death. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Holla, you clown! |
| |
| ROSALIND Peace, fool: he's not thy kinsman. |
| |
| CORIN Who calls? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Your betters, sir. |
| |
| CORIN Else are they very wretched. |
| |
| ROSALIND Peace, I say. Good even to you, friend. |
| |
| CORIN And to you, gentle sir, and to you all. |
| |
| ROSALIND I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold |
| Can in this desert place buy entertainment, |
| Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed: |
| Here's a young maid with travel much oppress'd |
| And faints for succor. |
| |
| CORIN Fair sir, I pity her |
| And wish, for her sake more than for mine own, |
| My fortunes were more able to relieve her; |
| But I am shepherd to another man |
| And do not shear the fleeces that I graze: |
| My master is of churlish disposition |
| And little recks to find the way to heaven |
| By doing deeds of hospitality: |
| Besides, his cote, his flocks and bounds of feed |
| Are now on sale, and at our sheepcote now, |
| By reason of his absence, there is nothing |
| That you will feed on; but what is, come see. |
| And in my voice most welcome shall you be. |
| |
| ROSALIND What is he that shall buy his flock and pasture? |
| |
| CORIN That young swain that you saw here but erewhile, |
| That little cares for buying any thing. |
| |
| ROSALIND I pray thee, if it stand with honesty, |
| Buy thou the cottage, pasture and the flock, |
| And thou shalt have to pay for it of us. |
| |
| CELIA And we will mend thy wages. I like this place. |
| And willingly could waste my time in it. |
| |
| CORIN Assuredly the thing is to be sold: |
| Go with me: if you like upon report |
| The soil, the profit and this kind of life, |
| I will your very faithful feeder be |
| And buy it with your gold right suddenly. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE V The Forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others] |
| |
| SONG. |
| AMIENS Under the greenwood tree |
| Who loves to lie with me, |
| And turn his merry note |
| Unto the sweet bird's throat, |
| Come hither, come hither, come hither: |
| Here shall he see No enemy |
| But winter and rough weather. |
| |
| JAQUES More, more, I prithee, more. |
| |
| AMIENS It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques. |
| |
| JAQUES I thank it. More, I prithee, more. I can suck |
| melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. |
| More, I prithee, more. |
| |
| AMIENS My voice is ragged: I know I cannot please you. |
| |
| JAQUES I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to |
| sing. Come, more; another stanzo: call you 'em stanzos? |
| |
| AMIENS What you will, Monsieur Jaques. |
| |
| JAQUES Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me |
| nothing. Will you sing? |
| |
| AMIENS More at your request than to please myself. |
| |
| JAQUES Well then, if ever I thank any man, I'll thank you; |
| but that they call compliment is like the encounter |
| of two dog-apes, and when a man thanks me heartily, |
| methinks I have given him a penny and he renders me |
| the beggarly thanks. Come, sing; and you that will |
| not, hold your tongues. |
| |
| AMIENS Well, I'll end the song. Sirs, cover the while; the |
| duke will drink under this tree. He hath been all |
| this day to look you. |
| |
| JAQUES And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is |
| too disputable for my company: I think of as many |
| matters as he, but I give heaven thanks and make no |
| boast of them. Come, warble, come. |
| |
| SONG. |
| Who doth ambition shun |
| |
| [All together here] |
| |
| And loves to live i' the sun, |
| Seeking the food he eats |
| And pleased with what he gets, |
| Come hither, come hither, come hither: |
| Here shall he see No enemy |
| But winter and rough weather. |
| |
| JAQUES I'll give you a verse to this note that I made |
| yesterday in despite of my invention. |
| |
| AMIENS And I'll sing it. |
| |
| JAQUES Thus it goes:-- |
| |
| If it do come to pass |
| That any man turn ass, |
| Leaving his wealth and ease, |
| A stubborn will to please, |
| Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame: |
| Here shall he see |
| Gross fools as he, |
| An if he will come to me. |
| |
| AMIENS What's that 'ducdame'? |
| |
| JAQUES 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a |
| circle. I'll go sleep, if I can; if I cannot, I'll |
| rail against all the first-born of Egypt. |
| |
| AMIENS And I'll go seek the duke: his banquet is prepared. |
| |
| [Exeunt severally] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE VI The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO and ADAM] |
| |
| ADAM Dear master, I can go no further. O, I die for food! |
| Here lie I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell, |
| kind master. |
| |
| ORLANDO Why, how now, Adam! no greater heart in thee? Live |
| a little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little. |
| If this uncouth forest yield any thing savage, I |
| will either be food for it or bring it for food to |
| thee. Thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers. |
| For my sake be comfortable; hold death awhile at |
| the arm's end: I will here be with thee presently; |
| and if I bring thee not something to eat, I will |
| give thee leave to die: but if thou diest before I |
| come, thou art a mocker of my labour. Well said! |
| thou lookest cheerly, and I'll be with thee quickly. |
| Yet thou liest in the bleak air: come, I will bear |
| thee to some shelter; and thou shalt not die for |
| lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this |
| desert. Cheerly, good Adam! |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT II |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE VII The forest. |
| |
| |
| [A table set out. Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and |
| Lords like outlaws] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR I think he be transform'd into a beast; |
| For I can no where find him like a man. |
| |
| First Lord My lord, he is but even now gone hence: |
| Here was he merry, hearing of a song. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR If he, compact of jars, grow musical, |
| We shall have shortly discord in the spheres. |
| Go, seek him: tell him I would speak with him. |
| |
| [Enter JAQUES] |
| |
| First Lord He saves my labour by his own approach. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Why, how now, monsieur! what a life is this, |
| That your poor friends must woo your company? |
| What, you look merrily! |
| |
| JAQUES A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest, |
| A motley fool; a miserable world! |
| As I do live by food, I met a fool |
| Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun, |
| And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms, |
| In good set terms and yet a motley fool. |
| 'Good morrow, fool,' quoth I. 'No, sir,' quoth he, |
| 'Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune:' |
| And then he drew a dial from his poke, |
| And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye, |
| Says very wisely, 'It is ten o'clock: |
| Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags: |
| 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, |
| And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; |
| And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, |
| And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot; |
| And thereby hangs a tale.' When I did hear |
| The motley fool thus moral on the time, |
| My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, |
| That fools should be so deep-contemplative, |
| And I did laugh sans intermission |
| An hour by his dial. O noble fool! |
| A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR What fool is this? |
| |
| JAQUES O worthy fool! One that hath been a courtier, |
| And says, if ladies be but young and fair, |
| They have the gift to know it: and in his brain, |
| Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit |
| After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd |
| With observation, the which he vents |
| In mangled forms. O that I were a fool! |
| I am ambitious for a motley coat. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Thou shalt have one. |
| |
| JAQUES It is my only suit; |
| Provided that you weed your better judgments |
| Of all opinion that grows rank in them |
| That I am wise. I must have liberty |
| Withal, as large a charter as the wind, |
| To blow on whom I please; for so fools have; |
| And they that are most galled with my folly, |
| They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so? |
| The 'why' is plain as way to parish church: |
| He that a fool doth very wisely hit |
| Doth very foolishly, although he smart, |
| Not to seem senseless of the bob: if not, |
| The wise man's folly is anatomized |
| Even by the squandering glances of the fool. |
| Invest me in my motley; give me leave |
| To speak my mind, and I will through and through |
| Cleanse the foul body of the infected world, |
| If they will patiently receive my medicine. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do. |
| |
| JAQUES What, for a counter, would I do but good? |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin: |
| For thou thyself hast been a libertine, |
| As sensual as the brutish sting itself; |
| And all the embossed sores and headed evils, |
| That thou with licence of free foot hast caught, |
| Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world. |
| |
| JAQUES Why, who cries out on pride, |
| That can therein tax any private party? |
| Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea, |
| Till that the weary very means do ebb? |
| What woman in the city do I name, |
| When that I say the city-woman bears |
| The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders? |
| Who can come in and say that I mean her, |
| When such a one as she such is her neighbour? |
| Or what is he of basest function |
| That says his bravery is not of my cost, |
| Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits |
| His folly to the mettle of my speech? |
| There then; how then? what then? Let me see wherein |
| My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right, |
| Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free, |
| Why then my taxing like a wild-goose flies, |
| Unclaim'd of any man. But who comes here? |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn] |
| |
| ORLANDO Forbear, and eat no more. |
| |
| JAQUES Why, I have eat none yet. |
| |
| ORLANDO Nor shalt not, till necessity be served. |
| |
| JAQUES Of what kind should this cock come of? |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress, |
| Or else a rude despiser of good manners, |
| That in civility thou seem'st so empty? |
| |
| ORLANDO You touch'd my vein at first: the thorny point |
| Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show |
| Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred |
| And know some nurture. But forbear, I say: |
| He dies that touches any of this fruit |
| Till I and my affairs are answered. |
| |
| JAQUES An you will not be answered with reason, I must die. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR What would you have? Your gentleness shall force |
| More than your force move us to gentleness. |
| |
| ORLANDO I almost die for food; and let me have it. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table. |
| |
| ORLANDO Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you: |
| I thought that all things had been savage here; |
| And therefore put I on the countenance |
| Of stern commandment. But whate'er you are |
| That in this desert inaccessible, |
| Under the shade of melancholy boughs, |
| Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time |
| If ever you have look'd on better days, |
| If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church, |
| If ever sat at any good man's feast, |
| If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear |
| And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied, |
| Let gentleness my strong enforcement be: |
| In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR True is it that we have seen better days, |
| And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church |
| And sat at good men's feasts and wiped our eyes |
| Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd: |
| And therefore sit you down in gentleness |
| And take upon command what help we have |
| That to your wanting may be minister'd. |
| |
| ORLANDO Then but forbear your food a little while, |
| Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn |
| And give it food. There is an old poor man, |
| Who after me hath many a weary step |
| Limp'd in pure love: till he be first sufficed, |
| Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger, |
| I will not touch a bit. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Go find him out, |
| And we will nothing waste till you return. |
| |
| ORLANDO I thank ye; and be blest for your good comfort! |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: |
| This wide and universal theatre |
| Presents more woeful pageants than the scene |
| Wherein we play in. |
| |
| JAQUES All the world's a stage, |
| And all the men and women merely players: |
| They have their exits and their entrances; |
| And one man in his time plays many parts, |
| His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, |
| Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. |
| And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel |
| And shining morning face, creeping like snail |
| Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, |
| Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad |
| Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, |
| Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, |
| Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, |
| Seeking the bubble reputation |
| Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, |
| In fair round belly with good capon lined, |
| With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, |
| Full of wise saws and modern instances; |
| And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts |
| Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, |
| With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, |
| His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide |
| For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, |
| Turning again toward childish treble, pipes |
| And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, |
| That ends this strange eventful history, |
| Is second childishness and mere oblivion, |
| Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. |
| |
| [Re-enter ORLANDO, with ADAM] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Welcome. Set down your venerable burthen, |
| And let him feed. |
| |
| ORLANDO I thank you most for him. |
| |
| ADAM So had you need: |
| I scarce can speak to thank you for myself. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Welcome; fall to: I will not trouble you |
| As yet, to question you about your fortunes. |
| Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing. |
| |
| SONG. |
| AMIENS Blow, blow, thou winter wind. |
| Thou art not so unkind |
| As man's ingratitude; |
| Thy tooth is not so keen, |
| Because thou art not seen, |
| Although thy breath be rude. |
| Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: |
| Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: |
| Then, heigh-ho, the holly! |
| This life is most jolly. |
| Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, |
| That dost not bite so nigh |
| As benefits forgot: |
| Though thou the waters warp, |
| Thy sting is not so sharp |
| As friend remember'd not. |
| Heigh-ho! sing, &c. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR If that you were the good Sir Rowland's son, |
| As you have whisper'd faithfully you were, |
| And as mine eye doth his effigies witness |
| Most truly limn'd and living in your face, |
| Be truly welcome hither: I am the duke |
| That loved your father: the residue of your fortune, |
| Go to my cave and tell me. Good old man, |
| Thou art right welcome as thy master is. |
| Support him by the arm. Give me your hand, |
| And let me all your fortunes understand. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT III |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE I A room in the palace. |
| |
| |
| [Enter DUKE FREDERICK, Lords, and OLIVER] |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be: |
| But were I not the better part made mercy, |
| I should not seek an absent argument |
| Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it: |
| Find out thy brother, wheresoe'er he is; |
| Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living |
| Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more |
| To seek a living in our territory. |
| Thy lands and all things that thou dost call thine |
| Worth seizure do we seize into our hands, |
| Till thou canst quit thee by thy brothers mouth |
| Of what we think against thee. |
| |
| OLIVER O that your highness knew my heart in this! |
| I never loved my brother in my life. |
| |
| DUKE FREDERICK More villain thou. Well, push him out of doors; |
| And let my officers of such a nature |
| Make an extent upon his house and lands: |
| Do this expediently and turn him going. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT III |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE II The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO, with a paper] |
| |
| ORLANDO Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: |
| And thou, thrice-crowned queen of night, survey |
| With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, |
| Thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway. |
| O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books |
| And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; |
| That every eye which in this forest looks |
| Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. |
| Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree |
| The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| [Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE] |
| |
| CORIN And how like you this shepherd's life, Master Touchstone? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good |
| life, but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, |
| it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I |
| like it very well; but in respect that it is |
| private, it is a very vile life. Now, in respect it |
| is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in |
| respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As |
| is it a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; |
| but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much |
| against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd? |
| |
| CORIN No more but that I know the more one sickens the |
| worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, |
| means and content is without three good friends; |
| that the property of rain is to wet and fire to |
| burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep, and that a |
| great cause of the night is lack of the sun; that |
| he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may |
| complain of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in |
| court, shepherd? |
| |
| CORIN No, truly. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Then thou art damned. |
| |
| CORIN Nay, I hope. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Truly, thou art damned like an ill-roasted egg, all |
| on one side. |
| |
| CORIN For not being at court? Your reason. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest |
| good manners; if thou never sawest good manners, |
| then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is |
| sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous |
| state, shepherd. |
| |
| CORIN Not a whit, Touchstone: those that are good manners |
| at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the |
| behavior of the country is most mockable at the |
| court. You told me you salute not at the court, but |
| you kiss your hands: that courtesy would be |
| uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Instance, briefly; come, instance. |
| |
| CORIN Why, we are still handling our ewes, and their |
| fells, you know, are greasy. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? and is not |
| the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of |
| a man? Shallow, shallow. A better instance, I say; come. |
| |
| CORIN Besides, our hands are hard. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Your lips will feel them the sooner. Shallow again. |
| A more sounder instance, come. |
| |
| CORIN And they are often tarred over with the surgery of |
| our sheep: and would you have us kiss tar? The |
| courtier's hands are perfumed with civet. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Most shallow man! thou worms-meat, in respect of a |
| good piece of flesh indeed! Learn of the wise, and |
| perpend: civet is of a baser birth than tar, the |
| very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend the instance, shepherd. |
| |
| CORIN You have too courtly a wit for me: I'll rest. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Wilt thou rest damned? God help thee, shallow man! |
| God make incision in thee! thou art raw. |
| |
| CORIN Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I eat, get |
| that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's |
| happiness, glad of other men's good, content with my |
| harm, and the greatest of my pride is to see my ewes |
| graze and my lambs suck. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE That is another simple sin in you, to bring the ewes |
| and the rams together and to offer to get your |
| living by the copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a |
| bell-wether, and to betray a she-lamb of a |
| twelvemonth to a crooked-pated, old, cuckoldly ram, |
| out of all reasonable match. If thou beest not |
| damned for this, the devil himself will have no |
| shepherds; I cannot see else how thou shouldst |
| 'scape. |
| |
| CORIN Here comes young Master Ganymede, my new mistress's brother. |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND, with a paper, reading] |
| |
| ROSALIND From the east to western Ind, |
| No jewel is like Rosalind. |
| Her worth, being mounted on the wind, |
| Through all the world bears Rosalind. |
| All the pictures fairest lined |
| Are but black to Rosalind. |
| Let no fair be kept in mind |
| But the fair of Rosalind. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I'll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners and |
| suppers and sleeping-hours excepted: it is the |
| right butter-women's rank to market. |
| |
| ROSALIND Out, fool! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE For a taste: |
| If a hart do lack a hind, |
| Let him seek out Rosalind. |
| If the cat will after kind, |
| So be sure will Rosalind. |
| Winter garments must be lined, |
| So must slender Rosalind. |
| They that reap must sheaf and bind; |
| Then to cart with Rosalind. |
| Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, |
| Such a nut is Rosalind. |
| He that sweetest rose will find |
| Must find love's prick and Rosalind. |
| This is the very false gallop of verses: why do you |
| infect yourself with them? |
| |
| ROSALIND Peace, you dull fool! I found them on a tree. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Truly, the tree yields bad fruit. |
| |
| ROSALIND I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it |
| with a medlar: then it will be the earliest fruit |
| i' the country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half |
| ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the |
| forest judge. |
| |
| [Enter CELIA, with a writing] |
| |
| ROSALIND Peace! Here comes my sister, reading: stand aside. |
| |
| CELIA [Reads] |
| |
| Why should this a desert be? |
| For it is unpeopled? No: |
| Tongues I'll hang on every tree, |
| That shall civil sayings show: |
| Some, how brief the life of man |
| Runs his erring pilgrimage, |
| That the stretching of a span |
| Buckles in his sum of age; |
| Some, of violated vows |
| 'Twixt the souls of friend and friend: |
| But upon the fairest boughs, |
| Or at every sentence end, |
| Will I Rosalinda write, |
| Teaching all that read to know |
| The quintessence of every sprite |
| Heaven would in little show. |
| Therefore Heaven Nature charged |
| That one body should be fill'd |
| With all graces wide-enlarged: |
| Nature presently distill'd |
| Helen's cheek, but not her heart, |
| Cleopatra's majesty, |
| Atalanta's better part, |
| Sad Lucretia's modesty. |
| Thus Rosalind of many parts |
| By heavenly synod was devised, |
| Of many faces, eyes and hearts, |
| To have the touches dearest prized. |
| Heaven would that she these gifts should have, |
| And I to live and die her slave. |
| |
| ROSALIND O most gentle pulpiter! what tedious homily of love |
| have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never |
| cried 'Have patience, good people!' |
| |
| CELIA How now! back, friends! Shepherd, go off a little. |
| Go with him, sirrah. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; |
| though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage. |
| |
| [Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE] |
| |
| CELIA Didst thou hear these verses? |
| |
| ROSALIND O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of |
| them had in them more feet than the verses would bear. |
| |
| CELIA That's no matter: the feet might bear the verses. |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, but the feet were lame and could not bear |
| themselves without the verse and therefore stood |
| lamely in the verse. |
| |
| CELIA But didst thou hear without wondering how thy name |
| should be hanged and carved upon these trees? |
| |
| ROSALIND I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder |
| before you came; for look here what I found on a |
| palm-tree. I was never so be-rhymed since |
| Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat, which I |
| can hardly remember. |
| |
| CELIA Trow you who hath done this? |
| |
| ROSALIND Is it a man? |
| |
| CELIA And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck. |
| Change you colour? |
| |
| ROSALIND I prithee, who? |
| |
| CELIA O Lord, Lord! it is a hard matter for friends to |
| meet; but mountains may be removed with earthquakes |
| and so encounter. |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, but who is it? |
| |
| CELIA Is it possible? |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, I prithee now with most petitionary vehemence, |
| tell me who it is. |
| |
| CELIA O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful |
| wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that, |
| out of all hooping! |
| |
| ROSALIND Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am |
| caparisoned like a man, I have a doublet and hose in |
| my disposition? One inch of delay more is a |
| South-sea of discovery; I prithee, tell me who is it |
| quickly, and speak apace. I would thou couldst |
| stammer, that thou mightst pour this concealed man |
| out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow- |
| mouthed bottle, either too much at once, or none at |
| all. I prithee, take the cork out of thy mouth that |
| may drink thy tidings. |
| |
| CELIA So you may put a man in your belly. |
| |
| ROSALIND Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his |
| head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard? |
| |
| CELIA Nay, he hath but a little beard. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why, God will send more, if the man will be |
| thankful: let me stay the growth of his beard, if |
| thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin. |
| |
| CELIA It is young Orlando, that tripped up the wrestler's |
| heels and your heart both in an instant. |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, but the devil take mocking: speak, sad brow and |
| true maid. |
| |
| CELIA I' faith, coz, 'tis he. |
| |
| ROSALIND Orlando? |
| |
| CELIA Orlando. |
| |
| ROSALIND Alas the day! what shall I do with my doublet and |
| hose? What did he when thou sawest him? What said |
| he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes |
| him here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? |
| How parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see |
| him again? Answer me in one word. |
| |
| CELIA You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first: 'tis a |
| word too great for any mouth of this age's size. To |
| say ay and no to these particulars is more than to |
| answer in a catechism. |
| |
| ROSALIND But doth he know that I am in this forest and in |
| man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the |
| day he wrestled? |
| |
| CELIA It is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the |
| propositions of a lover; but take a taste of my |
| finding him, and relish it with good observance. |
| I found him under a tree, like a dropped acorn. |
| |
| ROSALIND It may well be called Jove's tree, when it drops |
| forth such fruit. |
| |
| CELIA Give me audience, good madam. |
| |
| ROSALIND Proceed. |
| |
| CELIA There lay he, stretched along, like a wounded knight. |
| |
| ROSALIND Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well |
| becomes the ground. |
| |
| CELIA Cry 'holla' to thy tongue, I prithee; it curvets |
| unseasonably. He was furnished like a hunter. |
| |
| ROSALIND O, ominous! he comes to kill my heart. |
| |
| CELIA I would sing my song without a burden: thou bringest |
| me out of tune. |
| |
| ROSALIND Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must |
| speak. Sweet, say on. |
| |
| CELIA You bring me out. Soft! comes he not here? |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES] |
| |
| ROSALIND 'Tis he: slink by, and note him. |
| |
| JAQUES I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had |
| as lief have been myself alone. |
| |
| ORLANDO And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, I thank you |
| too for your society. |
| |
| JAQUES God be wi' you: let's meet as little as we can. |
| |
| ORLANDO I do desire we may be better strangers. |
| |
| JAQUES I pray you, mar no more trees with writing |
| love-songs in their barks. |
| |
| ORLANDO I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading |
| them ill-favouredly. |
| |
| JAQUES Rosalind is your love's name? |
| |
| ORLANDO Yes, just. |
| |
| JAQUES I do not like her name. |
| |
| ORLANDO There was no thought of pleasing you when she was |
| christened. |
| |
| JAQUES What stature is she of? |
| |
| ORLANDO Just as high as my heart. |
| |
| JAQUES You are full of pretty answers. Have you not been |
| acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conned them |
| out of rings? |
| |
| ORLANDO Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth, from |
| whence you have studied your questions. |
| |
| JAQUES You have a nimble wit: I think 'twas made of |
| Atalanta's heels. Will you sit down with me? and |
| we two will rail against our mistress the world and |
| all our misery. |
| |
| ORLANDO I will chide no breather in the world but myself, |
| against whom I know most faults. |
| |
| JAQUES The worst fault you have is to be in love. |
| |
| ORLANDO 'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue. |
| I am weary of you. |
| |
| JAQUES By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found |
| you. |
| |
| ORLANDO He is drowned in the brook: look but in, and you |
| shall see him. |
| |
| JAQUES There I shall see mine own figure. |
| |
| ORLANDO Which I take to be either a fool or a cipher. |
| |
| JAQUES I'll tarry no longer with you: farewell, good |
| Signior Love. |
| |
| ORLANDO I am glad of your departure: adieu, good Monsieur |
| Melancholy. |
| |
| [Exit JAQUES] |
| |
| ROSALIND [Aside to CELIA] I will speak to him, like a saucy |
| lackey and under that habit play the knave with him. |
| Do you hear, forester? |
| |
| ORLANDO Very well: what would you? |
| |
| ROSALIND I pray you, what is't o'clock? |
| |
| ORLANDO You should ask me what time o' day: there's no clock |
| in the forest. |
| |
| ROSALIND Then there is no true lover in the forest; else |
| sighing every minute and groaning every hour would |
| detect the lazy foot of Time as well as a clock. |
| |
| ORLANDO And why not the swift foot of Time? had not that |
| been as proper? |
| |
| ROSALIND By no means, sir: Time travels in divers paces with |
| divers persons. I'll tell you who Time ambles |
| withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops |
| withal and who he stands still withal. |
| |
| ORLANDO I prithee, who doth he trot withal? |
| |
| ROSALIND Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the |
| contract of her marriage and the day it is |
| solemnized: if the interim be but a se'nnight, |
| Time's pace is so hard that it seems the length of |
| seven year. |
| |
| ORLANDO Who ambles Time withal? |
| |
| ROSALIND With a priest that lacks Latin and a rich man that |
| hath not the gout, for the one sleeps easily because |
| he cannot study, and the other lives merrily because |
| he feels no pain, the one lacking the burden of lean |
| and wasteful learning, the other knowing no burden |
| of heavy tedious penury; these Time ambles withal. |
| |
| ORLANDO Who doth he gallop withal? |
| |
| ROSALIND With a thief to the gallows, for though he go as |
| softly as foot can fall, he thinks himself too soon there. |
| |
| ORLANDO Who stays it still withal? |
| |
| ROSALIND With lawyers in the vacation, for they sleep between |
| term and term and then they perceive not how Time moves. |
| |
| ORLANDO Where dwell you, pretty youth? |
| |
| ROSALIND With this shepherdess, my sister; here in the |
| skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat. |
| |
| ORLANDO Are you native of this place? |
| |
| ROSALIND As the cony that you see dwell where she is kindled. |
| |
| ORLANDO Your accent is something finer than you could |
| purchase in so removed a dwelling. |
| |
| ROSALIND 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 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. |
| |
| ORLANDO Can you remember any of the principal evils that he |
| laid to the charge of women? |
| |
| ROSALIND 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. |
| |
| ORLANDO I prithee, recount some of them. |
| |
| ROSALIND 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 some good counsel, for he seems to have the |
| quotidian of love upon him. |
| |
| ORLANDO I am he that is so love-shaked: I pray you tell me |
| your remedy. |
| |
| ROSALIND There is none of my uncle's marks upon you: he |
| taught me how to know a man in love; in which cage |
| of rushes I am sure you are not prisoner. |
| |
| ORLANDO What were his marks? |
| |
| ROSALIND A lean cheek, which you have not, a blue eye and |
| sunken, which you have not, an unquestionable |
| spirit, which you have not, a beard neglected, |
| which you have not; but I pardon you for that, for |
| simply your having in beard is a younger brother's |
| revenue: then your hose should be ungartered, your |
| bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe |
| untied and every thing about you demonstrating a |
| careless desolation; but you are no such man; you |
| are rather point-device in your accoutrements as |
| loving yourself than seeming the lover of any other. |
| |
| ORLANDO Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love. |
| |
| ROSALIND Me believe it! you may as soon make her that you |
| love believe it; which, I warrant, she is apter to |
| do than to confess she does: that is one of the |
| points in the which women still give the lie to |
| their consciences. But, in good sooth, are you he |
| that hangs the verses on the trees, wherein Rosalind |
| is so admired? |
| |
| ORLANDO I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of |
| Rosalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he. |
| |
| ROSALIND But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak? |
| |
| ORLANDO Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much. |
| |
| ROSALIND Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves |
| as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and |
| the reason why they are not so punished and cured |
| is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers |
| are in love too. Yet I profess curing it by counsel. |
| |
| ORLANDO Did you ever cure any so? |
| |
| ROSALIND Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me |
| his love, his mistress; and I set him every day to |
| woo me: at which time would I, being but a moonish |
| youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing |
| and liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, |
| inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles, for every |
| passion something and for no passion truly any |
| thing, as boys and women are for the most part |
| cattle of this colour; would now like him, now loathe |
| him; then entertain him, then forswear him; now weep |
| for him, then spit at him; that I drave my suitor |
| from his mad humour of love to a living humour of |
| madness; which was, to forswear the full stream of |
| the world, and to live in a nook merely monastic. |
| And thus I cured him; and this way will I take upon |
| me to wash your liver as clean as a sound sheep's |
| heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in't. |
| |
| ORLANDO I would not be cured, youth. |
| |
| ROSALIND I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind |
| and come every day to my cote and woo me. |
| |
| ORLANDO Now, by the faith of my love, I will: tell me |
| where it is. |
| |
| ROSALIND Go with me to it and I'll show it you and by the way |
| you shall tell me where in the forest you live. |
| Will you go? |
| |
| ORLANDO With all my heart, good youth. |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay you must call me Rosalind. Come, sister, will you go? |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT III |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE III The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES behind] |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Come apace, good Audrey: I will fetch up your |
| goats, Audrey. And how, Audrey? am I the man yet? |
| doth my simple feature content you? |
| |
| AUDREY Your features! Lord warrant us! what features! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most |
| capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths. |
| |
| JAQUES [Aside] O knowledge ill-inhabited, worse than Jove |
| in a thatched house! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a |
| man's good wit seconded with the forward child |
| Understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a |
| great reckoning in a little room. Truly, I would |
| the gods had made thee poetical. |
| |
| AUDREY I do not know what 'poetical' is: is it honest in |
| deed and word? is it a true thing? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most |
| feigning; and lovers are given to poetry, and what |
| they swear in poetry may be said as lovers they do feign. |
| |
| AUDREY Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I do, truly; for thou swearest to me thou art |
| honest: now, if thou wert a poet, I might have some |
| hope thou didst feign. |
| |
| AUDREY Would you not have me honest? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favoured; for |
| honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar. |
| |
| JAQUES [Aside] A material fool! |
| |
| AUDREY Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the gods |
| make me honest. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut |
| were to put good meat into an unclean dish. |
| |
| AUDREY I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness! |
| sluttishness may come hereafter. But be it as it may |
| be, I will marry thee, and to that end I have been |
| with Sir Oliver Martext, the vicar of the next |
| village, who hath promised to meet me in this place |
| of the forest and to couple us. |
| |
| JAQUES [Aside] I would fain see this meeting. |
| |
| AUDREY Well, the gods give us joy! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, |
| stagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple |
| but the wood, no assembly but horn-beasts. But what |
| though? Courage! As horns are odious, they are |
| necessary. It is said, 'many a man knows no end of |
| his goods:' right; many a man has good horns, and |
| knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of |
| his wife; 'tis none of his own getting. Horns? |
| Even so. Poor men alone? No, no; the noblest deer |
| hath them as huge as the rascal. Is the single man |
| therefore blessed? No: as a walled town is more |
| worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a |
| married man more honourable than the bare brow of a |
| bachelor; and by how much defence is better than no |
| skill, by so much is a horn more precious than to |
| want. Here comes Sir Oliver. |
| |
| [Enter SIR OLIVER MARTEXT] |
| |
| Sir Oliver Martext, you are well met: will you |
| dispatch us here under this tree, or shall we go |
| with you to your chapel? |
| |
| SIR OLIVER MARTEXT Is there none here to give the woman? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I will not take her on gift of any man. |
| |
| SIR OLIVER MARTEXT Truly, she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful. |
| |
| JAQUES [Advancing] |
| |
| Proceed, proceed I'll give her. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Good even, good Master What-ye-call't: how do you, |
| sir? You are very well met: God 'ild you for your |
| last company: I am very glad to see you: even a |
| toy in hand here, sir: nay, pray be covered. |
| |
| JAQUES Will you be married, motley? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb and |
| the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and |
| as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibbling. |
| |
| JAQUES And will you, being a man of your breeding, be |
| married under a bush like a beggar? Get you to |
| church, and have a good priest that can tell you |
| what marriage is: this fellow will but join you |
| together as they join wainscot; then one of you will |
| prove a shrunk panel and, like green timber, warp, warp. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE [Aside] I am not in the mind but I were better to be |
| married of him than of another: for he is not like |
| to marry me well; and not being well married, it |
| will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife. |
| |
| JAQUES Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE 'Come, sweet Audrey: |
| We must be married, or we must live in bawdry. |
| Farewell, good Master Oliver: not,-- |
| O sweet Oliver, |
| O brave Oliver, |
| Leave me not behind thee: but,-- |
| Wind away, |
| Begone, I say, |
| I will not to wedding with thee. |
| |
| [Exeunt JAQUES, TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY] |
| |
| SIR OLIVER MARTEXT 'Tis no matter: ne'er a fantastical knave of them |
| all shall flout me out of my calling. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT III |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE IV The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND and CELIA] |
| |
| ROSALIND Never talk to me; I will weep. |
| |
| CELIA Do, I prithee; but yet have the grace to consider |
| that tears do not become a man. |
| |
| ROSALIND But have I not cause to weep? |
| |
| CELIA As good cause as one would desire; therefore weep. |
| |
| ROSALIND His very hair is of the dissembling colour. |
| |
| CELIA Something browner than Judas's marry, his kisses are |
| Judas's own children. |
| |
| ROSALIND I' faith, his hair is of a good colour. |
| |
| CELIA An excellent colour: your chestnut was ever the only colour. |
| |
| ROSALIND And his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch |
| of holy bread. |
| |
| CELIA He hath bought a pair of cast lips of Diana: a nun |
| of winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously; |
| the very ice of chastity is in them. |
| |
| ROSALIND But why did he swear he would come this morning, and |
| comes not? |
| |
| CELIA Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him. |
| |
| ROSALIND Do you think so? |
| |
| CELIA Yes; I think he is not a pick-purse nor a |
| horse-stealer, but for his verity in love, I do |
| think him as concave as a covered goblet or a |
| worm-eaten nut. |
| |
| ROSALIND Not true in love? |
| |
| CELIA Yes, when he is in; but I think he is not in. |
| |
| ROSALIND You have heard him swear downright he was. |
| |
| CELIA 'Was' is not 'is:' besides, the oath of a lover is |
| no stronger than the word of a tapster; they are |
| both the confirmer of false reckonings. He attends |
| here in the forest on the duke your father. |
| |
| ROSALIND I met the duke yesterday and had much question with |
| him: he asked me of what parentage I was; I told |
| him, of as good as he; so he laughed and let me go. |
| But what talk we of fathers, when there is such a |
| man as Orlando? |
| |
| CELIA O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, |
| speaks brave words, swears brave oaths and breaks |
| them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of |
| his lover; as a puisny tilter, that spurs his horse |
| but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble |
| goose: but all's brave that youth mounts and folly |
| guides. Who comes here? |
| |
| [Enter CORIN] |
| |
| CORIN Mistress and master, you have oft inquired |
| After the shepherd that complain'd of love, |
| Who you saw sitting by me on the turf, |
| Praising the proud disdainful shepherdess |
| That was his mistress. |
| |
| CELIA Well, and what of him? |
| |
| CORIN If you will see a pageant truly play'd, |
| Between the pale complexion of true love |
| And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain, |
| Go hence a little and I shall conduct you, |
| If you will mark it. |
| |
| ROSALIND O, come, let us remove: |
| The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. |
| Bring us to this sight, and you shall say |
| I'll prove a busy actor in their play. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT III |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE V Another part of the forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE] |
| |
| SILVIUS Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe; |
| Say that you love me not, but say not so |
| In bitterness. The common executioner, |
| Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard, |
| Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck |
| But first begs pardon: will you sterner be |
| Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops? |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, behind] |
| |
| PHEBE I would not be thy executioner: |
| I fly thee, for I would not injure thee. |
| Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye: |
| 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable, |
| That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things, |
| Who shut their coward gates on atomies, |
| Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers! |
| Now I do frown on thee with all my heart; |
| And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee: |
| Now counterfeit to swoon; why now fall down; |
| Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame, |
| Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers! |
| Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee: |
| Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains |
| Some scar of it; lean but upon a rush, |
| The cicatrice and capable impressure |
| Thy palm some moment keeps; but now mine eyes, |
| Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not, |
| Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes |
| That can do hurt. |
| |
| SILVIUS O dear Phebe, |
| If ever,--as that ever may be near,-- |
| You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy, |
| Then shall you know the wounds invisible |
| That love's keen arrows make. |
| |
| PHEBE But till that time |
| Come not thou near me: and when that time comes, |
| Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not; |
| As till that time I shall not pity thee. |
| |
| ROSALIND And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother, |
| That you insult, exult, and all at once, |
| Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty,-- |
| As, by my faith, I see no more in you |
| Than without candle may go dark to bed-- |
| Must you be therefore proud and pitiless? |
| Why, what means this? Why do you look on me? |
| I see no more in you than in the ordinary |
| Of nature's sale-work. 'Od's my little life, |
| I think she means to tangle my eyes too! |
| No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it: |
| 'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, |
| Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream, |
| That can entame my spirits to your worship. |
| You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her, |
| Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain? |
| You are a thousand times a properer man |
| Than she a woman: 'tis such fools as you |
| That makes the world full of ill-favour'd children: |
| 'Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her; |
| And out of you she sees herself more proper |
| Than any of her lineaments can show her. |
| But, mistress, know yourself: down on your knees, |
| And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love: |
| For I must tell you friendly in your ear, |
| Sell when you can: you are not for all markets: |
| Cry the man mercy; love him; take his offer: |
| Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer. |
| So take her to thee, shepherd: fare you well. |
| |
| PHEBE Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together: |
| I had rather hear you chide than this man woo. |
| |
| ROSALIND He's fallen in love with your foulness and she'll |
| fall in love with my anger. If it be so, as fast as |
| she answers thee with frowning looks, I'll sauce her |
| with bitter words. Why look you so upon me? |
| |
| PHEBE For no ill will I bear you. |
| |
| ROSALIND I pray you, do not fall in love with me, |
| For I am falser than vows made in wine: |
| Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house, |
| 'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by. |
| Will you go, sister? Shepherd, ply her hard. |
| Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better, |
| And be not proud: though all the world could see, |
| None could be so abused in sight as he. |
| Come, to our flock. |
| |
| [Exeunt ROSALIND, CELIA and CORIN] |
| |
| PHEBE Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, |
| 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?' |
| |
| SILVIUS Sweet Phebe,-- |
| |
| PHEBE Ha, what say'st thou, Silvius? |
| |
| SILVIUS Sweet Phebe, pity me. |
| |
| PHEBE Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius. |
| |
| SILVIUS Wherever sorrow is, relief would be: |
| If you do sorrow at my grief in love, |
| By giving love your sorrow and my grief |
| Were both extermined. |
| |
| PHEBE Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly? |
| |
| SILVIUS I would have you. |
| |
| PHEBE Why, that were covetousness. |
| Silvius, the time was that I hated thee, |
| And yet it is not that I bear thee love; |
| But since that thou canst talk of love so well, |
| Thy company, which erst was irksome to me, |
| I will endure, and I'll employ thee too: |
| But do not look for further recompense |
| Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd. |
| |
| SILVIUS So holy and so perfect is my love, |
| And I in such a poverty of grace, |
| That I shall think it a most plenteous crop |
| To glean the broken ears after the man |
| That the main harvest reaps: loose now and then |
| A scatter'd smile, and that I'll live upon. |
| |
| PHEBE Know'st now the youth that spoke to me erewhile? |
| |
| SILVIUS Not very well, but I have met him oft; |
| And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds |
| That the old carlot once was master of. |
| |
| PHEBE Think not I love him, though I ask for him: |
| 'Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well; |
| But what care I for words? yet words do well |
| When he that speaks them pleases those that hear. |
| It is a pretty youth: not very pretty: |
| But, sure, he's proud, and yet his pride becomes him: |
| He'll make a proper man: the best thing in him |
| Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue |
| Did make offence his eye did heal it up. |
| He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall: |
| His leg is but so so; and yet 'tis well: |
| There was a pretty redness in his lip, |
| A little riper and more lusty red |
| Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference |
| Between the constant red and mingled damask. |
| There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him |
| In parcels as I did, would have gone near |
| To fall in love with him; but, for my part, |
| I love him not nor hate him not; and yet |
| I have more cause to hate him than to love him: |
| For what had he to do to chide at me? |
| He said mine eyes were black and my hair black: |
| And, now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me: |
| I marvel why I answer'd not again: |
| But that's all one; omittance is no quittance. |
| I'll write to him a very taunting letter, |
| And thou shalt bear it: wilt thou, Silvius? |
| |
| SILVIUS Phebe, with all my heart. |
| |
| PHEBE I'll write it straight; |
| The matter's in my head and in my heart: |
| I will be bitter with him and passing short. |
| Go with me, Silvius. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT IV |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE I The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and JAQUES] |
| |
| JAQUES I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted |
| with thee. |
| |
| ROSALIND They say you are a melancholy fellow. |
| |
| JAQUES I am so; I do love it better than laughing. |
| |
| ROSALIND Those that are in extremity of either are abominable |
| fellows and betray themselves to every modern |
| censure worse than drunkards. |
| |
| JAQUES Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why then, 'tis good to be a post. |
| |
| JAQUES I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is |
| emulation, nor the musician's, which is fantastical, |
| nor the courtier's, which is proud, nor the |
| soldier's, which is ambitious, nor the lawyer's, |
| which is politic, nor the lady's, which is nice, nor |
| the lover's, which is all these: but it is a |
| melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, |
| extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry's |
| contemplation of my travels, in which my often |
| rumination wraps me m a most humorous sadness. |
| |
| ROSALIND A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to |
| be sad: I fear you have sold your own lands to see |
| other men's; then, to have seen much and to have |
| nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands. |
| |
| JAQUES Yes, I have gained my experience. |
| |
| ROSALIND And your experience makes you sad: I had rather have |
| a fool to make me merry than experience to make me |
| sad; and to travel for it too! |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO] |
| |
| ORLANDO Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind! |
| |
| JAQUES Nay, then, God be wi' you, an you talk in blank verse. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| ROSALIND Farewell, Monsieur Traveller: look you lisp and |
| wear strange suits, disable all the benefits of your |
| own country, be out of love with your nativity and |
| almost chide God for making you that countenance you |
| are, or I will scarce think you have swam in a |
| gondola. Why, how now, Orlando! where have you been |
| all this while? You a lover! An you serve me such |
| another trick, never come in my sight more. |
| |
| ORLANDO My fair Rosalind, I come within an hour of my promise. |
| |
| ROSALIND Break an hour's promise in love! He that will |
| divide a minute into a thousand parts and break but |
| a part of the thousandth part of a minute in the |
| affairs of love, it may be said of him that Cupid |
| hath clapped him o' the shoulder, but I'll warrant |
| him heart-whole. |
| |
| ORLANDO Pardon me, dear Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight: I |
| had as lief be wooed of a snail. |
| |
| ORLANDO Of a snail? |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he |
| carries his house on his head; a better jointure, |
| I think, than you make a woman: besides he brings |
| his destiny with him. |
| |
| ORLANDO What's that? |
| |
| ROSALIND Why, horns, which such as you are fain to be |
| beholding to your wives for: but he comes armed in |
| his fortune and prevents the slander of his wife. |
| |
| ORLANDO Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rosalind is virtuous. |
| |
| ROSALIND And I am your Rosalind. |
| |
| CELIA It pleases him to call you so; but he hath a |
| Rosalind of a better leer than you. |
| |
| ROSALIND Come, woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday |
| humour and like enough to consent. What would you |
| say to me now, an I were your very very Rosalind? |
| |
| ORLANDO I would kiss before I spoke. |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, you were better speak first, and when you were |
| gravelled for lack of matter, you might take |
| occasion to kiss. Very good orators, when they are |
| out, they will spit; and for lovers lacking--God |
| warn us!--matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss. |
| |
| ORLANDO How if the kiss be denied? |
| |
| ROSALIND Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter. |
| |
| ORLANDO Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress? |
| |
| ROSALIND Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress, or |
| I should think my honesty ranker than my wit. |
| |
| ORLANDO What, of my suit? |
| |
| ROSALIND Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your suit. |
| Am not I your Rosalind? |
| |
| ORLANDO I take some joy to say you are, because I would be |
| talking of her. |
| |
| ROSALIND Well in her person I say I will not have you. |
| |
| ORLANDO Then in mine own person I die. |
| |
| ROSALIND No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is |
| almost six thousand years old, and in all this time |
| there was not any man died in his own person, |
| videlicit, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains |
| dashed out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he |
| could to die before, and he is one of the patterns |
| of love. Leander, he would have lived many a fair |
| year, though Hero had turned nun, if it had not been |
| for a hot midsummer night; for, good youth, he went |
| but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and being |
| taken with the cramp was drowned and the foolish |
| coroners of that age found it was 'Hero of Sestos.' |
| But these are all lies: men have died from time to |
| time and worms have eaten them, but not for love. |
| |
| ORLANDO I would not have my right Rosalind of this mind, |
| for, I protest, her frown might kill me. |
| |
| ROSALIND By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come, now |
| I will be your Rosalind in a more coming-on |
| disposition, and ask me what you will. I will grant |
| it. |
| |
| ORLANDO Then love me, Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays and all. |
| |
| ORLANDO And wilt thou have me? |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, and twenty such. |
| |
| ORLANDO What sayest thou? |
| |
| ROSALIND Are you not good? |
| |
| ORLANDO I hope so. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? |
| Come, sister, you shall be the priest and marry us. |
| Give me your hand, Orlando. What do you say, sister? |
| |
| ORLANDO Pray thee, marry us. |
| |
| CELIA I cannot say the words. |
| |
| ROSALIND You must begin, 'Will you, Orlando--' |
| |
| CELIA Go to. Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind? |
| |
| ORLANDO I will. |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, but when? |
| |
| ORLANDO Why now; as fast as she can marry us. |
| |
| ROSALIND Then you must say 'I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.' |
| |
| ORLANDO I take thee, Rosalind, for wife. |
| |
| ROSALIND I might ask you for your commission; but I do take |
| thee, Orlando, for my husband: there's a girl goes |
| before the priest; and certainly a woman's thought |
| runs before her actions. |
| |
| ORLANDO So do all thoughts; they are winged. |
| |
| ROSALIND Now tell me how long you would have her after you |
| have possessed her. |
| |
| ORLANDO For ever and a day. |
| |
| ROSALIND Say 'a day,' without the 'ever.' No, no, Orlando; |
| men are April when they woo, December when they wed: |
| maids are May when they are maids, but the sky |
| changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous |
| of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen, |
| more clamorous than a parrot against rain, more |
| new-fangled than an ape, more giddy in my desires |
| than a monkey: I will weep for nothing, like Diana |
| in the fountain, and I will do that when you are |
| disposed to be merry; I will laugh like a hyen, and |
| that when thou art inclined to sleep. |
| |
| ORLANDO But will my Rosalind do so? |
| |
| ROSALIND By my life, she will do as I do. |
| |
| ORLANDO O, but she is wise. |
| |
| ROSALIND Or else she could not have the wit to do this: the |
| wiser, the waywarder: make the doors upon a woman's |
| wit and it will out at the casement; shut that and |
| 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly |
| with the smoke out at the chimney. |
| |
| ORLANDO A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say |
| 'Wit, whither wilt?' |
| |
| ROSALIND Nay, you might keep that cheque for it till you met |
| your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed. |
| |
| ORLANDO And what wit could wit have to excuse that? |
| |
| ROSALIND Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall |
| never take her without her answer, unless you take |
| her without her tongue. O, that woman that cannot |
| make her fault her husband's occasion, let her |
| never nurse her child herself, for she will breed |
| it like a fool! |
| |
| ORLANDO For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee. |
| |
| ROSALIND Alas! dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours. |
| |
| ORLANDO I must attend the duke at dinner: by two o'clock I |
| will be with thee again. |
| |
| ROSALIND Ay, go your ways, go your ways; I knew what you |
| would prove: my friends told me as much, and I |
| thought no less: that flattering tongue of yours |
| won me: 'tis but one cast away, and so, come, |
| death! Two o'clock is your hour? |
| |
| ORLANDO Ay, sweet Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend |
| me, and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, |
| if you break one jot of your promise or come one |
| minute behind your hour, I will think you the most |
| pathetical break-promise and the most hollow lover |
| and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind that |
| may be chosen out of the gross band of the |
| unfaithful: therefore beware my censure and keep |
| your promise. |
| |
| ORLANDO With no less religion than if thou wert indeed my |
| Rosalind: so adieu. |
| |
| ROSALIND Well, Time is the old justice that examines all such |
| offenders, and let Time try: adieu. |
| |
| [Exit ORLANDO] |
| |
| CELIA You have simply misused our sex in your love-prate: |
| we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your |
| head, and show the world what the bird hath done to |
| her own nest. |
| |
| ROSALIND O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou |
| didst know how many fathom deep I am in love! But |
| it cannot be sounded: my affection hath an unknown |
| bottom, like the bay of Portugal. |
| |
| CELIA Or rather, bottomless, that as fast as you pour |
| affection in, it runs out. |
| |
| ROSALIND No, that same wicked bastard of Venus that was begot |
| of thought, conceived of spleen and born of madness, |
| that blind rascally boy that abuses every one's eyes |
| because his own are out, let him be judge how deep I |
| am in love. I'll tell thee, Aliena, I cannot be out |
| of the sight of Orlando: I'll go find a shadow and |
| sigh till he come. |
| |
| CELIA And I'll sleep. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT IV |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE II The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter JAQUES, Lords, and Foresters] |
| |
| JAQUES Which is he that killed the deer? |
| |
| A Lord Sir, it was I. |
| |
| JAQUES Let's present him to the duke, like a Roman |
| conqueror; and it would do well to set the deer's |
| horns upon his head, for a branch of victory. Have |
| you no song, forester, for this purpose? |
| |
| Forester Yes, sir. |
| |
| JAQUES Sing it: 'tis no matter how it be in tune, so it |
| make noise enough. |
| |
| SONG. |
| Forester What shall he have that kill'd the deer? |
| His leather skin and horns to wear. |
| Then sing him home; |
| |
| [The rest shall bear this burden] |
| |
| Take thou no scorn to wear the horn; |
| It was a crest ere thou wast born: |
| Thy father's father wore it, |
| And thy father bore it: |
| The horn, the horn, the lusty horn |
| Is not a thing to laugh to scorn. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT IV |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE III The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND and CELIA] |
| |
| ROSALIND How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock? and |
| here much Orlando! |
| |
| CELIA I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, he |
| hath ta'en his bow and arrows and is gone forth to |
| sleep. Look, who comes here. |
| |
| [Enter SILVIUS] |
| |
| SILVIUS My errand is to you, fair youth; |
| My gentle Phebe bid me give you this: |
| I know not the contents; but, as I guess |
| By the stern brow and waspish action |
| Which she did use as she was writing of it, |
| It bears an angry tenor: pardon me: |
| I am but as a guiltless messenger. |
| |
| ROSALIND Patience herself would startle at this letter |
| And play the swaggerer; bear this, bear all: |
| She says I am not fair, that I lack manners; |
| She calls me proud, and that she could not love me, |
| Were man as rare as phoenix. 'Od's my will! |
| Her love is not the hare that I do hunt: |
| Why writes she so to me? Well, shepherd, well, |
| This is a letter of your own device. |
| |
| SILVIUS No, I protest, I know not the contents: |
| Phebe did write it. |
| |
| ROSALIND Come, come, you are a fool |
| And turn'd into the extremity of love. |
| I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand. |
| A freestone-colour'd hand; I verily did think |
| That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands: |
| She has a huswife's hand; but that's no matter: |
| I say she never did invent this letter; |
| This is a man's invention and his hand. |
| |
| SILVIUS Sure, it is hers. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel style. |
| A style for-challengers; why, she defies me, |
| Like Turk to Christian: women's gentle brain |
| Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention |
| Such Ethiope words, blacker in their effect |
| Than in their countenance. Will you hear the letter? |
| |
| SILVIUS So please you, for I never heard it yet; |
| Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty. |
| |
| ROSALIND She Phebes me: mark how the tyrant writes. |
| |
| [Reads] |
| |
| Art thou god to shepherd turn'd, |
| That a maiden's heart hath burn'd? |
| Can a woman rail thus? |
| |
| SILVIUS Call you this railing? |
| |
| ROSALIND [Reads] |
| |
| Why, thy godhead laid apart, |
| Warr'st thou with a woman's heart? |
| Did you ever hear such railing? |
| Whiles the eye of man did woo me, |
| That could do no vengeance to me. |
| Meaning me a beast. |
| If the scorn of your bright eyne |
| Have power to raise such love in mine, |
| Alack, in me what strange effect |
| Would they work in mild aspect! |
| Whiles you chid me, I did love; |
| How then might your prayers move! |
| He that brings this love to thee |
| Little knows this love in me: |
| And by him seal up thy mind; |
| Whether that thy youth and kind |
| Will the faithful offer take |
| Of me and all that I can make; |
| Or else by him my love deny, |
| And then I'll study how to die. |
| |
| SILVIUS Call you this chiding? |
| |
| CELIA Alas, poor shepherd! |
| |
| ROSALIND Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity. Wilt |
| thou love such a woman? What, to make thee an |
| instrument and play false strains upon thee! not to |
| be endured! Well, go your way to her, for I see |
| love hath made thee a tame snake, and say this to |
| her: that if she love me, I charge her to love |
| thee; if she will not, I will never have her unless |
| thou entreat for her. If you be a true lover, |
| hence, and not a word; for here comes more company. |
| |
| [Exit SILVIUS] |
| |
| [Enter OLIVER] |
| |
| OLIVER Good morrow, fair ones: pray you, if you know, |
| Where in the purlieus of this forest stands |
| A sheep-cote fenced about with olive trees? |
| |
| CELIA West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom: |
| The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream |
| Left on your right hand brings you to the place. |
| But at this hour the house doth keep itself; |
| There's none within. |
| |
| OLIVER If that an eye may profit by a tongue, |
| Then should I know you by description; |
| Such garments and such years: 'The boy is fair, |
| Of female favour, and bestows himself |
| Like a ripe sister: the woman low |
| And browner than her brother.' Are not you |
| The owner of the house I did inquire for? |
| |
| CELIA It is no boast, being ask'd, to say we are. |
| |
| OLIVER Orlando doth commend him to you both, |
| And to that youth he calls his Rosalind |
| He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he? |
| |
| ROSALIND I am: what must we understand by this? |
| |
| OLIVER Some of my shame; if you will know of me |
| What man I am, and how, and why, and where |
| This handkercher was stain'd. |
| |
| CELIA I pray you, tell it. |
| |
| OLIVER When last the young Orlando parted from you |
| He left a promise to return again |
| Within an hour, and pacing through the forest, |
| Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy, |
| Lo, what befell! he threw his eye aside, |
| And mark what object did present itself: |
| Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age |
| And high top bald with dry antiquity, |
| A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair, |
| Lay sleeping on his back: about his neck |
| A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself, |
| Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd |
| The opening of his mouth; but suddenly, |
| Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself, |
| And with indented glides did slip away |
| Into a bush: under which bush's shade |
| A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, |
| Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch, |
| When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis |
| The royal disposition of that beast |
| To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead: |
| This seen, Orlando did approach the man |
| And found it was his brother, his elder brother. |
| |
| CELIA O, I have heard him speak of that same brother; |
| And he did render him the most unnatural |
| That lived amongst men. |
| |
| OLIVER And well he might so do, |
| For well I know he was unnatural. |
| |
| ROSALIND But, to Orlando: did he leave him there, |
| Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness? |
| |
| OLIVER Twice did he turn his back and purposed so; |
| But kindness, nobler ever than revenge, |
| And nature, stronger than his just occasion, |
| Made him give battle to the lioness, |
| Who quickly fell before him: in which hurtling |
| From miserable slumber I awaked. |
| |
| CELIA Are you his brother? |
| |
| ROSALIND Wast you he rescued? |
| |
| CELIA Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him? |
| |
| OLIVER 'Twas I; but 'tis not I I do not shame |
| To tell you what I was, since my conversion |
| So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. |
| |
| ROSALIND But, for the bloody napkin? |
| |
| OLIVER By and by. |
| When from the first to last betwixt us two |
| Tears our recountments had most kindly bathed, |
| As how I came into that desert place:-- |
| In brief, he led me to the gentle duke, |
| Who gave me fresh array and entertainment, |
| Committing me unto my brother's love; |
| Who led me instantly unto his cave, |
| There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm |
| The lioness had torn some flesh away, |
| Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted |
| And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind. |
| Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound; |
| And, after some small space, being strong at heart, |
| He sent me hither, stranger as I am, |
| To tell this story, that you might excuse |
| His broken promise, and to give this napkin |
| Dyed in his blood unto the shepherd youth |
| That he in sport doth call his Rosalind. |
| |
| [ROSALIND swoons] |
| |
| CELIA Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede! |
| |
| OLIVER Many will swoon when they do look on blood. |
| |
| CELIA There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede! |
| |
| OLIVER Look, he recovers. |
| |
| ROSALIND I would I were at home. |
| |
| CELIA We'll lead you thither. |
| I pray you, will you take him by the arm? |
| |
| OLIVER Be of good cheer, youth: you a man! you lack a |
| man's heart. |
| |
| ROSALIND I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would |
| think this was well counterfeited! I pray you, tell |
| your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho! |
| |
| OLIVER This was not counterfeit: there is too great |
| testimony in your complexion that it was a passion |
| of earnest. |
| |
| ROSALIND Counterfeit, I assure you. |
| |
| OLIVER Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man. |
| |
| ROSALIND So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right. |
| |
| CELIA Come, you look paler and paler: pray you, draw |
| homewards. Good sir, go with us. |
| |
| OLIVER That will I, for I must bear answer back |
| How you excuse my brother, Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend |
| my counterfeiting to him. Will you go? |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT V |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE I The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY] |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey. |
| |
| AUDREY Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old |
| gentleman's saying. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile |
| Martext. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the |
| forest lays claim to you. |
| |
| AUDREY Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me in |
| the world: here comes the man you mean. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: by my |
| troth, we that have good wits have much to answer |
| for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold. |
| |
| [Enter WILLIAM] |
| |
| WILLIAM Good even, Audrey. |
| |
| AUDREY God ye good even, William. |
| |
| WILLIAM And good even to you, sir. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Good even, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy |
| head; nay, prithee, be covered. How old are you, friend? |
| |
| WILLIAM Five and twenty, sir. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE A ripe age. Is thy name William? |
| |
| WILLIAM William, sir. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE A fair name. Wast born i' the forest here? |
| |
| WILLIAM Ay, sir, I thank God. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE 'Thank God;' a good answer. Art rich? |
| |
| WILLIAM Faith, sir, so so. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE 'So so' is good, very good, very excellent good; and |
| yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise? |
| |
| WILLIAM Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Why, thou sayest well. I do now remember a saying, |
| 'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man |
| knows himself to be a fool.' The heathen |
| philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, |
| would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; |
| meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and |
| lips to open. You do love this maid? |
| |
| WILLIAM I do, sir. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Give me your hand. Art thou learned? |
| |
| WILLIAM No, sir. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Then learn this of me: to have, is to have; for it |
| is a figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out |
| of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty |
| the other; for all your writers do consent that ipse |
| is he: now, you are not ipse, for I am he. |
| |
| WILLIAM Which he, sir? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you |
| clown, abandon,--which is in the vulgar leave,--the |
| society,--which in the boorish is company,--of this |
| female,--which in the common is woman; which |
| together is, abandon the society of this female, or, |
| clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better |
| understanding, diest; or, to wit I kill thee, make |
| thee away, translate thy life into death, thy |
| liberty into bondage: I will deal in poison with |
| thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy |
| with thee in faction; I will o'errun thee with |
| policy; I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways: |
| therefore tremble and depart. |
| |
| AUDREY Do, good William. |
| |
| WILLIAM God rest you merry, sir. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| [Enter CORIN] |
| |
| CORIN Our master and mistress seeks you; come, away, away! |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Trip, Audrey! trip, Audrey! I attend, I attend. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT V |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE II The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER] |
| |
| ORLANDO Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you |
| should like her? that but seeing you should love |
| her? and loving woo? and, wooing, she should |
| grant? and will you persever to enjoy her? |
| |
| OLIVER Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the |
| poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden |
| wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me, |
| I love Aliena; say with her that she loves me; |
| consent with both that we may enjoy each other: it |
| shall be to your good; for my father's house and all |
| the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's will I |
| estate upon you, and here live and die a shepherd. |
| |
| ORLANDO You have my consent. Let your wedding be to-morrow: |
| thither will I invite the duke and all's contented |
| followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for look |
| you, here comes my Rosalind. |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND] |
| |
| ROSALIND God save you, brother. |
| |
| OLIVER And you, fair sister. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| ROSALIND O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee |
| wear thy heart in a scarf! |
| |
| ORLANDO It is my arm. |
| |
| ROSALIND I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws |
| of a lion. |
| |
| ORLANDO Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. |
| |
| ROSALIND Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to |
| swoon when he showed me your handkerchief? |
| |
| ORLANDO Ay, and greater wonders than that. |
| |
| ROSALIND O, I know where you are: nay, 'tis true: there was |
| never any thing so sudden but the fight of two rams |
| and Caesar's thrasonical brag of 'I came, saw, and |
| overcame:' for your brother and my sister no sooner |
| met but they looked, no sooner looked but they |
| loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner |
| sighed but they asked one another the reason, no |
| sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; |
| and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs |
| to marriage which they will climb incontinent, or |
| else be incontinent before marriage: they are in |
| the very wrath of love and they will together; clubs |
| cannot part them. |
| |
| ORLANDO They shall be married to-morrow, and I will bid the |
| duke to the nuptial. But, O, how bitter a thing it |
| is to look into happiness through another man's |
| eyes! By so much the more shall I to-morrow be at |
| the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall |
| think my brother happy in having what he wishes for. |
| |
| ROSALIND Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind? |
| |
| ORLANDO I can live no longer by thinking. |
| |
| ROSALIND I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. |
| Know of me then, for now I speak to some purpose, |
| that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I |
| speak not this that you should bear a good opinion |
| of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you are; |
| neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in |
| some little measure draw a belief from you, to do |
| yourself good and not to grace me. Believe then, if |
| you please, that I can do strange things: I have, |
| since I was three year old, conversed with a |
| magician, most profound in his art and yet not |
| damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart |
| as your gesture cries it out, when your brother |
| marries Aliena, shall you marry her: I know into |
| what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is |
| not impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient |
| to you, to set her before your eyes tomorrow human |
| as she is and without any danger. |
| |
| ORLANDO Speakest thou in sober meanings? |
| |
| ROSALIND By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I |
| say I am a magician. Therefore, put you in your |
| best array: bid your friends; for if you will be |
| married to-morrow, you shall, and to Rosalind, if you will. |
| |
| [Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE] |
| |
| Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers. |
| |
| PHEBE Youth, you have done me much ungentleness, |
| To show the letter that I writ to you. |
| |
| ROSALIND I care not if I have: it is my study |
| To seem despiteful and ungentle to you: |
| You are there followed by a faithful shepherd; |
| Look upon him, love him; he worships you. |
| |
| PHEBE Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. |
| |
| SILVIUS It is to be all made of sighs and tears; |
| And so am I for Phebe. |
| |
| PHEBE And I for Ganymede. |
| |
| ORLANDO And I for Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND And I for no woman. |
| |
| SILVIUS It is to be all made of faith and service; |
| And so am I for Phebe. |
| |
| PHEBE And I for Ganymede. |
| |
| ORLANDO And I for Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND And I for no woman. |
| |
| SILVIUS It is to be all made of fantasy, |
| All made of passion and all made of wishes, |
| All adoration, duty, and observance, |
| All humbleness, all patience and impatience, |
| All purity, all trial, all observance; |
| And so am I for Phebe. |
| |
| PHEBE And so am I for Ganymede. |
| |
| ORLANDO And so am I for Rosalind. |
| |
| ROSALIND And so am I for no woman. |
| |
| PHEBE If this be so, why blame you me to love you? |
| |
| SILVIUS If this be so, why blame you me to love you? |
| |
| ORLANDO If this be so, why blame you me to love you? |
| |
| ROSALIND Who do you speak to, 'Why blame you me to love you?' |
| |
| ORLANDO To her that is not here, nor doth not hear. |
| |
| ROSALIND Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling |
| of Irish wolves against the moon. |
| |
| [To SILVIUS] |
| |
| I will help you, if I can: |
| |
| [To PHEBE] |
| |
| I would love you, if I could. To-morrow meet me all together. |
| |
| [To PHEBE] |
| |
| I will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I'll be |
| married to-morrow: |
| |
| [To ORLANDO] |
| |
| I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you |
| shall be married to-morrow: |
| |
| [To SILVIUS] |
| |
| I will content you, if what pleases you contents |
| you, and you shall be married to-morrow. |
| |
| [To ORLANDO] |
| |
| As you love Rosalind, meet: |
| |
| [To SILVIUS] |
| |
| as you love Phebe, meet: and as I love no woman, |
| I'll meet. So fare you well: I have left you commands. |
| |
| SILVIUS I'll not fail, if I live. |
| |
| PHEBE Nor I. |
| |
| ORLANDO Nor I. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT V |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE III The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY] |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow will |
| we be married. |
| |
| AUDREY I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is |
| no dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the |
| world. Here comes two of the banished duke's pages. |
| |
| [Enter two Pages] |
| |
| First Page Well met, honest gentleman. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE By my troth, well met. Come, sit, sit, and a song. |
| |
| Second Page We are for you: sit i' the middle. |
| |
| First Page Shall we clap into't roundly, without hawking or |
| spitting or saying we are hoarse, which are the only |
| prologues to a bad voice? |
| |
| Second Page I'faith, i'faith; and both in a tune, like two |
| gipsies on a horse. |
| |
| SONG. |
| It was a lover and his lass, |
| With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, |
| That o'er the green corn-field did pass |
| In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, |
| When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding: |
| Sweet lovers love the spring. |
| |
| Between the acres of the rye, |
| With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino |
| These pretty country folks would lie, |
| In spring time, &c. |
| |
| This carol they began that hour, |
| With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, |
| How that a life was but a flower |
| In spring time, &c. |
| |
| And therefore take the present time, |
| With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino; |
| For love is crowned with the prime |
| In spring time, &c. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great |
| matter in the ditty, yet the note was very |
| untuneable. |
| |
| First Page You are deceived, sir: we kept time, we lost not our time. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear |
| such a foolish song. God be wi' you; and God mend |
| your voices! Come, Audrey. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| |
| ACT V |
| |
| |
| |
| SCENE IV The forest. |
| |
| |
| [Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, JAQUES, ORLANDO, OLIVER, |
| and CELIA] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy |
| Can do all this that he hath promised? |
| |
| ORLANDO I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not; |
| As those that fear they hope, and know they fear. |
| |
| [Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE] |
| |
| ROSALIND Patience once more, whiles our compact is urged: |
| You say, if I bring in your Rosalind, |
| You will bestow her on Orlando here? |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her. |
| |
| ROSALIND And you say, you will have her, when I bring her? |
| |
| ORLANDO That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. |
| |
| ROSALIND You say, you'll marry me, if I be willing? |
| |
| PHEBE That will I, should I die the hour after. |
| |
| ROSALIND But if you do refuse to marry me, |
| You'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd? |
| |
| PHEBE So is the bargain. |
| |
| ROSALIND You say, that you'll have Phebe, if she will? |
| |
| SILVIUS Though to have her and death were both one thing. |
| |
| ROSALIND I have promised to make all this matter even. |
| Keep you your word, O duke, to give your daughter; |
| You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter: |
| Keep your word, Phebe, that you'll marry me, |
| Or else refusing me, to wed this shepherd: |
| Keep your word, Silvius, that you'll marry her. |
| If she refuse me: and from hence I go, |
| To make these doubts all even. |
| |
| [Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR I do remember in this shepherd boy |
| Some lively touches of my daughter's favour. |
| |
| ORLANDO My lord, the first time that I ever saw him |
| Methought he was a brother to your daughter: |
| But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born, |
| And hath been tutor'd in the rudiments |
| Of many desperate studies by his uncle, |
| Whom he reports to be a great magician, |
| Obscured in the circle of this forest. |
| |
| [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY] |
| |
| JAQUES There is, sure, another flood toward, and these |
| couples are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of |
| very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Salutation and greeting to you all! |
| |
| JAQUES Good my lord, bid him welcome: this is the |
| motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in |
| the forest: he hath been a courtier, he swears. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE If any man doubt that, let him put me to my |
| purgation. I have trod a measure; I have flattered |
| a lady; I have been politic with my friend, smooth |
| with mine enemy; I have undone three tailors; I have |
| had four quarrels, and like to have fought one. |
| |
| JAQUES And how was that ta'en up? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the |
| seventh cause. |
| |
| JAQUES How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this fellow. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR I like him very well. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE God 'ild you, sir; I desire you of the like. I |
| press in here, sir, amongst the rest of the country |
| copulatives, to swear and to forswear: according as |
| marriage binds and blood breaks: a poor virgin, |
| sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own; a poor |
| humour of mine, sir, to take that that no man else |
| will: rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a |
| poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR By my faith, he is very swift and sententious. |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases. |
| |
| JAQUES But, for the seventh cause; how did you find the |
| quarrel on the seventh cause? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE Upon a lie seven times removed:--bear your body more |
| seeming, Audrey:--as thus, sir. I did dislike the |
| cut of a certain courtier's beard: he sent me word, |
| if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the |
| mind it was: this is called the Retort Courteous. |
| If I sent him word again 'it was not well cut,' he |
| would send me word, he cut it to please himself: |
| this is called the Quip Modest. If again 'it was |
| not well cut,' he disabled my judgment: this is |
| called the Reply Churlish. If again 'it was not |
| well cut,' he would answer, I spake not true: this |
| is called the Reproof Valiant. If again 'it was not |
| well cut,' he would say I lied: this is called the |
| Counter-cheque Quarrelsome: and so to the Lie |
| Circumstantial and the Lie Direct. |
| |
| JAQUES And how oft did you say his beard was not well cut? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE I durst go no further than the Lie Circumstantial, |
| nor he durst not give me the Lie Direct; and so we |
| measured swords and parted. |
| |
| JAQUES Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? |
| |
| TOUCHSTONE O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; as you have |
| books for good manners: I will name you the degrees. |
| The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the |
| Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the |
| fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the |
| Countercheque Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with |
| Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All |
| these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may |
| avoid that too, with an If. I knew when seven |
| justices could not take up a quarrel, but when the |
| parties were met themselves, one of them thought but |
| of an If, as, 'If you said so, then I said so;' and |
| they shook hands and swore brothers. Your If is the |
| only peacemaker; much virtue in If. |
| |
| JAQUES Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? he's as good at |
| any thing and yet a fool. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR He uses his folly like a stalking-horse and under |
| the presentation of that he shoots his wit. |
| |
| [Enter HYMEN, ROSALIND, and CELIA] |
| |
| [Still Music] |
| |
| HYMEN Then is there mirth in heaven, |
| When earthly things made even |
| Atone together. |
| Good duke, receive thy daughter |
| Hymen from heaven brought her, |
| Yea, brought her hither, |
| That thou mightst join her hand with his |
| Whose heart within his bosom is. |
| |
| ROSALIND [To DUKE SENIOR] To you I give myself, for I am yours. |
| |
| [To ORLANDO] |
| |
| To you I give myself, for I am yours. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. |
| |
| ORLANDO If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind. |
| |
| PHEBE If sight and shape be true, |
| Why then, my love adieu! |
| |
| ROSALIND I'll have no father, if you be not he: |
| I'll have no husband, if you be not he: |
| Nor ne'er wed woman, if you be not she. |
| |
| HYMEN 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. |
| You and you no cross shall part: |
| You and you are heart in heart |
| You to his love must accord, |
| Or have a woman to your lord: |
| You and you are sure together, |
| As the winter to foul weather. |
| Whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing, |
| Feed yourselves with questioning; |
| 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 SENIOR O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me! |
| Even daughter, welcome, in no less degree. |
| |
| PHEBE I will not eat my word, now thou art mine; |
| Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine. |
| |
| [Enter JAQUES DE BOYS] |
| |
| JAQUES DE BOYS 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'd 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 enterprise and from the world, |
| His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother, |
| And all their lands restored to them again |
| That were with him exiled. This to be true, |
| I do engage my life. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR 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 endured 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 rustic revelry. |
| Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all, |
| With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall. |
| |
| JAQUES Sir, by your patience. If I heard you rightly, |
| The duke hath put on a religious life |
| And thrown into neglect the pompous court? |
| |
| JAQUES DE BOYS He hath. |
| |
| JAQUES To him will I : out of these convertites |
| There is much matter to be heard and learn'd. |
| |
| [To DUKE SENIOR] |
| |
| You to your former honour I bequeath; |
| Your patience and your virtue well deserves it: |
| |
| [To ORLANDO] |
| |
| You to a love that your true faith doth merit: |
| |
| [To OLIVER] |
| |
| You to your land and love and great allies: |
| |
| [To SILVIUS] |
| |
| You to a long and well-deserved bed: |
| |
| [To TOUCHSTONE] |
| |
| And you to wrangling; for thy loving voyage |
| Is but for two months victuall'd. So, to your pleasures: |
| I am for other than for dancing measures. |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Stay, Jaques, stay. |
| |
| JAQUES To see no pastime I what you would have |
| I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. |
| |
| [Exit] |
| |
| DUKE SENIOR Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, |
| As we do trust they'll end, in true delights. |
| |
| [A dance] |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| AS YOU LIKE IT |
| |
| EPILOGUE |
| |
| |
| ROSALIND 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, '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 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 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: and I charge you, O men, for the love |
| you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering, |
| none of you hates them--that between you and the |
| women the play may please. If I were a woman I |
| would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased |
| me, complexions that liked me 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 curtsy, bid me farewell. |
| |
| [Exeunt] |