As You Like It
Page 4
broke three of his ribs, that110 there is little hope of life in him.
So111 he served the second, and so the third. Yonder they lie, the
poor old man, their father, making such pitiful dole112 over
them that all the beholders take his part with weeping.
ROSALIND Alas!
TOUCHSTONE But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies
have lost?
LE BEAU Why, this that I speak of.
TOUCHSTONE Thus men may grow wiser every day. It is the first
time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies.
CELIA Or I, I promise thee.
ROSALIND But is there any else longs to see this broken121 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.
CELIA Yonder, sure they are coming. Let us now stay and
see it.
Flourish. Enter Duke [Frederick], Lords, Orlando, Charles and Attendants
DUKE FREDERICK Come on. Since the youth will not be
entreated, his own peril on his forwardness129.
To Le Beau
ROSALIND Is yonder the man?
LE BEAU Even he, madam.
CELIA Alas, he is too young, yet he looks successfully132.
DUKE FREDERICK How now, daughter and cousin133! Are you crept
hither to see the wrestling?
ROSALIND Ay, my liege, so please you give us leave135.
DUKE FREDERICK You will take little delight in it, I can tell you,
there is such odds in the man137. In pity of the challenger’s
youth, I would fain138 dissuade him, but he will not be
entreated. Speak to him, ladies, see if you can move him.
CELIA Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau.
He stands aside
DUKE FREDERICK Do so. I’ll not be by.
To Orlando
LE BEAU Monsieur the challenger, the princess
calls for you.
ORLANDO I attend them with all respect and duty.
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 try148 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
judgement, the fear of your adventure153 would counsel you to
a more equal154 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
misprized. We will make it our suit157 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 anything. But let your fair eyes and
gentle wishes go with me to my trial; wherein if I be foiled162,
there is but one shamed that was never gracious163, if killed,
but one dead that is willing to be so. I shall do my friends164 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 out170 hers.
ROSALIND Fare you well: pray heaven I be deceived171 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 earth174?
ORLANDO Ready, sir, but his will175 hath in it a more modest
working176.
DUKE FREDERICK You shall try but one fall177.
CHARLES No, I warrant178 your grace you shall not entreat him
to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first.
ORLANDO You mean to mock me after, you should not have
mocked me before. But come your ways181.
ROSALIND Now Hercules be thy speed182, young man!
CELIA I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by
the leg.
Wrestle
ROSALIND O excellent young man!
Charles is thrown
CELIA If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye,
I can tell who should down187.
Shout
DUKE FREDERICK No more, no more.
ORLANDO Yes, I beseech your grace:
I am not yet well breathed190.
DUKE FREDERICK How dost thou, Charles?
LE BEAU He cannot speak, my lord.
Charles is carried out/To Orlando
DUKE FREDERICK Bear him away.—What is thy name,
young man?
ORLANDO Orlando, my liege, the youngest son of Sir Rowland
de Bois.
DUKE FREDERICK I would thou hadst been son to some man else:
The world esteemed thy father honourable,
But I did find him still199 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.
Exit Duke [with others; Celia, Orlando and Rosalind remain]
To Rosalind
CELIA Were I my father, coz, would I do this?
Aside?
ORLANDO I am more proud to be Sir Rowland’s son,
His youngest son, and would not change that calling206
To be adopted heir to Frederick.
To Celia
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 unto211 entreaties,
Ere212 he should thus have ventured.
To Rosalind
CELIA Gentle cousin,
Let us go thank him and encourage him.
My father’s rough and envious215 disposition
To Orlando
Sticks216 me at heart.— Sir, you have well deserved,
If you do keep your promises in love
But justly, as you have exceeded all promise218,
Your mistress219 shall be happy.
Gives him a chain from her neck
ROSALIND Gentleman,
Wear this for me, one out of suits221 with fortune,
That could give more, but that her hand lacks means.
To Celia
Shall we go, coz?
CELIA Ay.— Fare you well, fair gentleman.
ORLANDO Can I not say, I thank you? My better parts225
Are all thrown down, and that which here stands up
Is but a quintain227, a mere lifeless block.
ROSALIND He calls us back. My pride fell with my fortunes.
To Orlando
/>
I’ll ask him what he would229.— Did you call, sir?
Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown
More than your enemies.
CELIA Will you go, coz?
ROSALIND Have with you233. Fare you well.
Exeunt [Rosalind and Celia]
ORLANDO What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue?
I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference235.
Enter Le Beau
O poor Orlando, thou art overthrown!
Or237 Charles or something weaker masters thee.
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 condition241
That he misconstrues all that you have done.
The duke is humorous: what he is indeed243
More suits you to conceive244 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 taller249 is his daughter,
The other is daughter to the banished duke,
And here detained 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 gentle255 niece,
Grounded upon no other argument256
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 suddenly260 break forth. Sir, fare you well.
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge262 of you.
ORLANDO I rest much bounden263 to you. Fare you well.
[Exit Le Beau]
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother264,
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother.
But heavenly Rosalind!
Exit
Act 1 Scene 3
running scene 2 continues
Enter Celia and Rosalind
CELIA Why, cousin? Why, Rosalind? Cupid1 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
curs5, throw some of them at me; come, lame me with
reasons6.
ROSALIND Then there were7 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 father11. O, how full of
briars is this working-day12 world!
CELIA They are but burs13, cousin, thrown upon thee in
holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden paths our very
petticoats15 will catch them.
ROSALIND I could shake them off my coat16: these burs are in my
heart.
CELIA Hem18 them away.
ROSALIND I would try, if I could cry ‘hem’ and have19 him.
CELIA Come, come, wrestle20 with thy affections.
ROSALIND O, they take the part of21 a better wrestler than myself!
CELIA O, a good wish upon you! You will try22 in time, in
despite of a fall. But turning these jests out of service23, 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 chase29, 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?32 Doth he not deserve well?
Enter Duke with Lords
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.
To Rosalind
DUKE FREDERICK Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste36
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 intelligence45
Or have acquaintance with mine own desires,
If that I do not dream or be not frantic47 —
As I do trust I am not — then, dear48 uncle,
Never so much as in a thought unborn
Did I offend your highness.
DUKE FREDERICK Thus do all traitors.
If their purgation52 did consist in words,
They are as innocent as grace53 itself;
Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
ROSALIND Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor;
Tell me whereon56 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 banished him;
Treason is not inherited, my lord,
Or if we did derive it from our friends61,
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 stayed66 her for your sake,
Else had she with her father ranged67 along.
CELIA I did not then entreat to have her stay,
It was your pleasure and your own remorse69.
I was too young70 that time to value her,
But now I know her: if she be a traitor,
Why so am I. We still72 have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat73 together,
And wheresoe’er we went, like Juno’s swans74,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.
DUKE FREDERICK She is too subtle for thee, and her smoothness76,
Her very silence and her patience
Speak to the people, and they pity her.
Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name79,
And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous
When she is gone. Then open not thy lips.
Firm and irrevocable is my doom82
Which I have passed upon her: she is banished.
CELIA Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege:
I cannot live out of her company.
DUKE FREDERICK You are a fool. You, niece, provide86 yourself:
If you outstay the time, upon mine honour,
And in the greatness88 of my word, you die.
Exeunt Duke and others
CELIA O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change90 fathers? I will give thee mine.
I charge thee be not thou more grieve
d than I am.
ROSALIND I have more cause.
CELIA Thou hast not, cousin.
Prithee be cheerful; know’st thou not the duke
Hath banished 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 sundered99? 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 change103 upon you,
To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out,
For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale105,
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 mean112 attire
And with a kind of umber113 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 points118 like a man?
A gallant curtle-axe119 upon my thigh,
A boar-spear120 in my hand, and — in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will —
We’ll have a swashing122 and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have
That do outface it with their semblances124.
CELIA What shall I call thee when thou art a man?
ROSALIND I’ll have no worse a name than Jove’s126 own page,
And therefore look you call me Ganymede127.
But what will you be called?
CELIA Something that hath a reference to my state129:
No longer Celia, but Aliena130.
ROSALIND But, cousin, what if we assayed131 to steal
The clownish fool out of your father’s court?
Would he not be a comfort to our travel133?
CELIA He’ll go along o’er the wide world with me.
Leave me alone to woo135 him. Let’s away,