The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

Home > Fiction > The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works > Page 73
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 73

by William Shakespeare


  ROSALIND

  [Reads.] Why, thy godhead laid apart,

  Warr’st thou with a woman’s heart?

  45

  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

  50

  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?

  55

  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

  60

  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!

  65

  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

  70

  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,

  75

  Where in the purlieus of this forest stands

  A sheep-cote fenc’d 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.

  80

  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,

  85

  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 enquire for?

  CELIA It is no boast, being ask’d, to say we are.

  90

  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

  95

  What man I am, and how, and why, and where

  This handkerchief 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,

  100

  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 old oak, whose boughs were moss’d with

  age

  And high top bald with dry antiquity,

  105

  A wretched ragged man, o’ergrown with hair,

  Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck

  A green and gilded snake had wreath’d itself,

  Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach’d

  The opening of his mouth. But suddenly

  110

  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

  115

  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.

  120

  CELIA O I have heard him speak of that same brother,

  And he did render him the most unnatural

  That liv’d 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,

  125

  Food to the suck’d and hungry lioness?

  OLIVER Twice did he turn his back, and purpos’d so.

  But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

  And nature, stronger than his just occasion,

  Made him give battle to the lioness,

  130

  Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling

  From miserable slumber I awak’d.

  CELIA Are you his brother?

  ROSALIND Was’t you he rescu’d?

  CELIA Was’t you that did so oft contrive to kill him?

  OLIVER ’Twas I. But ’tis not I. I do not shame

  135

  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 bath’d –

  140

  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,

  145

  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,

  150

  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,

  Dy’d in his blood, unto the shepherd youth

  155

  That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.

  [Rosalind faints.]

  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.

  160

  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.

  165

  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

  170

  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

  175

  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.

  180

  ROSALIND I shall devise something. But I pray you

  commend my counterfeiting to him. Will you go?

  Exeunt.

  5.1 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

  5

  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.

  Enter WILLIAM.

  TOUCHSTONE It is meat and drink to me to see a clown.

  10

  By my troth, we that have good wits have much to

  answer for: we shall be flouting: we cannot hold.

  WILLIAM Good ev’n Audrey.

  AUDREY God ye good ev’n William.

  WILLIAM And good ev’n to you sir.

  15

  TOUCHSTONE Good ev’n 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?

  20

  WILLIAM William, sir.

  TOUCHSTONE A fair name. Was’t born i’th’ forest here?

  WILLIAM Ay sir, I thank God.

  TOUCHSTONE ‘Thank God.’ A good answer. Art rich?

  WILLIAM Faith sir, so so.

  25

  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,

  30

  but the wiseman 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?

  35

  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

  40

  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.

  45

  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

  50

  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’er-run thee with policy; I will kill

  55

  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,

  60

  away.

  TOUCHSTONE Trip Audrey, trip Audrey. I attend, I

  attend. Exeunt.

  5.2 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

  5

  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

 

‹ Prev