William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

I’ll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.

Great King, I am no strumpet, by my life;

I am either maid, or else this old man’s wife.

[Pointing to LAFEU.]

KING.

She does abuse our ears; to prison with her.

DIANA.

Good mother, fetch my bail.—Stay, royal sir;

[Exit WIDOW.]

The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for,

And he shall surety me. But for this lord

Who hath abus’d me as he knows himself,

Though yet he never harm’d me, here I quit him:

He knows himself my bed he hath defil’d;

And at that time he got his wife with child.

Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick;

So there’s my riddle:—One that’s dead is quick;

And now behold the meaning.

[Re-enter Widow with HELENA.]

KING.

Is there no exorcist

Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?

Is’t real that I see?

HELENA.

No, my good lord;

‘Tis but the shadow of a wife you see—

The name, and not the thing.

BERTRAM.

Both, both; O, pardon!

HELENA.

O, my good lord, when I was like this maid;

I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring,

And, look you, here’s your letter. This it says,

‘When from my finger you can get this ring,

And are by me with child, &c.’— This is done:

Will you be mine now you are doubly won?

BERTRAM.

If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,

I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.

HELENA.

If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,

Deadly divorce step between me and you!—

O my dear mother, do I see you living?

LAFEU. Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon:— Good Tom Drum [to PAROLLES], lend me a handkercher: so, I thank thee; wait on me home, I’ll make sport with thee: let thy courtesies alone, they are scurvy ones.

KING.

Let us from point to point this story know,

To make the even truth in pleasure flow:—

If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower,

[To DIANA.]

Choose thou thy husband, and I’ll pay thy dower;

For I can guess that, by thy honest aid,

Thou kept’st a wife herself, thyself a maid.

Of that and all the progress, more and less,

Resolvedly more leisure shall express:

All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,

The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

[Flourish.]

The king’s a beggar, now the play is done;

All is well-ended if this suit be won,

That you express content; which we will pay

With strife to please you, day exceeding day:

Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;

Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

[Exeunt.]

THE END

Table of Contents

By William Shakespeare

Persons Represented

DUKE, living in exile

FREDERICK, Brother to the Duke, and Usurper of his Dominions

AMIENS, Lord attending on the Duke in his Banishment

JAQUES, Lord attending on the Duke in his Banishment

LE BEAU, a Courtier attending upon Frederick

CHARLES, his Wrestler

OLIVER, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois

JAQUES, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois

ORLANDO, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois

ADAM, Servant to Oliver

DENNIS, Servant to Oliver

TOUCHSTONE, a Clown

SIR OLIVER MARTEXT, a Vicar

CORIN, Shepherd

SILVIUS, Shepherd

WILLIAM, a Country Fellow, in love with Audrey

A person representing HYMEN

ROSALIND, Daughter to the banished Duke

CELIA, Daughter to Frederick

PHEBE, a Shepherdess

AUDREY, a Country Wench

Lords belonging to the two Dukes; Pages, Foresters, and other Attendants.

The SCENE lies first near OLIVER’S house;

afterwards partly in the Usurper’s court

and partly in the Forest of Arden.

ACT I

SCENE I. An Orchard near OLIVER’S house

[Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.]

ORLANDO

As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion,—bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say’st, 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.

ADAM

Yonder comes my master, your brother.

ORLANDO

Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up.

[ADAM retires]

[Enter OLIVER.]

OLIVER

Now, sir! what make you here?

ORLANDO

Nothing: I am not taught to make anything.

OLIVER What mar you then, sir?

ORLANDO

Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

OLIVER

Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.

ORLANDO

Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury?

OLIVER

Know you where you are, sir?

ORLANDO

O, sir, very well: here in your orchard.

OLIVER

Know you before whom, sir?

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.

OLIVER

What, boy!

ORLANDO

Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.

OLIVER

Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?

ORLANDO

I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois: 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 has railed on thyself.

ADAM

[Coming forward] Sweet masters, be patient; for your father’s remembrance, be at accord.

OLIVER

Let me go, I say.

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 gentlemanlike 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.

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.

ORLANDO

I no further offend you than becomes me for my good.

OLIVER

Get you with him, you old dog.

ADAM