William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Had I before known this young man his son,

I should have given him tears unto entreaties

Ere he should thus have ventur’d.

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 deserv’d:

If you do keep your promises in love

But justly, as you have exceeded 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 urg’d 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 deserv’d

High commendation, true applause, and love,

Yet such is now the duke’s condition,

That he miscónstrues 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 smaller 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.]

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, despatch 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 rang’d 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 wheresoe’er 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 griev’d than I am.

ROSALIND

I have more cause.

CELIA

Thou hast not, cousin;

Pr’ythee be cheerful: know’st thou not the duke

Hath banish’d me, his daughter?