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 sayst, 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.

Enter Oliver.

ADAM Yonder comes my master, your brother.
ORLANDO Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he
will shake me up. Adam steps aside.
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 , threatening Orlando What, boy!
ORLANDO , holding off Oliver by the throat 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 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.
ADAM , coming forward Sweet masters, be patient. For
your father’s remembrance, be at accord.
OLIVER , to Orlando 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.
Orlando releases Oliver.
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 will no further offend you than becomes
me for my good.
OLIVER , to Adam Get you with him, you old dog.
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.
Orlando and Adam exit.
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!

Enter Dennis.

DENNIS Calls your Worship?

---

OLIVER Was not Charles, the Duke’s wrestler, here to
speak with me?
DENNIS So please you, he is here at the door and
importunes access to you.
OLIVER Call him in. Dennis exits. ’Twill be a good
way, and tomorrow the wrestling is.

Enter Charles.

CHARLES Good morrow to your Worship.
OLIVER Good Monsieur Charles, what’s the new news
at the new court?
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.
OLIVER Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke’s daughter,
be banished with her father?
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.
OLIVER Where will the old duke live?
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.
OLIVER What, you wrestle tomorrow before the new
duke?

---

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. Tomorrow, 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 honor 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.
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 labored 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 villainous 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 practice 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 villainous 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.
CHARLES I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he

---

come tomorrow, 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.
OLIVER Farewell, good Charles. Charles exits.
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
misprized. 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.
He exits.

Enter Rosalind and Celia.

CELIA I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.
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.
CELIA Herein I see thou lov’st 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.
ROSALIND Well, I will forget the condition of my estate
to rejoice in yours.

---

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 honor I will, and when I break
that oath, let me turn monster. Therefore, my sweet
Rose, my dear Rose, be merry.
ROSALIND From henceforth I will, coz, and devise
sports. Let me see—what think you of falling in
love?
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 honor come off again.
ROSALIND What shall be our sport, then?
CELIA Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune
from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be
bestowed equally.
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.
CELIA ’Tis true, for those that she makes fair she scarce
makes honest, and those that she makes honest she
makes very ill-favoredly.
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.
CELIA No? When Nature hath made a fair creature,
may she not by fortune fall into the fire?

Enter Touchstone .

Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune,
hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the
argument?

---

ROSALIND Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature,
when Fortune makes Nature’s natural the
cutter-off of Nature’s wit.
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 dullness
of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. To
Touchstone. How now, wit, whither wander you?
TOUCHSTONE Mistress, you must come away to your
father.
CELIA Were you made the messenger?
TOUCHSTONE No, by mine honor, but I was bid to come
for you.
ROSALIND Where learned you that oath, fool?
TOUCHSTONE Of a certain knight that swore by his
honor they were good pancakes, and swore by his
honor 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.
CELIA How prove you that in the great heap of your
knowledge?
ROSALIND Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom.
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.
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
honor, for he never had any, or if he had, he had
sworn it away before ever he saw those pancakes or
that mustard.
CELIA Prithee, who is ’t that thou mean’st?
TOUCHSTONE One that old Frederick, your father, loves.
CELIA My father’s love is enough to honor him.

---

Enough. Speak no more of him; you’ll be whipped
for taxation one of these days.
TOUCHSTONE The more pity that fools may not speak
wisely what wise men do foolishly.
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.

Enter Le Beau.

ROSALIND With his mouth full of news.
CELIA Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their
young.
ROSALIND Then shall we be news-crammed.
CELIA All the better. We shall be the more
marketable.— Bonjour , Monsieur Le Beau. What’s
the news?
LE BEAU Fair princess, you have lost much good sport.
CELIA Sport? Of what color?
LE BEAU What color, madam? How shall I answer you?
ROSALIND As wit and fortune will.
TOUCHSTONE Or as the destinies decrees.
CELIA Well said. That was laid on with a trowel.
TOUCHSTONE Nay, if I keep not my rank—
ROSALIND Thou losest thy old smell.
LE BEAU You amaze me, ladies. I would have told you of
good wrestling, which you have lost the sight of.
ROSALIND Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling.
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.
CELIA Well, the beginning that is dead and buried.
LE BEAU There comes an old man and his three sons—
CELIA I could match this beginning with an old tale.

---

LE BEAU Three proper young men of excellent growth
and presence.
ROSALIND With bills on their necks: “Be it known unto
all men by these presents.”
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!
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 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.
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 forwardness.
ROSALIND , to Le Beau Is yonder the man?
LE BEAU Even he, madam.
CELIA Alas, he is too young. Yet he looks successfully.

---

DUKE FREDERICK How now, daughter and cousin? Are
you crept hither to see the wrestling?
ROSALIND Ay, my liege, so please you give us leave.
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.
CELIA Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau.
DUKE FREDERICK Do so. I’ll not be by.
He steps aside.
LE BEAU , to Orlando 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 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 misprized. 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 anything. 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 is
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 , coming forward 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 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.
Orlando and Charles wrestle.
ROSALIND O excellent young man!
CELIA If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who
should down.
Orlando throws Charles. Shout.
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.
Charles is carried off by Attendants.
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 esteemed thy father honorable,
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.
Duke exits with Touchstone, Le Beau,
Lords, and Attendants.
CELIA , to Rosalind
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 , to Celia
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 , giving Orlando a chain from her neck
Gentleman,
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 , aside
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 , to Celia
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. To Orlando. Fare you well.
Rosalind and Celia exit.
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.

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 misconsters 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 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 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.
Le Beau exits.
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother,
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother.
But heavenly Rosalind!
He exits.

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.

Enter Duke Frederick with Lords.

Look, here comes the Duke.
CELIA With his eyes full of anger.
DUKE FREDERICK , to Rosalind
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 beest 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 banished 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 stayed 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, learned, played, 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 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, provide yourself.
If you outstay the time, upon mine honor
And in the greatness of my word, you die.
Duke and Lords exit.
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 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 sundered? 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 curtal-ax 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 called?

---

CELIA
Something that hath a reference to my state:
No longer Celia, but Aliena.
ROSALIND
But, cousin, what if we assayed 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.
They exit.

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 not 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 counselors
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 everything.
AMIENS
I would not change it. 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 forkèd 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 banished you.
Today 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 sequestered 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 markèd of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on th’ 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 mak’st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much . ” Then, being there
alone,
Left and abandoned 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 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 assigned 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.
They exit.

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 roinish 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.
They exit.

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 prizer 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 practices.
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 boist’rous 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.
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 prun’st a rotten tree
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways. We’ll 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 livèd 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.
They exit.

Enter Rosalind for Ganymede, Celia for Aliena, and
Clown, alias 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
travelers 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.

Rosalind , Celia, and Touchstone step aside and
eavesdrop.

CORIN , to Silvius
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 sighed 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 never love so heartily.
If thou rememb’rest 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,
Wearing 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 Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe! He exits.
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 batler, and the cow’s
dugs that her pretty chopped 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 speak’st 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 , to Corin 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 , to Touchstone
Peace, I say. As Ganymede , to Corin. Good even to
you , friend.
CORIN
And to you, gentle sir, and to you all.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede
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 oppressed,
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 , as Ganymede
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 anything.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede
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 , as Aliena
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.
They exit.

Enter Amiens, Jaques, and others.


AMIENS sings
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 th’
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.



ALL together here.
Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i’ th’ 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.
They exit.

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. He lies down.
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 anything 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 labor. Well said. Thou look’st
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 anything in this desert. Cheerly, good
Adam.
They exit.

Enter Duke Senior and Lords , like outlaws.

DUKE SENIOR
I think he be transformed into a beast,
For I can nowhere 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 labor by his own approach.
DUKE SENIOR , to Jaques
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’ th’ forest,
A motley fool. A miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool,
Who laid him down and basked him in the sun
And railed 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-luster 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 crammed
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 gallèd 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 squand’ring 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 th’ 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 th’ embossèd sores and headed evils
That thou with license 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 neighbor?
Or what is he of basest function
That says his bravery is not on 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 wronged him. If it do him right,
Then he hath wronged himself. If he be free,
Why then my taxing like a wild goose flies
Unclaimed of any man.

Enter Orlando, brandishing a sword.

But who comes here?
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 , to Orlando
Art thou thus boldened, man, by thy distress,
Or else a rude despiser of good manners,
That in civility thou seem’st so empty?
ORLANDO
You touched 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 answerèd.
JAQUES An you will not be answered with reason, I
must die.
DUKE SENIOR , to Orlando
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 looked on better days,
If ever been where bells have knolled 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.
He sheathes his sword.
DUKE SENIOR
True is it that we have seen better days,
And have with holy bell been knolled to church,
And sat at good men’s feasts and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engendered.
And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
And take upon command what help we have
That to your wanting may be ministered.
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
Limped in pure love. Till he be first sufficed,
Oppressed 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 you; and be blessed for your good comfort.
He exits.

---

DUKE SENIOR
Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theater
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.
Then the whining schoolboy 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 honor, 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 slippered 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.

Enter Orlando, carrying Adam.

---

DUKE SENIOR
Welcome. Set down your venerable burden,
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.

The Duke and Orlando continue their conversation,
apart.



AMIENS sings
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 remembered not.
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.

---

DUKE SENIOR , to Orlando
If that you were the good Sir Rowland’s son,
As you have whispered faithfully you were,
And as mine eye doth his effigies witness
Most truly limned 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.
To Lords. Support him by the arm. To Orlando.
Give me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes understand.
They exit.

Enter Duke Frederick , Lords, and Oliver.

DUKE FREDERICK , to Oliver
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 brother’s 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.
They exit.

Enter Orlando, with a paper.

ORLANDO
Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love.
And thou, thrice-crownèd 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 witnessed everywhere.
Run, run, Orlando, carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
He exits.

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 it is a spare life, look you, it fits my
humor 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 saw’st good manners; if thou never saw’st
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 laborer. 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 be’st not damned for
this, the devil himself will have no shepherds. I
cannot see else how thou shouldst ’scape.

Enter Rosalind, as Ganymede.

CORIN Here comes young Master Ganymede, my new
mistress’s brother.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede , reading a paper
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 face 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 , as Ganymede 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.
Wintered 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 , as Ganymede Peace, you dull fool. I found
them on a tree.
TOUCHSTONE Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede I’ll graft it with you, and
then I shall graft it with a medlar. Then it will be
the earliest fruit i’ th’ 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, as Aliena, with a writing.

ROSALIND , as Ganymede Peace. Here comes my sister
reading. Stand aside.
CELIA , as Aliena , 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,

---

101

As You Like It

ACT 3. SC. 2

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 filled
With all graces wide-enlarged.
Nature presently distilled
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 , as Ganymede O most gentle Jupiter, what
tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners
withal, and never cried “Have patience,
good people!”
CELIA , as Aliena How now?—Back, friends. Shepherd,
go off a little.—Go with him, sirrah.
TOUCHSTONE Come, shepherd, let us make an honorable
retreat, though not with bag and baggage, yet
with scrip and scrippage.
Touchstone and Corin exit.
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. She shows the paper she
read. I was never so berhymed 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 color?
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 whooping!
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 might’st 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 I 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 saw’st him? What
said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What
makes he 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
bring’st 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.

Enter Orlando and Jaques.

Soft, comes he not here?
ROSALIND ’Tis he. Slink by, and note him.
Rosalind and Celia step aside.
JAQUES , to Orlando 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-favoredly.
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. Jaques exits.
ROSALIND , aside to Celia I will speak to him like a
saucy lackey, and under that habit play the knave
with him. As Ganymede. Do you hear, forester?
ORLANDO Very well. What would you?
ROSALIND , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 offenses 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 , as Ganymede There were none principal.
They were all like one another as halfpence are,
every one fault seeming monstrous till his fellow
fault came to match it.
ORLANDO I prithee recount some of them.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 everything
about you demonstrating a careless desolation. But
you are no such man. You are rather point-device in
your accouterments, as loving yourself than seeming
the lover of any other.
ORLANDO Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe
I love.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede But are you so much in love
as your rhymes speak?
ORLANDO Neither rhyme nor reason can express how
much.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 anything, as boys and women are,
for the most part, cattle of this color; 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 humor of love
to a living humor 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede 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 , as Ganymede Nay, you must call me
Rosalind.—Come, sister, will you go?
They exit.

Enter Touchstone and Audrey, followed by Jaques.

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 swear’st 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-favored;
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 honorable than the bare brow
of a bachelor. And by how much defense is better
than no skill, by so much is a horn more precious
than to want.

Enter Sir Oliver Martext.

Here comes Sir Oliver.—Sir Oliver Martext, you are
well met. Will you dispatch us here under this tree,
or shall we go with you to your chapel?
OLIVER MARTEXT Is there none here to give the
woman?
TOUCHSTONE I will not take her on gift of any man.
OLIVER MARTEXT Truly, she must be given, or the
marriage is not lawful.
JAQUES , coming forward Proceed, proceed. I’ll give
her.

---

TOUCHSTONE Good even, good Monsieur What-you-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 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.
Audrey , Touchstone, and Jaques exit.
OLIVER MARTEXT ’Tis no matter. Ne’er a fantastical
knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling.
He exits.

Enter Rosalind, dressed as Ganymede, and Celia,
dressed as Aliena.

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 color.
CELIA Something browner than Judas’s. Marry, his
kisses are Judas’s own children.
ROSALIND I’ faith, his hair is of a good color.
CELIA An excellent color. Your chestnut was ever the
only color.
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 pickpurse 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 puny 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.

Enter Corin.

Who comes here?
CORIN
Mistress and master, you have oft inquired
After the shepherd that complained of love,
Who you saw sitting by me on the turf,
Praising the proud disdainful shepherdess
That was his mistress.
CELIA , as Aliena Well, and what of him?
CORIN
If you will see a pageant truly played
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 , aside to Celia O come, let us remove.
The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.
As Ganymede, to Corin. Bring us to this sight, and
you shall say
I’ll prove a busy actor in their play.
They exit.

Enter Silvius and Phoebe.

SILVIUS
Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me. Do not, Phoebe.
Say that you love me not, but say not so
In bitterness. The common executioner,
Whose heart th’ accustomed 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, unobserved , Rosalind as Ganymede, Celia as
Aliena, and Corin.

PHOEBE
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 called 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 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 Phoebe,
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.
PHOEBE 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 , as Ganymede, coming forward
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-favored 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.
PHOEBE
Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together.
I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede He’s fall’n in love with your
foulness. ( To Silvius. ) 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. ( To
Phoebe. ) Why look you so upon me?
PHOEBE For no ill will I bear you.
ROSALIND , as Ganymede
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.
She exits, with Celia and Corin.
PHOEBE , aside
Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:
“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”
SILVIUS
Sweet Phoebe—
PHOEBE Ha, what sayst thou, Silvius?
SILVIUS Sweet Phoebe, pity me.
PHOEBE
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.
PHOEBE
Thou hast my love. Is not that neighborly?
SILVIUS
I would have you.
PHOEBE 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 employed.
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 scattered smile, and that I’ll live upon.
PHOEBE
Know’st thou 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.
PHOEBE
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 offense, 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 mixed in his cheek: ’twas just the
difference
Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
There be some women, Silvius, had they marked
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 remembered, scorned at me.
I marvel why I answered 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
Phoebe, with all my heart.
PHOEBE 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.
They exit.