Erhalten Sie Zugang zu diesem und mehr als 300000 Büchern ab EUR 5,99 monatlich.
- Herausgeber: Musaicum Books
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
'As You Like It', masterfully edited by Sidney Lee, showcases a compelling exploration of Elizabethan drama through the lens of William Shakespeare's notable works. The anthology features a panoramic view of literary styles, from the soliloquies that probe the depths of human emotions to the witty exchanges that echo Shakespeare's keen understanding of social interaction. The collection is set against a backdrop of the rich literary culture of the Renaissance period, focusing on themes of love, identity, and societal roles. Its diverse presentations—ranging from the pastoral to the courtly—highlight the versatility and enduring impact of Shakespeare's work. The backgrounds of Shakespeare and Lee intertwine to offer a refined insight into the era's cultural and literary zeitgeist. Shakespeare, with his profound influence on English literature, presents themes that resonate through ages, while Lee's scholarly annotations provide context, enhancing the reader's comprehension of the historical and cultural underpinnings that shaped these narratives. These annotations align with movements such as humanism, exploring how individual and societal aspirations find expression in literature. This anthology is an essential addition to the libraries of those who cherish the rich tapestry of English literature. Readers are invited to delve into a multiplicity of perspectives and themes, nurtured by Shakespeare's timeless text and augmented by Lee's scholarly critique. Through this collection, one gains a nuanced understanding of the various dimensions that literature can offer—educationally, culturally, and intellectually. As such, 'As You Like It' stands not just as a reading endeavor, but a comprehensive dialogue between iconic literary figures.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 761
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
Das E-Book (TTS) können Sie hören im Abo „Legimi Premium” in Legimi-Apps auf:
Ähnliche
AS YOU LIKE IT
Published by
Books
Table of Contents
As You Like It
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 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. [Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM.] 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. [Exit DENNIS.] —‘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 disguis’d 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 honour, 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 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 laboured 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 practise 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! [Exit.] OLIVER Farewell, good Charles.—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 misprised: 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. [Exit.]
SCENE II. A Lawn before the DUKE’S Palace
[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 honour, 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 pr’ythee, 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 honour 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-favouredly.
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?—Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument? [Enter TOUCHSTONE.] 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.— 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 honour; but I was bid to come for you.
ROSALIND Where learned you that oath, fool?
TOUCHSTONE Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour 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 honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away before ever he saw those pancackes or that mustard.
CELIA Pr’ythee, who is’t that thou mean’st?
TOUCHSTONE One that old Frederick, your father, loves.
CELIA My father’s love is enough to honour him enough: speak no more of him: you’ll be whipp’d 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.
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. [Enter LE BEAU.] Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau. What’s the news?
LE BEAU Fair princess, you have lost much good sport.
CELIA Sport! of what colour?
LE BEAU What colour, 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, with bills on their necks,—
ROSALIND “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 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 men. 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. [DUKE FREDERICK goes apart.] LE BEAU Monsieur the challenger, the princesses call 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 misprised: 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 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. [CHARLES and ORLANDO wrestle.] ROSALIND O excellent young man!
CELIA If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who should down. [CHARLES is thrown. 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 borne out.] What is thy name, young man?
ORLANDO Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois.
DUKE FREDERICK I would thou hadst been son to some man else. The world esteem’d thy father honourable, But I did find him still mine enemy: Thou shouldst have better pleas’d 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. [Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK, Train, and LE BEAU.] CELIA 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 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 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?
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 sund’red? 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 charge 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 curtleaxe 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 call’d?
CELIA Something that hath a reference to my state: No longer Celia, but Aliena.
ROSALIND But, cousin, what if we assay’d 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. [Exeunt.]
ACT II
SCENE I. The Forest of Arden
[Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other LORDS, in the dress of 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 counsellors 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. I would not change it.
AMIENS 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 forked heads Have their round haunches gor’d.
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 banish’d you. To-day 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 sequester’d stag, That from the hunter’s aim had ta’en a hurt, Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, The wretched animal heav’d forth such groans, That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat Almost to bursting; and the big round tears Cours’d one another down his innocent nose In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool, Much markèd of the melancholy Jaques, Stood on the 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 the 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 assign’d 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. [Exeunt.]
SCENE II. A Room in the Palace
[Enter DUKE FREDERICK, Lords, and Attendants.] 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 a-bed; and in the morning early They found the bed untreasur’d of their mistress.
SECOND LORD My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing. Hesperia, 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. [Exeunt.]
SCENE III. Before OLIVER’S House
[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 boisterous 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 sav’d 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 lived 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. [Exeunt.]
SCENE IV. The Forest of Arden
[Enter ROSALIND in boy’s clothes, CELIA dressed like a shepherdess, and 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 can 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 travellers must be content.
ROSALIND Ay, be so, good Touchstone.—Look you, who comes here?, a young man and an old in solemn talk. [Enter CORIN and SILVIUS.] CORIN 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 lov’d ere now.
SILVIUS No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess; Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover As ever sigh’d 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 remember’st not the slightest folly That ever love did make thee run into, Thou hast not lov’d: Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, Wearing thy hearer in thy mistress’ praise, Thou hast not lov’d: Or if thou hast not broke from company Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, Thou hast not lov’d: O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe! [Exit Silvius.] 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 batlet, and the cow’s dugs that her pretty chapp’d hands had milk’d: 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 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 Peace, I say.— Good even to you, friend.
CORIN And to you, gentle sir, and to you all.
ROSALIND I pr’ythee, 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 oppress’d, And faints for succour.
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 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 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 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. [Exeunt.]
SCENE V. Another part of the Forest
[Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others.] AMIENS [SONG] 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 pr’ythee, more.
AMIENS It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
JAQUES I thank it. More, I pr’ythee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. More, I pr’ythee, 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 stanza. Call you them stanzas?
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 the encounter of two dog-apes; and when a man thanks me heartily, methinks 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. [SONG. All together here.] Who doth ambition shun, And loves to live i’ the sun, Seeking the food he eats, And pleas’d 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. [Exeunt severally.]
SCENE VI. Another part of the Forest
[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.
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’ll give thee leave to die: but if thou diest before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour. Well said! thou look’st cheerily: 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. Cheerily, good Adam! [Exeunt.]
SCENE VII. Another part of the Forest
[A table set. Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and others.] DUKE SENIOR I think he be transform’d 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.
FIRST LORD He saves my labour by his own approach. [Enter JAQUES.] DUKE SENIOR 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’ the forest, A motley fool;—a miserable world!— As I do live by food, I met a fool, Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun, And rail’d 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-lustre 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 cramm’d 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 anatomiz’d Even by the squandering 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 the 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 the 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 neighbour? 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 metal of my speech? There then; how then? what then? Let me see wherein My tongue hath wrong’d him: if it do him right, Then he hath wrong’d himself; if he be free, Why then, my taxing like a wild-goose flies, Unclaim’d of any man.—But who comes here? [Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn.] ORLANDO Forbear, and eat no more.
JAQUES Why, I have eat none yet.
ORLANDO Nor shalt not, till necessity be serv’d.
JAQUES Of what kind should this cock come of?
DUKE SENIOR Art thou thus bolden’d, man, by thy distress: Or else a rude despiser of good manners, That in civility thou seem’st so empty?
ORLANDO You touch’d 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 answered.
JAQUES An you will not be answered with reason, I must die.
DUKE SENIOR 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 look’d on better days, If ever been where bells have knoll’d to church, If ever sat at any good man’s feast, If ever from your eyelids wip’d 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.
DUKE SENIOR True is it that we have seen better days, And have with holy bell been knoll’d to church, And sat at good men’s feasts, and wip’d our eyes Of drops that sacred pity hath engender’d: And therefore sit you down in gentleness, And take upon command what help we have, That to your wanting may be minister’d.
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 Limp’d in pure love: till he be first suffic’d,— Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger,— I will not touch a bit.
DUKE SENIOR Go find him out.
