The body of country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we
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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?
2 LORD We did my lord, weeping and commenting
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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.
1 LORD I’ll bring you to him straight. Exeunt.
2.2 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.
1 LORD I cannot hear of any that did see her.
The ladies her attendants of her chamber
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Saw her abed, and in the morning early,
They found the bed untreasur’d of their mistress.
2 LORD My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft
Your Grace was wont to laugh, is also missing.
Hisperia, the princess’ gentlewoman,
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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
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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
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To bring again these foolish runaways. Exeunt.
2.3 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?
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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,
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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!
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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 –
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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.
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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 would’st thou have me go?
ADAM No matter whither, so you come not here.
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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.
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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,
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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,
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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
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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
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Than to die well, and not my master’s debtor.
Exeunt.
2.4 Enter ROSALIND as Ganymede, CELIA as Aliena 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
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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
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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
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travellers 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.
CORIN That is the way to make her scorn you still.
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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.
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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.
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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,
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Wearying 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.
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O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe! Exit.
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
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that for coming a-night to Jane Smile; and I remember
the kissing of her batler, and the cow’s dugs that her
pretty chopt 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
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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 my own wit,
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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.
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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?
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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 prithee shepherd, if that love or gold
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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,
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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
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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,
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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,
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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.
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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.
2.5 Enter AMIENS, JAQUES and others.
AMIENS [Sings.]
Under the greenwood tree,
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 66
