10
revenue that was old Sir Rowland’s will I estate upon
you, and here live and die a shepherd.
ORLANDO You have my consent. Let your wedding be
tomorrow. Thither will I invite the Duke and all’s
contented followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for
15
look you, here comes my Rosalind.
Enter ROSALIND.
ROSALIND God save you brother.
OLIVER And you fair sister. Exit.
ROSALIND O my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see
thee wear thy heart in a scarf!
20
ORLANDO It is my arm.
ROSALIND I thought thy heart had been wounded with
the claws of a lion.
ORLANDO Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.
ROSALIND Did your brother tell you how I counter-
25
feited to swoon, when he showed me your
handkerchief?
ORLANDO Ay, and greater wonders than that.
ROSALIND O, I know where you are. Nay, ’tis true.
There was never anything so sudden, but the fight of
30
two rams, and Caesar’s thrasonical brag of I came, saw,
and overcame. For your brother and my sister no
sooner met, but they looked; no sooner looked, but
they loved; no sooner loved, but they sighed; no
sooner sighed, but they asked one another the reason;
35
no sooner knew the reason, but they sought the
remedy. And in these degrees have they made a pair of
stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent,
or else be incontinent before marriage. They are in the
very wrath of love, and they will together. Clubs
40
cannot part them.
ORLANDO They shall be married tomorrow, and I will
bid the Duke to the nuptial. But O, how bitter a thing
it is to look into happiness through another man’s
eyes! By so much the more shall I tomorrow be at the
45
height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think
my brother happy in having what he wishes for.
ROSALIND Why then tomorrow I cannot serve your
turn for Rosalind?
ORLANDO I can live no longer by thinking.
50
ROSALIND I will weary you then no longer with idle
talking. Know of me then – for now I speak to some
purpose – that I know you are a gentleman of good
conceit. I speak not this that you should bear a good
opinion of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you
55
are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may
in some little measure draw a belief from you to do
yourself good, and not to grace me. Believe then, if
you please, that I can do strange things. I have since I
was three year old conversed with a magician, most
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profound in his art and yet not damnable. If you do
love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it
out, when your brother marries Aliena, shall you
marry her. I know into what straits of fortune she is
driven, and it is not impossible to me, if it appear not
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inconvenient to you, to set her before your eyes
tomorrow, human as she is, and without any danger.
ORLANDO Speak’st thou in sober meanings?
ROSALIND By my life I do, which I tender dearly,
though I say I am a magician. Therefore put you in
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your best array, bid your friends; for if you will be
married tomorrow, you shall; and to Rosalind if you
will. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of
hers.
Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.
PHEBE Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,
75
To show the letter that I writ to you.
ROSALIND I care not if I have. It is my study
To seem despiteful and ungentle to you.
You are there follow’d by a faithful shepherd,
Look upon him, love him. He worships you.
80
PHEBE Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
SILVIUS It is to be all made of sighs and tears,
And so am I for Phebe.
PHEBE And I for Ganymede.
ORLANDO And I for Rosalind.
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ROSALIND And I for no woman.
SILVIUS It is to be all made of faith and service,
And so am I for Phebe.
PHEBE And I for Ganymede.
ORLANDO And I for Rosalind.
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ROSALIND And I for no woman.
SILVIUS It is to be all made of fantasy,
All made of passion and all made of wishes,
All adoration, duty and observance,
All humbleness, all patience and impatience,
95
All purity, all trial, all observance;
And so am I for Phebe.
PHEBE And so am I for Ganymede.
ORLANDO And so am I for Rosalind.
ROSALIND And so am I for no woman.
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PHEBE [to Rosalind] If this be so, why blame you me to
love you?
SILVIUS [to Phebe] If this be so, why blame you me to
love you?
ORLANDO If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
105
ROSALIND Who do you speak to ‘Why blame you me to
love you?’?
ORLANDO To her that is not here, nor doth not hear.
ROSALIND Pray you no more of this, ’tis like the howling
of Irish wolves against the moon. [to Silvius] I will
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help you if I can. [to Phebe] I would love you if I
could. Tomorrow meet me all together. [to Phebe] I
will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I’ll be
married tomorrow. [to Orlando] I will satisfy you, if
ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married
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tomorrow. [to Silvius] I will content you, if what
pleases you contents you, and you shall be married
tomorrow. [to Orlando] As you love Rosalind meet.
[to Silvius] As you love Phebe meet. And as I love no
woman, I’ll meet. So fare you well. I have left you
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commands.
SILVIUS I’ll not fail, if I live.
PHEBE Nor I.
ORLANDO Nor I. Exeunt.
5.3 Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.
TOUCHSTONE Tomorrow is the joyful day, Audrey.
Tomorrow will we be married.
AUDREY I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is
no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of the
world. Here come two of the banished Duke’s pages.
5
Enter two Pages.
1 PAGE Well met honest gentleman.
TOUCHSTONE By my troth well met. Come, sit, sit, and
a song.
2 PAGE We are for you. Sit i’th’ middle.
1 PAGE Shall we clap into’t roundly, without hawking or
10
spitting or saying we are hoarse, which are the only
prologues to a bad voice?
2 PAGE I’faith, i’faith, and both in a tune like two gipsies
on a horse.
[They sing.]
It was a lover and his lass,
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With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn-field did pass,
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
&nb
sp; When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,
Sweet lovers love the spring.
20
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
These pretty country-folks would lie,
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,
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Sweet lovers love the spring.
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
How that a life was but a flower,
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
30
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime,
35
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,
Sweet lovers love the spring.
TOUCHSTONE Truly young gentlemen, though there
was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very
40
untuneable.
1 PAGE You are deceived sir. We kept time, we lost not
our time.
TOUCHSTONE By my troth yes. I count it but time lost
to hear such a foolish song. God buy you, and God
45
mend your voices. Come Audrey. Exeunt.
5.4 Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, JAQUES, ORLANDO, OLIVER and CELIA.
DUKE SENIOR Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy
Can do all this that he hath promised?
ORLANDO
I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not,
As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.
Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS and PHEBE.
ROSALIND
Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg’d.
5
You say, if I bring in your Rosalind,
You will bestow her on Orlando here?
DUKE SENIOR
That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her.
ROSALIND
And you say you will have her, when I bring her?
ORLANDO That would I, were I of all kingdoms king.
10
ROSALIND You say you’ll marry me, if I be willing?
PHEBE That will I, should I die the hour after.
ROSALIND But if you do refuse to marry me,
You’ll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd?
PHEBE So is the bargain.
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ROSALIND You say that you’ll have Phebe if she will?
SILVIUS
Though to have her and death were both one thing.
ROSALIND
I have promis’d to make all this matter even.
Keep you your word, O Duke, to give your daughter,
You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter;
20
Keep you your word Phebe, that you’ll marry me,
Or else refusing me to wed this shepherd.
Keep your word Silvius, that you’ll marry her
If she refuse me; and from hence I go
To makes these doubts all even.
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Exeunt Rosalind and Celia.
DUKE SENIOR I do remember in this shepherd boy
Some lively touches of my daughter’s favour.
ORLANDO My lord, the first time that I ever saw him,
Methought he was a brother to your daughter.
But my good lord, this boy is forest-born,
30
And hath been tutored in the rudiments
Of many desperate studies, by his uncle,
Whom he reports to be a great magician,
Obscured in the circle of this forest.
JAQUES There is sure another flood toward, and these
35
couples are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very
strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.
Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.
TOUCHSTONE Salutation and greeting to you all.
JAQUES Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the
motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in
40
the forest. He hath been a courtier he swears.
TOUCHSTONE If any man doubt that, let him put me to
my purgation. I have trod a measure, I have flattered a
lady, I have been politic with my friend, smooth with
mine enemy, I have undone three tailors, I have had
45
four quarrels, and like to have fought one.
JAQUES And how was that ta’en up?
TOUCHSTONE Faith we met, and found the quarrel was
upon the seventh cause.
JAQUES How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 74
