The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  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 pick-purse, 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. Who comes here?

  Enter Corin

  CORIN

  Mistress and master, you have oft enquired

  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 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 (to Celia) O come, let us remove.

  The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.

  (To Corin) Bring us to this sight, and you shall say

  I’ll prove a busy actor in their play.

  Exeunt

  3.5 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 Rosalind as Ganymede, Celia as Aliena, and Corin, and stand aside

  PHOEBE (to Silvius)

  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 (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.

  (To Silvius) 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-favoured 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.

  (To Phoebe) 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 (to Phoebe) He’s fallen 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

  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.

  (To Celia) Will you go, sister? (To Silvius) Shepherd,

  ply her hard.—

  Come, sister. (To Phoebe) 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. Exeunt Rosalind, 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 neighbourly?

  SILVIUS

  I would have you.

  PHOEBE Why, that were covetousness.
<
br />   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 offence, 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

  Have I 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. Exeunt

  4.1 Enter Rosalind as Ganymede, Celia as Aliena, and Jaques

  JAQUES I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with thee.

  ROSALIND They say you are a melancholy fellow.

  JAQUES I am so. I do love it better than laughing.

  ROSALIND Those that are in extremity of either are abominable fellows, and betray themselves to every modern censure worse than drunkards.

  JAQUES Why, ’tis good to be sad and say nothing.

  ROSALIND Why then, ’tis good to be a post. 9

  JAQUES I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is emulation, nor the musician‘s, which is fantastical, nor the courtier’s, which is proud, nor the soldier‘s, which is ambitious, nor the lawyer’s, which is politic, nor the lady‘s, which is nice, nor the lover’s, which is all these; but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

  ROSALIND A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men’s. Then to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and poor hands.

  JAQUES Yes, I have gained my experience.

  Enter Orlando

  ROSALIND And your experience makes you sad. I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad—and to travel for it too!

  ORLANDO Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind.

  JAQUES Nay then, God b’wi’you an you talk in blank verse.

  ROSALIND Farewell, Monsieur Traveller. Look you lisp, and wear strange suits; disable all the benefits of your own country; be out of love with your nativity, and almost chide God for making you that countenance you are, or I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola. ⌈Exit Jaques⌉ Why, how now, Orlando? Where have you been all this while? You a lover? An you serve me such another trick, never come in my sight more.

  ORLANDO My fair Rosalind, I come within an hour of my promise.

  ROSALIND. Break an hour’s promise in love! He that will divide a minute into a thousand parts and break but a part of the thousand part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said of him that Cupid hath clapped him o’th’ shoulder, but I’ll warrant him heartwhole.

  ORLANDO Pardon me, dear Rosalind. 47

  ROSALIND Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had as lief be wooed of a snail.

  ORLANDO Of a snail?

  ROSALIND Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he carries his house on his head—a better jointure, I think, than you make a woman. Besides, he brings his destiny with him.

  ORLANDO What’s that?

  ROSALIND Why, horns, which such as you are fain to be beholden to your wives for. But he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents the slander of his wife.

  ORLANDO Virtue is no hornmaker, and my Rosalind is virtuous.

  ROSALIND And I am your Rosalind.

  CELIA It pleases him to call you so; but he hath a Rosalind of a better leer than you.

  ROSALIND Come, woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday humour, and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now an I were your very, very Rosalind?

  ORLANDO I would kiss before I spoke.

  ROSALIND Nay, you were better speak first, and when you were gravelled for lack of matter you might take occasion to kiss. Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for lovers, lacking—God warr’nt us—matter, the cleanliest shift is to kiss.

  ORLANDO How if the kiss be denied?

  ROSALIND Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter.

  ORLANDO Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress?

  ROSALIND Marry, that should you if I were your mistress, or I should think my honesty ranker than my wit.

  ORLANDO What, of my suit?

  ROSALIND Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your suit. Am not I your Rosalind?

  ORLANDO I take some joy to say you are because I would be talking of her.

  ROSALIND Well, in her person I say I will not have you.

  ORLANDO Then in mine own person I die.

  ROSALIND No, faith; die by attorney. The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died in his own person, videlicet, in a love-cause. Troilus had his brains dashed out with a Grecian club, yet he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he would have lived many a fair year though Hero had turned nun if it had not been for a hot midsummer night, for, good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont and, being taken with the cramp, was drowned; and the foolish chroniclers of that age found it was Hero of Sestos. But these are all lies. Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

  ORLANDO I would not have my right Rosalind of this mind, for I protest her frown might kill me.

  ROSALIND By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come, now I will be your Rosalind in a more coming-on disposition; and ask me what you will, I will grant it.

  ORLANDO Then love me, Rosalind.

  ROSALIND Yes, faith, wi
ll I, Fridays and Saturdays and all.

  ORLANDO And wilt thou have me? no

  ROSALIND Ay, and twenty such.

  ORLANDO What sayst thou?

  ROSALIND Are you not good?

  ORLANDO I hope so.

  ROSALIND Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? (To Celia) Come, sister, you shall be the priest and marry us.—Give me your hand, Orlando.—What do you say, sister?

  ORLANDO (to Celia) Pray thee, marry us.

  CELIA I cannot say the words.

  ROSALIND You must begin, ‘Will you, Orlando’—

  CELIA Go to. Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind?

  ORLANDO I Will.

  ROSALIND Ay, but when?

  ORLANDO Why now, as fast as she can marry us.

  ROSALIND Then you must say, ‘I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.’

  ORLANDO I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.

  ROSALIND I might ask you for your commission; but I do take thee, Orlando, for my husband. There’s a girl goes before the priest; and certainly a woman’s thought runs before her actions.

  ORLANDO So do all thoughts; they are winged.

  ROSALIND Now tell me how long you would have her after you have possessed her?

  ORLANDO For ever and a day.

  ROSALIND Say a day without the ever. No, no, Orlando; men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen, more clamorous than a parrot against rain, more newfangled than an ape, more giddy in my desires than a monkey. I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain, and I will do that when you are disposed to be merry. I will laugh like a hyena, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.

  ORLANDO But will my Rosalind do so?

  ROSALIND By my life, she will do as I do.

  ORLANDO O, but she is wise.

  ROSALIND Or else she could not have the wit to do this. The wiser, the waywarder. Make the doors upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that, and ‘twill out at the key-hole. Stop that, ’twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.

  ORLANDO A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say ‘Wit, whither wilt?’

  ROSALIND Nay, you might keep that check for it till you met your wife’s wit going to your neighbour’s bed.

  ORLANDO And what wit could wit have to excuse that?

  ROSALIND Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall never take her without her answer unless you take her without her tongue. O, that woman that cannot make her fault her husband’s occasion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will breed it like a fool.