Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy. [Gratiano and Nerissa seem to talk apart. Por. Aquarrel, ho, already? what's the matter? The clerk will ne'er wear hair on his face, that had it. Gra. Now by this hand, I gave it to a youth,- Por. You were to blame, I must be plain with you, I dare be sworn for him, he would not leave it, Bass. Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, No woman had it, but a civil doctor, Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? I was beset with shame and courtesy; [Aside. Gra. My lord Bassanio gave his ring away Por. What ring gave you, my lord? Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth. Ner. Nor Iin yours, Till I again see mine. Bass. Sweet Portia, If you did know, to whom I gave the ring, Por. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house: I will become as liberal as you; I'll not deny him any thing I have, No, not my body, nor my husband's bed: Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus: Now, by mine honour, which is yet mine own, Ner. And I his clerk; therefore be well advised, Bass. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong; I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes, Por. Mark you but that! In both my eyes he doubly sees himself: Bass. Nay, but hear me : Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear, I never more will break an oath with thee. Gra. Why, this is like the mending of high-ways It comes from Padua, from Bellario: I chanced on this letter. Ant. I am dumb. Bass. Were you the doctor, and I knew Bass. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow; Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living; Por. How now, Lorenzo? My clerk hath some good comforts too for you. From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, After his death, of all he dies possess'd of. Por. It is almost morning, And yet, I am sure, you are not satisfied [Exeunt. Duke, living in exile. AS YOU LIKE IT. Persons of the Drama. TOUCHSTONE, a clown. FREDERICK, brother to the Duke, and usurper of his Sir Oliver MAR-TEXT, a vicar. dominions. AMIENS, 2 Lords attending upon the Duke in his ba-SV, shepherds. JAQUES, nishment. LE BEAU, a courtier attending upon Frederick. CHARLES, his wrestler. DENNIS, Servants to Oliver. WILLIAM, a country fellow, in love with Audrey. ROSALIND, daughter to the banished Duke. 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, АСТ I. SCENEI.-An orchard, near Oliver's house. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM. Enter OLIVer. Adam. Yonder comes my master, your brother. Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear, how he will shake me up. Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me: By will, but a poor 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 Oli. Know you, where you are, sir? hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but Orl. O, sir, very well: here in your orchard. growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are Oli. Know you, before whom, sir? as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing, that Orl. Ay, better than he I am before, knows me. I he so plentifully gives me, the something, that nature know, you are my eldest brother; and, in the gentle gave me, his countenance seems to take from me: he condition of blood, you should so know me. The lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a bro- courtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you ther, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility are the first born; but the same tradition takes not with my education. This it is, Adam, that grieves me: away my blood,were there twenty brothers betwixt us: and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, I have as much of my father in me, as you: albeit, I begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no long-confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reveer endure it, though yet Iknow no wise remedy, how rence. to avoid it. Oli. What, boy! Oli. Now, sir! what make you here? Orl. Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing. Orl. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. Oli. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be nought awhile! Orl. Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury? in this. Orl. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young tion to come in disguis'd against me to try a fall. To- Oli. Let me go, I say! Oli. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which Orl. I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My thou shalt find I will most kindly requite. I had myfather charged you in his will to give me good educa- self notice of my brother's purpose herein, and have tion you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring by underhand means laboured to dissuade him from it; and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities: the but he is resolute. I'll tell thee, Charles,-it is the spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no stubbornest young fellow of France; full of ambition, longer endure it: therefore allow me such exercises an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a seas may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allot-cret and villainous contriver against me, his natural tery my father left me by testament; with that I will brother; therefore use thy discretion; I had as lief thou go buy my fortunes. 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, assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one so young and so villainous this day living. 1 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. Oli. 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! Orl. I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good. Oli. 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. Oli. Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla, Dennis! Cha. 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. Oli. Can you tell, if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be banished with her father? Cha. 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. Cha. I am heartily glad, I came hither to you: if he come to-morrow, 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! Oli. Where will the old duke live? Cha. 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. [Exit. Oli. Farewell, good Charles!-Now will I stir this gamester: I hope, I shall see an end of him; for my Yet he's gentle; never school'd, and yet learned; full soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and I am altogether misprised: but it shall not be so long; especially of my own people, who best know him, that this wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about. Oli. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke? Cha. 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 disposi [Exit. SCENE II.-A lawn before the Duke's palace. Cel. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry! Ros. 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. love Cel. Herein, I see, thou lovest 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 to take thy father for mine; so would'st thou, if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously temper'd, as mine is to thee. Ros. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in your's. away from Cel. 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 thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affeetion; by mine honour, Iwill; and when I break that oath, let me turn monster: therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry! Ros. From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports: let me see, what think you of falling in love? Cel. 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 may'st in honour come off again. Ros. What shall be our sport then? Cel. Let us sit and mock the good housewife, Fortune, from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. Ros. 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. Cel. 'Tis true: for those that she makes fair, she scarce makes honest; and those that she makes honest, she makes very ill-favour'dly. Ros. Nay, now thou goest from fortune's office to nature's fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature. Touch. Mistress, you must come away to your Cel. Were you made the messenger? Touch. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to come for you. Cel. Sport? Of what colour? Le Beau. What colour, madam? How shall I answer you? Ros. As wit and fortune will. Touch. Or as the destinies decree. Cel. Well said: that was laid on with a trowel. Le Beau. You amaze me, ladies: I would have told you of good wrestling, which you have lost the sight of. Ros. 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. Cel. Well,-the beginning, that is dead and buried. Le Beau. There comes an old man and his three sons, Cel. I could match this beginning with an old tale. Le Beau. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence; Ros. 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. Ros. Alas! " Touch. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have lost? Le Beau. Why, this that I speak of. Touch. Thus men may grow wiser every day! it is the first time that ever I heard, breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. Cel. Or I, I promise thee. Ros. Where learned you that oath, fool? Touch. Of a certain knight, that swore by his honour, they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour, the Ros. But is there any else longs to see this broken mustard was naught: now, I'll stand to it, the pan-music in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon cakes were naught, and the mustard was good; and yet rib-breaking?-Shall we see this wrestling, cousin? was not the knight forsworn. Le Beau. You must, if you stay here for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. Cel. How prove you that, in the great heap of your knowledge? Ros. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wisdom! Touch. Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, and swear by your beards, that I am a knave. Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. Touch. 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 pancakes, or that mustard. Cel. Pr'ythee, who is't that thou mean'st? Touch. One that old Frederick, your father, loves. Cel.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. Touch. The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely, what wise men do foolishly. Cel. By my troth, thou say'st 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. Ros. With his mouth full of news. Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young. Ros. Then shall we be news-cramm'd. Cel. All the better; we shall be the more marketable. -Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau: what's the news? Le Beau. Fair princess, you have lost much good sport. Cel. Yonder, sure, they are coming: let us now stay and see it! Flourish. Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, ORLANDO, CHARLES, and Attendants. Duke F.Come on; since the youth will not be entreated, his own peril on his forwardness! Ros. Is yonder the man? Le Beau. Even he, madam. Cel. Alas, he is too young: yet he looks successfully. Duke F. How now, daughter, and cousin? are you crept hither to see the wrestling? Ros. Ay, my liege; so please you give us leave. Duke F. 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! Cel. Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau! Duke F. Do so; I'll not be by. [Duke goes apart. Le Beau. Monsieur, the challenger, the princesses call for you. Orl. I attend them, with all respect and duty. Ros. Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler? Orl. No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth. Cel. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years. You have seen cruel proof of this man's Your mistress shall be happy. Orl. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, wherein I confess me much guilty, to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. 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. : Ros. The little strength that I have, I would it were Cel. And mine, to eke out her's. Orl. Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working. Duke F. You shall try but one fall. -- Cel. Ay. Fare you well, fair gentleman! Cha. No, I warrant your grace; you shall not entreat him to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first. Orl. You mean to mock me after; you should not have mocked me before: but come your ways! Ros. Now, Hercules be thy speed, young man! Cel. I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the leg. [Charles and Orlando wrestle. Ros. Have with you. -Fare you well! [Exeunt Rosalind and Celia. I cannot speak to her, yet she urg'd conference. Ros. O excellent young man! Cel. If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who should down. [Charles is thrown. Shout. Duke F. No more, no more! Duke F. How dost thou, Charles? [Charles is borne out. Orl. Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of sir Row land de Bois. Duke F.I would, thou hadst been son to some man else. Le Beau. Neither his daughter, if we judge by man ners; But yet, indeed, the shorter is his daughter: [Exeunt Duke Fred. Train, and Le Beau. Ros. My father lov'd sir Rowland as his soul, Had I before known this young man his son, I should have given him tears unto entreaties, Ere he should thus have ventur'd. Cel. Gentle cousin, Let us go thank him, and encourage him! Sticks me at heart.-Sir, you have well deserv'd: But justly, as you have exceeded promise, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. well! [Exit Le Beau. SCENE III.-A room in the palace. Ros. Not one to throw at a dog. Cel. No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs, throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons! Ros. Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one should be lamed with reasons, and the other mad without any. Cel. But is all this for your father? Ros. No, some of it for my child's father. O, how full of briars is this working-day world! Cel. 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. Ros. I could shake them off my coat; these burs are in my heart. |