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“AS YOU LIKE IT”

By William Shakespeare

Superior Arts Youth Theatre

Play Series
Spring 2019
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ACT I

SCENE I. Orchard of Oliver's house.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM
ORLANDO
As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion:
my father’s will, charged my brother, on his
blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my
sadness. My brother Jacques 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; 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,
ADAM
Yonder comes my master, your brother.
ORLANDO
Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will
shake me up.
Enter OLIVER
OLIVER
Now, sir! what make you here?
ORLANDO
Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing.
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 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.
I have as much of my father in me as
you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is
nearer to his reverence.
Fight

OLIVER
What, boy!
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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 Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice
a villain that says such a father begot villains.
ADAM
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.
The spirit of my father grows strong in
me, and I will no longer endure it.
OLIVER
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 will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.
OLIVER
Get you with him, you old dog.
ADAM
Is 'old dog' my reward?
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?
Call him in.
Exit DENNIS
'Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is.
Enter CHARLES
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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
sister the new duchess; and three or four loving lords
have put themselves into voluntary exile with him.
OLIVER
Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be
banished with her father?
CHARLES
O, no; for the duchess’s daughter, her cousin, Celia, so loves
Her.
OLIVER
Where will the old duke live?
CHARLES
They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and
a many merry people with him; and there they live like
the old Robin Hood of England.
OLIVER
Do you wrestle to-morrow before the new duchess?
CHARLES
Ay, 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 disguised against me to try a fall.
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.
OLIVER
I'll tell thee, Charles:
He is the stubbornest young fellow of France, full
of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's
good parts, a secret and villanous contriver against
me his natural brother: therefore use thy
discretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck
as his finger. I assure thee, and almost with tears I speak
it, there is not one so young and so villanous this
day living.
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CHARLES
I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come
to-morrow, I'll give him his payment.
OLIVER
Farewell, good Charles.
Exit CHARLES
Now will I stir this gamester: Orlando, 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 misprized.
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. Duchess’s palace.

Enter CELIA and ROSALIND
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
tell me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure.
CELIA
Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight
that I love thee. If my uncle,had banished thy aunt,
I could have taught my
love to take thy parent 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 mother hath no child but I, nor none is
like to have: and, truly, when she dies, thou shalt
be her heir, for what she hath taken away from thy
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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?
Enter Touchstone, interrupting them
TOUCHSTONE
Mistress, you must come away to your mother.
CELIA
Were you made the messenger?
TOUCHSTONE
No, by mine honour, but I was bid to come for you.
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, thou art. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau.
Enter LE BEAU
ROSALIND
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! Good wrestling!
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.
ROSALIND
Alas!​ ​But 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 DUCHESS FREDERICKA, Lords, ladies, ORLANDO, LADY IN WAITING, and Attendants
Duchess Fredericka
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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.
Duchess Fredericka
How now, daughter and cousin! are you crept hither
to see the wrestling?
ROSALIND
Ay, my liege.
Duchess Fredericka
You will take little delight in it, I can tell you;
there is such odds in the man. Speak to him, ladies; see if
you can move him.
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. 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.
ORLANDO
I beseech you, punish me not with your hard
thoughts.
ROSALIND
The little strength that I have, I would it were with you.
CELIA
And mine.
ROSALIND
Fare you well: pray heaven I be deceived in you!
CHARLES ENTERS
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CHARLES
Come, where is this young gallant that is so
desirous to lie with his mother earth?
ORLANDO
Ready, sir!
ROSALIND
Now Hercules be thy speed, young man!
CELIA
I would I were invisible, to catch the strong
fellow by the leg.
They wrestle
ROSALIND
O excellent young man!
Shout. CHARLES is thrown
Duchess Fredericka
No more, no more.
How dost thou, Charles?
LE BEAU
He cannot speak, my lord.
Duchess Fredericka
Bear him away. What is thy name, young man?
ORLANDO
Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys.
Duchess Fredericka
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:
But fare thee well; thou art a gallant youth:
I would thou hadst told me of another father.
Exeunt Duchess Fredericka, train, and LE BEAU
CELIA
Were I my mother, coz, would I do this?
ROSALIND
My father loved Sir Rowland as his soul,
And all the world was of my father's mind.
CELIA
Gentle cousin,
Let us go thank him and encourage him:
My mother’s rough and envious disposition
Sticks me at heart.

ROSALIND
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Gentleman,
Giving him a chain from her neck, Orlando is speechless
Wear this for me. Shall we go, coz?
CELIA
Ay. Fare you well, fair gentleman.
ORLANDO
Can I not say, I thank you?
ROSALIND
He calls us back. Did you call, sir?
Pause
Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown
More than your enemies.
CELIA
Will you go, coz?
ROSALIND
Fare you well.
Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA
ORLANDO
What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue?
I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference.
O poor Orlando, thou art overthrown!
Re-enter LE BEAU
LE BEAU
Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you
To leave this place.
Yet such is now the duchess’s condition
That she misconstrues all that you have done.
ORLANDO
I thank you, sir: and, pray you, tell me this:
Which of the two was daughter of the duchess
That here was at the wrestling?
LE BEAU
indeed the lesser is her daughter
The taller is daughter to the banish'd duke,
And here detain'd by her usurping aunt,
To keep her daughter company; whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.
Sir, fare you well.
ORLANDO
fare you well.
Exit LE BEAU
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
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From tyrant queen 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
dogs; throw some of them at me;
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!
I could shake them off my coat: but 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
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?
ROSALIND
Let me love him for that, and do you love him
because I do. Look, here comes the duchess.
CELIA
With her eyes full of anger.
Enter Duchess Fredericka, with Lords

Duchess Fredericka
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Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste
And get you from our court.
ROSALIND
Me, aunt?
Duchess Fredericka
You, niece
Within these ten days if thou be found
So near our public court as twenty miles,
Thou will die for it.
ROSALIND
I do beseech your grace,
Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
Never so much as in a thought unborn
Did I offend your highness.
Duchess Fredericka
Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
ROSALIND
Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:
Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.
Duchess Fredericka
Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.
ROSALIND
So was I when your highness took his kingdom;
So was I when your highness banish'd him:
Treason is not inherited, my liege;
Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
What's that to me? My father was no traitor.
CELIA
Dear sovereign, hear me speak.
if she be a traitor,
Why so am I.
Duchess Fredericka
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.
she is banish'd.
CELIA
Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege:
I cannot live out of her company.
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Duchess Fredericka
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 Duchess Fredericka and Lords
CELIA
O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change parents? I will give thee mine.
I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.
ROSALIND
I have more cause.
CELIA
Thou hast not, cousin;
Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl?
No: let my mother seek another heir.
Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
Whither to go and what to bear with us;
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 dirt smirch my face;
The like do you: so shall we pass along.
ROSALIND
Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?
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
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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 mother’s court?
Would he not be a comfort to our travel?
CELIA
He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
Let's away,
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 two or three Lords, like 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?
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,
Have their round haunches gored.
First Huntsman
Indeed, my lord,
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that,
DUKE SENIOR
Did you leave him in this contemplation?
Second Huntsman
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,
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For then he's full of matter.
First Huntsman
I'll bring you to him straight.
Exeunt

SCENE II. A room in the palace.

Enter Duchess Fredericka, with Lords
Duchess Fredericka
Can it be possible that no man saw them?
It cannot be: some villains of my court
Are of consent in this.
Lady In Waiting
I cannot hear of any that did see her.
The ladies, her attendants of her chamber,
Saw her abed, and in the morning early
They found the bed untreasured of their mistress.
Lord of Court
My liege, the roynish clown, at whom so oft
Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing.
Hisperia, 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 boy is surely in their company.
Duchess Fredericka
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.
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!
ORLANDO
Why, what's the matter?
ADAM
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O unhappy youth!
Come not within these doors; within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives:
Your brother-Hath heard your praises, and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie
And you within it. 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?
ADAM
But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,
Take that, Here is the gold;
And all this I give you. Let me be your servant:
Though I look old, yet I am strong
let me go with you
ORLANDO
O good old man, we’ll go along together.
ADAM
Master, go on, and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
Exeunt

SCENE IV. The Forest of Arden.

Enter ROSALIND for Ganymede, CELIA for 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;
CELIA
I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further.
TOUCHSTONE
For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear
You;

ROSALIND
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Well, this is the forest of Arden.
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.
SILVIUS
O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her!
CORIN
I partly guess; for I have loved ere now.
SILVIUS
No, Corin, being old, thou can not guess,
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.
We that are true lovers run into strange capers;
ROSALIND
Thou speakest 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?

ROSALIND
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Good even to you, friend.
CORIN
And to you, gentle sir, and to you all.
ROSALIND
I prithee, 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 succor.
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 what is, come see.
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.
ROSALIND
What is he that shall buy this flock and pasture?
CORIN
That young swain, Silvius 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.
Exeunt

SCENE V. The Forest. ​Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others

SONG.
AMIENS
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 prithee, more.
AMIENS
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It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
JAQUES
I thank it. More, I prithee, more. I can suck
melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs.
More, I prithee, more.
Come, warble, come.
AMIENS and then ALL BUT JAQUES
Who doth ambition shun
All together here
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats
And pleased 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
AMIENS
“If it do come to pass”
JAQUES
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;
AMIENS
And I'll go seek the duke: his banquet is prepared.
Exeunt severally
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SCENE VI. 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 any thing savage, I
will either be food for it or bring it for food to
thee.
(Adam collapses)
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 any thing in this
desert. Cheerly, good Adam!
Exeunt

SCENE VII. The forest.

A table set out. Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and Lords like outlaws
Enter JAQUES
JAQUES
A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool; a miserable world!
Touchstone, O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.
DUKE SENIOR
What fool is this?
JAQUES
O worthy fool! 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;
But who comes here?
Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn
ORLANDO
Forbear, and eat no more.
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JAQUES
Why, I have eat none yet.
ORLANDO
Nor shalt not, till necessity be served.
DUKE SENIOR
Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress,
Or else a rude despiser of good manners?
ORLANDO
He dies that touches any of this fruit
Till I and my affairs are answered.
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;
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be:
In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword.
DUKE SENIOR
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.
DUKE SENIOR
Go find him out,
And we will nothing waste till you return.
ORLANDO
I thank ye; and be blest for your good comfort!
Exit
DUKE SENIOR
Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
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Wherein we play in.
JAQUES
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, sudden and quick in quarrel,
And then the justice, in fair round belly
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd old man,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Re-enter ORLANDO, with ADAM
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome. Set down your venerable burthen,
And let him feed.
ORLANDO
I thank you most for him.
ADAM
So had you need:
I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.
DUKE SENIOR
Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing.
SONG.
AMIENS
Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
22
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
DUKE SENIOR
If that you were the good Sir Rowland's son,
As you have whisper'd faithfully you were,
Be truly welcome hither: I am the duke
That loved your father: ​(to Adam)​ Good old man,
Thou art right welcome as thy master is.
Support him by the arm. Give me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes understand.
Exeunt

ACT III

SCENE I. A room in the palace.

Enter Duchess Fredericka, Lords, and OLIVER
Duchess Fredericka
Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be:
Find out thy brother, wheresoe'er he is;
Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living
OLIVER
O that your highness knew my heart in this!
I never loved my brother in my life.
Duchess Fredericka
More villain thou.
Make an extent upon his house and lands:
Do this expediently and turn him going.
Exeunt DUCHESS
Light fall down on Oliver as he breaks apart into tears

INTERMISSION

SCENE II. The forest.

Enter ORLANDO, with a paper
ORLANDO
Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love:
Thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway.
O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character;
23
That every eye which in this forest looks
Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where.
Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she.
Exit
Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE
CORIN
And how like you this shepherd's life, Master Touchstone?
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good
life, but in respect that it is a shepherd's life,
it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I
like it very well; but in respect that it is
private, it is a very vile life. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?
CORIN
No more but that I know the more one sickens the
worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money,
means and content is without three good friends;
that the property of rain is to wet and fire to
burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep, and that a
great cause of the night is lack of the sun.
TOUCHSTONE
Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in
court, shepherd?
CORIN
No, truly.
TOUCHSTONE
Then thou art damned.
CORIN
Nay, I hope.
You have too courtly a wit for me: I'll rest.
EXIT CORIN
Enter ROSALIND, with a paper, reading
ROSALIND
From the east to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind.
Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind.
All the pictures fairest lined
Are but black to Rosalind.
Let no fair be kept in mind
But the fair of Rosalind.
24
TOUCHSTONE COMES UP BEHIND HER
ROSALIND
Out, fool!
TOUCHSTONE
For a taste:
If a hart do lack a hind,
Let him seek out Rosalind.
Sweetest nut hath sourest rind,
Such a nut is Rosalind.
This is the very false gallop of verses: why do you
infect yourself with them?
ROSALIND
Peace, you dull fool! I found them on a tree.
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, the tree yields bad fruit.
Enter CELIA, with a writing
ROSALIND
Peace! Here comes my sister, reading: stand aside.
CELIA
[Reads]
Why should this a desert be?
For it is unpeopled? No:
Tongues I'll hang on every tree,
Will I Rosalinda write,
Teaching all that read to know
The quintessence of every sprite
Heaven would in little show.
Thus Rosalind of many parts
By heavenly synod was devised,
Of many faces, eyes and hearts,
To have the touches dearest prized.
Heaven would that she these gifts should have,
And I to live and die her slave.
ROSALIND
O most gentle pulpiter! what tedious homily of love
have you wearied your parishioners withal,
CELIA
How now! back, friends!
go off a little Touchstone.
Exeunt TOUCHSTONE
CELIA
Didst thou hear these verses?
25
ROSALIND
O, yes, I heard them all
CELIA
But didst thou hear without wondering how thy name
should be hanged and carved upon these trees?
Know you who hath done this?
ROSALIND
Is it a man?
CELIA
Aye,
And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck.
Change you colour?
ROSALIND
I prithee, who?
CELIA
O Lord, Lord!
ROSALIND
Nay, but who is it?
CELIA
Is it possible?
ROSALIND
Nay, I prithee now with most petitionary vehemence,
tell me who it is.
CELIA
O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful
wonderful!
ROSALIND
I prithee, tell me who is it quickly, and speak apace.
Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his
head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard?
CELIA
Nay, he hath but a little beard.
ROSALIND
Why, God will send more, if the man will be
thankful:
CELIA
It is young Orlando, that tripped up the wrestler's
heels and your heart both in an instant.
ROSALIND
Nay, but the devil take mocking
CELIA
I' faith, coz, 'tis he.
26
ROSALIND
Orlando?
CELIA
Orlando.
ROSALIND
Alas the day! what shall I do with my doublet and
hose? What did he when thou sawest him? What said
he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes
him here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he?
How parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see
him again? Answer me in one word.
(Celia is speechless)
But doth he know that I am in this forest and in
man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the
day he wrestled?
CELIA
I found him under a tree.
ROSALIND
It may well be called Jove's tree, when it drops
forth such fruit.
CELIA
There lay he, stretched along, like a wounded knight.
He was furnished like a hunter.
ROSALIND
O, ominous! he comes to kill my heart.
CELIA
I would sing my song without a burden: thou bringest
me out of tune.
ROSALIND
Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must
speak. Sweet, say on.
CELIA
You bring me out. Soft! comes he not here?
Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES
ROSALIND
'Tis he: slink by, and note him.
JAQUES
I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had
as lief have been myself alone.
ORLANDO
And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, I thank you
too for your society.
27
JAQUES
God be wi' you: let's meet as little as we can.
ORLANDO
I do desire we may be better strangers.
JAQUES
I pray you, mar no more trees with writing
love-songs in their barks.
ORLANDO
I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading
them ill-favouredly.
JAQUES
Rosalind is your love's name?
ORLANDO
Yes, just.
JAQUES
I do not like her name.
ORLANDO
There was no thought of pleasing you when she was
christened.
JAQUES
What stature is she of?
ORLANDO
Just as high as my heart.
JAQUES
You are full of pretty answers.
The worst fault you have is to be in love.
ORLANDO
'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue.
I am weary of you.
JAQUES
By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found
you.
ORLANDO
He is drowned in the brook: look but in, and you
shall see him.
JAQUES
I'll tarry no longer with you: farewell, good
Signior Love.
ORLANDO
I am glad of your departure: adieu, good Monsieur
Melancholy.
Exit JAQUES
28
ROSALIND
[Aside to CELIA] I​ will speak to him, like a saucy
lackey and under that habit play the knave with him.
(mimicking a manly voice) D ​ o you hear, forester?
ORLANDO
Very well: what would you?
ROSALIND
I pray you, what is't o'clock?
ORLANDO
You should ask me what time o' day: there's no clock
in the forest.
ROSALIND
Then there is no true lover in the forest; else
sighing every minute and groaning every hour would
detect the lazy foot of Time as well as a clock.
ORLANDO
And why not the swift foot of Time? had not that
been as proper?
ROSALIND
By no means, sir: Time travels in divers paces with
divers persons.
ORLANDO
Where dwell you, pretty youth?
ROSALIND
With this shepherdess, my sister; here in the
skirts of the forest.
ORLANDO
Are you native of this place?
Your accent is something finer than you could
purchase in so removed a dwelling.
ROSALIND
I have been told so of many: but indeed an old
religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was
in his youth an inland man; one that knew courtship
too well, for there he fell in love.
There is a man haunts the forest, that
abuses our young plants with carving 'Rosalind' on
their barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies
on brambles, all, forsooth, deifying the name of
Rosalind: if I could meet that fancy-monger I would
give him some good counsel, for he seems to have the
fever of love upon him.
29
ORLANDO
(pulling out poems)
I am he that is so love-shaked: I pray you tell me
your remedy.
ROSALIND
There is none of my uncle's marks upon you: he
taught me how to know a man in love.
ORLANDO
What were his marks?
ROSALIND
A lean cheek, which you have not, a beard neglected,
which you have not, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe
untied and every thing about you demonstrating a
careless desolation; but you are no such man; you
are rather point-device in your accoutrements as
loving yourself than seeming the lover of any other.
ORLANDO
Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love.
ROSALIND
Me believe it! you may as soon make her that you
love believe it. But, in good sooth, are you he
that hangs the verses on the trees, wherein Rosalind
is so admired?
ORLANDO
I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of
Rosalind, I am that he.
ROSALIND
But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
ORLANDO
Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.
ROSALIND
Love is merely a madness, and Yet I profess curing it by counsel.
ORLANDO
Did you ever cure any so?
ROSALIND
Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me
his love and I set him every day to
woo me: at which time would I, being but a moonish
youth, grieve, changeable, longing
and liking, proud, fantastical, shallow,
inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles, for every
passion something and for no passion truly any
30
thing,
And thus I cured him; and this way will I take upon you.
ORLANDO
I would not be cured, youth.
ROSALIND
I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind
and come every day to my house and woo me.
ORLANDO
Now, by the faith of my love, I will, good youth.
ROSALIND
Nay you must call me Rosalind. Come, sister, will you go?
Exeunt

SCENE III. The forest.

Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES behind
TOUCHSTONE
Come apace, good Audrey:
Doth my simple feature content you?
AUDREY
Your features! Lord warrant us…….what features?
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical.
AUDREY
I do not know what 'poetical' is
TOUCHSTONE
Here comes Sir Oliver.
Enter SIR OLIVER MARTEXT
Sir Oliver Martext, you are well met: will you
dispatch us here under this tree, or shall we go
with you to your chapel?
SIR OLIVER MARTEXT
Is there none here to give the woman?
JAQUES
[Advancing]
Proceed, proceed
I'll give her.
TOUCHSTONE
Good even, good Master What-ye-call't: how do you,
sir? You are very well met:
JAQUES
Will you be married, motley?
31
TOUCHSTONE
Aye
JAQUES
Get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you
what marriage is:
Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee.
TOUCHSTONE
'Come, sweet Audrey:
We must be married,
Exeunt JAQUES, TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY
Exit

SCENE IV. The forest.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA
ROSALIND
Never talk to me; I will weep.
have I not cause to weep?
CELIA
As good cause as one would desire; therefore weep.
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.
ROSALIND
Not true in love?
CELIA
Yes, when he is in love; but I think he is not.
ROSALIND
You have heard him swear downright he was.
CELIA
The oath of a lover is
no stronger than the word of a tapster; they are
both the confirmer of false reckonings.
Orlando is a brave man! he writes brave verses,
speaks brave words, swears brave oaths and breaks
them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of
32
his lover. Who comes here?
Enter CORIN
CORIN
Mistress and master, you have oft inquired
After the shepherd that complain'd of love,
Praising the proud disdainful shepherdess
That was his mistress.

CELIA
Well, and what of him?
CORIN
If you will see a pageant truly play'd,
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,
ROSALIND
O, come, let us remove:
The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.
Bring us to this sight.
Exeunt

SCENE V. Another part of the forest.

Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE
SILVIUS
Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe;
Say that you love me not, but say not so
In bitterness.
Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, behind
PHEBE
Now I do frown on thee with all my heart;
And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee:
SILVIUS
O dear Phebe,
PHEBE
Come not thou near me.
(turns and bumps into Rosalind)
ROSALIND
And why, I pray you? What though you have no beauty,--
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
I think she means to tangle my eyes too!
33
No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it:
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:
PHEBE
Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together:
I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.

ROSALIND
He's fallen in love with your foulness and she'll
fall in love with my anger. Why look you so upon me?
PHEBE
For no ill will I bear you.
ROSALIND
I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
I like you not. Will you go, sister? Come, sister.
Shepherdess, look on him better,
And be not proud.
Exeunt ROSALIND, CELIA and CORIN
PHEBE
Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,
'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'
SILVIUS
Sweet Phebe,--
PHEBE
Ha, what say'st thou, Silvius?
SILVIUS
Sweet Phebe, pity me.
PHEBE
Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.
SILVIUS
Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:
I would have you.
PHEBE
Silvius, the time was that I hated thee,
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which was irksome to me,
I will endure, and I'll employ thee too:
SILVIUS
So holy and so perfect is my love!
PHEBE
Know'st now the youth that spoke to me erewhile?
34
SILVIUS
Not very well, but I have met him oft;
PHEBE
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
It is a pretty youth: not very pretty:
But, sure, he's proud, and yet his pride becomes him:
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,
There be some women, Silvius, would have gone near
To fall in love with him; but, for my part,
I love him not nor hate him not;
I'll write to him a very taunting letter,
And thou shalt bear it: wilt thou, Silvius?
SILVIUS
Phebe, with all my heart.
PHEBE
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

ACT IV

SCENE I. The forest.

Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, 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.
'tis good to be sad and say nothing.
ROSALIND
Why then, 'tis good to be a post.
Enter ORLANDO
ORLANDO
Good day and happiness, dear Rosalind!
35
JAQUES
Nay, then, God be wi' you.
Exit
ROSALIND
Farewell, Monsieur Traveller:
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!
ORLANDO
Pardon me, dear Rosalind.
ROSALIND
Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight!
(changes mood)
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, if I were your very very Rosalind?
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,
in a love-cause. 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, ask me what you will.
36
ORLANDO
But love me, Rosalind.
Come, sister, you shall be the priest and marry us.
Give me your hand, Orlando. What do you say, sister?
ORLANDO
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.
Now tell me how long you would stay with her after
You have married 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.
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
37
ORLANDO
For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee.
ROSALIND
Alas! dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours.
ORLANDO
I must attend the duke at dinner: by two o'clock I
will be with thee again.
ROSALIND
Two o'clock is your hour?
ORLANDO
Ay, sweet Rosalind.
ROSALIND
if you break one jot of your promise or come one
minute behind your hour, I will think you the most
pathetical break-promise therefore beware my censure and keep
your promise.
ORLANDO
With no less religion than if thou wert indeed my
Rosalind: so adieu.
ROSALIND
Well, Time is the old justice that examines all such
offenders, and let Time try: adieu.
Exit ORLANDO
ROSALIND
O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou
didst know how many fathom deep I am in love!
I'll tell thee, Aliena, I cannot be out
of the sight of Orlando: I'll go find a shadow and
sigh till he come.
CELIA
And I'll sleep.
Exeunt

SCENE III. The forest.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA
ROSALIND
How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock? and
here much Orlando!
CELIA
I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, he is gone forth to
sleep. Look, who comes here.
Enter SILVIUS
38
SILVIUS
My errand is to you, fair youth;
My gentle Phebe bid me give you this:
ROSALIND
She says I am not fair, that I lack manners;
She calls me proud, and that she could not love me,
Why writes she so to me? Well, shepherd, well,
This is a letter of your own device.
SILVIUS
No, I protest, I know not the contents:
Phebe did write it.
ROSALIND
Come, come, you are a fool
And turn'd into the extremity of love.
I say she never did invent this letter;
This is a man's invention and his hand.
SILVIUS
Sure, it is hers.
ROSALIND
Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel style.
Will you hear the letter?
SILVIUS
So please you, for I never heard it yet;
Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty.
ROSALIND
She Phebes me: mark how the tyrant writes.
Reads
Art thou god to shepherd turn'd,
That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?
Can a woman rail thus?
SILVIUS
Call you this railing?
ROSALIND
[Reads]
Whiles you chid me, I did love;
How then might your prayers move!
He that brings this love to thee
Little knows this love in me:
SILVIUS
Call you this chiding?
CELIA
Alas, poor shepherd!
39
ROSALIND
Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity. Wilt
thou love such a woman? say this to
her: that if she love me, I charge her to love
thee; if she will not, I will never have her unless
thou entreat for her. If you be a true lover,
hence, and not a word; for here comes more company.
Exit SILVIUS
Enter OLIVER
OLIVER
Good morrow, fair ones: pray you, if you know,
Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
A house fenced about with olive trees?

CELIA
West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom:
But at this hour the house doth keep itself;
There's none within.
OLIVER
Are not you
The owner of the house I did inquire for?
CELIA
we are.
OLIVER
Orlando doth commend him to you both,
And to that youth he calls his Rosalind
He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he?
ROSALIND
I am: what must we understand by this?
OLIVER
Some of my shame; if you will know of me
What man I am, and how, and why, and where
This handkercher was stain'd.
CELIA
I pray you, tell it.
OLIVER
When last the young Orlando parted from you
He left a promise to return again
Within an hour, and pacing through the forest,
Lo, what befell! he threw his eye aside,
And mark what object did present itself:
A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
40
Lay sleeping on his back: about his neck
A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself,
Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but suddenly,
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush: under which bush's shade
A lioness,
Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch,
This seen, Orlando did approach the man
And found it was his brother, his elder brother.
CELIA
O, I have heard him speak of that same brother;
ROSALIND
But, to Orlando: did he leave him there,
Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?
OLIVER
Twice did he turn his back and purposed so;
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,
Who quickly fell before him: in which hurtling
From miserable slumber I awaked.
CELIA
Are you his brother?
ROSALIND
Wast you he rescued?
CELIA
Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?
OLIVER
'Twas I; but 'tis not I. I do not shame
To tell you what I was, since my conversion
So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.
ROSALIND
But, for the bloody napkin?
OLIVER
By and by.
In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
41
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted
And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.
Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound;
And, after some small space, being strong at heart,
He sent me hither, stranger as I am,
To tell this story, that you might excuse
His broken promise, and to give this napkin
Dyed in his blood unto the shepherd youth
That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.
ROSALIND swoons

CELIA
Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede!
OLIVER
Many will swoon when they do look on blood.
CELIA
There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede!
OLIVER
Look, he recovers.
ROSALIND
I would I were at home.
CELIA
We'll lead you thither.
I pray you, will you take him by the arm?
OLIVER
Be of good cheer, youth: you a man! you lack a
man's heart.
ROSALIND
I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would
think this was well counterfeited! I pray you, tell
your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho!
OLIVER
This was not counterfeit: there is too great
testimony in your complexion that it was a passion
of earnest.
ROSALIND
Counterfeit, I assure you.
OLIVER
Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man.
ROSALIND
So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right.
42
CELIA
Come, you look paler and paler: pray you, draw
homewards. Good sir, go with us.
OLIVER
That will I, for I must bear answer back
How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.
ROSALIND
I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend
my counterfeiting to him. Will you go?
Exeunt

ACT V

SCENE I. The forest.

Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY
TOUCHSTONE
We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.
But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the
forest lays claim to you.
AUDREY
Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me in
the world: here comes the man you mean.
TOUCHSTONE
It is meat and drink to me to see a clown:
Enter WILLIAM
WILLIAM
Good even, Audrey.
AUDREY
God ye good even, William.
WILLIAM
And good even to you, sir.
TOUCHSTONE
Good even, gentle friend. Is thy name William?
WILLIAM
William, sir.
TOUCHSTONE
A fair name. Art thou wise?
WILLIAM
Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
TOUCHSTONE
Why, thou sayest well. You do love this maid?
43
WILLIAM
I do, sir.
TOUCHSTONE
Give me your hand. Art thou learned?
WILLIAM
No, sir.
TOUCHSTONE
I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways:
therefore tremble and depart.
AUDREY
Do, good William.
WILLIAM
God rest you merry, sir.
Exit
Enter CORIN
CORIN
Our master and mistress seeks you; come, away, away!
TOUCHSTONE
Trip, Audrey! trip, Audrey! I attend, I attend.
Exeunt

SCENE II. The forest.

Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER
ORLANDO
Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you
should like her? that but seeing you should love
her? and loving woo?
OLIVER
I love Aliena; and it
shall be to your good; for my father's house and all
the 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 to-morrow:
thither will I invite the duke and all's contented
followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for look
you, here comes my Rosalind.
Enter ROSALIND
ROSALIND
God save you, brother.
OLIVER
And you, fair sister.
44
Exit
ROSALIND
O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee
wear thy heart in a scarf!
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 counterfeited to
swoon when he showed me your handkerchief?
ORLANDO
Ay, and greater wonders than that.
ROSALIND
'tis true: there was
never anything so sudden, for your brother and my sister no sooner
met but they looked, no sooner looked but they
loved….
ORLANDO
They shall be married to-morrow, 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!
ROSALIND
Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?
ORLANDO
I can live no longer by thinking.
ROSALIND
I will weary you then no longer with idle talking.
Believe then, if
you please, that I can do strange things: I have,
since I was three year old, conversed with a
magician, most profound in his art.
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, to set her before your eyes tomorrow
45
ORLANDO
Speakest thou in sober meanings?
ROSALIND
By my life, I do. Therefore, put you in your
best array: bid your friends; for if you will be
married to-morrow, you shall, and to Rosalind, if you will.
Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE
Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.
PHEBE
Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,
To show the him 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 followed by a faithful shepherd;
Look upon him, love him; he worships you.
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.
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.
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,
All purity, all trial, all observance;
46
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.
PHEBE
If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
SILVIUS
If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
ORLANDO
If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
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
To SILVIUS
I will help you, if I can:
To PHEBE
I would love you, if I could. To-morrow meet me all together.
To PHEBE
I will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I'll be
married to-morrow:
To ORLANDO
I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you
shall be married to-morrow:
To SILVIUS
I will content you, if what pleases you contents
you, and you shall be married to-morrow.
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 commands.
Exeunt
SCENE III. The forest.
Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY
TOUCHSTONE
To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow will
47
we be married.
AUDREY
I do desire it with all my heart;
TOUCHSTONE
Come, Audrey.
Exeunt

SCENE IV. The forest.

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;
Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE
ROSALIND
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.
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.
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 promised to make all this matter even.
and from hence I go,
Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA
48
DUKE SENIOR
I do remember in this shepherd boy
Some lively touches of my daughter's favour.
Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY
JAQUES
There is, sure, another flood toward, and these
couples are coming to the ark.
Enter WOODLAND PRIESTESS, ROSALIND, and CELIA
Still Music
WOODLAND PRIESTESS
Then is there mirth in heaven,
When earthly things made even
Atone together.
Good duke, receive thy daughter
Yea, brought her hither,
That thou mightst join her hand with his
ROSALIND
[To DUKE SENIOR] To you I give myself, for I am yours.
To ORLANDO
To you I give myself, for I am yours.
DUKE SENIOR
If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter.
ORLANDO
If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind.
PHEBE
If sight and shape be true,
Why then, my love adieu!
ROSALIND
I'll have no father, if you be not he:
I'll have no husband, if you be not he:
WOODLAND PRIESTESS
Peace, ho! I bar confusion:
'Tis I must make conclusion
Of these most strange events:
Here's eight that must take hands
To join in God’s bands,
SONG.​
Wedding is great Juno's crown:
O blessed bond of board and bed!
High wedlock then be honoured:
Honour, high honour and renown,
To the god of every town!
49
Enter LE BEAU
LE BEAU
Let me have audience for a word or two:
Duchess Fredericka, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Address'd a mighty power; purposely to take
her brother here and put him to the sword:
And to the skirts of this wild wood she came;
Where meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from her enterprise and from the world,
Her crown bequeathing to her banish'd brother,
And all their lands restored to them again
That were with him exiled. This to be true,
I do engage my life.
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome, young woman;
Thou offer'st fairly to this wedding:
Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.
JAQUES
Sir, by your patience. If I heard you rightly,
The duchess hath put on a religious life
And thrown into neglect the pompous court?
LE BEAU
She hath.
JAQUES
To her will I
There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.
DUKE SENIOR
Stay, Jaques, stay.
JAQUES
To see no pastime I. What you would have
I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave.
Exit
DUKE SENIOR
Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites,
As we do trust they'll end, in true delights.
A dance
EPILOGUE
50
ROSALIND
It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue;
but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord
the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs
no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no
epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes,
and good plays prove the better by the help of good
epilogues. But I'll begin
with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love
you bear to men, to like as much of this play as
please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love
you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering,
none of you hates them--that between you and the
women the play may please. for my
kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

Everyone comes back in and dances

Exeunt
Bows