Cel. It pleases him to call you so; but he hath There a girl goes before the priest; and, certainly, a Rosalind of a better leer than you.

Ros. 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?

Orl. I would kiss, before I spoke.

Ros. Nay, you were better speak first; and when you were gravelled for lack of matter, you might take occasion to kiss.

Orl. How, if the kiss be denied? Ros. Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter.

Orl. Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress?

Ros. Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress.

Orl. What, of my suit?

Ros. Out of your suit. Am not I your Rosalind? Orl. I take some joy to say you are, because I would be talking of her.

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

a woman's thought runs before her actions.
Orl. So do all thoughts; they are winged.
Ros. Now tell me how long you would have her,
after you have married her.

Orl. For ever and a day.

Ros. 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 cockpigeon over his hen; more clamorous than a parrot against rain; more new-fangled than an ape; more giddy 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 hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.

Orl. But will my Rosalind do so?
Ros. By my life, she will do as I do.
Orl. O, but she is wise.

Ros. Or else she could not have the wit to do
this: the wiser, the waywarder: Make the doors 3
upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the case-
ment;
shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole;
stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chim-
ney.

Orl. A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say, Wit whither wilt? Ros. You shall never take her without her an

Orl. For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave

Orl. Then, in mine own person, I die. Ros. 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 pat-swer, unless you take her without her tongue. terns 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.

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

Ros. 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, will grant it.

Orl. Then love me, Rosalind.

I

thee.

Ros. Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours. Orl. I must attend the duke at dinner; by two o'clock I will be with thee again.

Ros. Ay, go your ways, go your ways; — I knew what you would prove; my friends told me as much, and I thought no less: - that flattering tongue of yours won me:- -'tis but one cast away, and so, come, death. Two o'clock is your hour? Orl. Ay, sweet Rosalind.

Ros. By my troth, and in good earnest, and bv all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot of your promise, or come one minute behind your hour, I will think you the most pathetical break-promise, and the most hollow lover, and the

Ros. Yes, faith will I, Fridays, and Saturdays,and all. most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may

Orl. And wilt thou have me?

be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful: therefore, beware my censure, and keep your promise.

Orl. With no less religion, than if thou wert indeed my Rosalind: So adieu.

Ros. Well, time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let time try: Adieu.

[Erit ORLANDO. Cel. You have simply misus'd our sex in your 3 Bar the doors. P

love-prate: we must have your doublet and hose | And turn'd into the extremity of love. plucked over your head.

Ros. O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou did'st know how many fathom deep I am in love! But it cannot be sounded; my affection hath an unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal. Cel. Or rather, bottomless; that as fast as you pour affection in, it runs out.

Ros. No, that same wicked boy of Venus, that was begot of thought, conceived of spleen, and born of madness; that blind rascally boy, that abuses every one's eyes, because his own are out, let him be judge, how 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. Cel. And I'll sleep.

[Exeunt.

Another Part of the Forest.

Enter JAQUES and Lords, in the habit of Foresters.
Jaq. Which is he that killed the deer?
1 Lord. Sir, it was I.

Jaq. Let's present him to the duke, like a Roman
conqueror; and it would do well to set the deer's
horns upon his head, for a branch of victory :
Have you no song, forester, for this purpose?
2 Lord. Yes, sir.

I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand,
A freestone-colour'd hand; I verily did think
That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;
She has a huswife's hand: but that's no matter:
I say, she never did invent this letter;
This is a man's invention, and his hand.
Sil. Sure, it is hers.

Ros. Why, 'tis a boisterous and cruel style,
A style for challengers; why she defies me,
Like Turk to Christian: woman's gentle brain
Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention,
Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect
Than in their countenance: -

letter?

Will you hear the

Sil. So please you, for I never heard it yet;
Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty.
Mark how the tyrant
Ros. She Phebes me:
writes.

Art thou god to shepherd turn'd,
That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?—

Can a woman rail thus?

Sil. Call you this railing?

Ros. Why, thy godhead laid apart,

[Reads.

Warr'st thou with a woman's heart?

Jaq. Sing it; 'tis no matter how it be in tune, Did you ever hear such railing? so it make noise enough.

SONG.

1. What shall he have that kill'd the deer?

2. His leather skin and horns to wear.
1. Then sing him home:

Take thou no scorn, to wear the horn;
It was a crest ere thou wast born.

1. Thy father's father wore it ;
2. And thy father bore it:

All. The horn, the horn, the lusty horn,
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.

SCENE III. The Forest.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA.

Whiles the eye of man did woo me,
That could do no vengeance to me. —

The rest shall
burden.

bear this

[Exeunt.

Sil. My errand is to you, fair youth;
My gentle Phebe bid me give you this;

[Giving a letter.
I know not the contents; but, as I guess,
By the stern brow, and waspish action
Which she did use as she was writing of it,
It bears an angry tenour: pardon me,
I am but as a guiltless messenger.

Ros. Patience herself would startle at this letter,
And play the swaggerer; bear this, bear all:
She says, I am not fair; that 1 lack manners;
She calls me proud; and, that she could not love me
Were man as rare as phoenix; Od's my will !
Her love is not the hare that I do hunt:
Why writes she so to me? - Well, shepherd, well,
This is a letter of your own device.

Sil. No, I protest, I know not the contents;
Phebe did write it.

Have power to raise such love in mine,
Alack, in me what strange effect

Would they work in mild aspéct ?
Whiles chid me,

you

I did love;

Ros. Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity. Wilt thou love such a woman?- What, to make thee an instrument, and play false strains upon thee! not to be endured! Well, go your way to her, (for I see, love hath made thee a tame snake,) and 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 [Exit SILVIUS.

company.

Enter OLIVER.

Oli. Good-morrow, fair ones: Pray you, if you
know

Where, in the purlieus of this forest, stands
A sheep-cote, fenc'd about with olive-trees?

Cel. West of this place, down in the neighbour
bottom,

The rank of osiers, by the murmuring stream,
Left on your right hand, brings you to the place:

4 Nature.

Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age Dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd youth

And well he might so do, feit to be a man. For well I know he was unnatural.

Ros. But, to Orlando; Did he leave him there, woman by right.
Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd 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 6
From miserable slumber I awak'd.

By my troth, we that have good wits, have much to
answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold.
Will. Good even, Audrey.
Aud. Good even, William.

Will. And good even to you, sir.

Touch. Good even, gentle friend: Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, pr'ythee, be covered. How old are you, friend?

Will. Five and twenty, sir.

Touch. A ripe age: Is thy name William?
Will. William, sir.

Touch. A fair name; Wast born i' the forest here?
Will. Ay, sir.

Touch. Art rich?

Will. 'Faith, sir, so so.

Art

Touch. So, so, is good, very good, very excellent good: and yet it is not; it is but so, so. thou wise?

Will. Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.

Touch. Why, thou say'st well. I do now remember a saying; The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and ips to open. You do love this maid?

Will. I do, sir.

Orl. It is my arm.

Ros. I thought, thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion.

Orl. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. Ros. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon, when he showed me your handkerchief? Orl. Ay, and greater wonders than that.

Ros. O, I know where you are:- - Nay, 'tis true: there was never any thing so sudden, but the fight of two rams, and Cæsar's thrasonical brag of - I sister no sooner met, but they looked; no sooner came, saw, and overcame: For your brother and my looked, but they loved; no sooner loved, but they sighed; no sooner sighed, but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason, but

Touch. Give me your hand: Art thou learned? they sought the remedy: and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage: they are in Will. No, sir. the very wrath of love, and they will together; clubs cannot part them.

Touch. Then learn this of me; To have, is to have: For it is a figure in rhetorick, that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other: For all your writers do con sent, that ipse is he; now you are not ipse, for I am he.

Will. Which he, sir?

Touch. He, sir, that must marry this woman : Therefore, you clown, abandon, - which is in the vulgar, leave,- the society, which in the boorish is company, - of this female, which in the common is, woman, which together is, abandon the society of this female; or, clown, thou perishest; or,

to thy better understanding, diest; to wit, I kill
thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death,
thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in poison with
thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with
thee in faction; I will o'er-run thee with policy; I
will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways; therefore
tremble, and depart.

Aud. Do, good William.
Will. Rest you merry, sir.
Enter CORIN.

[Exit.

Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER.

Orl. Is't possible, that on so little acquaintance you should like her? that, but seeing, you should love her? and, loving, woo? and, wooing, she should grant? and will you perséver to marry her?

Oli. Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me, I love Aliena; say with her, that she loves me; consent with both, that we may enjoy each other it shall be to your good; for my father's house, and all the revenue that was old sir Row

bid the duke to the nuptial. But, O, how bitter a Orl. They shall be married to-morrow; and I will thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes! By so much the more shall I to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think my brother happy, in having what he wishes for.

Ros. Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?

Orl. I can live no longer by thinking.

talking. Know of me then, (for now I speak to Ros. I will weary you no longer then with idle

some purpose,) that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I speak not this, that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge, insomuch, I say, I know you are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourself good, and not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things I have, since I was three years old, conversed with a magician, most profound in this 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, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set her before your eyes to-morrow, human as she is, and without any danger.

Orl. Speakest thou in sober meanings?

Ros. By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I say I am a magician: 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.
Phe. Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,
To show the letter that I writ to you.

Ros. I care not, if I have: it is my study,

To seem despiteful and ungentle to you:
You are there follow'd by a faithful shepherd;
Look upon him, love him; he worships you.

Phe. Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to
love.

Sil. It is to be all made of sighs and tears; And so am I for Phebe.

Phe. And I for Ganymede.

Orl. And I for Rosalind.

Ros. And I for no woman.

Sil. It is to be all made of faith and service;

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe. And I for Ganymede.

Orl. And I for Rosalind.

Ros. And I for no woman.

Sil. 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;
And so am I for Phebe.

-

Phe. And so am I for Ganymede.
Orl. And so am I for Rosalind.
Ros. And so am I for no woman.
Phe. If this be so, why blame you me to love
you?
[To ROSALIND.
Sil. If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
[TO PHEBE.
Orl. If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
Ros. Who do you speak to, why blame you me to

love you?

Orl. To her, that is not here, nor doth not hear. Ros. Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon. — - I will help you, [To SILVIUS.] if I can : - I would love you, [To PHEBE.] if I could.· -To-morrow meet me all together. I will marry you, [To PHEBE.] if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married to-morrow: -I will satisfy you, [To ORLANDO.] if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow: - I will content you, [To SILVIUS.] if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married to

morrow.

--

SCENE IV. Another Part of the Forest. Enter Duke Senior, AMIENS, JAQUES, ORLANDO, OLIVER, and CELIA.

Duke S. Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy Can do all this that he hath promised?

Orl. I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not;

As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.

Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE.

Ros. Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg'd:

As you [To ORLANDO.] love Rosalind, You say, if I bring in your Rosalind,

meet; -as you [To SILVIUS.] love Phebe, meet;
and as I love no woman, I'll meet.
well; I have left you commands.,

Sil. I'll not fail, if I live.

So, fare you

1 Page. Well met, honest gentleman.

[To the Duke. You will bestow her on Orlando here? Duke S. That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her.

bring her?

Ros. And you say, you will have her when I
[TO ORLANDO.
Orl. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king.
Ros. You say, you'll marry me, if I be willing?
[TO PHEBE.
Phe. That will I, should I die the hour after.
Ros. But, if you do refuse to marry me,
You'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd ?
Phe. So is the bargain.

Ros. You say, that you'll have Phebe, if she will?
[TO SILVIUS.

Sil. Though to have her and death were both one thing.

Ros. I have promis'd to make all this matter even.

Touch. By my troth, well met: Come, sit, sit, and Keep you your word, O duke, to give your

daughter;

You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter:
Keep your word, Phebe, that you'll marry me ;
Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd:
Keep your word, Silvius, that you'll marry her,
If she refuse me :- - and from hence I go,
To make these doubts all even.

[Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA.