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As You Like It - Act 1, scene 3
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As You Like It - Act 1, scene 3Act 1, scene 3
Scene 3
Synopsis:
Duke Frederick suddenly decides to banish Rosalind. His daughter Celia, determined to go with Rosalind into exile, suggests that they seek the banished duke in the Forest of Arden, and that, for safety on their journey, they disguise themselves as a country girl and her brother. They agree to ask the court Fool, Touchstone, to go with them.
Enter Celia and Rosalind.CELIA 0461 Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy,
0462 not a word?
ROSALIND 0463 Not one to throw at a dog.
CELIA 0464 No, thy words are too precious to be cast away
0465 5 upon curs. Throw some of them at me. Come, lame
0466 me with reasons.
ROSALIND 0467 Then there were two cousins laid up, when
0468 the one should be lamed with reasons, and the
0469 other mad without any.
p.
37
CELIA
0470
10But is all this for your father?ROSALIND 0471 No, some of it is for my child’s father. O,
0472 how full of briers is this working-day world!
CELIA 0473 They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in
0474 holiday foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths,
0475 15 our very petticoats will catch them.
ROSALIND 0476 I could shake them off my coat. These burs
0477 are in my heart.
CELIA 0478 Hem them away.
ROSALIND 0479 I would try, if I could cry “hem” and have
0480 20 him.
CELIA 0481 Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.
ROSALIND 0482 O, they take the part of a better wrestler
0483 than myself.
CELIA 0484 O, a good wish upon you. You will try in time, in
0485 25 despite of a fall. But turning these jests out of
0486 service, let us talk in good earnest. Is it possible on
0487 such a sudden you should fall into so strong a liking
0488 with old Sir Rowland’s youngest son?
ROSALIND 0489 The Duke my father loved his father dearly.
CELIA 0490 30Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his
0491 son dearly? By this kind of chase I should hate him,
0492 for my father hated his father dearly. Yet I hate not
0493 Orlando.
ROSALIND 0494 No, faith, hate him not, for my sake.
CELIA 0495 35Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well?
ROSALIND 0496 Let me love him for that, and do you love
0497 him because I do.
Enter Duke ⌜Frederick⌝ with Lords.
0498 Look, here comes the Duke.
CELIA 0499 With his eyes full of anger.
DUKE FREDERICK, ⌜to Rosalind⌝
0500 40 Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste,
0501 And get you from our court.
ROSALIND 0502 Me, uncle?
p.
39
DUKE FREDERICK
0503
You, cousin.0504 Within these ten days if that thou beest found
0505 45 So near our public court as twenty miles,
0506 Thou diest for it.
ROSALIND 0507 I do beseech your Grace,
0508 Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me.
0509 If with myself I hold intelligence
0510 50 Or have acquaintance with mine own desires,
0511 If that I do not dream or be not frantic—
0512 As I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle,
0513 Never so much as in a thought unborn
0514 Did I offend your Highness.
DUKE FREDERICK 0515 55 Thus do all traitors.
0516 If their purgation did consist in words,
0517 They are as innocent as grace itself.
0518 Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
ROSALIND
0519 Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor.
0520 60 Tell me whereon the ⌜likelihood⌝ depends.
DUKE FREDERICK
0521 Thou art thy father’s daughter. There’s enough.
ROSALIND
0522 So was I when your Highness took his dukedom.
0523 So was I when your Highness banished him.
0524 Treason is not inherited, my lord,
0525 65 Or if we did derive it from our friends,
0526 What’s that to me? My father was no traitor.
0527 Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
0528 To think my poverty is treacherous.
CELIA 0529 Dear sovereign, hear me speak.
DUKE FREDERICK
0530 70 Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake;
0531 Else had she with her father ranged along.
CELIA
0532 I did not then entreat to have her stay.
0533 It was your pleasure and your own remorse.
p.
41
0534
I was too young that time to value her,0535 75 But now I know her. If she be a traitor,
0536 Why, so am I. We still have slept together,
0537 Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together,
0538 And, wheresoe’er we went, like Juno’s swans
0539 Still we went coupled and inseparable.
DUKE FREDERICK
0540 80 She is too subtle for thee, and her smoothness,
0541 Her very silence, and her patience
0542 Speak to the people, and they pity her.
0543 Thou art a fool. She robs thee of thy name,
0544 And thou wilt show more bright and seem more
0545 85 virtuous
0546 When she is gone. Then open not thy lips.
0547 Firm and irrevocable is my doom
0548 Which I have passed upon her. She is banished.
CELIA
0549 Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege.
0550 90 I cannot live out of her company.
DUKE FREDERICK
0551 You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself.
0552 If you outstay the time, upon mine honor
0553 And in the greatness of my word, you die.
Duke ⌜and Lords⌝ exit.
CELIA
0554 O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
0555 95 Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
0556 I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.
ROSALIND 0557 I have more cause.
CELIA 0558 Thou hast not, cousin.
0559 Prithee, be cheerful. Know’st thou not the Duke
0560 100 Hath banished me, his daughter?
ROSALIND 0561 That he hath not.
CELIA
0562 No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
0563 Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one.
p.
43
0564
Shall we be sundered? Shall we part, sweet girl?0565 105 No, let my father seek another heir.
0566 Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
0567 Whither to go, and what to bear with us,
0568 And do not seek to take your change upon you,
0569 To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out.
0570 110 For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
0571 Say what thou canst, I’ll go along with thee.
ROSALIND 0572 Why, whither shall we go?
CELIA
0573 To seek my uncle in the Forest of Arden.
ROSALIND
0574 Alas, what danger will it be to us,
0575 115 Maids as we are, to travel forth so far?
0576 Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
CELIA
0577 I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire,
0578 And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
0579 The like do you. So shall we pass along
0580 120 And never stir assailants.
ROSALIND 0581 Were it not better,
0582 Because that I am more than common tall,
0583 That I did suit me all points like a man?
0584 A gallant curtal-ax upon my thigh,
0585 125 A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart
0586 Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will,
0587 We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside—
0588 As many other mannish cowards have
0589 That do outface it with their semblances.
CELIA
0590 130 What shall I call thee when thou art a man?
ROSALIND
0591 I’ll have no worse a name than Jove’s own page,
0592 And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
0593 But what will you ⌜be⌝ called?
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45
CELIA 0594 Something that hath a reference to my state:
0595 135 No longer Celia, but Aliena.
ROSALIND
0596 But, cousin, what if we assayed to steal
0597 The clownish fool out of your father’s court?
0598 Would he not be a comfort to our travel?
CELIA
0599 He’ll go along o’er the wide world with me.
0600 140 Leave me alone to woo him. Let’s away
0601 And get our jewels and our wealth together,
0602 Devise the fittest time and safest way
0603 To hide us from pursuit that will be made
0604 After my flight. Now go ⌜we in⌝ content
0605 145 To liberty, and not to banishment.
They exit.