ROSALIND Do, young sir; your reputation shall not therefore
be misprised: we will make it our suit to the duke
that the wrestling might not go forward.
ORLANDO 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 was 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.
ROSALIND The little strength that I have, I would it were with you.
CELIA And mine, to eke out hers.
ROSALIND Fare you well: pray heaven I be deceived in you!
CELIA Your heart’s desires be with you!
CHARLES Come, where is this young gallant that is so
desirous to lie with his mother earth?
ORLANDO Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working.
DUKE FREDERICK You shall try but one fall.
CHARLES No, I warrant your grace, you shall not entreat him
to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him
from a first.
ORLANDO An you mean to mock me after, you should not have
mocked me before: but come your ways.
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!
CELIA If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who
should down.
Shout. CHARLES is thrown
DUKE FREDERICK No more, no more.
ORLANDO Yes, I beseech your grace: I am not yet well breathed.
DUKE FREDERICK How dost thou, Charles?
LE BEAU He cannot speak, my lord.
DUKE FREDERICK Bear him away. What is thy name, young man?
ORLANDO Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys.
DUKE FREDERICK 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:
Thou shouldst have better pleased me with this deed,
Hadst thou descended from another house.
But fare thee well; thou art a gallant youth:
I would thou hadst told me of another father.
Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK, train, and LE BEAU
CELIA Were I my father, coz, would I do this?
ORLANDO I am more proud to be Sir Rowland’s son,
His youngest son; and would not change that calling,
To be adopted heir to Frederick.
ROSALIND My father loved Sir Rowland as his soul,
And all the world was of my father’s mind:
Had I before known this young man his son,
I should have given him tears unto entreaties,
Ere he should thus have ventured.
CELIA Gentle cousin,
Let us go thank him and encourage him:
My father’s rough and envious disposition
Sticks me at heart. Sir, you have well deserved:
If you do keep your promises in love
But justly, as you have exceeded all promise,
Your mistress shall be happy.
ROSALIND Gentleman,
Giving him a chain from her neck
Wear this for me, one out of suits with fortune,
That could give more, but that her hand lacks means.
Shall we go, coz?
CELIA Ay. Fare you well, fair gentleman.
ORLANDO Can I not say, I thank you? My better parts
Are all thrown down, and that which here stands up
Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.
ROSALIND He calls us back: my pride fell with my fortunes;
I’ll ask him what he would. Did you call, sir?
Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown
More than your enemies.
CELIA Will you go, coz?
ROSALIND Have with you. 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!
Or Charles or something weaker masters thee.
Re-enter LE BEAU
LE BEAU Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you
To leave this place. Albeit you have deserved
High commendation, true applause and love,
Yet such is now the duke’s condition
That he misconstrues all that you have done.
The duke is humorous; what he is indeed,
More suits you to conceive than I to speak of.
ORLANDO I thank you, sir: and, pray you, tell me this:
Which of the two was daughter of the duke
That here was at the wrestling?
LE BEAU Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners;
But yet indeed the lesser is his daughter
The other is daughter to the banish’d duke,
And here detain’d by her usurping uncle,
To keep his daughter company; whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.
But I can tell you that of late this duke
Hath ta’en displeasure ‘gainst his gentle niece,
Grounded upon no other argument
But that the people praise her for her virtues
And pity her for her good father’s sake;
And, on my life, his malice ‘gainst the lady
Will suddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well:
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
ORLANDO I rest much bounden to you: fare you well.
Exit LE BEAU
Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother:
But heavenly Rosalind!
Exit
Scene 3
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
curs; throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.
ROSALIND Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one
should be lamed with reasons and the other mad
without any.
CELIA 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!
CELIA 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.
ROSALIND I could shake them off my coat: 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 O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in
despite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of
service, let us talk in good earnest: 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? By this kind of chase, I should hate him,
for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate
not Orlando.
ROSALIND No, faith, hate him not, for my sake.
CELIA Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?
ROSALIND Let me love him for that, and do you love him
because I do. Look, here comes the duke.
CELIA With his eyes full of anger.
Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords
DUKE FREDERICK Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste
And get you from our court.
ROSALIND Me, uncle?
DUKE FREDERICK You, cousin
Within these ten days if that thou be’st found
So near our public court as twenty miles,
Thou diest for it.
ROSALIND I do beseech your grace,
Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
If with myself I hold intelligence
Or have acquaintance with mine own desires,
If that I do not dream or be not frantic,–
As I do trust I am not–then, dear uncle,
Never so much as in a thought unborn
Did I offend your highness.
DUKE FREDERICK Thus do all traitors:
If their purgation did consist in words,
They are as innocent as grace itself:
Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
ROSALIND Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:
Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.
DUKE FREDERICK Thou art thy father’s daughter; there’s enough.
ROSALIND So was I when your highness took his dukedom;
So was I when your highness banish’d him:
Treason is not inherited, my lord;
Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
What’s that to me? my father was no traitor:
Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
To think my poverty is treacherous.
CELIA Dear sovereign, hear me speak.
DUKE FREDERICK Ay, Celia; we stay’d her for your sake,
Else had she with her father ranged along.
CELIA I did not then entreat to have her stay;