SCENE III. A Room in the Palace. Enter CELIA and ROSALIND. Cel. Why, cousin; why, Rosalind ;-Cupid have mercy!-Not a word? 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 father1. 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. Cel. Hem them away. Ros. I would try: if I could cry hem, and have him. Cel. Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. Ros. O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself. Cel. 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? Ros. The duke my father lov'd his father dearly. 1 i. e. for him whom she hopes to marry and have children by. So Theobald explains this passage. Some of the modern editions read: my father's child.' Cel. 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 dearly2; yet I hate not Orlando. Ros. No 'faith, hate him not, for my sake. Cel. Why should I not? doth he not deserve well3? Ros. Let me love him for that; and do you love him, because I do:-Look, here comes the duke. Cel. With his eyes full of anger. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords. Duke F. Mistress, dispatch you with your safest Within these ten days if that thou be'st found Ros. I do beseech your grace, Or have acquaintance with mine own desires; Duke F. Thus do all traitors; If their purgation did consist in words, - 2 Shakspeare's apparent use of dear in a double sense has been already illustrated. See note on Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. i. Vol. I. p. 382. 3 Celia answers as if Rosalind had said 'love him, for my sake," which is the implied sense of her words. Ros. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor : Tell me, whereon the likelihood depends. Duke F. Thou art thy father's daughter, there's enough. Ros. So was I, when your highness took his dukedom; So was I, when your highness banish'd him: Or, if we did derive it from our friends, Cel. Dear sovereign, hear me speak. Duke F. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, Else had she with her father rang'd along. 4 Cel. I did not then entreat to have her stay, It was your pleasure, and your own remorse *; I was too young that time to value her, But now I know her; if she be a traitor, Why so am I; we have still slept together, Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together; And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, Still we went coupled, and inseparable. Duke F. 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; And thou wilt show more bright, and seem more virtuous, When she is gone: then open not thy lips; Firm and irrevocable is my doom Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. 4 i. e. compassion. So in Macbeth: 'Stop the access and passage to remorse.' Duke F. You are a fool:-You, niece, provide yourself; If you out-stay the time, upon mine honour, [Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords. Cel. Thou hast not, cousin ; Pr'ythee, be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me, his daughter? Ros. That he hath not. Cel. No? hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? No; let my father seek another heir. 5 Therefore, devise with me, how we may fly, Cel. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. Cel. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, 5 The second folio reads charge. Malone explains it 'to take your change or reverse of fortune upon yourself, without any aid of participation.' 6 A kind of umber,' a dusky yellow-coloured earth, brought from Umbria in Italy, well known to artists. In the chorus to King Henry V. we have -the battle's umber'd face.' The like do you; so shall we pass along, Ros. Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, A boar-spear in my hand; and (in my heart That do outface it with their semblances. Cel. What shall I call thee, when thou art a man? Ros. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page, And therefore look you call me Ganymede. Cel. Something that hath a reference to my state; No longer Celia, but Aliena. Ros. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal The clownish fool out of your father's court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel? Cel. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; Leave me alone to woo him: Let's away, And get our jewels and our wealth together; [Exeunt. 7 This was one of the old words for a cutlass, or short crooked sword, coutelas, French. It was variously spelled, courtlas, courtlax, curtlax. So in Fairefaxe's Tasso, b. ix. st. 82: 'His curtlax on his thigh, short crooked fine.' 8 i. e. as we now say, dashing; spirited and calculated to surprise. To swash is interpreted by Torriano, Strepitar con l'arme.' Hence a swash buckler was a swaggerer, a bragging toss-blade, a Captain Slash,' according to the same authority. |