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. 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 dearly ;' yet I hate not Orlando. Ros. No, 'faith, hate him not, for my sake. 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. with safest haste, And get you from our court. Ros. Me, uncle? Duke F. You, cousin ; Within these ten days if that thou be'st found So near our public court as twenty miles, Thou diest for it. 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 F. 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. 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 (1) Inveterately. Ros. Ros. So was I, when your highness took his dukedom; 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. 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 still have 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. Cel. Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege ; I cannot live out of her company. Duke F. You are a fool :-You, niece, provide yourself; If you out-stay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatness of my word, you die. (Exeunt Duke Frederick and lords. Cel. O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go? (1) Compassion. 1 Wilt thou change fathers ? I will give thee mine. Ros. I have more cause. Thou hast not, cousin; That he hath not. Ros. Why, whither shall we go? To seek my uncle. Cel. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, Were it not better, man? (1) A dusky, yellow-coloured earth. Ros. 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? 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; Devise the fittest time, and safest way To hide us from pursuit that will be made After my flight: 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 other Lords, in the dress of Foresters. Duke S. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exíle, 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? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference; as the icy fang, And churlish chiding of the winter's wind; Which when it bites and blows upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say, This is no flattery : these are counsellors That feelingly persuade me what I am. Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public baunt, grace, Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison: And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this desert city, Should, in their own confínes, with forked headsı Have their round haunches gor'd. 1 Lord. Indeed, my lord, The melancholy Jaques grieves at that ; And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself, Did steal behind him, as he lay along Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out Upon the brook that brawls along this wood : To the which place a poor sequester'd stag, That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt, Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, The wretched animal heay'd forth such groans, That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat Almost to bursting ; and the big round tears Cours'd one another down his innocent nose In piteous chase : and thus the hairy fool, Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook, Augmenting it with tears. Duke $. But what said Jaques? Did he not moralize this spectacle? 1 Lord. O, yes, into a thousand similes. First, for his weeping in the needless stream; Poor deer, quoth he, thou mak'st a testament As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more To that which had too much : Then, being alone, (1) Barbed arrows. |