As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Act 1 - Scene 3

The DUKE’s palace

(stage directions) : Enter CELIA and ROSALIND

Celia : Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! [p]Not a word?

Rosalind : Not one to throw at a dog.

Celia : No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs; [p]throw
some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.

Rosalind : Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should [p]be lam'd
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 [p]briers is
this working-day world!

Celia : They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday [p]foolery; if
we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats [p]will catch
them.

Rosalind : I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my [p]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 [p]a
fall. But, turning these jests out of service, let us talk in [p]good
earnest. Is it possible, on such a sudden, you should fall [p]into so
strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son?

Rosalind : The Duke my father lov'd his father dearly.

Celia : Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly? [p]By
this kind of chase I should hate him, for my father hated
his [p]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?

(stage directions) : Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with LORDS

Rosalind : Let me love him for that; and do you love him because I [p]do. Look,
here comes the Duke.

Celia : With his eyes full of anger.

Frederick : Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, [p]And get you from our
court.

Rosalind : Me, uncle?

Frederick : You, cousin. [p]Within these ten days if that thou beest found [p]So
near our public court as twenty miles, [p]Thou diest for it.

Rosalind : I do beseech your Grace, [p]Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with
me. [p]If with myself I hold intelligence, [p]Or have acquaintance
with mine own desires; [p]If that I do not dream, or be not
frantic- [p]As I do trust I am not- then, dear uncle, [p]Never so much
as in a thought unborn [p]Did I offend your Highness.

Frederick : Thus do all traitors; [p]If their purgation did consist in
words, [p]They are as innocent as grace itself. [p]Let it suffice thee
that I trust thee not.

Rosalind : Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor. [p]Tell me whereon the
likelihood depends.

Frederick : Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.

Rosalind : So was I when your Highness took his dukedom; [p]So was I when your
Highness banish'd him. [p]Treason is not inherited, my lord; [p]Or, if
we did derive it from our friends, [p]What's that to me? My father was
no traitor. [p]Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much [p]To think
my poverty is treacherous.

Celia : Dear sovereign, hear me speak.

Frederick : Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, [p]Else had she with her
father rang'd along.

Celia : I did not then entreat to have her stay; [p]It was your pleasure, and
your own remorse; [p]I was too young that time to value her, [p]But
now I know her. If she be a traitor, [p]Why so am I: we still have
slept together, [p]Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat
together; [p]And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, [p]Still we
went coupled and inseparable.

Frederick : She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, [p]Her very silence
and her patience, [p]Speak to the people, and they pity her. [p]Thou
art a fool. She robs thee of thy name; [p]And thou wilt show more
bright and seem more virtuous [p]When she is gone. Then open not thy
lips. [p]Firm and irrevocable is my doom [p]Which I have pass'd upon
her; she is banish'd.

Celia : Pronounce that sentence, then, on me, my liege; [p]I cannot live out
of her company.

Frederick : You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself. [p]If you outstay the
time, upon mine honour, [p]And in the greatness of my word, you die.

(stage directions) : Exeunt DUKE and LORDS

Celia : O my poor Rosalind! Whither wilt thou go? [p]Wilt thou change fathers?
I will give thee mine. [p]I charge thee be not thou more griev'd than
I am.

Rosalind : I have more cause.

Celia : Thou hast not, cousin. [p]Prithee be cheerful. Know'st thou not the
Duke [p]Hath banish'd me, his daughter?

Rosalind : That he hath not.

Celia : No, hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the love [p]Which teacheth thee
that thou and I am one. [p]Shall we be sund'red? Shall we part, sweet
girl? [p]No; let my father seek another heir. [p]Therefore devise with
me how we may fly, [p]Whither to go, and what to bear with us; [p]And
do not seek to take your charge upon you, [p]To bear your griefs
yourself, and leave me out; [p]For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows
pale, [p]Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.

Rosalind : Why, whither shall we go?

Celia : To seek my uncle in the Forest of Arden.

Rosalind : Alas, what danger will it be to us, [p]Maids as we are, to travel
forth so far! [p]Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Celia : I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, [p]And with a kind of umber
smirch my face; [p]The like do you; so shall we pass along, [p]And
never stir assailants.

Rosalind : Were it not better, [p]Because that I am more than common
tall, [p]That I did suit me all points like a man? [p]A gallant
curtle-axe upon my thigh, [p]A boar spear in my hand; and- in my
heart [p]Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will- [p]We'll have
a swashing and a martial outside, [p]As many other mannish cowards
have [p]That do outface it with their semblances.

Celia : What shall I call thee when thou art a man?

Rosalind : I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page, [p]And therefore look
you call me Ganymede. [p]But what will you be call'd?

Celia : Something that hath a reference to my state: [p]No longer Celia, but
Aliena.

Rosalind : But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal [p]The clownish fool out of
your father's court? [p]Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

Celia : He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; [p]Leave me alone to woo
him. Let's away, [p]And get our jewels and our wealth
together; [p]Devise the fittest time and safest way [p]To hide us from
pursuit that will be made [p]After my flight. Now go we in
content [p]To liberty, and not to banishment. Exeunt

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