AS YOU LIKE IT. Sidney Lee

And all the men and women merely players;

       They have their exits and their entrances;

       And one man in his time plays many parts,

       His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

       Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

       Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

       And shining morning face, creeping like snail

       Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

       Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

       Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

       Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

       Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

       Seeking the bubble reputation

       Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

       In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

       With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

       Full of wise saws and modern instances;

       And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

       Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

       With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

       His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

       For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

       Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

       And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

       That ends this strange eventful history,

       Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

       Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

       [Re-enter ORLANDO with ADAM.]

       DUKE SENIOR

       Welcome. Set down your venerable burden,

       And let him feed.

       ORLANDO

       I thank you most for him.

       ADAM

       So had you need;

       I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.

       DUKE SENIOR

       Welcome; fall to: I will not trouble you

       As yet, to question you about your fortunes.—

       Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing.

       [AMIENS sings.]

       SONG

       I.

       Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

       Thou art not so unkind

       As man’s ingratitude;

       Thy tooth is not so keen,

       Because thou art not seen,

       Although thy breath be rude.

       Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

       Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

       Then, heigh-ho, the holly!

       This life is most jolly.

       II.

       Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

       That dost not bite so nigh

       As benefits forgot:

       Though thou the waters warp,

       Thy sting is not so sharp

       As friend remember’d not.

       Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

       Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

       Then, heigh-ho, the holly!

       This life is most jolly.

       DUKE SENIOR

       If that you were the good Sir Rowland’s son,—

       As you have whisper’d faithfully you were,

       And as mine eye doth his effigies witness

       Most truly limn’d and living in your face,—

       Be truly welcome hither: I am the duke

       That lov’d your father. The residue of your fortune,

       Go to my cave and tell me.—Good old man,

       Thou art right welcome as thy master is;

       Support him by the arm.—Give me your hand,

       And let me all your fortunes understand.

       [Exeunt]

ACT III

       Table of Contents

      SCENE I. A Room in the Palace

       [Enter DUKE FREDERICK, OLIVER, Lords and Attendants.]

       DUKE FREDERICK

       Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be:

       But were I not the better part made mercy,

       I should not seek an absent argument

       Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it:

       Find out thy brother wheresoe’er he is:

       Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living

       Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more

       To seek a living in our territory.

       Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine

       Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands,

       Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother’s mouth

       Of what we think against thee.

       OLIVER

       O that your highness knew my heart in this!

       I never lov’d my brother in my life.

       DUKE FREDERICK

       More villain thou.—Well, push him out of doors,

       And let my officers of such a nature

       Make an extent upon his house and lands:

       Do this expediently, and turn him going.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE II. The Forest of Arden

       [Enter ORLANDO, with a paper.]

       ORLANDO

       Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love;

       And thou, thrice-crownèd queen of night, survey

       With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,

       Thy huntress’ name, that my full life doth sway.

       O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books,

       And in their barks my thoughts I’ll character,

       That every eye which in this forest looks

       Shall see thy virtue witness’d every where.

       Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree,

       The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.

       [Exit.]

       [Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE.]

       CORIN

       And how like you this shepherd’s life, Master Touchstone?

       TOUCHSTONE

       Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is