William Shakespeare - Ultimate Collection: Complete Plays & Poetry in One Volume. William Shakespeare

And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.

       Brief, I recover’d him, bound up his wound,

       And, after some small space, being strong at heart,

       He sent me hither, stranger as I am,

       To tell this story, that you might excuse

       His broken promise, and to give this napkin,

       Dy’d in his blood, unto the shepherd-youth

       That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.

       [ROSALIND faints.]

       CELIA

       Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede!

       OLIVER

       Many will swoon when they do look on blood.

       CELIA

       There is more in it:—Cousin—Ganymede!

       OLIVER

       Look, he recovers.

       ROSALIND

       I would I were at home.

       CELIA

       We’ll lead you thither:—

       I pray you, will you take him by the arm?

       OLIVER

       Be of good cheer, youth:—you a man?—You lack a man’s heart.

       ROSALIND

       I do so, I confess it. Ah, sir, a body would think this was well counterfeited. I pray you tell your brother how well I counterfeited.—Heigh-ho!—

       OLIVER

       This was not counterfeit; there is too great testimony in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest.

       ROSALIND

       Counterfeit, I assure you.

       OLIVER

       Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man.

       ROSALIND

       So I do: but, i’ faith, I should have been a woman by right.

       CELIA

       Come, you look paler and paler: pray you draw homewards.— Good sir, go with us.

       OLIVER

       That will I, for I must bear answer back

       How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.

       ROSALIND

       I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend my counterfeiting to him.—Will you go?

       [Exeunt.]

       ACT V

      SCENE I. The Forest of Arden

       [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.]

       TOUCHSTONE

       We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.

       AUDREY

       Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman’s saying.

       TOUCHSTONE

       A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you.

       AUDREY

       Ay, I know who ‘tis: he hath no interest in me in the world: here comes the man you mean.

       [Enter WILLIAM.]

       TOUCHSTONE

       It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: By my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold.

       WILLIAM

       Good even, Audrey.

       AUDREY

       God ye good even, William.

       WILLIAM

       And good even to you, sir.

       TOUCHSTONE

       Good even, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, pr’ythee, be covered. How old are you, friend?

       WILLIAM

       Five and twenty, sir.

       TOUCHSTONE

       A ripe age. Is thy name William?

       WILLIAM

       William, sir.

       TOUCHSTONE

       A fair name. Wast born i’ the forest here?

       WILLIAM

       Ay, sir, I thank God.

       TOUCHSTONE

       “Thank God;”—a good answer. Art rich?

       WILLIAM

       Faith, sir, so-so.

       TOUCHSTONE

       “So-so” is good, very good, very excellent good:—and yet it is not; it is but so-so. Art thou wise?

       WILLIAM

       Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.

       TOUCHSTONE

       Why, thou say’st well. I do now remember a saying; “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do love this maid?

       WILLIAM

       I do, sir.

       TOUCHSTONE

       Give me your hand. Art thou learnèd?

       WILLIAM

       No, sir.

       TOUCHSTONE

       Then learn this of me:—to have is to have; for it is a figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out of cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your writers do consent that ipse is he; now, you are not ipse, for I am he.

       WILLIAM

       Which he, sir?

       TOUCHSTONE

       He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you clown, abandon,—which is in the vulgar, leave,—the society,—which in the boorish is company,—of this female,—which in the common is woman,—which together is abandon the society of this female; or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction; will o’er-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart.

       AUDREY

       Do, good William.

       WILLIAM

       God rest you merry, sir.

       [Exit.]

       [Enter CORIN.]

       CORIN

       Our master and mistress seek you; come away, away!

       TOUCHSTONE

       Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey;—I attend, I attend.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE II. Another part of the Forest

       [Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER.]

       ORLANDO

       Is’t possible that on so little acquaintance you should like her? that but seeing you should love her? and loving woo? and, wooing, she should grant? and will you persever to enjoy her?

       OLIVER

       Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me, I love Aliena; say, with her, that she loves me; consent with