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

father’s house, and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland’s will I estate upon you, and here live and die a shepherd.

       ORLANDO

       You have my consent. Let your wedding be tomorrow: thither will I invite the duke and all’s contented followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for, look you, here comes my Rosalind.

       [Enter ROSALIND.]

       ROSALIND

       God save you, brother.

       OLIVER

       And you, fair sister.

       [Exit.]

       ROSALIND

       O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf!

       ORLANDO

       It is my arm.

       ROSALIND

       I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion.

       ORLANDO

       Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.

       ROSALIND

       Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon when he show’d me your handkercher?

       ORLANDO

       Ay, and greater wonders than that.

       ROSALIND

       O, I know where you are:—nay, ‘tis true: there was never anything so sudden but the fight of two rams and Caesar’s thrasonical brag of “I came, saw, and overcame:” for your brother and my sister no sooner met, but they looked; no sooner looked, but they loved; no sooner loved, but they sighed; no sooner sighed, but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason, but they sought the remedy: and in these degrees have they made pair of stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage: they are in the very wrath of love, and they will together: clubs cannot part them.

       ORLANDO

       They shall be married tomorrow; and I will bid the duke to the nuptial. But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes! By so much the more shall I tomorrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall think my brother happy in having what he wishes for.

       ROSALIND

       Why, then, tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?

       ORLANDO

       I can live no longer by thinking.

       ROSALIND

       I will weary you, then, no longer with idle talking. Know of me then,—for now I speak to some purpose,—that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I speak not this that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourself good, and not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things: I have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician, most profound in his art and yet not damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out, when your brother marries Aliena, shall you marry her:— I know into what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is not impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set her before your eyes tomorrow, human as she is, and without any danger.

       ORLANDO

       Speak’st thou in sober meanings?

       ROSALIND

       By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I say I am a magician. Therefore put you in your best array, bid your friends; for if you will be married tomorrow, you shall; and to Rosalind, if you will. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of hers.

       [Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.]

       PHEBE

       Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,

       To show the letter that I writ to you.

       ROSALIND

       I care not if I have: it is my study

       To seem despiteful and ungentle to you:

       You are there follow’d by a faithful shepherd;

       Look upon him, love him; he worships you.

       PHEBE

       Good shepherd, tell this youth what ‘tis to love.

       SILVIUS

       It is to be all made of sighs and tears;—

       And so am I for Phebe.

       PHEBE

       And I for Ganymede.

       ORLANDO

       And I for Rosalind.

       ROSALIND

       And I for no woman.

       SILVIUS

       It is to be all made of faith and service;—

       And so am I for Phebe.

       PHEBE

       And I for Ganymede.

       ORLANDO

       And I for Rosalind.

       ROSALIND

       And I for no woman.

       SILVIUS

       It is to be all made of fantasy,

       All made of passion, and all made of wishes;

       All adoration, duty, and observance,

       All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,

       All purity, all trial, all observance;—

       And so am I for Phebe.

       PHEBE

       And so am I for Ganymede.

       ORLANDO

       And so am I for Rosalind.

       ROSALIND

       And so am I for no woman.

       PHEBE

       [To ROSALIND.] If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

       SILVIUS

       [To PHEBE.] If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

       ORLANDO

       If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

       ROSALIND

       Why do you speak too,—“Why blame you me to love you?”

       ORLANDO

       To her that is not here, nor doth not hear.

       ROSALIND

       Pray you, no more of this; ‘tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon.—

       [to SILVIUS] I will help you if I can;—

       [to PHEBE] I would love you if I could.—

       Tomorrow meet me all together.—

       [to PHEBE] I will marry you if ever I marry woman, and I’ll be married tomorrow:—

       [to ORLANDO] I will satisfy you if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married tomorrow:—

       [to SILVIUS] I will content you if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married tomorrow.

       [to ORLANDO] As you love Rosalind, meet.

       [to SILVIUS] As you love Phebe, meet;—

       and as I love no woman, I’ll meet.—So, fare you well; I have left you commands.

       SILVIUS

       I’ll not fail, if I live.

       PHEBE

       Nor I.

       ORLANDO

       Nor I.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE III. Another part of the Forest