READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scenes ii–iii |
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Act I, Scene iii:
A Room in the Palace.
A Room in the Palace.
| [Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.] |
| CELIA: |
| Why, cousin; why, Rosalind;—Cupid have mercy!—Not a word? |
| ROSALIND: |
| Not one to throw at a dog. |
| CELIA: |
| No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs, throw |
| some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons. |
| ROSALIND: |
| Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one should |
| be lamed 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 briers is this working-day world! |
| CELIA: |
| They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday |
| foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very |
| petticoats will catch them. |
| ROSALIND: |
| I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my 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 |
| a fall.—But, turning these jests 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? |
| ROSALIND: |
| The duke my father loved his father dearly. |
| CELIA: |
| 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. |
| ROSALIND: |
| No, 'faith, hate him not, for my sake. |
| CELIA: |
| Why should I not? doth he not deserve well? |
| ROSALIND: |
| Let me love him for that; and do you love him because |
| I do.—Look, here comes the duke. |
| CELIA: |
| With his eyes full of anger. |
| [Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords.] |
| DUKE FREDERICK: |
| Mistress, despatch you with your safest haste, |
| And get you from our court. |
| ROSALIND: |
| Me, uncle? |
| DUKE FREDERICK: |
| You, cousin: |
| Within these ten days if that thou be'st found |
| So near our public court as twenty miles, |
| Thou diest for it. |
| ROSALIND: |
| 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 FREDERICK: |
| 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. |
| ROSALIND: |
| Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor: |
| Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. |
| DUKE FREDERICK: |
| Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. |
| ROSALIND: |
| So was I when your highness took his dukedom; |
| So was I when your highness banish'd him: |
| Treason is not inherited, my lord: |
| Or, if we did derive it from our friends, |
| What's that to me? my father was no traitor! |
| Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much |
| To think my poverty is treacherous. |
| CELIA: |
| Dear sovereign, hear me speak. |
| DUKE FREDERICK: |
| Ay, Celia: we stay'd her for your sake, |
| Else had she with her father rang'd along. |
| CELIA: |
| 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 FREDERICK: |
| 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. |
| CELIA: |
| Pronounce that sentence, then, on me, my liege: |
| I cannot live out of her company. |
| DUKE FREDERICK: |
| You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself: |
| If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, |
| And in the greatness of my word, you die. |
| [Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords.] |
| CELIA: |
| O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go? |
| Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. |
| I charge thee be not thou more griev'd than I am. |
| ROSALIND: |
| I have more cause. |
| CELIA: |
| Thou hast not, cousin; |
| Pr'ythee be cheerful: know'st thou not the duke |
| Hath banish'd me, his daughter? |
| ROSALIND: |
| That he hath not. |
| CELIA: |
| No! hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the love |
| Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: |
| Shall we be sund'red? shall we part, sweet girl? |
| No; let my father seek another heir. |
| Therefore devise with me how we may fly, |
| Whither to go, and what to bear with us: |
| And do not seek to take your charge upon you, |
| To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out; |
| For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, |
| 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, |
| Maids as we are, to travel forth so far? |
| Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. |
| CELIA: |
| I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, |
| And with a kind of umber smirch my face; |
| The like do you; so shall we pass along, |
| And never stir assailants. |
| ROSALIND: |
| Were it not better, |
| Because that I am more than common tall, |
| That I did suit me all points like a man? |
| A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, |
| A boar spear in my hand; and,—in my heart |
| Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,— |
| We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, |
| As many other mannish cowards have |
| 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, |
| And, therefore, look you call me Ganymede. |
| But what will you be call'd? |
| CELIA: |
| Something that hath a reference to my state: |
| No longer Celia, but Aliena. |
| ROSALIND: |
| 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? |
| CELIA: |
| 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.] |
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