Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less: Ner. It is your music, madam, of the house. Dear lady, welcome home. Por. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare, Which speed we hope, the better for our words: Are they return'd? Lor. Madam they are not yet; But there is come a messenger before, Go in, Nerissa, Give order to my servants that they take A tucket sounds. You should have been respective, and have kept it. Por. You were to blame, I must be plain with you,. Gra. My lord Bassanio gave his ring away Unto the judge that begg'd it, and, indeed, Deserv'd it too; and then the boy his clerk, That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine: And neither man, nor master, would take aught But the two rings. Por. What ring gave you, my lord? Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me. Bass. If I could add a lie unto a fault, I would deny it; but you see my finger Hath not the ring upon it, it is gone. Por. Even so void is your false heart of truth. Nor I in yours, Ner. Till I again see mine. Bass. Sweet Portia, If you did know to whom I gave the ring, Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their To urge the thing held as a ceremony? Followers. Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes, If you would walk in absence of the sun. Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light; For a light wife doth make a heavy husband, And never be Bassanio so for me; But God sort all!-You are welcome home, my lord. Bass. I thank you, madam; give welcome to my friend. This is the man, this is Antonio. To whom I am so infinitely bound. Nerissa teaches me what to believe; Bass. No, by mine honor, madam, by my soul, Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? I was enforced to send it after him; I was beset with shame and courtesy ; My honor would not let ingratitude So much besmear it: Pardon me, good lady; Por. You should in all sense be much bound to For, by these blessed candles of the night, him. For, as I hear he was much bound for you. [GRATIANO and NERISSA seen to talk apart. Had you been there, I think, you would have begg'd The ring of me to give the worthy doctor. Por. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house: Since he hath got the jewel that I lov'd, And that which you did swear to keep for me, I will become as liberal as you: I'll not deny him any thing I have, No, not my body, nor my husband's bed: Know him I shall, I am well sure of it: Lie not a night from home; watch me, like Argus. If Now, by mine honor, which is yet my own, you do not, if I be left alone, I'll have that doctor for my bedfellow. Ner. And I his clerk; therefore be well advis'd, How you do leave me to mine own protection. For, if I do, I'll inar the young clerk's pen. Gra. Well, do you so: let not me take him then; Ant. I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels. Por. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwithstanding. Bass. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong; Regardful. And in the hearing of these many friends, Pur. Mark you but that! In both mine eyes he doubly sees himself: In each eye one:-swear by your double self, And there's an oath of credit." Bass. Nay, but hear me : Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear, I never more will break an oath with thee. Ant. I once did lend my body for his wealth: Which, but for him that had your husband's ring, To PORTIA. Had quite miscarried: I dare be bound again, My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord Will never more break faith advisedly. Por. Then you shall be his surety: Give him this; And bid him keep it better than the other. Ant. Here, lord Bassanio; swear to keep this ring; Bass. By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor! Por. I had it of him: pardon me, Bassanio;. For by this ring the doctor lay with me. Ner. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano; For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk, In lieu of this, last night did lie with me. Gra. Why, this is like the mending of highways There you shall find that Portia was the doctor; Than you expect: unseal this letter soon: Ant. I am dumb. Bass. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not? Gra. Were you the clerk, that is to make me cuckold? Ner. Ay; but the clerk that never means to do it, Unless he live until he be a man. Bass. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow; When I am absent, then lie with my wife. Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life, and living: For hear I read for certain that my ships Por. How now, Lorenzo? From the rich Jew a special deed of gift, Lor. Fair ladies, you drop inanna in the way Por. And yet, I am sure, you are not satisfied Gra. Let it be so: The first inter'gatory, So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. [Exeunt. The SCENE lies, first, near Oliver's House; afterwards, partly in the Usurper's Court, and partly in the Forest of Arden. ACT I. SCENE I.-An Orchard, near Oliver's House. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM. The courtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty fash-brothers betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me, as you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence. Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this ion bequeathed me: By will, but a poor thousand crowns; and, as thou say st, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept: For call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that diners not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me, his countenance seems to take from me he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and as much as in him lies mines my gentility with my education. This is it Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it. Enter Oliver. Adam. Yonder comes my master, your brother. Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up. Oli. Now, sir, what make you here? Orl. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. Oli. Marry, sir, be better employ'd, and be naught awhile. Orl. Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury? Oli. Know you where you are sir? Orl. Ay, better than he I am before knows me. I know you are my eldest brother; and, in the gentle condition of blood, you should so know me: What do you here? Oli. What, boy! Orl. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. Oli. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? Orl. I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois; he was my father, and he is thrice a villain, that says such a father begot villains: Wert thou not my brother, I would not tale this hand from thy throat, till this other hand pulled out thy tongue for saying so; thou hast railed on thyself. Adam. Sweet masters, be patient; for your father's remembrance, be at accord. Oli. Let me go, I say. Orl. I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My father charged you in his will to give me good education: you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities: the spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it; therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my for tunes. Oli. And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent! Well, sir, get you in: I will not long be troubled with you: you shall have some part of your will; I pray you, leave me. Orl. I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good. Ofi. Get you with him, you old dog Adam. Is old dog my reward? most true, I have lost my teeth in your service.-God be with my old master! he would not have spoke such a word. [Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM. Oli. Is it even so begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Hola, Dennis! Enter DENNIS. Den. Calls your worship? Oli. Was not Charles, the Duke's wrestler, here, to speak with me? 2 Villain is used in a double sense; by Oliver, for a worthless fellow, and by Orlando, for a man of base extraction. SCENE II. AS YOU LIKE IT. Den. So please you, he is here at the door, and importunes access to you. Oli. Call him in. [Exit DENNIS.-Twill be a Cha. Good morrow to your worship. news at the new court? Cha. There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news: that is, the old duke is banished by his younger brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary exile with him, whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke; therefore he gives them good leave to wander. Oli. Can you tell, if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be banished with her father? Cha. O, no; for the duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her, being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter; and never two ladies loved as they do. Oli. Where will the old duke live? Cha. They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they say, many young gentlemen flock to him every day; and flect the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world. Oli. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke? Cha. Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint I am given, sir, secretly to unyou with a matter, derstand, that your younger brother, Orlando, hath a disposition to come in disguis'd against me to try a fall: To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he that escapes me without some broken limb, shall acquit him well. Your brother is but young, and tender; and, for your love, I would be loath to foil him, as I must, for my own honor, if he come in: therefore, out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint you withal; that either you might stay him from his intendment, or brook such disgrace well as he shall run into, in that it is a thing of his own search, and altogether against my will. Oli. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my brother's purpose herein, and have by underhand means labored to dissuade him from it; but he is resolute. I'll tell thee, Charles, he is the stubbornest young fellow of France; full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a secret and villanous contriver against me his natural brother; therefore use thy discretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if thou do'st him any slight disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap thee by some treacherous device, and never leave thee till he hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other; for, I assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one so young and so villanous this day living. I speak but brotherly of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder. Cha. I am heartily glad, I came hither to you; If he come to-morrow, I'll give him his payment: If ever he go alone again, I'll never wrestle for prize more: And so, God keep your worship! [Exit. Oli. Farewell, good Charles.-Now will I stir this gamester: I hope I shall see an end of him: for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never school'd, and yet learned; full of noble device: of all sorts enchantingly beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am altogether misprised: but it shall not be so long; this wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains, but that I kindle the boy thither, which now I'll go about. [Exit. SCENE II-A Lawn before the Duke's Palace. Enter ROSALIND and CELIA. Cel. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry. Unless you would teach ine to forget a banished Čel. Herein, I see, thou lovest me not with the Ros. Well, I will forfeit the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours. Cel. You know my father hath no child but I nor none is like to have; and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt be his heir; for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honor, I will; and when I break that oath, let me turn monster: therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry. Ros. From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports; let me see; What think you or falling in love? Cel. Marry, I pr'ythee, do, to make sport withal: but love no man in good earnest; nor no further in sport neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in honor come off again. Ros. What shall be our sport then? Cel. Let us sit and mock the good housewife, Fortune, from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. Ros. I would, we could do so; for her benefits are mightily misplaced: and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to women. Cel. 'Tis true: for those, that she makes fair, she scarce makes honest; and those, that she makes honest, she makes very ill-favor'dly. Ros. Nay, now thou goest from fortune's office to nature's: fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature. Enter TOUCHSTONE. Cel. No? When nature hath made a fair creature, nature hath given us wit to flout at fortune, hath not may she not by fortune fall into the fire ?-Though fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument? Ros. Indeed, there is fortune too hard for nature; when fortune makes nature's natural the cutter off of nature's wit. Cel. Peradventure, this is not fortune's work neither, but nature's: who perceiving our natural wits too dull to reason of such goddesses, hath sent ness of the foo! is the whetstone of his wits.-How this natural for our whetstone: for always the dulnow, wit? whither wander you? Touch. Mistress, you must come away to your father. Cel. Where you made the messenger? Touch. No, by mine honor; but I was bid to come for you. Ros. Where learned you that oath, fool? Touch. Of a certain knight, that swore by his honor they were good pancakes, and swore by his honor the mustard was naught: now, I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was Cel. How prove you that, in the great heap of good; and yet was not the knight forsworn. your knowledge! Ros. Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wisdom. Touch. Stand you both forth now: stroke your Cel. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. chins, and swear by your beards that I am a knave. Touch. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were: but if you swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn: no more was this knight, swearing by his honor, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away, before ever he saw those pancakes or that mustard. Cel. Prythee, who is't that thou mean'st? Touch. One that old Frederick, your father, loves. Cel. My father's love is enough to honor him. Enough! speak no more of him: you'll be whipp'd for taxation, one of these days. Touch. The more pity, that foo's may not speak wisely, what wise men do foolishly. Cel. By my troth, thou say'st true: for since the little wit, that fools have, was silenced, the little foolery, that wise men have, makes a great show. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau. > Satire. Enter LE BEAU. Ros. With his mouth full of news. Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed enterprise. We pray you, for your own sake, to their young. Ros. Then shall we be news-cramm'd. Cel. All the better; we shall be the more marketable. Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau: What's the news? Le Beau. Fair princess, you have lost much good sport. Of what color? Cel. Sport? Le Beau. What color, madam? answer you? Ros. As wit and fortune will. How shall I or knew yourself with your judgment, the fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal embrace your own safety, and give over this attempt. Ros. Do, young sir; your reputation shall not therefore be misprised: we will make it our suit to the duke, that the wrestling night not go forward. Orl. I beseech you, punish me not with your to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. But hard thoughts; wherein I confess me much guilty, let your fair eyes, and gentle wishes, go with me to my trial: wherein if I be foiled, there is but one shamed that was never gracious: if killed, but one dead that is willing to be so: I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the world Cel. Well said; that was laid on with a trowel. no injury, for in it I have nothing; only in the Le Beau. You amaze me, ladies; I would have told you of good wrestling, which you have lost the sight of. Ros. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling. Le Beau. I will tell you the beginning, and if it please your ladyships, you may see the end; for the best is yet to do; and here, where you are, they are coming to perform it. Cel. Well,-the beginning, that is dead and buried. Le Beau. There comes an old man, and his three sons, Cel. I could match this beginning with an old tale. Le Beau. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence ; Ros. With bills on their necks,-Be it known unto all men by these presents, Le Beau. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles, the duke's wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him: so he served the second, and so the third: Yonder they lie; the poor old man, their father, making such pitiful dole over them, that all the beholders take his part with weeping. Ros. Alas! Touch. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have lost? Le Beau. Why, this that I speak of. Touch. Thus men may grow wiser every day! it is the first time that I ever heard, breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. Cel. Or I, I promise thee. Ros. But is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking?-Shall we see this wrestling, cousin? Le Beau. You must, if you stay here: for here is the place appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. Cet. Yonder, sure, they are coming: Let us now stay and see it. Flourish. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, LORDS, Or- world I fill up a place, which may be better supplied when I have made it empty. Ros. The little strength that I have, I would it were with you. Cel. And mine, to eke out hers. Ros. Fare you well. Pray heaven, I be deceived in you! Čel. Your heart's desires be with you. Cha. Come where is this young gallant, that is so desirous to lie with his mother carth? Orl. Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a m re modest working. Duke F. You shall try but one fall. Cha. No, I warrant your grace; you shall not entreat him to a second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first. Orl. You mean to mock me after; you should not have mocked me before: but come your ways. Ros. Now, Hercules be thy speed, young man! Cel. I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the leg. [CHARLES and ORLANDO wrestle. Ros. O excellent young man! Cel. If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can Duke F. How dost thou, Charles? Orl. Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Duke F. I would thou hadst been son to some The world esteem'd thy father honorable, Hadst thou descended from another house. [Exeunt DUKE FRED., Train, and LE BEAU. Duke F. Come on; since the youth will not be To be adopted heir to Frederick. entreated, his own peril on his forwardness. Ros. Is yonder the man? Le Beau. Even he, madam. Cel. Alas, he is too young: yet he looks successfully. Duke F. How now, daughter, and cousin? are you crept hither to see the wrestling? Ros. Ay, my liege! so please you give us leave. Duke F. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, there is such odds in the men: In pity of the challenger's youth, I would fain dissuade him, but he will not be entreated: Speak to him, ladies, see if you can move him. Cel. Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau. Dake F. Do so: I'll not be by. [DUKE goes apart. Le Beau. Monsieur the challenger, the princesses call for you. Orl. I attend them, with all respect and duty. Ros. Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler ! Orl. No, fair princess; he is the general challenger: I come but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth. Cel. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years: You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength; if you saw yourself with your eyes Ros. My father lov'd Sir Rowland as his soul, Gentle cousin, My father's rough and envious disposition Ros. Gentleman, Cel. means. Ay:-Fare you well fair gentleman. Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up, Orl. Can I not say, I thank you? My better parts Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block. Ros. He calls us back: My pride fell with my fortunes: The object to dart at in martial exercises. |