Act 1, Scene 3

A Room in the Palace.

[Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.]
Celia
384 Why, cousin; why, Rosalind;—Cupid have mercy!—Not a word?
Rosalind
385 Not one to throw at a dog.
Celia
386 No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs, throw
387 some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.
Rosalind
388 Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one should
389 be lamed with reasons and the other mad without any.
Celia
390 But is all this for your father?
Rosalind
391 No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how full
392 of briers is this working-day world!
Celia
393 They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday
394 foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very
395 petticoats will catch them.
Rosalind
396 I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my heart.
Celia
397 Hem them away.
Rosalind
398 I would try, if I could cry hem and have him.
Celia
399 Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.
Rosalind
400 O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.
Celia
401 O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in despite of
402 a fall.—But, turning these jests out of service, let us talk in
403 good earnest: is it possible, on such a sudden, you should fall
404 into so strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son?
Rosalind
405 The duke my father loved his father dearly.
Celia
406 Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly?
407 By this kind of chase I should hate him, for my father hated
408 his father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando.
Rosalind
409 No, 'faith, hate him not, for my sake.
Celia
410 Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?
Rosalind
411 Let me love him for that; and do you love him because
412 I do.—Look, here comes the duke.
Celia
413 With his eyes full of anger.
[Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords.]
Duke Frederick
414 Mistress, despatch you with your safest haste,
415 And get you from our court.
Rosalind
416 Me, uncle?
Duke Frederick
417 You, cousin:
418 Within these ten days if that thou be'st found
419 So near our public court as twenty miles,
420 Thou diest for it.
Rosalind
421 I do beseech your grace,
422 Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
423 If with myself I hold intelligence,
424 Or have acquaintance with mine own desires;
425 If that I do not dream, or be not frantic,—
426 As I do trust I am not,—then, dear uncle,
427 Never so much as in a thought unborn
428 Did I offend your highness.
Duke Frederick
429 Thus do all traitors;
430 If their purgation did consist in words,
431 They are as innocent as grace itself:—
432 Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
Rosalind
433 Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:
434 Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.
Duke Frederick
435 Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.
Rosalind
436 So was I when your highness took his dukedom;
437 So was I when your highness banish'd him:
438 Treason is not inherited, my lord:
439 Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
440 What's that to me? my father was no traitor!
441 Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
442 To think my poverty is treacherous.
Celia
443 Dear sovereign, hear me speak.
Duke Frederick
444 Ay, Celia: we stay'd her for your sake,
445 Else had she with her father rang'd along.
Celia
446 I did not then entreat to have her stay;
447 It was your pleasure, and your own remorse:
448 I was too young that time to value her;
449 But now I know her: if she be a traitor,
450 Why so am I: we still have slept together,
451 Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;
452 And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
453 Still we went coupled and inseparable.
Duke Frederick
454 She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness,
455 Her very silence, and her patience
456 Speak to the people, and they pity her.
457 Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name;
458 And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous
459 When she is gone: then open not thy lips;
460 Firm and irrevocable is my doom
461 Which I have pass'd upon her;—she is banish'd.
Celia
462 Pronounce that sentence, then, on me, my liege:
463 I cannot live out of her company.
Duke Frederick
464 You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself:
465 If you outstay the time, upon mine honour,
466 And in the greatness of my word, you die.
[Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords.]
Celia
467 O my poor Rosalind! whither wilt thou go?
468 Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
469 I charge thee be not thou more griev'd than I am.
Rosalind
470 I have more cause.
Celia
471 Thou hast not, cousin;
472 Pr'ythee be cheerful: know'st thou not the duke
473 Hath banish'd me, his daughter?
Rosalind
474 That he hath not.
Celia
475 No! hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the love
476 Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:
477 Shall we be sund'red? shall we part, sweet girl?
478 No; let my father seek another heir.
479 Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
480 Whither to go, and what to bear with us:
481 And do not seek to take your charge upon you,
482 To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out;
483 For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
484 Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.
Rosalind
485 Why, whither shall we go?
Celia
486 To seek my uncle in the Forest of Arden.
Rosalind
487 Alas! what danger will it be to us,
488 Maids as we are, to travel forth so far?
489 Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
Celia
490 I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
491 And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
492 The like do you; so shall we pass along,
493 And never stir assailants.
Rosalind
494 Were it not better,
495 Because that I am more than common tall,
496 That I did suit me all points like a man?
497 A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
498 A boar spear in my hand; and,—in my heart
499 Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,—
500 We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
501 As many other mannish cowards have
502 That do outface it with their semblances.
Celia
503 What shall I call thee when thou art a man?
Rosalind
504 I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page,
505 And, therefore, look you call me Ganymede.
506 But what will you be call'd?
Celia
507 Something that hath a reference to my state:
508 No longer Celia, but Aliena.
Rosalind
509 But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal
510 The clownish fool out of your father's court?
511 Would he not be a comfort to our travel?
Celia
512 He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
513 Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away,
514 And get our jewels and our wealth together;
515 Devise the fittest time and safest way
516 To hide us from pursuit that will be made
517 After my flight. Now go we in content
518 To liberty, and not to banishment.
[Exeunt.]