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As You Like It (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: David Bevington
Peer Reviewed
204
As you like it.
my troth, we that haue good wits, haue much to answer
for: we shall be flouting: we cannot hold.
Will. Good eu'n Audrey.
2355Aud. God ye good eu'n William.
Will. And good eu'n to you Sir.
Clo. Good eu'n gentle friend. Couer thy head, couer
thy head: Nay prethee bee eouer'd. How olde are you
Friend?
2360Will. Fiue and twentie Sir.
Clo. A ripe age: Is thy name William?
Will. William, sir.
Clo. A faire name. Was't borne i'th Forrest heere?
Will. I sir, I thanke God.
2365Clo. Thanke God: A good answer:
Art rich?
Will. 'Faith sir, so, so.
Cle. So, so, is good, very good, very excellent good:
and yet it is not, it is but so, so:
2370Art thou wise?
Will. I sir, I haue a prettie wit.
Clo. Why, thou saist well. I do now remember a say-
ing: The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman
knowes himselfe to be a Foole. The Heathen Philoso-
2375pher, when he had a desire to eate a Grape, would open
his lips when he put it into his mouth, meaning there-
by, that Grapes were made to eate, and lippes to open.
You do loue this maid?
Will. I do sit.
2380Clo. Giue me your hand: Art thou Learned?
Will. No sir.
Clo. Then learne this of me, To haue, is to haue. For
it is a figure in Rhetoricke, that drink being powr'd out
of a cup into a glasse, by filling the one, doth empty the
2385other. For all your Writers do consent, that ipse is hee:
now you are not ipse, for I am he.
Will. Which he sir?
Clo. He sir, that must marrie this woman: Therefore
you Clowne, abandon: which is in the vulgar, leaue the
2390societie: which in the boorish, is companie, of this fe-
male: which in the common, is woman: which toge-
ther, is, abandon the society of this Female, or Clowne
thou perishest: or to thy better vnderstanding, dyest; or
(to wit) I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life in-
2395to death, thy libertie into bondage: I will deale in poy-
son with thee, or in bastinado, or in steele: I will bandy
with thee in faction, I will ore-run thee with police: I
will kill thee a hundred and fifty wayes, therefore trem-
ble and depart.
2400Aud. Do good William.
Will. God rest you merry sir.
Exit

Enter Corin.

Cor. Our Master and Mistresse seekes you: come a-
way, away.
2405Clo. Trip Audry, trip Audry, I attend,
I attend.
Exeunt


Scœna Secunda.


Enter Orlando & Oliuer.
Orl. Is't possible, that on so little acquaintance you
2410should like her? that, but seeing, you should loue her?
And louing woo? and wooing, she should graunt? And
will you perseuer to enioy her?
Ol. Neither call the giddinesse of it in question; the
pouertie of her, the small acquaintance, my sodaine wo-
2415ing, nor sodaine consenting: but say with mee, I loue
Aliena: say with her, that she loues mee; consent with
both, that we may enioy each other: it shall be to your
good: for my fathers house, and all the reuennew, that
was old Sir Rowlands will I estate vpon you, and heere
2420liue and die a Shepherd.

Enter Rosalind.

Orl. You haue my consent.
Let your Wedding be to morrow: thither will I
Inuite the Duke, and all's contented followers:
2425Go you, and prepare Aliena; for looke you,
Heere comes my Rosalinde.
Ros. God saue you brother.
Ol. And you faire sister.
Ros. Oh my deere Orlando, how it greeues me to see
2430thee weare thy heart in a scarfe.
Orl. It is my arme.
Ros. I thought thy heart had beene wounded with
the clawes of a Lion.
Orl. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a Lady.
2435Ros. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeyted
to sound, when he shew'd me your handkercher?
Orl. I, and greater wonders then that.
Ros. O, I know where you are: nay, tis true: there
was neuer any thing so sodaine, but the sight of two
2440Rammes, and Cesars Thrasonicall bragge of I came, saw,
and ouercome. For your brother, and my sister, no soo-
ner met, but they look'd: no sooner look'd, but they
lou'd; no sooner lou'd, but they sigh'd: no sooner sigh'd
but they ask'd one another the reason: no sooner knew
2445the reason, but they sought the remedie: and in these
degrees, haue they made a paire of staires to marriage,
which they will climbe incontinent, or else bee inconti-
nent before marriage; they are in the verie wrath of
loue, and they will together. Clubbes cannot part
2450them.
Orl. They shall be married to morrow : and I will
bid the Duke to the Nuptiall. But O, how bitter a thing
it is, to looke into happines through another mans eies:
by so much the more shall I to morrow be at the height
2455of heart heauinesse. by how much I shal thinke my bro-
ther happie, in hauing what he wishes for.
Ros. Why then to morrow, I cannot serue your turne
for Rosalind?
Orl. I can liue no longer by thinking.
2460Ros. I will wearie you then no longer with idle tal-
king. Know of me then (for now I speake to some pur-
pose) that I know you are a Gentleman of good conceit:
I speake not this, that you should beare a good opinion
of my knowledge: insomuch (I say) I know you are: nei-
2465ther do I labor for a greater esteeme then may in some
little measure draw a beleefe from you, to do your selfe
good, and not to grace me. Beleeue then, if you please,
that I can do strange things: I haue since I was three
yeare old conuerst with a Magitian, most profound in
2470his Art, and yet not damnable. If you do loue Rosalinde
so neere the hart, as your gesture cries it out: when your
brother marries Aliena, shall you marrie her. I know in-
to what straights of Fortune she is driuen, and it is not
impossible to me, if it appeare not inconuenient to you,
to