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  • Title: As You Like It (Folio 1, 1623)
  • Editor: David Bevington

    • ISBN: 978-1-55058-369-4

    Copyright David Bevington. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: David Bevington
    Peer Reviewed

    As You Like It (Folio 1, 1623)

    200
    As you like it.
    Come Sister: Shepheardesse, looke on him better
    1850And be not proud, though all the world could see,
    None could be so abus'd in sight as hee.
    Come, to our flocke, Exit.
    Phe. Dead Shepheard, now I find thy saw of might,
    Who euer lov'd, that lou'd not at first sight?
    1855Sil. Sweet Phebe.
    Phe. Hah: what saist thou Siluius?
    Sil. Sweet Phebe pitty me.
    Phe. Why I am sorry for thee gentle Siluius.
    Sil. Where euer sorrow is, reliefe would be:
    1860If you doe sorrow at my griefe in loue,
    By giuing loue your sorrow, and my griefe
    Were both extermin'd.
    Phe. Thou hast my loue, is not that neighbourly?
    Sil. I would haue you.
    1865Phe. Why that were couetousnesse:
    Siluius; the time was, that I hated thee;
    And yet it is not, that I beare thee loue,
    But since that thou canst talke of loue so well,
    Thy company, which erst was irkesome to me
    1870I will endure; and Ile employ thee too:
    But doe not looke for further recompence
    Then thine owne gladnesse, that thou art employd.
    Sil. So holy, and so perfect is my loue,
    And I in such a pouerty of grace,
    1875That I shall thinke it a most plenteous crop
    To gleane the broken eares after the man
    That the maine haruest reapes: loose now and then
    A scattred smile, and that Ile liue vpon.
    Phe. Knowst thou the youth that spoke to mee yere-(while?
    1880Sil. Not very well, but I haue met him oft,
    And he hath bought the Cottage and the bounds
    That the old Carlot once was Master of.
    Phe. Thinke not I loue him, though I ask for him,
    'Tis but a peeuish boy, yet he talkes well,
    1885But what care I for words? yet words do well
    When he that speakes them pleases those that heare:
    It is a pretty youth, not very prettie,
    But sure hee's proud, and yet his pride becomes him;
    Hee'll make a proper man: the best thing in him
    1890Is his complexion: and faster then his tongue
    Did make offence, his eye did heale it vp:
    He is not very tall, yet for his yeeres hee's tall:
    His leg is but so so, and yet 'tis well:
    There was a pretty rednesse in his lip,
    1895A little riper, and more lustie red
    Then that mixt in his cheeke: 'twas iust the difference
    Betwixt the constant red, and mingled Damaske.
    There be some women Siluius, had they markt him
    In parcells as I did, would haue gone neere
    1900To fall in loue with him: but for my part
    I loue him not, nor hate him not: and yet
    Haue more cause to hate him then to loue him,
    For what had he to doe to chide at me?
    He said mine eyes were black, and my haire blacke,
    1905And now I am remembred, scorn'd at me:
    I maruell why I answer'd not againe,
    But that's all one: omittance is no quittance:
    Ile write to him a very tanting Letter,
    And thou shalt beare it, wilt thou Siluius?
    1910Sil. Phebe, with all my heart.
    Phe. Ile write it strait:
    The matter's in my head, and in my heart,
    I will be bitter with him, and passing short;
    Goe with me Siluius. Exeunt.

    1915Actus Quartus. Scena Prima.


    Enter Rosalind, and Celia, and Iaques.

    Iaq. I prethee, pretty youth, let me better acquainted
    with thee.
    Ros They say you are a melancholly fellow.
    1920Iaq. I am so: I doe loue it better then laughing.
    Ros. Those that are in extremity of either, are abho-
    minable fellowes, and betray themselues to euery mo-
    derne censure, worse then drunkards.
    Iaq. Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing.
    1925Ros. Why then 'tis good to be a poste.
    Iaq. I haue neither the Schollers melancholy, which
    is emulation: nor the Musitians, which is fantasticall;
    nor the Courtiers, which is proud: nor the Souldiers,
    which is ambitious: nor the Lawiers, which is politick:
    1930nor the Ladies, which is nice: nor the Louers, which
    is all these: but it is a melancholy of mine owne, com-
    pounded of many simples, extracted from many obiects,
    and indeed the sundrie contemplation of my trauells, in
    which by often rumination, wraps me in a most humo-
    1935rous sadnesse.
    Ros. A Traueller: by my faith you haue great rea-
    son to be sad: I feare you haue sold your owne Lands,
    to see other mens; then to haue seene much, and to haue
    nothing, is to haue rich eyes and poore hands.
    1940Iaq. Yes, I haue gain'd my experience.
    Enter Orlando.
    Ros. And your experience makes you sad: I had ra-
    ther haue a foole to make me merrie, then experience to
    make me sad, and to trauaile for it too.
    1945Orl. Good day, and happinesse, deere Rosalind.
    Iaq. Nay then God buy you, and you talke in blanke
    verse.
    Ros. Farewell Mounsieur Trauellor: looke you
    lispe, and weare strange suites; disable all the benefits
    1950of your owne Countrie: be out of loue with your
    natiuitie, and almost chide God for making you that
    countenance you are; or I will scarce thinke you haue
    swam in a Gundello. Why how now Orlando, where
    haue you bin all this while? you a louer? and you
    1955serue me such another tricke, neuer come in my sight
    more.
    Orl. My faire Rosalind, I come within an houre of my
    promise.
    Ros. Breake an houres promise in loue? hee that
    1960will diuide a minute into a thousand parts, and breake
    but a part of the thousand part of a minute in the affairs
    of loue, it may be said of him that Cupid hath clapt
    him oth' shoulder, but Ile warrant him heart hole.
    Orl. Pardon me deere Rosalind.
    1965Ros. Nay, and you be so tardie, come no more in my
    sight, I had as liefe be woo'd of a Snaile.
    Orl. Of a Snaile?
    Ros. I, of a Snaile: for though he comes slowly, hee
    carries his house on his head; a better ioyncture I thinke
    1970then you make a woman: besides, he brings his destinie
    with him.
    Orl. What's that?
    Ros. Why hornes: w^c such as you are faine to be be-
    holding to your wiues for: but he comes armed in his
    1975fortune, and preuents the slander of his wife.
    Orl. Vertue
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