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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)

    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
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