Peer Reviewed
- Edition: As You Like It
As You Like It (Modern)
- Introduction
- Texts of this edition
- Contextual materials
- Facsimiles
[Epilogue]
It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; 2777but it is no more unhandsome than to see the 2778lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs 2779no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. 2780Yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good 2781plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. 2782What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, 2783nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a 2784good play! I am not furnished like a beggar; therefore 2785to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure 2786you, and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O 2787women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much 2788of this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, 2789for the love you bear to women -- as I perceive by your 2790simpering, none of you hates them -- that between you 2791and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, 2792I would kiss as many of you as had beards that 2793pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that 2794I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good 2795beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind 2796offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.
Exit.