W ACT V. SCENE I. The FOREST. Enter Clown and Audrey. CLOWN. E fhall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Aud. Faith the priest was good enough, for all Clo. A moft wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a moft vile Mar-text! but Audrey, there is a youth here in the foreft lays claim to you. Aud. Ay, I know who 'tis ; he hath no interest in the world; here comes the man you mean. Enter William. Clo. It is meat and drink to me to fee a clown; by my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for: we shall be flouting; we cannot hold. Will. Good ev'n, Audrey. Aud. God ye good ev'n, William. Will. And good ev'n to you, Sir. Clo. Good ev'n, gentle friend. head; nay, pr'ythee be cover'd. Cover thy head, cover thy How old are you, friend? Will. Five and twenty, Sir. Clo. A fair name. Waft born i'th' foreft here? VOL. II. K k Will. Will. Ay, Sir, I thank God. Clo. Thank God: a good answer: art rich? Will. 'Faith, Sir, fo fo. Clo. So fo, is good, very good, very excellent good; and yet it is not; it is but fo, fo. Art thou wife? Will. Ay, Sir, I have a pretty wit. Clo. Why, thou say'st well: I do now remember a saying, the fool doth think he is wife, but the wife man knows himself to be a fool. The heathen philofopher, when he had a defire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and lips to open. You do love this maid. Will. I do Sir. Clo. Give me your hand: art thou learned? Clo. Then learn this of me; to have, is to have. For it is a figure in rhetorick, that drink being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other. For all your writers do confent, that ipfe is he: now you are not ipse; for I am he. Will. Which he, Sir? Clo. He, Sir, that must marry this woman; therefore you clown, abandon; which is in the vulgar, leave the fociety; which in the boorish, is company, of this female; which in the common, is woman; which together is, abandon the fociety of this female; or clown, thou perifheft; or, to thy better understanding, dieft; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, tranflate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage; I will deal in poifon with thee, or in baftinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction, I will o'er-run thee with policy, I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart. Aud. Aud. Do, good William. Will. God rest you merry, Sir. [Exit. Enter Corin. Cor. Our master and mistress feek you; come away, away. Clo. Trip Audrey, trip Audrey; I attend, I attend. [Exe. SCENE II. Enter Orlando and Oliver. Orla. Is't poffible, that on fo little acquaintance you should like her? that, but feeing, you should love her? and loving, woo? and wooing, the should grant? and will you persevere to enjoy her? Oli. Neither call the giddiness of it in queftion, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her fudden confenting; but fay with me, I love Aliena; fay with her, that she loves me; confent with both that we may enjoy each other; it fhall be to your good: for my father's house, and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's, will I eftate upon you, and here live and die a fhepherd. Enter Rofalind. Orla. You have my consent. Let your wedding be to-morrow; thither will I invite the Duke, and all his contented followers: go you and prepare Aliena; for look you, here comes my Rofalind. Rof. God fave you, brother. Oli. And you, fair sister. Rof. Oh my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf. Orla. It is my arm. Rof. I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion. Orla. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. Rof. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to fwoon, when he fhew'd me your handkerchief? Orla. Ay, and greater wonders than that. Rof. O, I know where you are: nay, 'tis true: there was never any thing fo fudden, but the fight of two rams, and Cafar's thrafonical brag of I came, faw and overcame: for your brother and my fifter no fooner met, but they look'd; no fooner look'd, but they lov'd; no sooner lov'd, but they figh’d; no fooner figh'd, but they ask'd one another the reason; no fooner knew the reason, but they fought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage; they are in the very wrath of love, and they will together. Clubs cannot part them. Orla. They fhall be married to-morrow; and I will bid the Duke to the nuptial. But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes; by fo much the more shall I to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I fhall think my brother happy, in having what he wishes for. Rof. Why then to-morrow I cannot ferve your turn for Rofalind. Orla. I can live no longer by thinking. you Rof. I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know of me then, for now I fpeak to fome purpose, that I know are a gentleman of good conceit. I fpeak not this that you fhould bear a good opinion of my knowledge; insomuch, I fay, I know what you are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in fome little measure draw a belief from you to do your felf good, and not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things; I have, fince I was three years old, converst with a magician, moft profound in his art, and yet not damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart, as your gesture cries it out, when your brother marries Aliena you shall marry her. I know into what streights of fortune the is driven, and it is not impoffible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to fet her before your eyes tomorrow; human as she is, and without any danger. Orla. Speak'st thou in fober meanings ? Rof. By my life I do, which I tender dearly, tho' I say I am a magician: therefore put you on your best array, bid your friends for if you will be married to-morrow, you shall; and to Rofalind, if you will. SCENE III. Enter Silvius and Phebe. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of hers. Rof. I care not if I have: it is my study Phe. Good fhepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. 'And fo am I for Phebe. Phe. And I for Ganimed. Rof. And I for no woman. Sil. It is to be made all of faith and fervice; Phe. And I for Ganimed. |