SCENE III. A room in the palace. As You Like It  Shakespeare homepage  |  As You Like It  | Act 1, Scene 3 

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 Enter CELIA and ROSALIND  CELIA  Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! not a word? 

 ROSALIND  Not one to throw at a dog. 

 CELIA  No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon 

 curs; throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons. 

 ROSALIND  Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one 

 should be lamed with reasons and the other mad 

 without any. 

 CELIA  But is all this for your father? 

 ROSALIND  No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how 

 full of briers is this working-day world! 

 CELIA  They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in 

 holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden 

 paths our very petticoats will catch them. 

 ROSALIND  I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my heart. 

 CELIA  Hem them away. 

 ROSALIND  I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have him. 

 CELIA  Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. 

 ROSALIND  O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself! 

 CELIA  O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in 

 despite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of 

 service, let us talk in good earnest: is it 

 possible, on such a sudden, you should fall into so 

 strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son? 

 ROSALIND  The duke my father loved his father dearly. 

 CELIA  Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son 

 dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, 

 for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate 

 not Orlando. 

 ROSALIND  No, faith, hate him not, for my sake. 

 CELIA  Why should I not? doth he not deserve well? 

 ROSALIND  Let me love him for that, and do you love him 

 because I do. Look, here comes the duke. 

 CELIA  With his eyes full of anger. 



 Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords  DUKE FREDERICK  Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste 

 And get you from our court. 

 ROSALIND  Me, uncle? 

 DUKE FREDERICK  You, cousin 

 Within these ten days if that thou be'st found 

 So near our public court as twenty miles, 

 Thou diest for it. 

 ROSALIND  I do beseech your grace, 

 Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me: 

 If with myself I hold intelligence 

 Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, 

 If that I do not dream or be not frantic,-- 

 As I do trust I am not--then, dear uncle, 

 Never so much as in a thought unborn 

 Did I offend your highness. 

 DUKE FREDERICK  Thus do all traitors: 

 If their purgation did consist in words, 

 They are as innocent as grace itself: 

 Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. 

 ROSALIND  Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor: 

 Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. 

 DUKE FREDERICK  Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. 

 ROSALIND  So was I when your highness took his dukedom; 

 So was I when your highness banish'd him: 

 Treason is not inherited, my lord; 

 Or, if we did derive it from our friends, 

 What's that to me? my father was no traitor: 

 Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much 

 To think my poverty is treacherous. 

 CELIA  Dear sovereign, hear me speak. 

 DUKE FREDERICK  Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, 

 Else had she with her father ranged along. 

 CELIA  I did not then entreat to have her stay; 

 It was your pleasure and your own remorse: 

 I was too young that time to value her; 

 But now I know her: if she be a traitor, 

 Why so am I; we still have slept together, 

 Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together, 

 And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans, 

 Still we went coupled and inseparable. 

 DUKE FREDERICK  She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, 

 Her very silence and her patience 

 Speak to the people, and they pity her. 

 Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; 

 And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous 

 When she is gone. Then open not thy lips: 

 Firm and irrevocable is my doom 

 Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. 

 CELIA  Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege: 

 I cannot live out of her company. 

 DUKE FREDERICK  You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself: 

 If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, 

 And in the greatness of my word, you die. 



 Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords  CELIA  O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? 

 Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. 

 I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am. 

 ROSALIND  I have more cause. 

 CELIA  Thou hast not, cousin; 

 Prithee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke 

 Hath banish'd me, his daughter? 

 ROSALIND  That he hath not. 

 CELIA  No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love 

 Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: 

 Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? 

 No: let my father seek another heir. 

 Therefore devise with me how we may fly, 

 Whither to go and what to bear with us; 

 And do not seek to take your change upon you, 

 To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out; 

 For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, 

 Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. 

 ROSALIND  Why, whither shall we go? 

 CELIA  To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. 

 ROSALIND  Alas, what danger will it be to us, 

 Maids as we are, to travel forth so far! 

 Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. 

 CELIA  I'll put myself in poor and mean attire 

 And with a kind of umber smirch my face; 

 The like do you: so shall we pass along 

 And never stir assailants. 

 ROSALIND  Were it not better, 

 Because that I am more than common tall, 

 That I did suit me all points like a man? 

 A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, 

 A boar-spear in my hand; and--in my heart 

 Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will-- 

 We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, 

 As many other mannish cowards have 

 That do outface it with their semblances. 

 CELIA  What shall I call thee when thou art a man? 

 ROSALIND  I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page; 

 And therefore look you call me Ganymede. 

 But what will you be call'd? 

 CELIA  Something that hath a reference to my state 

 No longer Celia, but Aliena. 

 ROSALIND  But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal 

 The clownish fool out of your father's court? 

 Would he not be a comfort to our travel? 

 CELIA  He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; 

 Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away, 

 And get our jewels and our wealth together, 

 Devise the fittest time and safest way 

 To hide us from pursuit that will be made 

 After my flight. Now go we in content 

 To liberty and not to banishment. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  As You Like It  | Act 1, Scene 3 

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