SCENE II. The forest. As You Like It  Shakespeare homepage  |  As You Like It  | Act 5, Scene 2 

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 Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER  ORLANDO  Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you 

 should like her? that but seeing you should love 

 her? and loving woo? and, wooing, she should 

 grant? and will you persever to enjoy her? 

 OLIVER  Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the 

 poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden 

 wooing, nor her sudden consenting; but say with me, 

 I love Aliena; say with her that she loves me; 

 consent with both that we may enjoy each other: it 

 shall be to your good; for my father's house and all 

 the revenue that was old Sir Rowland's will I 

 estate upon you, and here live and die a shepherd. 

 ORLANDO  You have my consent. Let your wedding be to-morrow: 

 thither will I invite the duke and all's contented 

 followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for look 

 you, here comes my Rosalind. 



 Enter ROSALIND  ROSALIND  God save you, brother. 

 OLIVER  And you, fair sister. 



 Exit  ROSALIND  O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee 

 wear thy heart in a scarf! 

 ORLANDO  It is my arm. 

 ROSALIND  I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws 

 of a lion. 

 ORLANDO  Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. 

 ROSALIND  Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to 

 swoon when he showed me your handkerchief? 

 ORLANDO  Ay, and greater wonders than that. 

 ROSALIND  O, I know where you are: nay, 'tis true: there was 

 never any thing so sudden but the fight of two rams 

 and Caesar's thrasonical brag of 'I came, saw, and 

 overcame:' for your brother and my sister no sooner 

 met but they looked, no sooner looked but they 

 loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner 

 sighed but they asked one another the reason, no 

 sooner knew the reason but they sought 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. 

 ORLANDO  They shall 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 so much the more shall I to-morrow be at 

 the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I shall 

 think my brother happy in having what he wishes for. 

 ROSALIND  Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind? 

 ORLANDO  I can live no longer by thinking. 

 ROSALIND  I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. 

 Know of me then, for now I speak to some purpose, 

 that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I 

 speak not this that you should bear a good opinion 

 of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you are; 

 neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in 

 some little measure draw a belief from you, to do 

 yourself good and not to grace me. Believe then, if 

 you please, that I can do strange things: I have, 

 since I was three year old, conversed with a 

 magician, most 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, shall you marry her: I know into 

 what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is 

 not impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient 

 to you, to set her before your eyes tomorrow human 

 as she is and without any danger. 

 ORLANDO  Speakest thou in sober meanings? 

 ROSALIND  By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I 

 say I am a magician. Therefore, put you in your 

 best array: bid your friends; for if you will be 

 married to-morrow, you shall, and to Rosalind, if you will. 



 Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE  Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers. 

 PHEBE  Youth, you have done me much ungentleness, 

 To show the letter that I writ to you. 

 ROSALIND  I care not if I have: it is my study 

 To seem despiteful and ungentle to you: 

 You are there followed by a faithful shepherd; 

 Look upon him, love him; he worships you. 

 PHEBE  Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. 

 SILVIUS  It is to be all made of sighs and tears; 

 And so am I for Phebe. 

 PHEBE  And I for Ganymede. 

 ORLANDO  And I for Rosalind. 

 ROSALIND  And I for no woman. 

 SILVIUS  It is to be all made of faith and service; 

 And so am I for Phebe. 

 PHEBE  And I for Ganymede. 

 ORLANDO  And I for Rosalind. 

 ROSALIND  And I for no woman. 

 SILVIUS  It is to be all made of fantasy, 

 All made of passion and all made of wishes, 

 All adoration, duty, and observance, 

 All humbleness, all patience and impatience, 

 All purity, all trial, all observance; 

 And so am I for Phebe. 

 PHEBE  And so am I for Ganymede. 

 ORLANDO  And so am I for Rosalind. 

 ROSALIND  And so am I for no woman. 

 PHEBE  If this be so, why blame you me to love you? 

 SILVIUS  If this be so, why blame you me to love you? 

 ORLANDO  If this be so, why blame you me to love you? 

 ROSALIND  Who do you speak to, 'Why blame you me to love you?' 

 ORLANDO  To her that is not here, nor doth not hear. 

 ROSALIND  Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling 

 of Irish wolves against the moon. 



 To SILVIUS  I will help you, if I can: 



 To PHEBE  I would love you, if I could. To-morrow meet me all together. 



 To PHEBE  I will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I'll be 

 married to-morrow: 



 To ORLANDO  I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you 

 shall be married to-morrow: 



 To SILVIUS  I will content you, if what pleases you contents 

 you, and you shall be married to-morrow. 



 To ORLANDO  As you love Rosalind, meet: 



 To SILVIUS  as you love Phebe, meet: and as I love no woman, 

 I'll meet. So fare you well: I have left you commands. 

 SILVIUS  I'll not fail, if I live. 

 PHEBE  Nor I. 

 ORLANDO  Nor I. 



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