As You Like It: Act 1, Scene 3
Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.
CELIA
1 Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! 2 not a word? ROSALIND
3 Not one to throw at a dog. CELIA
4 No, thy words are too precious to be cast away 5 upon curs; throw some of them at me;6. reasons: explanations (of your silence).
6 lame me with reasons. ROSALIND
7 Then there were two cousins laid up; when the 8 one should be lamed with reasons and the other 9 mad without any. CELIA
10 But is all this for your father? ROSALIND
11 No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how 12 full of briars is this working-day world! CELIA
13 They are but burrs, cousin, thrown upon thee in 14 holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden 15 paths our very petticoats will catch them. ROSALIND
16 I could shake them off my coat: these burrs 17 are in my heart. CELIA
18. Hem them away: i.e., "Cough them up and spit them out, like phlegm," or Shakespeare may have had Celia use this expression just to set up Rosalind for the pun in her response. 19-20. 'hem': i.e., "ahem," that little clearing-the-throat sound.
18 Hem them away. ROSALIND
19 I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have 20 him. CELIA
21 Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. ROSALIND
22. take the part of a better wrestler: i.e., side with Orlando.
22 O, they take the part of a better wrestler 23 than myself! CELIA
24-25. you will try in time, in despite of a fall: i.e., sooner or later you will wrestle with . . . 25-26. But, turning these jests out of service: But, joking aside.
24 O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in 25 despite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of 26 service, let us talk in good earnest: is it possible, 27 on such a sudden, you should fall into so strong a 28 liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son? ROSALIND
29 The duke my father loved his father 30 dearly. CELIA
31. therefore ensue: follow as a consequence.
32. By this kind of chase: By pursuing this course of argument. 33. dearly: passionately.
32. By this kind of chase: By pursuing this course of argument. 33. dearly: passionately.
31 Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his 32 son dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate 33 him, for my father hated his father dearly; yet I 34 hate not Orlando. ROSALIND
35 No, faith, hate him not, for my sake. CELIA
36-37. doth he not deserve well?:
i.e., doesn't he well deserve to be hated? —Celia is still teasing Rosalind by using her own kind of reasoning against her. This all started when Rosalind justified her love for Orlando by saying her father loved his father. Celia teasingly answers by saying that since her father hated Orlando's father, she, Celia, should hate Orlando. 38. Let me love him for that: i.e., let me love Orlando because Celia's father (the spiteful Duke Frederick) hated Orlando's father, Sir Rowland de Boys.
36 Why should I not? doth he not deserve 37 well? Enter DUKE [FREDERICK], with Lords. ROSALIND
38 Let me love him for that, and do you love him 39 because I do. Look, here comes the duke. CELIA
40 With his eyes full of anger. DUKE FREDERICK
41. dispatch you with your safest haste: i.e., get out of here you while you still can. 42. cousin: —Used of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews, as well as cousins in the modern sense.
41 Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste 42 And get you from our court. ROSALIND
42 Me, uncle? DUKE FREDERICK
42 You, cousin. 43 Within these ten days if that thou be'st found 44 So near our public court as twenty miles, 45 Thou diest for it. ROSALIND
45 I do beseech your grace,46. Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me: i.e., tell me what I have done wrong before I leave. 47. If with myself I hold intelligence: if I am in communication with myself.
49. If that I do not dream or be not frantic: if I'm not dreaming or crazy.
49. If that I do not dream or be not frantic: if I'm not dreaming or crazy.
46 Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me: 47 If with myself I hold intelligence 48 Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, 49 If that I do not dream or be not frantic,— 50 As I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle, 51 Never so much as in a thought unborn 52 Did I offend your highness. DUKE FREDERICK
52. Thus do all traitors: i.e., all traitors say the kind of thing you have just said. 53. purgation: exoneration.
54. grace: virtue.
54. grace: virtue.
52 Thus do all traitors: 53 If their purgation did consist in words, 54 They are as innocent as grace itself: 55 Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. ROSALIND
56 Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:57. Tell me whereon the likelihood depends: i.e., tell me what makes it seem likely (that I am a traitor).
57 Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. DUKE FREDERICK
58 Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. ROSALIND
59 So was I when your highness took his dukedom; 60 So was I when your highness banish'd him: 61 Treason is not inherited, my lord;62. friends: —The word "friends" could be used to refer to friends, lovers, and relatives; here it means "relatives."
62 Or, if we did derive it from our friends, 63 What's that to me? my father was no traitor:64. good my liege: my good sovereign.
64 Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much65. To: as to.
65 To think my poverty is treacherous. CELIA
66 Dear sovereign, hear me speak. DUKE FREDERICK
67. stay'd her: kept her here.
67 Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake,68. ranged: roamed.
68 Else had she with her father ranged along. CELIA
69 I did not then entreat to have her stay;70. remorse: pity, compassion.
70 It was your pleasure and your own remorse: 71 I was too young that time to value her; 72 But now I know her: if she be a traitor,73. still: always.
73 Why so am I; we still have slept together,74. at an instant: at the same moment.
74 Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together,
75. Juno's swans: —Swans were and are emblems of eternal faithfulness in love . . . 80. name: i.e., deserved recognition. 81. show: appear. virtuous: filled with admirable qualities.
75 And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans 76 Still we went coupled and inseparable. DUKE FREDERICK
77 She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, 78 Her very silence and her patience 79 Speak to the people, and they pity her. 80 Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; 81 And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous 82 When she is gone. Then open not thy lips:83. doom: judgment, sentence.
83 Firm and irrevocable is my doom 84 Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. CELIA
85 Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege: 86 I cannot live out of her company. DUKE FREDERICK
87. provide yourself: make your preparations.
87 You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself: 88 If you outstay the time, upon mine honour,89. in the greatness of my word: i.e., upon my word as a powerful ruler, a duke.
89 And in the greatness of my word, you die. Exit DUKE, etc. CELIA
90 O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?91. change: exchange.
91 Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. 92 I charge thee, be not thou more griev'd than I am. ROSALIND
93 I have more cause. CELIA
93 Thou hast not, cousin; 94 Prithee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke 95 Hath banish'd me, his daughter? ROSALIND
95 That he hath not. CELIA
96 No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love 97 Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: 98 Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? 99 No: let my father seek another heir.100 Therefore devise with me how we may fly,101 Whither to go and what to bear with us;102. do not seek to take your change upon you: i.e., don't try to bear the whole weight of your change of fortune (from court favorite to outcast).
102 And do not seek to take your change upon you,103 To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out;104 For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,105 Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. ROSALIND
106 Why, whither shall we go? CELIA
107. my uncle: Celia's uncle is Rosalind's father, Duke Senior who was the former Duke, whose place was usurped by his brother (and Celia's father), Duke Frederick.
107 To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. ROSALIND
108 Alas, what danger will it be to us,109 Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!110. provoketh: incites.
110 Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. CELIA
111. mean: lowly.
111 I'll put myself in poor and mean attire112. umber: brown pigment. —According to the values of the time, fair is beautiful and attractive, while dark is ugly and unattractive.
112 And with a kind of umber smirch my face;113 The like do you: so shall we pass along114 And never stir assailants. ROSALIND
114 Were it not better,115 Because that I am more than common tall,116. suit me all points like a man: dress like a man in every way. 117-118. curtle-axe . . . boar-spear: — A curtle-axe is a cutlass, and a boar-spear has a fancy head; both were very fashionable weapons in Shakespeare's time.
116 That I did suit me all points like a man?117 A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,118 A boar-spear in my hand; and—in my heart119 Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will—120. swashing: blustering, swashbuckling.
120 We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,121 As many other mannish cowards have122. outface it with their semblances: i.e., win confrontations or intimidate others, just by their appearances.
122 That do outface it with their semblances. CELIA
123 What shall I call thee when thou art a man? ROSALIND
124 I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page;
125. Ganymede: Ganymede was the fair boy, the most beautiful of mortals, whom Zeus . . . 127. my state: i.e., Celia's state as an outcast. —In Celia's view, when her father exiled Rosalind, he exiled her, too, and so she calls herself "Aliena," the alien, the estranged one (Latin).
129. assay'd: attempted.
125 And therefore look you call me Ganymede.126 But what will you be call'd? CELIA
127 Something that hath a reference to my state128 No longer Celia, but Aliena. ROSALIND
129 But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal130 The clownish fool out of your father's court?131 Would he not be a comfort to our travel? CELIA
132 He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;133. woo: coax, persuade.
133 Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away,134 And get our jewels and our wealth together,135 Devise the fittest time and safest way136 To hide us from pursuit that will be made137. content: contentment.
137 After my flight. Now go we in content138 To liberty and not to banishment.
Exeunt.