SCENE III A room in the palace.
[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.
=8= |