As You Like It (7 page)

DUKE SENIOR
    Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,

Hath not
old custom
²
made this life more sweet

Than that of
painted pomp
³
? Are not these woods

More free from peril than the
envious
⁴
court?

Here feel we not the
penalty of Adam
⁵
,

The seasons’
difference
,
as
⁶
the icy fang

And
churlish chiding
⁷
of the winter’s wind,

Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,

Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say

‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors

That
feelingly
¹¹
persuade me what I am.’

Sweet are the
uses
¹²
of adversity,

Which, like the
toad, ugly and venomous
¹³
,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

And this our life
exempt from public haunt
¹⁵

Finds
tongues
¹⁶
in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones and good in everything.

AMIENS
    I would not
change
¹⁸
it. Happy is your grace

That can
translate
¹⁹
the stubbornness of fortune

Into so quiet and so sweet a
style
²⁰
.

DUKE SENIOR
    Come, shall we go and kill us venison?

And yet it irks me the poor dappled
fools
²²
,

Being native
burghers
of this
desert
²³
city,

Should in their own
confines
with
forkèd heads
²⁴

Have their round haunches gored.

FIRST LORD
    Indeed, my lord,

The melancholy Jaques grieves at that,

And in that
kind
²⁸
swears you do more usurp

Than doth your brother that hath banished you.

Today my Lord of Amiens and myself

Did steal behind him as he lay
along
³¹

Under an oak whose
antique
³²
root peeps out

Upon the brook that
brawls
³³
along this wood,

To the which place a poor
sequestered
³⁴
stag

That from the hunter’s aim had ta’en a hurt,

Did come to languish; and indeed, my lord,

The wretched animal heaved forth such groans

That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat

Almost to bursting, and the big round tears

Coursed
⁴⁰
one another down his innocent nose

In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool

Much
markèd of
⁴²
the melancholy Jaques,

Stood on th’
extremest verge
⁴³
of the swift brook,

Augmenting it with tears.

DUKE SENIOR
    But what said Jaques?

Did he not
moralize
⁴⁶
this spectacle?

FIRST LORD
    O, yes, into a thousand similes.

First, for his weeping into the
needless
⁴⁸
stream;

‘Poor deer,’ quoth he, ‘thou mak’st a
testament
⁴⁹

As
worldlings
do, giving thy
sum of more
⁵⁰

To that which had too much.’ Then, being there alone,

Left and abandoned of his
velvet friend
⁵²
,

‘ ’Tis right,’ quoth he, ‘thus misery doth
part
⁵³

The
flux
of company.’
Anon
a
careless
⁵⁴
herd,

Full of the pasture, jumps along by him

And never
stays
⁵⁶
to greet him. ‘Ay,’ quoth Jaques,

‘Sweep on, you fat and
greasy
⁵⁷
citizens,

’Tis just the fashion;
wherefore
⁵⁸
do you look

Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?’

Thus most
invectively
⁶⁰
he pierceth through

The body of country, city, court,

Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we

Are
mere
⁶³
usurpers, tyrants, and what’s worse,

To fright the animals and to kill them
up
⁶⁴

In their assigned and native dwelling-place.

DUKE SENIOR
    And did you leave him in this contemplation?

SECOND LORD
    We did, my lord, weeping and
commenting
⁶⁷

Upon the sobbing deer.

DUKE SENIOR
    Show me the place.

I love to
cope
⁷⁰
him in these sullen fits,

For then he’s full of
matter
⁷¹
.

FIRST LORD
    I’ll bring you to him
straight
⁷²
.

DUKE FREDERICK
    Can it be possible that no man saw them?

It cannot be: some
villains
²
of my court

Are of consent and
sufferance
³
in this.

FIRST LORD
    I cannot hear of any that did see her.

The ladies, her attendants of her chamber,

Saw her abed, and in the morning early

They found the bed
untreasured
⁷
of their mistress.

SECOND LORD
    My lord, the
roynish
⁸
clown, at whom so oft

Your grace was
wont
⁹
to laugh, is also missing.

Hisperia, the princess’ gentlewoman,

Confesses that she secretly o’erheard

Your daughter and her cousin much commend

The
parts
¹³
and graces of the wrestler

That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles,

And she believes, wherever they are gone,

That youth is surely in their company.

DUKE FREDERICK
    Send to his brother, fetch that
gallant
¹⁷
hither.

If he be absent, bring his brother to me.

I’ll make him find him. Do this
suddenly
¹⁹
,

And let not search and inquisition
quail
²⁰

To bring
again
²¹
these foolish runaways.

ORLANDO
    Who’s there?

ADAM
    What, my young master? O, my gentle master!

O my sweet master! O you
memory
³

Of old Sir Rowland! Why, what
make you
⁴
here?

Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?

And wherefore are you gentle, strong and valiant?

Why would you be so
fond
⁷
to overcome

The
bonny priser
of the
humorous
⁸
duke?

Your praise is come too swiftly home before you.

Know you not, master, to some kind of men

Their graces serve them but as enemies?

No
more
¹²
do yours: your virtues, gentle master,

Are
sanctified
¹³
and holy traitors to you.

O, what a world is this, when what is
comely
¹⁴

Envenoms
¹⁵
him that bears it!

ORLANDO
    Why, what’s the matter?

ADAM
    O, unhappy youth,

Come not within these doors! Within this roof

The enemy of all your graces lives:

Your brother — no, no brother, yet the son —

Yet not the son, I will not call him son —

Of him I was about to call his father —

Hath heard
your praises
²³
, and this night he means

To burn the lodging where you
use
²⁴
to lie

And you within it. If he fail
of
²⁵
that,

He will have other means to
cut you off
²⁶
;

I overheard him and his
practices
²⁷
.

This is no
place
, this house is but a
butchery
²⁸
;

Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

ORLANDO
    Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go?

ADAM
    No matter whither,
so
³¹
you come not here.

ORLANDO
    What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food?

Or with a base and
boist’rous
sword
enforce
³³

A thievish living on the
common
³⁴
road?

This I must do, or know not what to do:

Yet this I will not do, do how I can.

I rather will subject me to the malice

Of a
diverted blood
³⁸
and bloody brother.

ADAM
    But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,

The
thrifty hire
⁴⁰
I saved under your father,

Which I did store to be my
foster-nurse
⁴¹

When
service should in my old limbs lie lame
⁴²

And
unregarded
⁴³
age in corners thrown.

Take that, and he that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,

Be comfort to my age. Here is the gold,

All this I give you. Let me be your servant.

Though I look old, yet I am strong and
lusty
⁴⁸
;

For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood,

Nor did not with
unbashful forehead
⁵¹
woo

The means of weakness and debility:

Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,

Frosty
, but
kindly
⁵⁴
. Let me go with you.

I’ll do the service of a younger man

In all your business and necessities.

ORLANDO
    O good old man, how well in thee appears

The
constant
⁵⁸
service of the antique world,

When service
sweat
for duty, not for
meed
⁵⁹
!

Thou art not for the fashion of these times,

Where none will sweat but for promotion,

And having that, do
choke their service up
⁶²

Even with the having: it is not so with thee.

But, poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree,

That cannot so much as a blossom yield

In lieu of
all thy pains and
husbandry
⁶⁶
.

But
come thy ways
⁶⁷
, we’ll go along together,

And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,

We’ll light upon some settled
low content
⁶⁹
.

ADAM
    Master, go on, and I will follow thee

To the last gasp with truth and loyalty.

From seventeen years till now almost
fourscore
⁷²

Here livèd I, but now live here no more.

At seventeen years many their fortunes seek,

But at fourscore it is
too late a week
⁷⁵
.

Yet fortune cannot recompense me better

Than to die well and not my master’s debtor.

ROSALIND
    O
Jupiter
¹
, how merry are my spirits!

TOUCHSTONE
    I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.

ROSALIND
    I could find in my heart to disgrace my

man’s apparel and to cry like a woman, but I must comfort

the
weaker vessel
, as
doublet and hose
⁵
ought to show itself

courageous to petticoat: therefore courage, good Aliena!

CELIA
    I pray you bear with me. I cannot go no further.

TOUCHSTONE
    For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear

you: yet I should bear no
cross
⁹
if I did bear you, for I think

you have no money in your purse.

ROSALIND
    Well, this is the Forest of Arden.

TOUCHSTONE
    Ay, now am I in Arden, the more fool I. When I

was at home, I was in a better place, but travellers must be

content.