ARKCODEX
Act V, Scene 2
1The forest.
2Enter Orlando and Oliver.
3OrlandoIs’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?
4OliverNeither 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.
5OrlandoYou 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.
6Enter Rosalind.
7RosalindGod save you, brother.
8OliverAnd you, fair sister. Exit.
9RosalindO, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf!
10OrlandoIt is my arm.
11RosalindI thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion.
12OrlandoWounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.
13RosalindDid your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon when he showed me your handkerchief?
14OrlandoAy, and greater wonders than that.
15RosalindO, 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.
16OrlandoThey 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.
17RosalindWhy then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?
18OrlandoI can live no longer by thinking.
19RosalindI 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.
20OrlandoSpeakest thou in sober meanings?
21RosalindBy 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.
22Enter Silvius and Phebe.
23Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.
24PhebeYouth, you have done me much ungentleness,
To show the letter that I writ to you.
25RosalindI 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.
26PhebeGood shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
27SilviusIt is to be all made of sighs and tears;
And so am I for Phebe.
28PhebeAnd I for Ganymede.
29OrlandoAnd I for Rosalind.
30RosalindAnd I for no woman.
31SilviusIt is to be all made of faith and service;
And so am I for Phebe.
32PhebeAnd I for Ganymede.
33OrlandoAnd I for Rosalind.
34RosalindAnd I for no woman.
35SilviusIt 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.
36PhebeAnd so am I for Ganymede.
37OrlandoAnd so am I for Rosalind.
38RosalindAnd so am I for no woman.
39PhebeIf this be so, why blame you me to love you?
40SilviusIf this be so, why blame you me to love you?
41OrlandoIf this be so, why blame you me to love you?
42RosalindWho do you speak to, “Why blame you me to love you?”
43OrlandoTo her that is not here, nor doth not hear.
44RosalindPray 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.
45SilviusI’ll not fail, if I live.
46PhebeNor I.
47OrlandoNor I. Exeunt.