AS YOU LIKE IT

Act > Scene Ep

1 
	Rosalind	
		(to the audience)
		 It is not the fashion to see the
l2l		lady the epilogue# but it is no more unhandsome than
l3l		to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good
l4l		wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs
l5l		no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes,
l6l		and good plays prove the better by the help of good
l7l		epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither
l8l		a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the
l9l		behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar,
l10l		therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to
l11l		conjure you# and I’ll begin with the women. I charge
l12l		you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like
l13l		as much of this play as please you. And I charge you,
l14l		O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive
l15l		by your simpering none of you hates them—that
l16l		between you and the women the play may please. If I
l17l		were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had
l18l		beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and
l19l		breaths that I defied not. And I am sure, as many as
l20l		have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will
l21l		for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.
		(Exit)