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- AS YOU LIKE IT
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- Act 3 Scene 5
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- (Enter Silvius and Phoebe)
- l1l Silvius Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me, do not, Phoebe.
- l2l Say that you love me not, but say not so
- l3l In bitterness. The common executioner,
- l4l Whose heart thÆ accustomed sight of death makes hard,
- l5l Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
- l6l But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be
- l7l Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?
- (Enter Rosalind as Ganymede, Celia as Aliena, and
- Corin, and stand aside)
- l8l Phoebe (to Silvius) I would not be thy executioner.
- l9l I fly thee for I would not injure thee.
- l10l Thou tellÆst me there is murder in mine eye.
- l11l ÆTis pretty, sure, and very probable
- l12l That eyes, that are the frailÆst and softest things,
- l13l Who shut their coward gates on atomies,
- l14l Should be called tyrants, butchers, murderers.
- l15l Now I do frown on thee with all my heart,
- l16l And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee.
- l17l Now counterfeit to swoon, why now fall down;
- l18l Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,
- l19l Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers.
- l20l Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee.
- l21l Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
- l22l Some scar of it. Lean upon a rush,
- l23l The cicatrice and capable impressure
- l24l Thy palm some moment keeps. But now mine eyes,
- l25l Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not;
- l26l Nor I am sure there is no force in eyes
- l27l That can do hurt.
- l28l Silvius O dear Phoebe,
- l29l If everùas that ever may be nearù
- l30l You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,
- l31l Then shall you know the wounds invisible
- l32l That loveÆs keen arrows make.
- Phoebe But till that time
- l33l Come not thou near me. And when that time comes,
- l34l Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not,
- l35l As till that time I shall not pity thee.
- Rosalind (coming forward)
- l36l And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
- l37l That you insult, exult, and all at once,
- l38l Over the wretched? What though you have no beautyù
- l39l As, by my faith, I see no more in you
- l40l Than without candle may go dark to bedù
- l41l Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
- l42l Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?
- l43l I see no more in you than in the ordinary
- l44l Of natureÆs sale-work.ùÆOdÆs my little life,
- l45l I think she means to tangle my eyes, too.
- l46l No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it.
- l47l ÆTis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
- l48l Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
- l49l That can entame my spirits to your worship.
- (To Silvius)
- l50l You, foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her
- l51l Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain?
- l52l You are a thousand times a properer man
- l53l Than she a woman. ÆTis such fools as you
- l54l That makes the world full of ill-favoured children.
- l55l ÆTis not her glass but you that flatters her,
- l56l And out of you she sees herself more proper
- l57l Than any of her lineaments can show her.
- (To Phoebe)
- l58l But, mistress, know yourself; down on your knees
- l59l And thank heaven, fasting, for a good manÆs love;
- l60l For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
- l61l Sell when you can. You are not for all markets.
- l62l Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer;
- l63l Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.ù
- l64l So, take her to thee, shepherd. Fare you well.
- l65l Phoebe Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together.
- l66l I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
- l67l Rosalind (to Phoebe) HeÆs fallen in love with your foulness,
- l68l (to Silvius) and sheÆll fall in love with my anger. If it
- l69l be so, as fast as she answers thee with frowning looks,
- l70l IÆll sauce her with bitter words.
- l71l (To Phoebe) Why look you so upon me?
- l72l Phoebe For no ill will I bear you.
- l73l Rosalind I pray you do not fall in love with me,
- l74l For I am falser than vows made in wine.
- l75l Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,
- l76l ÆTis at the tuft of olives, here hard by.
- l77l (To Celia) Will you go, sister?
- (To Silvius) Shepherd, ply her hard.ù
- l78l Come, sister. (To Phoebe) Shepherdess, look on him
- better,
- l79l And be not proud. Though all the world could see,
- l80l None could be so abused in sight as he.ù
- l81l Come, to our flock.
- (Exeunt Rosalind, Celia, and Corin)
- l82l Phoebe (aside) Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:
- l83l ôWho ever loved that loved not at first sight?ö
- l84l Silvius Sweet Phoebeù
- Phoebe Ha, what sayst thou, Silvius?
- l85l Silvius Sweet Phoebe, pity me.
- l86l Phoebe Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.
- l87l Silvius Wherever sorrow is, relief would be.
- l88l If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
- l89l By giving love your sorrow and my grief
- l90l Were both extermined.
- l91l Phoebe Thou hast my love, is not that neighbourly?
- l92l Silvius I would have you.
- Phoebe Why, that were covetousness.
- l93l Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
- l94l And yet it is not that I bear thee love.
- l95l But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
- l96l Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
- l97l I will endure; and IÆll employ thee, too.
- l98l But do not look for further recompense
- l99l Than thine own gladness that thou art employed.
- l100l Silvius So holy and so perfect is my love,
- l101l And I in such a poverty of grace,
- l102l That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
- l103l To glean the broken ears after the man
- l104l That the main harvest reaps. Loose now and then
- l105l A scattered smile, and that IÆll live upon.
- l106l Phoebe KnowÆst thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile?
- l107l Silvius Not very well, but I have met him oft,
- l108l And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds
- l109l That the old Carlot once was master of.
- l110l Phoebe Think not I love him, though I ask for him.
- l111l ÆTis but a peevish boy. Yet he talks well.
- l112l But what care I for words? Yet words do well
- l113l When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
- l114l It is a pretty youthùnot very prettyù
- l115l But sure heÆs proud; and yet his pride becomes him.
- l116l HeÆll make a proper man. The best thing in him
- l117l Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
- l118l Did make offence, his eye did heal it up.
- l119l He is not very tall; yet for his years heÆs tall.
- l120l His leg is but so-so; and yet Ætis well.
- l121l There was a pretty redness in his lip,
- l122l A little riper and more lusty-red
- l123l Than that mixed in his cheek. ÆTwas just the difference
- l124l Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
- l125l There be some women, Silvius, had they marked him
- l126l In parcels as I did, would have gone near
- l127l To fall in love with him; but for my part,
- l128l I love him not, nor hate him not. And yet
- l129l Have I more cause to hate him than to love him,
- l130l For what had he to do to chide at me?
- l131l He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black,
- l132l And now I am remembered, scorned at me.
- l133l I marvel why I answered not again.
- l134l But thatÆs all one. Omittance is no quittance.
- l135l IÆll write to him a very taunting letter,
- l136l And thou shalt bear it. Wilt thou, Silvius?
- l137l Silvius Phoebe, with all my heart.
- Phoebe IÆll write it straight.
- l138l The matterÆs in my head and in my heart.
- l139l I will be bitter with him, and passing short.
- l140l Go with me, Silvius.
- (Exeunt)
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