Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Food to the sucked and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back and purposed so;
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,

And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,

Who quickly fell before him: in which hurtling
From miserable slumber I awaked.

Cel. Are you his brother?

Ros.

Was't you he rescued?

Cel. Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?
Oli. 'Twas I; but 'tis not I: I do not shame
To tell you what I was, since my conversion
So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.

Ros. But, for the bloody napkin?
Oli.

By and by.

When from the first to last betwixt us two
Tears our recountments had most kindly bathed,
As how I came into that desert place:

In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,

130

135

140

145

There stripped himself, and here upon his arm
The lioness had torn some flesh away,

Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted
And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.

Brief, I recovered him, bound up his wound;

150

And, after some small space, being strong at heart,
He sent me hither, stranger as I am,

To tell this story, that you might excuse

His broken promise, and to give this napkin

Dyed in his blood unto the shepherd youth
That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.

I

155

[Rosalind swoons.

Cel. Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede! Oli. Many will swoon when they do look on blood. Cel. There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede!

Oli. Look, he recovers.

Ros. I would I were at home.

Cel.

160

We'll lead you thither.

pray you, will you take him by the arm?

Oli. Be of good cheer, youth: you a man! you lack a man's heart.

164

Ros. I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would think this was well counterfeited! I pray you, tell your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho!

Oli. This was not counterfeit there is too great testimony in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest. Ros. Counterfeit, I assure you.

170

Oli. Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man.

Ros. So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right.

Cel. Come, you look paler and paler: pray you, draw homewards. Good sir, go with us.

Oli. That will I, for I must bear answer back How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.

176

Ros. I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend my counterfeiting to him. Will you go? [Exeunt.

ACT V.

Scene I. The forest.

Enter Touchstone and Audrey.

Touch. We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.

Aud. Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman's saying.

Touch. A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you.

Aud. Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me in the world: here comes the man you mean.

9

Touch. It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: by my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold.

Enter William.

Will. Good even, Audrey.

Aud. God ye good even, William.
Will. And good even to you, sir.

Touch. Good even, gentle friend.

15

Cover thy head,

cover thy head; nay, prithee, be covered. How old are

you, friend?

Will. Five and twenty, sir.

Touch. A ripe age. Is thy name William?

Will. William, sir.

Touch. A fair name. Wast born i' the forest here? Will. Ay, sir, I thank God.

20

Touch. "Thank God;" a good answer. Art rich?
Will. Faith, sir, so so.

25

Touch. "So so" is good, very good, very excellent good; and yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise?

Will. Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.

Touch. Why, thou sayest well. I do now remember a saying, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do love this maid?

Will. I do, sir.

Touch. Give me your hand. Art thou learned?
Will. No, sir.

35

Touch. Then learn this of me: to have, is to have; for it is a figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your writers do consent that ipse is he: now, you are not ipse, for I am he.

Will. Which he, sir?

Touch. He, sir, that must marry this woman.

[ocr errors]

44

There

[ocr errors]

fore, you clown, abandon, which is in the vulgar leave, — the society, which in the boorish is company, — of this female, which in the common is woman; which together is, abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction; I will o'er-run thee with policy;

[graphic]

Abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »