The forest
Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and JAQUES
Jaques (lord). I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with
thee.
Rosalind. They say you are a melancholy fellow.
Jaques (lord). I am so; I do love it better than laughing. 1800
Rosalind. Those that are in extremity of either are abominable
fellows, and betray themselves to every modern censure worse than
drunkards.
Jaques (lord). Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing.
Rosalind. Why then, 'tis good to be a post. 1805
Jaques (lord). I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is
emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the
courtier's, which is proud; nor the soldier's, which is
ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor the lady's,
which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these; but it is a 1810
melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted
from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my
travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous
sadness.
Rosalind. A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be 1815
sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; then
to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and
poor hands.
Jaques (lord). Yes, I have gain'd my experience.
Enter ORLANDO
Rosalind. And your experience makes you sad. I had rather have a
fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad- and to
travel for it too.
Orlando. Good day, and happiness, dear Rosalind!
Jaques (lord). Nay, then, God buy you, an you talk in blank verse. 1825
Rosalind. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller; look you lisp and wear
strange suits, disable all the benefits of your own country, be
out of love with your nativity, and almost chide God for making
you that countenance you are; or I will scarce think you have
swam in a gondola. [Exit JAQUES] Why, how now, Orlando! where 1830
have you been all this while? You a lover! An you serve me such
another trick, never come in my sight more.
Orlando. My fair Rosalind, I come within an hour of my promise.
Rosalind. Break an hour's promise in love! He that will divide a
minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the 1835
thousand part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said
of him that Cupid hath clapp'd him o' th' shoulder, but I'll
warrant him heart-whole.
Orlando. Pardon me, dear Rosalind.
Rosalind. Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had 1840
as lief be woo'd of a snail.
Orlando. Of a snail!
Rosalind. Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he carries
his house on his head- a better jointure, I think, than you make
a woman; besides, he brings his destiny with him. 1845
YOU ARE READING
As You Like It
General FictionAs You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggest...
