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SCENE II

The forest.
Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER.

Orl.
Is'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?

Oli.
Neither 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.

Orl.
You 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. Enter ROSALIND. (20)

Ros.
God save you, brother.

Oli.
And you, fair sister. [Exit.


Ros.
O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves
me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf!

Orl.
It is my arm.

Ros.
I thought thy heart had been wounded
with the claws of a lion.

Orl.
Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.

Ros.
Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited
to swoon when he showed me your (30)
handkercher?

Orl.
Ay, and greater wonders than that.

Ros.
O, I know where you are: nay, 'tis
true: there was never any thing so sudden but
the fight of two rams and Cæsar'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.

Orl.
They 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.

Ros.
Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve
your turn for Rosalind?

Orl.
I can live no longer by thinking.

Ros.
I 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 labor 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 to-morrow
human as she is and without any danger.

Orl.
Speakest thou in sober meanings?

Ros.
By 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. Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.
Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover
of hers.

Phe.
Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,

To show the letter that I writ to you.

Ros.
I 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.

Phe.
Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love.

Sil.
It is to be all made of sighs and tears; (91)

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe.
And I for Ganymede.

Orl.
And I for Rosalind.

Ros.
And I for no woman.

Sil.
It is to be all made of faith and service;

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe.
And I for Ganymede.

Orl.
And I for Rosalind.

Ros.
And I for no woman. (100)

Sil.
It 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.

Phe.
And so am I for Ganymede.

Orl.
And so am I for Rosalind.

Ros.
And so am I for no woman.

Phe.
If this be so, why blame you me to (110)
love you?

Sil.
If this be so, why blame you me to
love you?

Orl.
If this be so, why blame you me to
love you?

Ros.
Who do you speak to, 'Why blame
you me to love you?'

Orl.
To her that is not here, nor doth not
hear.

Ros.
Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like
the howling of Irish wolves against the moon.
[To Sil.] I will help you, if I can: [To Phe.]
I would love you, if I could. To-morrow meet
me all together. [To Phe.] I will marry you,
if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married tomorrow:
[To Orl.] I will satisfy you, if ever
I satisfied man, and you shall be married tomorrow:
[To Sil.] I will content you, if
what pleases you contents you, and you shall be
married to-morrow. [To Orl.] As you love
Rosalind, meet: [To Sil.] as you love Phebe,
meet: and as I love no woman, I'll meet. So (131)
fare you well: I have left you commands.

Sil.
I'll not fail, if I live.

Phe.
Nor I.

Orl.
Nor I. [Exeunt.

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