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ACT I, SCENE III. A room in the palace.
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Enter CELIA and ROSALIND
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CELIA
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Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! not a word?
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ROSALIND
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Not one to throw at a dog.
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CELIA
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No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon
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curs; throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.
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ROSALIND
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CELIA
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But is all this for your father?
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Then there were two cousins laid up; when the one
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should be lamed with reasons and the other mad
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without any.
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ROSALIND
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No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how
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full of briers is this working-day world!
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CELIA
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They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in
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holiday foolery: if we walk not in the trodden
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paths our very petticoats will catch them.
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ROSALIND
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I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my heart.
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CELIA
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ROSALIND
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I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have him.
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CELIA
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Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.
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ROSALIND
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O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself!
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CELIA
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O, a good wish upon you! you will try in time, in
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despite of a fall. But, turning these jests out of
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service, let us talk in good earnest: is it
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possible, on such a sudden, you should fall into so
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strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son?
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ROSALIND
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The duke my father loved his father dearly.
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CELIA
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Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son
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dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him,
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for my father hated his father dearly; yet I hate
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not Orlando.
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ROSALIND
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No, faith, hate him not, for my sake.
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CELIA
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Why should I not? doth he not deserve well?
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ROSALIND
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Let me love him for that, and do you love him
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because I do. Look, here comes the duke.
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CELIA
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With his eyes full of anger.
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Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords
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DUKE FREDERICK
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Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste
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And get you from our court.
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ROSALIND
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DUKE FREDERICK
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You, cousin
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Within these ten days if that thou be'st found
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So near our public court as twenty miles,
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Thou diest for it.
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ROSALIND
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I do beseech your grace,
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Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me:
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If with myself I hold intelligence
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Or have acquaintance with mine own desires,
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If that I do not dream or be not frantic,--
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As I do trust I am not--then, dear uncle,
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Never so much as in a thought unborn
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Did I offend your highness.
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DUKE FREDERICK
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Thus do all traitors:
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If their purgation did consist in words,
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They are as innocent as grace itself:
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Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.
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ROSALIND
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Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:
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Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.
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DUKE FREDERICK
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Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.
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ROSALIND
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So was I when your highness took his dukedom;
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So was I when your highness banish'd him:
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Treason is not inherited, my lord;
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Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
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What's that to me? my father was no traitor:
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Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
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To think my poverty is treacherous.
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CELIA
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Dear sovereign, hear me speak.
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DUKE FREDERICK
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Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake,
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Else had she with her father ranged along.
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CELIA
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I did not then entreat to have her stay;
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It was your pleasure and your own remorse:
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I was too young that time to value her;
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But now I know her: if she be a traitor,
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Why so am I; we still have slept together,
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Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together,
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And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans,
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Still we went coupled and inseparable.
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DUKE FREDERICK
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She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness,
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Her very silence and her patience
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Speak to the people, and they pity her.
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Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name;
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And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous
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When she is gone. Then open not thy lips:
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Firm and irrevocable is my doom
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Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd.
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CELIA
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Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege:
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I cannot live out of her company.
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DUKE FREDERICK
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You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself:
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If you outstay the time, upon mine honour,
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And in the greatness of my word, you die.
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Exeunt DUKE FREDERICK and Lords
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CELIA
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O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
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Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
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I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.
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ROSALIND
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CELIA
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Thou hast not, cousin;
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Prithee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke
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Hath banish'd me, his daughter?
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ROSALIND
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CELIA
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No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
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Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:
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Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl?
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No: let my father seek another heir.
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Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
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Whither to go and what to bear with us;
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And do not seek to take your change upon you,
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To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out;
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For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
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Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.
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ROSALIND
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Why, whither shall we go?
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CELIA
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To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.
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ROSALIND
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Alas, what danger will it be to us,
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Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
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Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
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CELIA
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I'll put myself in poor and mean attire
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And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
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The like do you: so shall we pass along
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And never stir assailants.
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ROSALIND
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Were it not better,
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Because that I am more than common tall,
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That I did suit me all points like a man?
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A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
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A boar-spear in my hand; and--in my heart
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Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will--
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We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
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As many other mannish cowards have
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That do outface it with their semblances.
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CELIA
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What shall I call thee when thou art a man?
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ROSALIND
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I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page;
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And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
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But what will you be call'd?
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CELIA
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Something that hath a reference to my state
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No longer Celia, but Aliena.
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ROSALIND
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But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal
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The clownish fool out of your father's court?
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Would he not be a comfort to our travel?
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CELIA
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He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
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Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away,
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And get our jewels and our wealth together,
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Devise the fittest time and safest way
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To hide us from pursuit that will be made
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After my flight. Now go we in content
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To liberty and not to banishment.
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Exeunt
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