44 Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords. Duke Frederick. Mistress, dispatch you with your safest Within these ten days if that thou be'st found Rosalind. I do beseech your grace, Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me: Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, As I do trust I am not-then, dear uncle, Duke Frederick. Thus do all traitors; 50 If their purgation did consist in words, They are as innocent as grace itself: Rosalind. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor: Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. Duke Frederick. Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. Rosalind. So was I when your highness took his dukedom; So was I when your highness banish'd him. Or, if we did derive it from our friends, Celia. Dear sovereign, hear me speak. 60 Duke Frederick. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, Else had she with her father rang'd along. Celia. I did not then entreat to have her stay; I was too young that time to value her, Why so am I; we still have slept together, Still we went coupled and inseparable. 70 Duke Frederick. She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, Her very silence and her patience, Speak to the people, and they pity her. Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous When she is gone. Then open not thy lips: Firm and irrevocable is my doom Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. Celia. Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege: I cannot live out of her company. 80 Duke Frederick. You are a fool. — You, niece, provide yourself: If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatness of my word, you die. [Exeunt Duke Frederick and Lords. Celia. O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more griev'd than I am. Rosalind. I have more cause. Celia. Thou hast not, cousin ; Prithee, be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me, his daughter? Rosalind. That he hath not. Celia. No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love 90 Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one: Therefore devise with me how we may fly, Celia. To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. Celia. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, Rosalind. Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, A boar-spear in my hand; and, in my heart We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, That do outface it with their semblances. Celia. What shall I call thee when thou art a man? 100 110 120 Rosalind. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page, And therefore look you call me Ganymede. But what will you be call'd? Celia. Something that hath a reference to my state; No longer Celia, but Aliena. Rosalind. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal The clownish fool out of your father's court? Celia. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; Let's away, And get our jewels and our wealth together, To hide us from pursuit that will be made 130 [Exeunt. SCENE I. The Forest of Arden. Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and two or three Lords, like foresters. Duke Senior. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we not the penalty of Adam. The seasons' difference,-as the icy fang |