酷兔英语

章节正文

Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
And yet it is not that I bear thee love;

But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,

I will endure; and I'll employ thee too.
But do not look for further recompense

Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd.
SILVIUS. So holy and so perfect is my love,

And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop

To glean the broken ears after the man
That the main harvest reaps; loose now and then

A scatt'red smile, and that I'll live upon.
PHEBE. Know'st thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile?

SILVIUS. Not very well; but I have met him oft;
And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds

That the old carlot once was master of.
PHEBE. Think not I love him, though I ask for him;

'Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well.
But what care I for words? Yet words do well

When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
It is a pretty youth- not very pretty;

But, sure, he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him.
He'll make a proper man. The best thing in him

Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
Did make offence, his eye did heal it up.

He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall;
His leg is but so-so; and yet 'tis well.

There was a pretty redness in his lip,
A little riper and more lusty red

Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference
Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.

There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him
In parcels as I did, would have gone near

To fall in love with him; but, for my part,
I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet

I have more cause to hate him than to love him;
For what had he to do to chide at me?

He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black,
And, now I am rememb'red, scorn'd at me.

I marvel why I answer'd not again;
But that's all one: omittance is no quittance.

I'll write to him a very taunting letter,
And thou shalt bear it; wilt thou, Silvius?

SILVIUS. Phebe, with all my heart.
PHEBE. I'll write it straight;

The matter's in my head and in my heart;
I will be bitter with him and passing short.

Go with me, Silvius. Exeunt
ACT IV. SCENE I.

The forest
Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and JAQUES

JAQUES. I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with
thee.

ROSALIND. They say you are a melancholy fellow.
JAQUES. I am so; I do love it better than laughing.

ROSALIND. Those that are in extremity of either are abominable
fellows, and betray themselves to every modern censure worse than

drunkards.
JAQUES. Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing.

ROSALIND. Why then, 'tis good to be a post.
JAQUES. 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

melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted
from many objects, and, indeed, the sundrycontemplation 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
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. 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. Nay, then, God buy you, an you talk in blank verse.
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

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
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

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.
ORLANDO. What's that?

ROSALIND. Why, horns; which such as you are fain to be beholding to
your wives for; but he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents

the slander of his wife.
ORLANDO. Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rosalind is virtuous.

ROSALIND. And I am your Rosalind.
CELIA. It pleases him to call you so; but he hath a Rosalind of a

better leer than you.
ROSALIND. Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humour,

and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now, an I
were your very very Rosalind?

ORLANDO. I would kiss before I spoke.
ROSALIND. Nay, you were better speak first; and when you were

gravell'd for lack of matter, you might take occasion to kiss.
Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for

lovers lacking- God warn us!- matter, the cleanliest shift is to
kiss.

ORLANDO. How if the kiss be denied?
ROSALIND. Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new

matter.
ORLANDO. Who could be out, being before his belovedmistress?

ROSALIND. Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress; or I
should think my honesty ranker than my wit.

ORLANDO. What, of my suit?
ROSALIND. Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your suit.

Am not I your Rosalind?
ORLANDO. I take some joy to say you are, because I would be talking

of her.
ROSALIND. Well, in her person, I say I will not have you.

ORLANDO. Then, in mine own person, I die.
ROSALIND. No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is almost six

thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man
died in his own person, videlicet, in a love-cause. Troilus had

his brains dash'd out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he
could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love.

Leander, he would have liv'd many a fair year, though Hero had
turn'd nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for,

good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont, and,
being taken with the cramp, was drown'd; and the foolish

chroniclers of that age found it was- Hero of Sestos. But these
are all lies: men have died from time to time, and worms have

eaten them, but not for love.
ORLANDO. I would not have my right Rosalind of this mind; for, I

protest, her frown might kill me.
ROSALIND. By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come, now I

will be your Rosalind in a more coming-on disposition; and ask me
what you will, I will grant it.

ORLANDO. Then love me, Rosalind.
ROSALIND. Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays, and all.

ORLANDO. And wilt thou have me?
ROSALIND. Ay, and twenty such.

ORLANDO. What sayest thou?
ROSALIND. Are you not good?

ORLANDO. I hope so.
ROSALIND. Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come,

sister, you shall be the priest, and marry us. Give me your hand,
Orlando. What do you say, sister?

ORLANDO. Pray thee, marry us.
CELIA. I cannot say the words.

ROSALIND. You must begin 'Will you, Orlando'-
CELIA. Go to. Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind?

ORLANDO. I will.
ROSALIND. Ay, but when?

ORLANDO. Why, now; as fast as she can marry us.
ROSALIND. Then you must say 'I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.'

ORLANDO. I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.
ROSALIND. I might ask you for your commission; but- I do take thee,

Orlando, for my husband. There's a girl goes before the priest;
and, certainly, a woman's thought runs before her actions.

ORLANDO. So do all thoughts; they are wing'd.
ROSALIND. Now tell me how long you would have her, after you have

possess'd her.
ORLANDO. For ever and a day.

ROSALIND. Say 'a day' without the 'ever.' No, no, Orlando; men are
April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when

they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. I will
be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen,

more clamorous than a parrot against rain, more new-fangled than
an ape, more giddy in my desires than a monkey. I will weep for

nothing, like Diana in the fountain, and I will do that when you
are dispos'd to be merry; I will laugh like a hyen, and that when

thou are inclin'd to sleep.
ORLANDO. But will my Rosalind do so?

ROSALIND. By my life, she will do as I do.
ORLANDO. O, but she is wise.

ROSALIND. Or else she could not have the wit to do this. The wiser,
the waywarder. Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out

at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop
that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.

ORLANDO. A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say 'Wit,
whither wilt?'

ROSALIND. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your
wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed.

ORLANDO. And what wit could wit have to excuse that?
ROSALIND. Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall never

take her without her answer, unless you take her without her
tongue. O, that woman that cannot make her fault her husband's

occasion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will
breed it like a fool!

ORLANDO. For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee.


文章标签:名著  

章节正文