As You Like It
Act V, Scene 2
Another part of the Forest of Arden.
Julia Marlowe as Rosalind
White Studio, photographer; circa 1910
- Enter Orlando and Oliver.
Orlando
1 - 4- 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?
Oliver
5 - 11- 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.
- Enter Rosalind.
Orlando
12 - 15- You have my consent. Let your wedding be tomorrow; thither
- will I invite the Duke and all ’s contented followers. Go
- you and prepare Aliena; for look you, here comes my
- Rosalind.
Rosalind
16- God save you, brother.
Oliver
17- And you, fair sister.
- Exit.
Rosalind
18 - 19- O my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy
- heart in a scarf!
Orlando
20- It is my arm.
Rosalind
21 - 22- I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a
- lion.
Orlando
23- Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.
Rosalind
24 - 25- Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to sound when
- he show’d me your handkercher?
Orlando
26- Ay, and greater wonders than that.
Rosalind
27 - 37- O, I know where you are. Nay, ’tis true. There was never any
- thing so sudden but the fight of two rams, and Caesar’s
- thrasonical brag of “I came, saw, and overcame.” For your
- brother and my sister no sooner met but they look’d; no
- sooner look’d but they lov’d; no sooner lov’d but they
- sigh’d; no sooner sigh’d but they ask’d 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.
Orlando
38 - 43- They shall be married tomorrow; 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 tomorrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how
- much I shall think my brother happy in having what he wishes
- for.
Frontpiece of Ben Greet Shakespeare edition of As You Like It
1912
Rosalind
44- Why then tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?
Orlando
45- I can live no longer by thinking.
Rosalind
46 - 61- 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, convers’d 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 tomorrow, human as she is, and
- without any danger.
Orlando
62- Speak’st thou in sober meanings?
Rosalind
63 - 67- 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 tomorrow, you shall; and
- to Rosalind, if you will.
- Enter Silvius and Phebe.
- Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.
Phebe
68 - 69- Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,
- To show the letter that I writ to you.
Rosalind
70 - 73- 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.
Phebe
74- Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
Silvius
75 - 76- It is to be all made of sighs and tears,
- And so am I for Phebe.
Phebe
77- And I for Ganymede.
Orlando
78- And I for Rosalind.
Rosalind
79- And I for no woman.
Silvius
80 - 81- It is to be all made of faith and service,
- And so am I for Phebe.
Phebe
82- And I for Ganymede.
Orlando
83- And I for Rosalind.
Ada Rohan as Rosalind
1890
Rosalind
84- And I for no woman.
Silvius
85 - 90- 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.
Phebe
91- And so am I for Ganymede.
Orlando
92- And so am I for Rosalind.
Rosalind
93- And so am I for no woman.
Phebe
94- If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
Silvius
95- If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
Orlando
96- If this be so, why blame you me to love you?
Rosalind
97- Why do you speak too, “Why blame you me to love you?”
Orlando
98- To her that is not here, nor doth not hear.
Rosalind
99 - 111- Pray you no more of this, ’tis like the howling of Irish
- wolves against the moon.
- To Silvius.
- I will help you if I can.
- To Phebe.
- I would love you if I could.—Tomorrow meet me all together.
- To Phebe.
- I will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I’ll be married
- tomorrow.
- To Orlando.
- I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you shall
- be married tomorrow.
- To Silvius.
- I will content you, if what pleases you contents you, and
- you shall be married tomorrow.
- To Orlando.
- As you love Rosalind, meet.
- To Silvius.
- As you love Phebe, meet. And as I love no woman, I’ll meet.
- So fare you well; I have left you commands.
Silvius
112- I’ll not fail, if I live.
Phebe
113- Nor I.
Orlando
114- Nor I.
- Exeunt.
Henrietta Crosman as Rosalind
1903