1609 the sonnets by william shakespeare 1 from fairest creatures we desire increase that thereby beauty's rose might never die but as the riper should by time decease his tender heir might bear his memory but thou contracted to thine own bright eyes feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel making a famine where abundance lies thy self thy foe to thy sweet self too cruel thou that art now the world's fresh ornament and only herald to the gaudy spring within thine own bud buriest thy content and tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding pity the world or else this glutton be to eat the world's due by the grave and thee 2 when forty winters shall besiege thy brow and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now will be a tattered weed of small worth held then being asked where all thy beauty lies where all the treasure of thy lusty days to say within thine own deep sunken eyes were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise how much more praise deserved thy beauty's use if thou couldst answer 'this fair child of mine shall sum my count and make my old excuse' proving his beauty by succession thine this were to be new made when thou art old and see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold 3 look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest now is the time that face should form another whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest thou dost beguile the world unbless some mother for where is she so fair whose uneared womb disdains the tillage of thy husbandry or who is he so fond will be the tomb of his self-love to stop posterity thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee calls back the lovely april of her prime so thou through windows of thine age shalt see despite of wrinkles this thy golden time but if thou live remembered not to be die single and thine image dies with thee 4 unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend upon thy self thy beauty's legacy nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend and being frank she lends to those are free then beauteous niggard why dost thou abuse the bounteous largess given thee to give profitless usurer why dost thou use so great a sum of sums yet canst not live for having traffic with thy self alone thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive then how when nature calls thee to be gone what acceptable audit canst thou leave thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee which used lives th' executor to be 5 those hours that with gentle work did frame the lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell will play the tyrants to the very same and that unfair which fairly doth excel for never-resting time leads summer on to hideous winter and confounds him there sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where then were not summer's distillation left a liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass beauty's effect with beauty were bereft nor it nor no remembrance what it was but flowers distilled though they with winter meet leese but their show their substance still lives sweet 6 then let not winter's ragged hand deface in thee thy summer ere thou be distilled make sweet some vial treasure thou some place with beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed that use is not forbidden usury which happies those that pay the willing loan that's for thy self to breed another thee or ten times happier be it ten for one ten times thy self were happier than thou art if ten of thine ten times refigured thee then what could death do if thou shouldst depart leaving thee living in posterity be not self-willed for thou art much too fair to be death's conquest and make worms thine heir 7 lo in the orient when the gracious light lifts up his burning head each under eye doth homage to his new-appearing sight serving with looks his sacred majesty and having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill resembling strong youth in his middle age yet mortal looks adore his beauty still attending on his golden pilgrimage but when from highmost pitch with weary car like feeble age he reeleth from the day the eyes fore duteous now converted are from his low tract and look another way so thou thy self out-going in thy noon unlooked on diest unless thou get a son 8 music to hear why hear'st thou music sadly sweets with sweets war not joy delights in joy why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy if the true concord of well-tuned sounds by unions married do offend thine ear they do but sweetly chide thee who confounds in singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear mark how one string sweet husband to another strikes each in each by mutual ordering resembling sire and child and happy mother who all in one one pleasing note do sing whose speechless song being many seeming one sings this to thee 'thou single wilt prove none' 9 is it for fear to wet a widow's eye that thou consum'st thy self in single life ah if thou issueless shalt hap to die the world will wail thee like a makeless wife the world will be thy widow and still weep that thou no form of thee hast left behind when every private widow well may keep by children's eyes her husband's shape in mind look what an unthrift in the world doth spend shifts but his place for still the world enjoys it but beauty's waste hath in the world an end and kept unused the user so destroys it no love toward others in that bosom sits that on himself such murd'rous shame commits 10 for shame deny that thou bear'st love to any who for thy self art so unprovident grant if thou wilt thou art beloved of many but that thou none lov'st is most evident for thou art so possessed with murd'rous hate that 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate which to repair should be thy chief desire o change thy thought that i may change my mind shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love be as thy presence is gracious and kind or to thy self at least kind-hearted prove make thee another self for love of me that beauty still may live in thine or thee 11 as fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st in one of thine from that which thou departest and that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest herein lives wisdom beauty and increase without this folly age and cold decay if all were minded so the times should cease and threescore year would make the world away let those whom nature hath not made for store harsh featureless and rude barrenly perish look whom she best endowed she gave thee more which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish she carved thee for her seal and meant thereby thou shouldst print more not let that copy die 12 when i do count the clock that tells the time and see the brave day sunk in hideous night when i behold the violet past prime and sable curls all silvered o'er with white when lofty trees i see barren of leaves which erst from heat did canopy the herd and summer's green all girded up in sheaves borne on the bier with white and bristly beard then of thy beauty do i question make that thou among the wastes of time must go since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake and die as fast as they see others grow and nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence 13 o that you were your self but love you are no longer yours than you your self here live against this coming end you should prepare and your sweet semblance to some other give so should that beauty which you hold in lease find no determination then you were your self again after your self's decease when your sweet issue your sweet form should bear who lets so fair a house fall to decay which husbandry in honour might uphold against the stormy gusts of winter's day and barren rage of death's eternal cold o none but unthrifts dear my love you know you had a father let your son say so 14 not from the stars do i my judgement pluck and yet methinks i have astronomy but not to tell of good or evil luck of plagues of dearths or seasons' quality nor can i fortune to brief minutes tell pointing to each his thunder rain and wind or say with princes if it shall go well by oft predict that i in heaven find but from thine eyes my knowledge i derive and constant stars in them i read such art as truth and beauty shall together thrive if from thy self to store thou wouldst convert or else of thee this i prognosticate thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date 15 when i consider every thing that grows holds in perfection but a little moment that this huge stage presenteth nought but shows whereon the stars in secret influence comment when i perceive that men as plants increase cheered and checked even by the self-same sky vaunt in their youthful sap at height decrease and wear their brave state out of memory then the conceit of this inconstant stay sets you most rich in youth before my sight where wasteful time debateth with decay to change your day of youth to sullied night and all in war with time for love of you as he takes from you i engraft you new 16 but wherefore do not you a mightier way make war upon this bloody tyrant time and fortify your self in your decay with means more blessed than my barren rhyme now stand you on the top of happy hours and many maiden gardens yet unset with virtuous wish would bear you living flowers much liker than your painted counterfeit so should the lines of life that life repair which this time's pencil or my pupil pen neither in inward worth nor outward fair can make you live your self in eyes of men to give away your self keeps your self still and you must live drawn by your own sweet skill 17 who will believe my verse in time to come if it were filled with your most high deserts though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb which hides your life and shows not half your parts if i could write the beauty of your eyes and in fresh numbers number all your graces the age to come would say this poet lies such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces so should my papers yellowed with their age be scorned like old men of less truth than tongue and your true rights be termed a poet's rage and stretched metre of an antique song but were some child of yours alive that time you should live twice in it and in my rhyme 18 shall i compare thee to a summer's day thou art more lovely and more temperate rough winds do shake the darling buds of may and summer's lease hath all too short a date sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines and often is his gold complexion dimmed and every fair from fair sometime declines by chance or nature's changing course untrimmed but thy eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st so long as men can breathe or eyes can see so long lives this and this gives life to thee 19 devouring time blunt thou the lion's paws and make the earth devour her own sweet brood pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws and burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st and do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed time to the wide world and all her fading sweets but i forbid thee one most heinous crime o carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen him in thy course untainted do allow for beauty's pattern to succeeding men yet do thy worst old time despite thy wrong my love shall in my verse ever live young 20 a woman's face with nature's own hand painted hast thou the master mistress of my passion a woman's gentle heart but not acquainted with shifting change as is false women's fashion an eye more bright than theirs less false in rolling gilding the object whereupon it gazeth a man in hue all hues in his controlling which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth and for a woman wert thou first created till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting and by addition me of thee defeated by adding one thing to my purpose nothing but since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure 21 so is it not with me as with that muse stirred by a painted beauty to his verse who heaven it self for ornament doth use and every fair with his fair doth rehearse making a couplement of proud compare with sun and moon with earth and sea's rich gems with april's first-born flowers and all things rare that heaven's air in this huge rondure hems o let me true in love but truly write and then believe me my love is as fair as any mother's child though not so bright as those gold candles fixed in heaven's air let them say more that like of hearsay well i will not praise that purpose not to sell 22 my glass shall not persuade me i am old so long as youth and thou are of one date but when in thee time's furrows i behold then look i death my days should expiate for all that beauty that doth cover thee is but the seemly raiment of my heart which in thy breast doth live as thine in me how can i then be elder than thou art o therefore love be of thyself so wary as i not for my self but for thee will bearing thy heart which i will keep so chary as tender nurse her babe from faring ill presume not on thy heart when mine is slain thou gav'st me thine not to give back again 23 as an unperfect actor on the stage who with his fear is put beside his part or some fierce thing replete with too much rage whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart so i for fear of trust forget to say the perfect ceremony of love's rite and in mine own love's strength seem to decay o'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might o let my looks be then the eloquence and dumb presagers of my speaking breast who plead for love and look for recompense more than that tongue that more hath more expressed o learn to read what silent love hath writ to hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit 24 mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled thy beauty's form in table of my heart my body is the frame wherein 'tis held and perspective it is best painter's art for through the painter must you see his skill to find where your true image pictured lies which in my bosom's shop is hanging still that hath his windows glazed with thine eyes now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done mine eyes have drawn thy shape and thine for me are windows to my breast where-through the sun delights to peep to gaze therein on thee yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art they draw but what they see know not the heart 25 let those who are in favour with their stars of public honour and proud titles boast whilst i whom fortune of such triumph bars unlooked for joy in that i honour most great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread but as the marigold at the sun's eye and in themselves their pride lies buried for at a frown they in their glory die the painful warrior famoused for fight after a thousand victories once foiled is from the book of honour razed quite and all the rest forgot for which he toiled then happy i that love and am beloved where i may not remove nor be removed 26 lord of my love to whom in vassalage thy merit hath my duty strongly knit to thee i send this written embassage to witness duty not to show my wit duty so great which wit so poor as mine may make seem bare in wanting words to show it but that i hope some good conceit of thine in thy soul's thought all naked will bestow it till whatsoever star that guides my moving points on me graciously with fair aspect and puts apparel on my tattered loving to show me worthy of thy sweet respect then may i dare to boast how i do love thee till then not show my head where thou mayst prove me 27 weary with toil i haste me to my bed the dear respose for limbs with travel tired but then begins a journey in my head to work my mind when body's work's expired for then my thoughts from far where i abide intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee and keep my drooping eyelids open wide looking on darkness which the blind do see save that my soul's imaginary sight presents thy shadow to my sightless view which like a jewel hung in ghastly night makes black night beauteous and her old face new lo thus by day my limbs by night my mind for thee and for my self no quiet find 28 how can i then return in happy plight that am debarred the benefit of rest when day's oppression is not eased by night but day by night and night by day oppressed and each though enemies to either's reign do in consent shake hands to torture me the one by toil the other to complain how far i toil still farther off from thee i tell the day to please him thou art bright and dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven so flatter i the swart-complexioned night when sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even but day doth daily draw my sorrows longer and night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger 29 when in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes i all alone beweep my outcast state and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries and look upon my self and curse my fate wishing me like to one more rich in hope featured like him like him with friends possessed desiring this man's art and that man's scope with what i most enjoy contented least yet in these thoughts my self almost despising haply i think on thee and then my state like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate for thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings that then i scorn to change my state with kings 30 when to the sessions of sweet silent thought i summon up remembrance of things past i sigh the lack of many a thing i sought and with old woes new wail my dear time's waste then can i drown an eye unused to flow for precious friends hid in death's dateless night and weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe and moan th' expense of many a vanished sight then can i grieve at grievances foregone and heavily from woe to woe tell o'er the sad account of fore-bemoaned moan which i new pay as if not paid before but if the while i think on thee dear friend all losses are restored and sorrows end 31 thy bosom is endeared with all hearts which i by lacking have supposed dead and there reigns love and all love's loving parts and all those friends which i thought buried how many a holy and obsequious tear hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye as interest of the dead which now appear but things removed that hidden in thee lie thou art the grave where buried love doth live hung with the trophies of my lovers gone who all their parts of me to thee did give that due of many now is thine alone their images i loved i view in thee and thou all they hast all the all of me 32 if thou survive my well-contented day when that churl death my bones with dust shall cover and shalt by fortune once more re-survey these poor rude lines of thy deceased lover compare them with the bett'ring of the time and though they be outstripped by every pen reserve them for my love not for their rhyme exceeded by the height of happier men o then vouchsafe me but this loving thought 'had my friend's muse grown with this growing age a dearer birth than this his love had brought to march in ranks of better equipage but since he died and poets better prove theirs for their style i'll read his for his love' 33 full many a glorious morning have i seen flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye kissing with golden face the meadows green gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy anon permit the basest clouds to ride with ugly rack on his celestial face and from the forlorn world his visage hide stealing unseen to west with this disgrace even so my sun one early morn did shine with all triumphant splendour on my brow but out alack he was but one hour mine the region cloud hath masked him from me now yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth 34 why didst thou promise such a beauteous day and make me travel forth without my cloak to let base clouds o'ertake me in my way hiding thy brav'ry in their rotten smoke 'tis not enough that through the cloud thou break to dry the rain on my storm-beaten face for no man well of such a salve can speak that heals the wound and cures not the disgrace nor can thy shame give physic to my grief though thou repent yet i have still the loss th' offender's sorrow lends but weak relief to him that bears the strong offence's cross ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds and they are rich and ransom all ill deeds 35 no more be grieved at that which thou hast done roses have thorns and silver fountains mud clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun and loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud all men make faults and even i in this authorizing thy trespass with compare my self corrupting salving thy amiss excusing thy sins more than thy sins are for to thy sensual fault i bring in sense thy adverse party is thy advocate and 'gainst my self a lawful plea commence such civil war is in my love and hate that i an accessary needs must be to that sweet thief which sourly robs from me 36 let me confess that we two must be twain although our undivided loves are one so shall those blots that do with me remain without thy help by me be borne alone in our two loves there is but one respect though in our lives a separable spite which though it alter not love's sole effect yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight i may not evermore acknowledge thee lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame nor thou with public kindness honour me unless thou take that honour from thy name but do not so i love thee in such sort as thou being mine mine is thy good report 37 as a decrepit father takes delight to see his active child do deeds of youth so i made lame by fortune's dearest spite take all my comfort of thy worth and truth for whether beauty birth or wealth or wit or any of these all or all or more entitled in thy parts do crowned sit i make my love engrafted to this store so then i am not lame poor nor despised whilst that this shadow doth such substance give that i in thy abundance am sufficed and by a part of all thy glory live look what is best that best i wish in thee this wish i have then ten times happy me 38 how can my muse want subject to invent while thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verse thine own sweet argument too excellent for every vulgar paper to rehearse o give thy self the thanks if aught in me worthy perusal stand against thy sight for who's so dumb that cannot write to thee when thou thy self dost give invention light be thou the tenth muse ten times more in worth than those old nine which rhymers invocate and he that calls on thee let him bring forth eternal numbers to outlive long date if my slight muse do please these curious days the pain be mine but thine shall be the praise 39 o how thy worth with manners may i sing when thou art all the better part of me what can mine own praise to mine own self bring and what is't but mine own when i praise thee even for this let us divided live and our dear love lose name of single one that by this separation i may give that due to thee which thou deserv'st alone o absence what a torment wouldst thou prove were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave to entertain the time with thoughts of love which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive and that thou teachest how to make one twain by praising him here who doth hence remain 40 take all my loves my love yea take them all what hast thou then more than thou hadst before no love my love that thou mayst true love call all mine was thine before thou hadst this more then if for my love thou my love receivest i cannot blame thee for my love thou usest but yet be blamed if thou thy self deceivest by wilful taste of what thy self refusest i do forgive thy robbery gentle thief although thou steal thee all my poverty and yet love knows it is a greater grief to bear greater wrong than hate's known injury lascivious grace in whom all ill well shows kill me with spites yet we must not be foes 41 those pretty wrongs that liberty commits when i am sometime absent from thy heart thy beauty and thy years full well befits for still temptation follows where thou art gentle thou art and therefore to be won beauteous thou art therefore to be assailed and when a woman woos what woman's son will sourly leave her till he have prevailed ay me but yet thou mightst my seat forbear and chide thy beauty and thy straying youth who lead thee in their riot even there where thou art forced to break a twofold truth hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee thine by thy beauty being false to me 42 that thou hast her it is not all my grief and yet it may be said i loved her dearly that she hath thee is of my wailing chief a loss in love that touches me more nearly loving offenders thus i will excuse ye thou dost love her because thou know'st i love her and for my sake even so doth she abuse me suff'ring my friend for my sake to approve her if i lose thee my loss is my love's gain and losing her my friend hath found that loss both find each other and i lose both twain and both for my sake lay on me this cross but here's the joy my friend and i are one sweet flattery then she loves but me alone 43 when most i wink then do mine eyes best see for all the day they view things unrespected but when i sleep in dreams they look on thee and darkly bright are bright in dark directed then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright how would thy shadow's form form happy show to the clear day with thy much clearer light when to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so! how would i say mine eyes be blessed made by looking on thee in the living day when in dead night thy fair imperfect shade through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay! all days are nights to see till i see thee and nights bright days when dreams do show thee me 44 if the dull substance of my flesh were thought injurious distance should not stop my way for then despite of space i would be brought from limits far remote where thou dost stay no matter then although my foot did stand upon the farthest earth removed from thee for nimble thought can jump both sea and land as soon as think the place where he would be but ah thought kills me that i am not thought to leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone but that so much of earth and water wrought i must attend time's leisure with my moan receiving nought by elements so slow but heavy tears badges of either's woe 45 the other two slight air and purging fire are both with thee wherever i abide the first my thought the other my desire these present-absent with swift motion slide for when these quicker elements are gone in tender embassy of love to thee my life being made of four with two alone sinks down to death oppressed with melancholy until life's composition be recured by those swift messengers returned from thee who even but now come back again assured of thy fair health recounting it to me this told i joy but then no longer glad i send them back again and straight grow sad 46 mine eye and heart are at a mortal war how to divide the conquest of thy sight mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar my heart mine eye the freedom of that right my heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie a closet never pierced with crystal eyes but the defendant doth that plea deny and says in him thy fair appearance lies to side this title is impanelled a quest of thoughts all tenants to the heart and by their verdict is determined the clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part as thus mine eye's due is thy outward part and my heart's right thy inward love of heart 47 betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took and each doth good turns now unto the other when that mine eye is famished for a look or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother with my love's picture then my eye doth feast and to the painted banquet bids my heart another time mine eye is my heart's guest and in his thoughts of love doth share a part so either by thy picture or my love thy self away art present still with me for thou not farther than my thoughts canst move and i am still with them and they with thee or if they sleep thy picture in my sight awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight 48 how careful was i when i took my way each trifle under truest bars to thrust that to my use it might unused stay from hands of falsehood in sure wards of trust! but thou to whom my jewels trifles are most worthy comfort now my greatest grief thou best of dearest and mine only care art left the prey of every vulgar thief thee have i not locked up in any chest save where thou art not though i feel thou art within the gentle closure of my breast from whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part and even thence thou wilt be stol'n i fear for truth proves thievish for a prize so dear 49 against that time if ever that time come when i shall see thee frown on my defects when as thy love hath cast his utmost sum called to that audit by advised respects against that time when thou shalt strangely pass and scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye when love converted from the thing it was shall reasons find of settled gravity against that time do i ensconce me here within the knowledge of mine own desert and this my hand against my self uprear to guard the lawful reasons on thy part to leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws since why to love i can allege no cause 50 how heavy do i journey on the way when what i seek my weary travel's end doth teach that case and that repose to say 'thus far the miles are measured from thy friend ' the beast that bears me tired with my woe plods dully on to bear that weight in me as if by some instinct the wretch did know his rider loved not speed being made from thee the bloody spur cannot provoke him on that sometimes anger thrusts into his hide which heavily he answers with a groan more sharp to me than spurring to his side for that same groan doth put this in my mind my grief lies onward and my joy behind 51 thus can my love excuse the slow offence of my dull bearer when from thee i speed from where thou art why should i haste me thence till i return of posting is no need o what excuse will my poor beast then find when swift extremity can seem but slow then should i spur though mounted on the wind in winged speed no motion shall i know then can no horse with my desire keep pace therefore desire of perfect'st love being made shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race but love for love thus shall excuse my jade since from thee going he went wilful-slow towards thee i'll run and give him leave to go 52 so am i as the rich whose blessed key can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure the which he will not every hour survey for blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare since seldom coming in that long year set like stones of worth they thinly placed are or captain jewels in the carcanet so is the time that keeps you as my chest or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide to make some special instant special-blest by new unfolding his imprisoned pride blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope being had to triumph being lacked to hope 53 what is your substance whereof are you made that millions of strange shadows on you tend since every one hath every one one shade and you but one can every shadow lend describe adonis and the counterfeit is poorly imitated after you on helen's cheek all art of beauty set and you in grecian tires are painted new speak of the spring and foison of the year the one doth shadow of your beauty show the other as your bounty doth appear and you in every blessed shape we know in all external grace you have some part but you like none none you for constant heart 54 o how much more doth beauty beauteous seem by that sweet ornament which truth doth give! the rose looks fair but fairer we it deem for that sweet odour which doth in it live the canker blooms have full as deep a dye as the perfumed tincture of the roses hang on such thorns and play as wantonly when summer's breath their masked buds discloses but for their virtue only is their show they live unwooed and unrespected fade die to themselves sweet roses do not so of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made and so of you beauteous and lovely youth when that shall vade by verse distills your truth 55 not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme but you shall shine more bright in these contents than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time when wasteful war shall statues overturn and broils root out the work of masonry nor mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn the living record of your memory 'gainst death and all-oblivious enmity shall you pace forth your praise shall still find room even in the eyes of all posterity that wear this world out to the ending doom so till the judgment that your self arise you live in this and dwell in lovers' eyes 56 sweet love renew thy force be it not said thy edge should blunter be than appetite which but to-day by feeding is allayed to-morrow sharpened in his former might so love be thou although to-day thou fill thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fulness to-morrow see again and do not kill the spirit of love with a perpetual dulness let this sad interim like the ocean be which parts the shore where two contracted new come daily to the banks that when they see return of love more blest may be the view or call it winter which being full of care makes summer's welcome thrice more wished more rare 57 being your slave what should i do but tend upon the hours and times of your desire i have no precious time at all to spend nor services to do till you require nor dare i chide the world-without-end hour whilst i my sovereign watch the clock for you nor think the bitterness of absence sour when you have bid your servant once adieu nor dare i question with my jealous thought where you may be or your affairs suppose but like a sad slave stay and think of nought save where you are how happy you make those so true a fool is love that in your will though you do any thing he thinks no ill 58 that god forbid that made me first your slave i should in thought control your times of pleasure or at your hand th' account of hours to crave being your vassal bound to stay your leisure o let me suffer being at your beck th' imprisoned absence of your liberty and patience tame to sufferance bide each check without accusing you of injury be where you list your charter is so strong that you your self may privilage your time to what you will to you it doth belong your self to pardon of self-doing crime i am to wait though waiting so be hell not blame your pleasure be it ill or well 59 if there be nothing new but that which is hath been before how are our brains beguiled which labouring for invention bear amis the second burthen of a former child! o that record could with a backward look even of five hundred courses of the sun show me your image in some antique book since mind at first in character was done that i might see what the old world could say to this composed wonder of your frame whether we are mended or whether better they or whether revolution be the same o sure i am the wits of former days to subjects worse have given admiring praise 60 like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore so do our minutes hasten to their end each changing place with that which goes before in sequent toil all forwards do contend nativity once in the main of light crawls to maturity wherewith being crowned crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight and time that gave doth now his gift confound time doth transfix the flourish set on youth and delves the parallels in beauty's brow feeds on the rarities of nature's truth and nothing stands but for his scythe to mow and yet to times in hope my verse shall stand praising thy worth despite his cruel hand 61 is it thy will thy image should keep open my heavy eyelids to the weary night dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken while shadows like to thee do mock my sight is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee so far from home into my deeds to pry to find out shames and idle hours in me the scope and tenure of thy jealousy o no thy love though much is not so great it is my love that keeps mine eye awake mine own true love that doth my rest defeat to play the watchman ever for thy sake for thee watch i whilst thou dost wake elsewhere from me far off with others all too near 62 sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye and all my soul and all my every part and for this sin there is no remedy it is so grounded inward in my heart methinks no face so gracious is as mine no shape so true no truth of such account and for my self mine own worth do define as i all other in all worths surmount but when my glass shows me my self indeed beated and chopt with tanned antiquity mine own self-love quite contrary i read self so self-loving were iniquity 'tis thee my self that for my self i praise painting my age with beauty of thy days 63 against my love shall be as i am now with time's injurious hand crushed and o'erworn when hours have drained his blood and filled his brow with lines and wrinkles when his youthful morn hath travelled on to age's steepy night and all those beauties whereof now he's king are vanishing or vanished out of sight stealing away the treasure of his spring for such a time do i now fortify against confounding age's cruel knife that he shall never cut from memory my sweet love's beauty though my lover's life his beauty shall in these black lines be seen and they shall live and he in them still green 64 when i have seen by time's fell hand defaced the rich-proud cost of outworn buried age when sometime lofty towers i see down-rased and brass eternal slave to mortal rage when i have seen the hungry ocean gain advantage on the kingdom of the shore and the firm soil win of the watery main increasing store with loss and loss with store when i have seen such interchange of state or state it self confounded to decay ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate that time will come and take my love away this thought is as a death which cannot choose but weep to have that which it fears to lose 65 since brass nor stone nor earth nor boundless sea but sad mortality o'ersways their power how with this rage shall beauty hold a plea whose action is no stronger than a flower o how shall summer's honey breath hold out against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days when rocks impregnable are not so stout nor gates of steel so strong but time decays o fearful meditation where alack shall time's best jewel from time's chest lie hid or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back or who his spoil of beauty can forbid o none unless this miracle have might that in black ink my love may still shine bright 66 tired with all these for restful death i cry as to behold desert a beggar born and needy nothing trimmed in jollity and purest faith unhappily forsworn and gilded honour shamefully misplaced and maiden virtue rudely strumpeted and right perfection wrongfully disgraced and strength by limping sway disabled and art made tongue-tied by authority and folly doctor-like controlling skill and simple truth miscalled simplicity and captive good attending captain ill tired with all these from these would i be gone save that to die i leave my love alone 67 ah wherefore with infection should he live and with his presence grace impiety that sin by him advantage should achieve and lace it self with his society why should false painting imitate his cheek and steal dead seeming of his living hue why should poor beauty indirectly seek roses of shadow since his rose is true why should he live now nature bankrupt is beggared of blood to blush through lively veins for she hath no exchequer now but his and proud of many lives upon his gains o him she stores to show what wealth she had in days long since before these last so bad 68 thus is his cheek the map of days outworn when beauty lived and died as flowers do now before these bastard signs of fair were born or durst inhabit on a living brow before the golden tresses of the dead the right of sepulchres were shorn away to live a second life on second head ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay in him those holy antique hours are seen without all ornament it self and true making no summer of another's green robbing no old to dress his beauty new and him as for a map doth nature store to show false art what beauty was of yore 69 those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend all tongues the voice of souls give thee that due uttering bare truth even so as foes commend thy outward thus with outward praise is crowned but those same tongues that give thee so thine own in other accents do this praise confound by seeing farther than the eye hath shown they look into the beauty of thy mind and that in guess they measure by thy deeds then churls their thoughts although their eyes were kind to thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds but why thy odour matcheth not thy show the soil is this that thou dost common grow 70 that thou art blamed shall not be thy defect for slander's mark was ever yet the fair the ornament of beauty is suspect a crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air so thou be good slander doth but approve thy worth the greater being wooed of time for canker vice the sweetest buds doth love and thou present'st a pure unstained prime thou hast passed by the ambush of young days either not assailed or victor being charged yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise to tie up envy evermore enlarged if some suspect of ill masked not thy show then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe 71 no longer mourn for me when i am dead than you shall hear the surly sullen bell give warning to the world that i am fled from this vile world with vilest worms to dwell nay if you read this line remember not the hand that writ it for i love you so that i in your sweet thoughts would be forgot if thinking on me then should make you woe o if i say you look upon this verse when i perhaps compounded am with clay do not so much as my poor name rehearse but let your love even with my life decay lest the wise world should look into your moan and mock you with me after i am gone 72 o lest the world should task you to recite what merit lived in me that you should love after my death dear love forget me quite for you in me can nothing worthy prove unless you would devise some virtuous lie to do more for me than mine own desert and hang more praise upon deceased i than niggard truth would willingly impart o lest your true love may seem false in this that you for love speak well of me untrue my name be buried where my body is and live no more to shame nor me nor you for i am shamed by that which i bring forth and so should you to love things nothing worth 73 that time of year thou mayst in me behold when yellow leaves or none or few do hang upon those boughs which shake against the cold bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang in me thou seest the twilight of such day as after sunset fadeth in the west which by and by black night doth take away death's second self that seals up all in rest in me thou seest the glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie as the death-bed whereon it must expire consumed with that which it was nourished by this thou perceiv'st which makes thy love more strong to love that well which thou must leave ere long 74 but be contented when that fell arrest without all bail shall carry me away my life hath in this line some interest which for memorial still with thee shall stay when thou reviewest this thou dost review the very part was consecrate to thee the earth can have but earth which is his due my spirit is thine the better part of me so then thou hast but lost the dregs of life the prey of worms my body being dead the coward conquest of a wretch's knife too base of thee to be remembered the worth of that is that which it contains and that is this and this with thee remains 75 so are you to my thoughts as food to life or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground and for the peace of you i hold such strife as 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found now proud as an enjoyer and anon doubting the filching age will steal his treasure now counting best to be with you alone then bettered that the world may see my pleasure sometime all full with feasting on your sight and by and by clean starved for a look possessing or pursuing no delight save what is had or must from you be took thus do i pine and surfeit day by day or gluttoning on all or all away 76 why is my verse so barren of new pride so far from variation or quick change why with the time do i not glance aside to new-found methods and to compounds strange why write i still all one ever the same and keep invention in a noted weed that every word doth almost tell my name showing their birth and where they did proceed o know sweet love i always write of you and you and love are still my argument so all my best is dressing old words new spending again what is already spent for as the sun is daily new and old so is my love still telling what is told 77 thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear thy dial how thy precious minutes waste these vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear and of this book this learning mayst thou taste the wrinkles which thy glass will truly show of mouthed graves will give thee memory thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know time's thievish progress to eternity look what thy memory cannot contain commit to these waste blanks and thou shalt find those children nursed delivered from thy brain to take a new acquaintance of thy mind these offices so oft as thou wilt look shall profit thee and much enrich thy book 78 so oft have i invoked thee for my muse and found such fair assistance in my verse as every alien pen hath got my use and under thee their poesy disperse thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing and heavy ignorance aloft to fly have added feathers to the learned's wing and given grace a double majesty yet be most proud of that which i compile whose influence is thine and born of thee in others' works thou dost but mend the style and arts with thy sweet graces graced be but thou art all my art and dost advance as high as learning my rude ignorance 79 whilst i alone did call upon thy aid my verse alone had all thy gentle grace but now my gracious numbers are decayed and my sick muse doth give an other place i grant sweet love thy lovely argument deserves the travail of a worthier pen yet what of thee thy poet doth invent he robs thee of and pays it thee again he lends thee virtue and he stole that word from thy behaviour beauty doth he give and found it in thy cheek he can afford no praise to thee but what in thee doth live then thank him not for that which he doth say since what he owes thee thou thy self dost pay 80 o how i faint when i of you do write knowing a better spirit doth use your name and in the praise thereof spends all his might to make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame but since your worth wide as the ocean is the humble as the proudest sail doth bear my saucy bark inferior far to his on your broad main doth wilfully appear your shallowest help will hold me up afloat whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride or being wrecked i am a worthless boat he of tall building and of goodly pride then if he thrive and i be cast away the worst was this my love was my decay 81 or i shall live your epitaph to make or you survive when i in earth am rotten from hence your memory death cannot take although in me each part will be forgotten your name from hence immortal life shall have though i once gone to all the world must die the earth can yield me but a common grave when you entombed in men's eyes shall lie your monument shall be my gentle verse which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read and tongues to be your being shall rehearse when all the breathers of this world are dead you still shall live such virtue hath my pen where breath most breathes even in the mouths of men 82 i grant thou wert not married to my muse and therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook the dedicated words which writers use of their fair subject blessing every book thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue finding thy worth a limit past my praise and therefore art enforced to seek anew some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days and do so love yet when they have devised what strained touches rhetoric can lend thou truly fair wert truly sympathized in true plain words by thy true-telling friend and their gross painting might be better used where cheeks need blood in thee it is abused 83 i never saw that you did painting need and therefore to your fair no painting set i found or thought i found you did exceed that barren tender of a poet's debt and therefore have i slept in your report that you your self being extant well might show how far a modern quill doth come too short speaking of worth what worth in you doth grow this silence for my sin you did impute which shall be most my glory being dumb for i impair not beauty being mute when others would give life and bring a tomb there lives more life in one of your fair eyes than both your poets can in praise devise 84 who is it that says most which can say more than this rich praise that you alone are you in whose confine immured is the store which should example where your equal grew lean penury within that pen doth dwell that to his subject lends not some small glory but he that writes of you if he can tell that you are you so dignifies his story let him but copy what in you is writ not making worse what nature made so clear and such a counterpart shall fame his wit making his style admired every where you to your beauteous blessings add a curse being fond on praise which makes your praises worse 85 my tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still while comments of your praise richly compiled reserve their character with golden quill and precious phrase by all the muses filed i think good thoughts whilst other write good words and like unlettered clerk still cry amen to every hymn that able spirit affords in polished form of well refined pen hearing you praised i say 'tis so 'tis true and to the most of praise add something more but that is in my thought whose love to you though words come hindmost holds his rank before then others for the breath of words respect me for my dumb thoughts speaking in effect 86 was it the proud full sail of his great verse bound for the prize of all too precious you that did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse making their tomb the womb wherein they grew was it his spirit by spirits taught to write above a mortal pitch that struck me dead no neither he nor his compeers by night giving him aid my verse astonished he nor that affable familiar ghost which nightly gulls him with intelligence as victors of my silence cannot boast i was not sick of any fear from thence but when your countenance filled up his line then lacked i matter that enfeebled mine 87 farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing and like enough thou know'st thy estimate the charter of thy worth gives thee releasing my bonds in thee are all determinate for how do i hold thee but by thy granting and for that riches where is my deserving the cause of this fair gift in me is wanting and so my patent back again is swerving thy self thou gav'st thy own worth then not knowing or me to whom thou gav'st it else mistaking so thy great gift upon misprision growing comes home again on better judgement making thus have i had thee as a dream doth flatter in sleep a king but waking no such matter 88 when thou shalt be disposed to set me light and place my merit in the eye of scorn upon thy side against my self i'll fight and prove thee virtuous though thou art forsworn with mine own weakness being best acquainted upon thy part i can set down a story of faults concealed wherein i am attainted that thou in losing me shalt win much glory and i by this will be a gainer too for bending all my loving thoughts on thee the injuries that to my self i do doing thee vantage double-vantage me such is my love to thee i so belong that for thy right my self will bear all wrong 89 say that thou didst forsake me for some fault and i will comment upon that offence speak of my lameness and i straight will halt against thy reasons making no defence thou canst not love disgrace me half so ill to set a form upon desired change as i'll my self disgrace knowing thy will i will acquaintance strangle and look strange be absent from thy walks and in my tongue thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell lest i too much profane should do it wronk and haply of our old acquaintance tell for thee against my self i'll vow debate for i must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate 90 then hate me when thou wilt if ever now now while the world is bent my deeds to cross join with the spite of fortune make me bow and do not drop in for an after-loss ah do not when my heart hath 'scaped this sorrow come in the rearward of a conquered woe give not a windy night a rainy morrow to linger out a purposed overthrow if thou wilt leave me do not leave me last when other petty griefs have done their spite but in the onset come so shall i taste at first the very worst of fortune's might and other strains of woe which now seem woe compared with loss of thee will not seem so 91 some glory in their birth some in their skill some in their wealth some in their body's force some in their garments though new-fangled ill some in their hawks and hounds some in their horse and every humour hath his adjunct pleasure wherein it finds a joy above the rest but these particulars are not my measure all these i better in one general best thy love is better than high birth to me richer than wealth prouder than garments' costs of more delight than hawks and horses be and having thee of all men's pride i boast wretched in this alone that thou mayst take all this away and me most wretchcd make 92 but do thy worst to steal thy self away for term of life thou art assured mine and life no longer than thy love will stay for it depends upon that love of thine then need i not to fear the worst of wrongs when in the least of them my life hath end i see a better state to me belongs than that which on thy humour doth depend thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind since that my life on thy revolt doth lie o what a happy title do i find happy to have thy love happy to die! but what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot thou mayst be false and yet i know it not 93 so shall i live supposing thou art true like a deceived husband so love's face may still seem love to me though altered new thy looks with me thy heart in other place for there can live no hatred in thine eye therefore in that i cannot know thy change in many's looks the false heart's history is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange but heaven in thy creation did decree that in thy face sweet love should ever dwell whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell how like eve's apple doth thy beauty grow if thy sweet virtue answer not thy show 94 they that have power to hurt and will do none that do not do the thing they most do show who moving others are themselves as stone unmoved cold and to temptation slow they rightly do inherit heaven's graces and husband nature's riches from expense tibey are the lords and owners of their faces others but stewards of their excellence the summer's flower is to the summer sweet though to it self it only live and die but if that flower with base infection meet the basest weed outbraves his dignity for sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds 95 how sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame which like a canker in the fragrant rose doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! o in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose! that tongue that tells the story of thy days making lascivious comments on thy sport cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise naming thy name blesses an ill report o what a mansion have those vices got which for their habitation chose out thee where beauty's veil doth cover every blot and all things turns to fair that eyes can see! take heed dear heart of this large privilege the hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge 96 some say thy fault is youth some wantonness some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport both grace and faults are loved of more and less thou mak'st faults graces that to thee resort as on the finger of a throned queen the basest jewel will be well esteemed so are those errors that in thee are seen to truths translated and for true things deemed how many lambs might the stern wolf betray if like a lamb he could his looks translate! how many gazers mightst thou lead away if thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state! but do not so i love thee in such sort as thou being mine mine is thy good report 97 how like a winter hath my absence been from thee the pleasure of the fleeting year! what freezings have i felt what dark days seen! what old december's bareness everywhere! and yet this time removed was summer's time the teeming autumn big with rich increase bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords' decease yet this abundant issue seemed to me but hope of orphans and unfathered fruit for summer and his pleasures wait on thee and thou away the very birds are mute or if they sing 'tis with so dull a cheer that leaves look pale dreading the winter's near 98 from you have i been absent in the spring when proud-pied april dressed in all his trim hath put a spirit of youth in every thing that heavy saturn laughed and leaped with him yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell of different flowers in odour and in hue could make me any summer's story tell or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew nor did i wonder at the lily's white nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose they were but sweet but figures of delight drawn after you you pattern of all those yet seemed it winter still and you away as with your shadow i with these did play 99 the forward violet thus did i chide sweet thief whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells if not from my love's breath the purple pride which on thy soft check for complexion dwells in my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed the lily i condemned for thy hand and buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair the roses fearfully on thorns did stand one blushing shame another white despair a third nor red nor white had stol'n of both and to his robbery had annexed thy breath but for his theft in pride of all his growth a vengeful canker eat him up to death more flowers i noted yet i none could see but sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee 100 where art thou muse that thou forget'st so long to speak of that which gives thee all thy might spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song darkening thy power to lend base subjects light return forgetful muse and straight redeem in gentle numbers time so idly spent sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem and gives thy pen both skill and argument rise resty muse my love's sweet face survey if time have any wrinkle graven there if any be a satire to decay and make time's spoils despised everywhere give my love fame faster than time wastes life so thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife 101 o truant muse what shall be thy amends for thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed both truth and beauty on my love depends so dost thou too and therein dignified make answer muse wilt thou not haply say 'truth needs no colour with his colour fixed beauty no pencil beauty's truth to lay but best is best if never intermixed' because he needs no praise wilt thou be dumb excuse not silence so for't lies in thee to make him much outlive a gilded tomb and to be praised of ages yet to be then do thy office muse i teach thee how to make him seem long hence as he shows now 102 my love is strengthened though more weak in seeming i love not less though less the show appear that love is merchandized whose rich esteeming the owner's tongue doth publish every where our love was new and then but in the spring when i was wont to greet it with my lays as philomel in summer's front doth sing and stops her pipe in growth of riper days not that the summer is less pleasant now than when her mournful hymns did hush the night but that wild music burthens every bough and sweets grown common lose their dear delight therefore like her i sometime hold my tongue because i would not dull you with my song 103 alack what poverty my muse brings forth that having such a scope to show her pride the argument all bare is of more worth than when it hath my added praise beside o blame me not if i no more can write! look in your glass and there appears a face that over-goes my blunt invention quite dulling my lines and doing me disgrace were it not sinful then striving to mend to mar the subject that before was well for to no other pass my verses tend than of your graces and your gifts to tell and more much more than in my verse can sit your own glass shows you when you look in it 104 to me fair friend you never can be old for as you were when first your eye i eyed such seems your beauty still three winters cold have from the forests shook three summers' pride three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned in process of the seasons have i seen three april perfumes in three hot junes burned since first i saw you fresh which yet are green ah yet doth beauty like a dial hand steal from his figure and no pace perceived so your sweet hue which methinks still doth stand hath motion and mine eye may be deceived for fear of which hear this thou age unbred ere you were born was beauty's summer dead 105 let not my love be called idolatry nor my beloved as an idol show since all alike my songs and praises be to one of one still such and ever so kind is my love to-day to-morrow kind still constant in a wondrous excellence therefore my verse to constancy confined one thing expressing leaves out difference fair kind and true is all my argument fair kind and true varying to other words and in this change is my invention spent three themes in one which wondrous scope affords fair kind and true have often lived alone which three till now never kept seat in one 106 when in the chronicle of wasted time i see descriptions of the fairest wights and beauty making beautiful old rhyme in praise of ladies dead and lovely knights then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best of hand of foot of lip of eye of brow i see their antique pen would have expressed even such a beauty as you master now so all their praises are but prophecies of this our time all you prefiguring and for they looked but with divining eyes they had not skill enough your worth to sing for we which now behold these present days have eyes to wonder but lack tongues to praise 107 not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul of the wide world dreaming on things to come can yet the lease of my true love control supposed as forfeit to a confined doom the mortal moon hath her eclipse endured and the sad augurs mock their own presage incertainties now crown themselves assured and peace proclaims olives of endless age now with the drops of this most balmy time my love looks fresh and death to me subscribes since spite of him i'll live in this poor rhyme while he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes and thou in this shalt find thy monument when tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent 108 what's in the brain that ink may character which hath not figured to thee my true spirit what's new to speak what now to register that may express my love or thy dear merit nothing sweet boy but yet like prayers divine i must each day say o'er the very same counting no old thing old thou mine i thine even as when first i hallowed thy fair name so that eternal love in love's fresh case weighs not the dust and injury of age nor gives to necessary wrinkles place but makes antiquity for aye his page finding the first conceit of love there bred where time and outward form would show it dead 109 o never say that i was false of heart though absence seemed my flame to qualify as easy might i from my self depart as from my soul which in thy breast doth lie that is my home of love if i have ranged like him that travels i return again just to the time not with the time exchanged so that my self bring water for my stain never believe though in my nature reigned all frailties that besiege all kinds of blood that it could so preposterously be stained to leave for nothing all thy sum of good for nothing this wide universe i call save thou my rose in it thou art my all 110 alas 'tis true i have gone here and there and made my self a motley to the view gored mine own thoughts sold cheap what is most dear made old offences of affections new most true it is that i have looked on truth askance and strangely but by all above these blenches gave my heart another youth and worse essays proved thee my best of love now all is done have what shall have no end mine appetite i never more will grind on newer proof to try an older friend a god in love to whom i am confined then give me welcome next my heaven the best even to thy pure and most most loving breast 111 o for my sake do you with fortune chide the guilty goddess of my harmful deeds that did not better for my life provide than public means which public manners breeds thence comes it that my name receives a brand and almost thence my nature is subdued to what it works in like the dyer's hand pity me then and wish i were renewed whilst like a willing patient i will drink potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection no bitterness that i will bitter think nor double penance to correct correction pity me then dear friend and i assure ye even that your pity is enough to cure me 112 your love and pity doth th' impression fill which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow for what care i who calls me well or ill so you o'er-green my bad my good allow you are my all the world and i must strive to know my shames and praises from your tongue none else to me nor i to none alive that my steeled sense or changes right or wrong in so profound abysm i throw all care of others' voices that my adder's sense to critic and to flatterer stopped are mark how with my neglect i do dispense you are so strongly in my purpose bred that all the world besides methinks are dead 113 since i left you mine eye is in my mind and that which governs me to go about doth part his function and is partly blind seems seeing but effectually is out for it no form delivers to the heart of bird of flower or shape which it doth latch of his quick objects hath the mind no part nor his own vision holds what it doth catch for if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight the most sweet favour or deformed'st creature the mountain or the sea the day or night the crow or dove it shapes them to your feature incapable of more replete with you my most true mind thus maketh mine untrue 114 or whether doth my mind being crowned with you drink up the monarch's plague this flattery or whether shall i say mine eye saith true and that your love taught it this alchemy to make of monsters and things indigest such cherubins as your sweet self resemble creating every bad a perfect best as fast as objects to his beams assemble o 'tis the first 'tis flattery in my seeing and my great mind most kingly drinks it up mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing and to his palate doth prepare the cup if it be poisoned 'tis the lesser sin that mine eye loves it and doth first begin 115 those lines that i before have writ do lie even those that said i could not love you dearer yet then my judgment knew no reason why my most full flame should afterwards burn clearer but reckoning time whose millioned accidents creep in 'twixt vows and change decrees of kings tan sacred beauty blunt the sharp'st intents divert strong minds to the course of alt'ring things alas why fearing of time's tyranny might i not then say 'now i love you best ' when i was certain o'er incertainty crowning the present doubting of the rest love is a babe then might i not say so to give full growth to that which still doth grow 116 let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to remove o no it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken it is the star to every wand'ring bark whose worth's unknown although his height be taken love's not time's fool though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come love alters not with his brief hours and weeks but bears it out even to the edge of doom if this be error and upon me proved i never writ nor no man ever loved 117 accuse me thus that i have scanted all wherein i should your great deserts repay forgot upon your dearest love to call whereto all bonds do tie me day by day that i have frequent been with unknown minds and given to time your own dear-purchased right that i have hoisted sail to all the winds which should transport me farthest from your sight book both my wilfulness and errors down and on just proof surmise accumulate bring me within the level of your frown but shoot not at me in your wakened hate since my appeal says i did strive to prove the constancy and virtue of your love 118 like as to make our appetite more keen with eager compounds we our palate urge as to prevent our maladies unseen we sicken to shun sickness when we purge even so being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness to bitter sauces did i frame my feeding and sick of welfare found a kind of meetness to be diseased ere that there was true needing thus policy in love t' anticipate the ills that were not grew to faults assured and brought to medicine a healthful state which rank of goodness would by ill be cured but thence i learn and find the lesson true drugs poison him that so feil sick of you 119 what potions have i drunk of siren tears distilled from limbecks foul as hell within applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears still losing when i saw my self to win! what wretched errors hath my heart committed whilst it hath thought it self so blessed never! how have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted in the distraction of this madding fever! o benefit of ill now i find true that better is by evil still made better and ruined love when it is built anew grows fairer than at first more strong far greater so i return rebuked to my content and gain by ills thrice more than i have spent 120 that you were once unkind befriends me now and for that sorrow which i then did feel needs must i under my transgression bow unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel for if you were by my unkindness shaken as i by yours y'have passed a hell of time and i a tyrant have no leisure taken to weigh how once i suffered in your crime o that our night of woe might have remembered my deepest sense how hard true sorrow hits and soon to you as you to me then tendered the humble salve which wounded bosoms fits! but that your trespass now becomes a fee mine ransoms yours and yours must ransom me 121 'tis better to be vile than vile esteemed when not to be receives reproach of being and the just pleasure lost which is so deemed not by our feeling but by others' seeing for why should others' false adulterate eyes give salutation to my sportive blood or on my frailties why are frailer spies which in their wills count bad what i think good no i am that i am and they that level at my abuses reckon up their own i may be straight though they themselves be bevel by their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown unless this general evil they maintain all men are bad and in their badness reign 122 thy gift thy tables are within my brain full charactered with lasting memory which shall above that idle rank remain beyond all date even to eternity or at the least so long as brain and heart have faculty by nature to subsist till each to razed oblivion yield his part of thee thy record never can be missed that poor retention could not so much hold nor need i tallies thy dear love to score therefore to give them from me was i bold to trust those tables that receive thee more to keep an adjunct to remember thee were to import forgetfulness in me 123 no! time thou shalt not boast that i do change thy pyramids built up with newer might to me are nothing novel nothing strange they are but dressings of a former sight our dates are brief and therefore we admire what thou dost foist upon us that is old and rather make them born to our desire than think that we before have heard them told thy registers and thee i both defy not wond'ring at the present nor the past for thy records and what we see doth lie made more or less by thy continual haste this i do vow and this shall ever be i will be true despite thy scythe and thee 124 if my dear love were but the child of state it might for fortune's bastard be unfathered as subject to time's love or to time's hate weeds among weeds or flowers with flowers gathered no it was builded far from accident it suffers not in smiling pomp nor falls under the blow of thralled discontent whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls it fears not policy that heretic which works on leases of short-numbered hours but all alone stands hugely politic that it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers to this i witness call the fools of time which die for goodness who have lived for crime 125 were't aught to me i bore the canopy with my extern the outward honouring or laid great bases for eternity which proves more short than waste or ruining have i not seen dwellers on form and favour lose all and more by paying too much rent for compound sweet forgoing simple savour pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent no let me be obsequious in thy heart and take thou my oblation poor but free which is not mixed with seconds knows no art but mutual render only me for thee hence thou suborned informer a true soul when most impeached stands least in thy control 126 o thou my lovely boy who in thy power dost hold time's fickle glass his fickle hour who hast by waning grown and therein show'st thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st if nature sovereign mistress over wrack as thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back she keeps thee to this purpose that her skill may time disgrace and wretched minutes kill yet fear her o thou minion of her pleasure she may detain but not still keep her treasure! her audit though delayed answered must be and her quietus is to render thee 127 in the old age black was not counted fair or if it were it bore not beauty's name but now is black beauty's successive heir and beauty slandered with a bastard shame for since each hand hath put on nature's power fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower but is profaned if not lives in disgrace therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black her eyes so suited and they mourners seem at such who not born fair no beauty lack slandering creation with a false esteem yet so they mourn becoming of their woe that every tongue says beauty should look so 128 how oft when thou my music music play'st upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds with thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st the wiry concord that mine ear confounds do i envy those jacks that nimble leap to kiss the tender inward of thy hand whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap at the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand to be so tickled they would change their state and situation with those dancing chips o'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait making dead wood more blest than living lips since saucy jacks so happy are in this give them thy fingers me thy lips to kiss 129 th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust in action and till action lust is perjured murd'rous bloody full of blame savage extreme rude cruel not to trust enjoyed no sooner but despised straight past reason hunted and no sooner had past reason hated as a swallowed bait on purpose laid to make the taker mad mad in pursuit and in possession so had having and in quest to have extreme a bliss in proof and proved a very woe before a joy proposed behind a dream all this the world well knows yet none knows well to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell 130 my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun coral is far more red than her lips red if snow be white why then her breasts are dun if hairs be wires black wires grow on her head i have seen roses damasked red and white but no such roses see i in her cheeks and in some perfumes is there more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks i love to hear her speak yet well i know that music hath a far more pleasing sound i grant i never saw a goddess go my mistress when she walks treads on the ground and yet by heaven i think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare 131 thou art as tyrannous so as thou art as those whose beauties proudly make them cruel for well thou know'st to my dear doting heart thou art the fairest and most precious jewel yet in good faith some say that thee behold thy face hath not the power to make love groan to say they err i dare not be so bold although i swear it to my self alone and to be sure that is not false i swear a thousand groans but thinking on thy face one on another's neck do witness bear thy black is fairest in my judgment's place in nothing art thou black save in thy deeds and thence this slander as i think proceeds 132 thine eyes i love and they as pitying me knowing thy heart torment me with disdain have put on black and loving mourners be looking with pretty ruth upon my pain and truly not the morning sun of heaven better becomes the grey cheeks of the east nor that full star that ushers in the even doth half that glory to the sober west as those two mourning eyes become thy face o let it then as well beseem thy heart to mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace and suit thy pity like in every part then will i swear beauty herself is black and all they foul that thy complexion lack 133 beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan for that deep wound it gives my friend and me is't not enough to torture me alone but slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be me from my self thy cruel eye hath taken and my next self thou harder hast engrossed of him my self and thee i am forsaken a torment thrice three-fold thus to be crossed prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward but then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail whoe'er keeps me let my heart be his guard thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol and yet thou wilt for i being pent in thee perforce am thine and all that is in me 134 so now i have confessed that he is thine and i my self am mortgaged to thy will my self i'll forfeit so that other mine thou wilt restore to be my comfort still but thou wilt not nor he will not be free for thou art covetous and he is kind he learned but surety-like to write for me under that bond that him as fist doth bind the statute of thy beauty thou wilt take thou usurer that put'st forth all to use and sue a friend came debtor for my sake so him i lose through my unkind abuse him have i lost thou hast both him and me he pays the whole and yet am i not free 135 whoever hath her wish thou hast thy will and 'will' to boot and 'will' in over-plus more than enough am i that vex thee still to thy sweet will making addition thus wilt thou whose will is large and spacious not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine shall will in others seem right gracious and in my will no fair acceptance shine the sea all water yet receives rain still and in abundance addeth to his store so thou being rich in will add to thy will one will of mine to make thy large will more let no unkind no fair beseechers kill think all but one and me in that one 'will ' 136 if thy soul check thee that i come so near swear to thy blind soul that i was thy 'will' and will thy soul knows is admitted there thus far for love my love-suit sweet fulfil 'will' will fulfil the treasure of thy love ay fill it full with wills and my will one in things of great receipt with case we prove among a number one is reckoned none then in the number let me pass untold though in thy store's account i one must be for nothing hold me so it please thee hold that nothing me a something sweet to thee make but my name thy love and love that still and then thou lov'st me for my name is will 137 thou blind fool love what dost thou to mine eyes that they behold and see not what they see they know what beauty is see where it lies yet what the best is take the worst to be if eyes corrupt by over-partial looks be anchored in the bay where all men ride why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks whereto the judgment of my heart is tied why should my heart think that a several plot which my heart knows the wide world's common place or mine eyes seeing this say this is not to put fair truth upon so foul a face in things right true my heart and eyes have erred and to this false plague are they now transferred 138 when my love swears that she is made of truth i do believe her though i know she lies that she might think me some untutored youth unlearned in the world's false subtleties thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young although she knows my days are past the best simply i credit her false-speaking tongue on both sides thus is simple truth suppressed but wherefore says she not she is unjust and wherefore say not i that i am old o love's best habit is in seeming trust and age in love loves not to have years told therefore i lie with her and she with me and in our faults by lies we flattered be 139 o call not me to justify the wrong that thy unkindness lays upon my heart wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue use power with power and slay me not by art tell me thou lov'st elsewhere but in my sight dear heart forbear to glance thine eye aside what need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might is more than my o'erpressed defence can bide let me excuse thee ah my love well knows her pretty looks have been mine enemies and therefore from my face she turns my foes that they elsewhere might dart their injuries yet do not so but since i am near slain kill me outright with looks and rid my pain 140 be wise as thou art cruel do not press my tongue-tied patience with too much disdain lest sorrow lend me words and words express the manner of my pity-wanting pain if i might teach thee wit better it were though not to love yet love to tell me so as testy sick men when their deaths be near no news but health from their physicians know for if i should despair i should grow mad and in my madness might speak ill of thee now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad mad slanderers by mad ears believed be that i may not be so nor thou belied bear thine eyes straight though thy proud heart go wide 141 in faith i do not love thee with mine eyes for they in thee a thousand errors note but 'tis my heart that loves what they despise who in despite of view is pleased to dote nor are mine cars with thy tongue's tune delighted nor tender feeling to base touches prone nor taste nor smell desire to be invited to any sensual feast with thee alone but my five wits nor my five senses can dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be only my plague thus far i count my gain that she that makes me sin awards me pain 142 love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate hate of my sin grounded on sinful loving o but with mine compare thou thine own state and thou shalt find it merits not reproving or if it do not from those lips of thine that have profaned their scarlet ornaments and sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents be it lawful i love thee as thou lov'st those whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee root pity in thy heart that when it grows thy pity may deserve to pitied be if thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide by self-example mayst thou be denied 143 lo as a careful huswife runs to catch one of her feathered creatures broke away sets down her babe and makes all swift dispatch in pursuit of the thing she would have stay whilst her neglected child holds her in chase cries to catch her whose busy care is bent to follow that which flies before her face not prizing her poor infant's discontent so run'st thou after that which flies from thee whilst i thy babe chase thee afar behind but if thou catch thy hope turn back to me and play the mother's part kiss me be kind so will i pray that thou mayst have thy will if thou turn back and my loud crying still 144 two loves i have of comfort and despair which like two spirits do suggest me still the better angel is a man right fair the worser spirit a woman coloured ill to win me soon to hell my female evil tempteth my better angel from my side and would corrupt my saint to be a devil wooing his purity with her foul pride and whether that my angel be turned fiend suspect i may yet not directly tell but being both from me both to each friend i guess one angel in another's hell yet this shall i ne'er know but live in doubt till my bad angel fire my good one out 145 those lips that love's own hand did make breathed forth the sound that said 'i hate' to me that languished for her sake but when she saw my woeful state straight in her heart did mercy come chiding that tongue that ever sweet was used in giving gentle doom and taught it thus anew to greet 'i hate' she altered with an end that followed it as gentle day doth follow night who like a fiend from heaven to hell is flown away 'i hate' from hate away she threw and saved my life saying 'not you' 146 poor soul the centre of my sinful earth my sinful earth these rebel powers array why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth painting thy outward walls so costly gay why so large cost having so short a lease dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend shall worms inheritors of this excess eat up thy charge is this thy body's end then soul live thou upon thy servant's loss and let that pine to aggravate thy store buy terms divine in selling hours of dross within be fed without be rich no more so shall thou feed on death that feeds on men and death once dead there's no more dying then 147 my love is as a fever longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease feeding on that which doth preserve the ill th' uncertain sickly appetite to please my reason the physician to my love angry that his prescriptions are not kept hath left me and i desperate now approve desire is death which physic did except past cure i am now reason is past care and frantic-mad with evermore unrest my thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are at random from the truth vainly expressed for i have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright who art as black as hell as dark as night 148 o me! what eyes hath love put in my head which have no correspondence with true sight or if they have where is my judgment fled that censures falsely what they see aright if that be fair whereon my false eyes dote what means the world to say it is not so if it be not then love doth well denote love's eye is not so true as all men's no how can it o how can love's eye be true that is so vexed with watching and with tears no marvel then though i mistake my view the sun it self sees not till heaven clears o cunning love with tears thou keep'st me blind lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find 149 canst thou o cruel say i love thee not when i against my self with thee partake do i not think on thee when i forgot am of my self all-tyrant for thy sake who hateth thee that i do call my friend on whom frown'st thou that i do fawn upon nay if thou lour'st on me do i not spend revenge upon my self with present moan what merit do i in my self respect that is so proud thy service to despise when all my best doth worship thy defect commanded by the motion of thine eyes but love hate on for now i know thy mind those that can see thou lov'st and i am blind 150 o from what power hast thou this powerful might with insufficiency my heart to sway to make me give the lie to my true sight and swear that brightness doth not grace the day whence hast thou this becoming of things ill that in the very refuse of thy deeds there is such strength and warrantise of skill that in my mind thy worst all best exceeds who taught thee how to make me love thee more the more i hear and see just cause of hate o though i love what others do abhor with others thou shouldst not abhor my state if thy unworthiness raised love in me more worthy i to be beloved of thee 151 love is too young to know what conscience is yet who knows not conscience is born of love then gentle cheater urge not my amiss lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove for thou betraying me i do betray my nobler part to my gross body's treason my soul doth tell my body that he may triumph in love flesh stays no farther reason but rising at thy name doth point out thee as his triumphant prize proud of this pride he is contented thy poor drudge to be to stand in thy affairs fall by thy side no want of conscience hold it that i call her love for whose dear love i rise and fall 152 in loving thee thou know'st i am forsworn but thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing in act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn in vowing new hate after new love bearing but why of two oaths' breach do i accuse thee when i break twenty i am perjured most for all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee and all my honest faith in thee is lost for i have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness oaths of thy love thy truth thy constancy and to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness or made them swear against the thing they see for i have sworn thee fair more perjured i to swear against the truth so foul a be 153 cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep a maid of dian's this advantage found and his love-kindling fire did quickly steep in a cold valley-fountain of that ground which borrowed from this holy fire of love a dateless lively heat still to endure and grew a seeting bath which yet men prove against strange maladies a sovereign cure but at my mistress' eye love's brand new-fired the boy for trial needs would touch my breast i sick withal the help of bath desired and thither hied a sad distempered guest but found no cure the bath for my help lies where cupid got new fire my mistress' eyes 154 the little love-god lying once asleep laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep came tripping by but in her maiden hand the fairest votary took up that fire which many legions of true hearts had warmed and so the general of hot desire was sleeping by a virgin hand disarmed this brand she quenched in a cool well by which from love's fire took heat perpetual growing a bath and healthful remedy for men discased but i my mistress' thrall came there for cure and this by that i prove love's fire heats water water cools not love the end 1603 alls well that ends well by william shakespeare dramatis personae king of france the duke of florence bertram count of rousillon lafeu an old lord parolles a follower of bertram two french lords serving with bertram steward servant to the countess of rousillon lavache a clown and servant to the countess of rousillon a page servant to the countess of rousillon countess of rousillon mother to bertram helena a gentlewoman protected by the countess a widow of florence diana daughter to the widow violenta neighbour and friend to the widow mariana neighbour and friend to the widow lords officers soldiers etc french and florentine scene rousillon paris florence marseilles act i scene 1 rousillon the count's palace enter bertram the countess of rousillon helena and lafeu all in black countess in delivering my son from me i bury a second husband bertram and i in going madam weep o'er my father's death anew but i must attend his majesty's command to whom i am now in ward evermore in subjection lafeu you shall find of the king a husband madam you sir a father he that so generally is at all times good must of necessity hold his virtue to you whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather than lack it where there is such abundance countess what hope is there of his majesty's amendment lafeu he hath abandon'd his physicians madam under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time countess this young gentlewoman had a father- o that 'had ' how sad a passage 'tis!-whose skill was almost as great as his honesty had it stretch'd so far would have made nature immortal and death should have play for lack of work would for the king's sake he were living! i think it would be the death of the king's disease lafeu how call'd you the man you speak of madam countess he was famous sir in his profession and it was his great right to be so- gerard de narbon lafeu he was excellent indeed madam the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly he was skilful enough to have liv'd still if knowledge could be set up against mortality bertram what is it my good lord the king languishes of lafeu a fistula my lord bertram i heard not of it before lafeu i would it were not notorious was this gentlewoman the daughter of gerard de narbon countess his sole child my lord and bequeathed to my overlooking i have those hopes of her good that her education promises her dispositions she inherits which makes fair gifts fairer for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities there commendations go with pity-they are virtues and traitors too in her they are the better for their simpleness she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness lafeu your commendations madam get from her tears countess 'tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in the remembrance of her father never approaches her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek no more of this helena go to no more lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than to have- helena i do affect a sorrow indeed but i have it too lafeu moderate lamentation is the right of the dead excessive grief the enemy to the living countess if the living be enemy to the grief the excess makes it soon mortal bertram madam i desire your holy wishes lafeu how understand we that countess be thou blest bertram and succeed thy father in manners as in shape! thy blood and virtue contend for empire in thee and thy goodness share with thy birthright! love all trust a few do wrong to none be able for thine enemy rather in power than use and keep thy friend under thy own life's key be check'd for silence but never tax'd for speech what heaven more will that thee may furnish and my prayers pluck down fall on thy head! farewell my lord 'tis an unseason'd courtier good my lord advise him lafeu he cannot want the best that shall attend his love countess heaven bless him! farewell bertram exit bertram the best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts be servants to you! to helena be comfortable to my mother your mistress and make much of her lafeu farewell pretty lady you must hold the credit of your father exeunt bertram and lafeu helena o were that all! i think not on my father and these great tears grace his remembrance more than those i shed for him what was he like i have forgot him my imagination carries no favour in't but bertram's i am undone there is no living none if bertram be away 'twere all one that i should love a bright particular star and think to wed it he is so above me in his bright radiance and collateral light must i be comforted not in his sphere th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself the hind that would be mated by the lion must die for love 'twas pretty though a plague to see him every hour to sit and draw his arched brows his hawking eye his curls in our heart's table-heart too capable of every line and trick of his sweet favour but now he's gone and my idolatrous fancy must sanctify his relics who comes here enter parolles aside one that goes with him i love him for his sake and yet i know him a notorious liar think him a great way fool solely a coward yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him that they take place when virtue's steely bones looks bleak i' th' cold wind withal full oft we see cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly parolles save you fair queen! helena and you monarch! parolles no helena and no parolles are you meditating on virginity helena ay you have some stain of soldier in you let me ask you a question man is enemy to virginity how may we barricado it against him parolles keep him out helena but he assails and our virginity though valiant in the defence yet is weak unfold to us some warlike resistance parolles there is none man setting down before you will undermine you and blow you up helena bless our poor virginity from underminers and blowers-up! is there no military policy how virgins might blow up men parolles virginity being blown down man will quicklier be blown up marry in blowing him down again with the breach yourselves made you lose your city it is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity loss of virginity is rational increase and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost that you were made of is metal to make virgins virginity by being once lost may be ten times found by being ever kept it is ever lost 'tis too cold a companion away with't helena i will stand for 't a little though therefore i die a virgin parolles there's little can be said in 't 'tis against the rule of nature to speak on the part of virginity is to accuse your mothers which is most infallible disobedience he that hangs himself is a virgin virginity murders itself and should be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit as a desperate offendress against nature virginity breeds mites much like a cheese consumes itself to the very paring and so dies with feeding his own stomach besides virginity is peevish proud idle made of self-love which is the most inhibited sin in the canon keep it not you cannot choose but lose by't out with't within ten year it will make itself ten which is a goodly increase and the principal itself not much the worse away with't helena how might one do sir to lose it to her own liking parolles let me see marry ill to like him that ne'er it likes 'tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying the longer kept the less worth off with't while 'tis vendible answer the time of request virginity like an old courtier wears her cap out of fashion richly suited but unsuitable just like the brooch and the toothpick which wear not now your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek and your virginity your old virginity is like one of our french wither'd pears it looks ill it eats drily marry 'tis a wither'd pear it was formerly better marry yet 'tis a wither'd pear will you anything with it helena not my virginity yet there shall your master have a thousand loves a mother and a mistress and a friend a phoenix captain and an enemy a guide a goddess and a sovereign a counsellor a traitress and a dear his humble ambition proud humility his jarring concord and his discord dulcet his faith his sweet disaster with a world of pretty fond adoptious christendoms that blinking cupid gossips now shall he- i know not what he shall god send him well! the court's a learning-place and he is one- parolles what one i' faith helena that i wish well 'tis pity- parolles what's pity helena that wishing well had not a body in't which might be felt that we the poorer born whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes might with effects of them follow our friends and show what we alone must think which never returns us thanks enter page page monsieur parolles my lord calls for you exit page parolles little helen farewell if i can remember thee i will think of thee at court helena monsieur parolles you were born under a charitable star parolles under mars i helena i especially think under mars parolles why under man helena the wars hath so kept you under that you must needs be born under mars parolles when he was predominant helena when he was retrograde i think rather parolles why think you so helena you go so much backward when you fight parolles that's for advantage helena so is running away when fear proposes the safety but the composition that your valour and fear makes in you is a virtue of a good wing and i like the wear well parolles i am so full of business i cannot answer thee acutely i will return perfect courtier in the which my instruction shall serve to naturalize thee so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's counsel and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee else thou diest in thine unthankfulness and thine ignorance makes thee away farewell when thou hast leisure say thy prayers when thou hast none remember thy friends get thee a good husband and use him as he uses thee so farewell exit helena our remedies oft in ourselves do lie which we ascribe to heaven the fated sky gives us free scope only doth backward pull our slow designs when we ourselves are dull what power is it which mounts my love so high that makes me see and cannot feed mine eye the mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things impossible be strange attempts to those that weigh their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be who ever strove to show her merit that did miss her love the king's disease-my project may deceive me but my intents are fix'd and will not leave me exit act i scene 2 paris the king's palace flourish of cornets enter the king of france with letters and divers attendants king the florentines and senoys are by th' ears have fought with equal fortune and continue a braving war first lord so 'tis reported sir king nay 'tis most credible we here receive it a certainty vouch'd from our cousin austria with caution that the florentine will move us for speedy aid wherein our dearest friend prejudicates the business and would seem to have us make denial first lord his love and wisdom approv'd so to your majesty may plead for amplest credence king he hath arm'd our answer and florence is denied before he comes yet for our gentlemen that mean to see the tuscan service freely have they leave to stand on either part second lord it well may serve a nursery to our gentry who are sick for breathing and exploit king what's he comes here enter bertram lafeu and parolles first lord it is the count rousillon my good lord young bertram king youth thou bear'st thy father's face frank nature rather curious than in haste hath well compos'd thee thy father's moral parts mayst thou inherit too! welcome to paris bertram my thanks and duty are your majesty's king i would i had that corporal soundness now as when thy father and myself in friendship first tried our soldiership he did look far into the service of the time and was discipled of the bravest he lasted long but on us both did haggish age steal on and wore us out of act it much repairs me to talk of your good father in his youth he had the wit which i can well observe to-day in our young lords but they may jest till their own scorn return to them unnoted ere they can hide their levity in honour so like a courtier contempt nor bitterness were in his pride or sharpness if they were his equal had awak'd them and his honour clock to itself knew the true minute when exception bid him speak and at this time his tongue obey'd his hand who were below him he us'd as creatures of another place and bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks making them proud of his humility in their poor praise he humbled such a man might be a copy to these younger times which followed well would demonstrate them now but goers backward bertram his good remembrance sir lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb so in approof lives not his epitaph as in your royal speech king would i were with him! he would always say- methinks i hear him now his plausive words he scatter'd not in ears but grafted them to grow there and to bear- 'let me not live'- this his good melancholy oft began on the catastrophe and heel of pastime when it was out-'let me not live' quoth he 'after my flame lacks oil to be the snuff of younger spirits whose apprehensive senses all but new things disdain whose judgments are mere fathers of their garments whose constancies expire before their fashions ' this he wish'd i after him do after him wish too since i nor wax nor honey can bring home i quickly were dissolved from my hive to give some labourers room second lord you're loved sir they that least lend it you shall lack you first king i fill a place i know't how long is't count since the physician at your father's died he was much fam'd bertram some six months since my lord king if he were living i would try him yet- lend me an arm-the rest have worn me out with several applications nature and sickness debate it at their leisure welcome count my son's no dearer bertram thank your majesty exeunt flourish act i scene 3 rousillon the count's palace enter countess steward and clown countess i will now hear what say you of this gentlewoman steward madam the care i have had to even your content i wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours for then we wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings when of ourselves we publish them countess what does this knave here get you gone sirrah the complaints i have heard of you i do not all believe 'tis my slowness that i do not for i know you lack not folly to commit them and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours clown 'tis not unknown to you madam i am a poor fellow countess well sir clown no madam 'tis not so well that i am poor though many of the rich are damn'd but if i may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world isbel the woman and i will do as we may countess wilt thou needs be a beggar clown i do beg your good will in this case countess in what case clown in isbel's case and mine own service is no heritage and i think i shall never have the blessing of god till i have issue o' my body for they say bames are blessings countess tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry clown my poor body madam requires it i am driven on by the flesh and he must needs go that the devil drives countess is this all your worship's reason clown faith madam i have other holy reasons such as they are countess may the world know them clown i have been madam a wicked creature as you and all flesh and blood are and indeed i do marry that i may repent countess thy marriage sooner than thy wickedness clown i am out o' friends madam and i hope to have friends for my wife's sake countess such friends are thine enemies knave clown y'are shallow madam-in great friends for the knaves come to do that for me which i am aweary of he that ears my land spares my team and gives me leave to in the crop if i be his cuckold he's my drudge he that comforts my wife is the cherisher of my flesh and blood he that cherishes my flesh and blood loves my flesh and blood he that loves my flesh and blood is my friend ergo he that kisses my wife is my friend if men could be contented to be what they are there were no fear in marriage for young charbon the puritan and old poysam the papist howsome'er their hearts are sever'd in religion their heads are both one they may jowl horns together like any deer i' th' herd countess wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and calumnious knave clown a prophet i madam and i speak the truth the next way for i the ballad will repeat which men full true shall find your marriage comes by destiny your cuckoo sings by kind countess get you gone sir i'll talk with you more anon steward may it please you madam that he bid helen come to you of her i am to speak countess sirrah tell my gentlewoman i would speak with her helen i mean clown sings 'was this fair face the cause' quoth she 'why the grecians sacked troy fond done done fond was this king priam's joy ' with that she sighed as she stood with that she sighed as she stood and gave this sentence then 'among nine bad if one be good among nine bad if one be good there's yet one good in ten ' countess what one good in ten you corrupt the song sirrah clown one good woman in ten madam which is a purifying o' th' song would god would serve the world so all the year! we'd find no fault with the tithe-woman if i were the parson one in ten quoth 'a! an we might have a good woman born before every blazing star or at an earthquake 'twould mend the lottery well a man may draw his heart out ere 'a pluck one countess you'll be gone sir knave and do as i command you clown that man should be at woman's command and yet no hurt done! though honesty be no puritan yet it will do no hurt it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart i am going forsooth the business is for helen to come hither exit countess well now steward i know madam you love your gentlewoman entirely countess faith i do her father bequeath'd her to me and she herself without other advantage may lawfully make title to as much love as she finds there is more owing her than is paid and more shall be paid her than she'll demand steward madam i was very late more near her than i think she wish'd me alone she was and did communicate to herself her own words to her own ears she thought i dare vow for her they touch'd not any stranger sense her matter was she loved your son fortune she said was no goddess that had put such difference betwixt their two estates love no god that would not extend his might only where qualities were level diana no queen of virgins that would suffer her poor knight surpris'd without rescue in the first assault or ransom afterward this she deliver'd in the most bitter touch of sorrow that e'er i heard virgin exclaim in which i held my duty speedily to acquaint you withal sithence in the loss that may happen it concerns you something to know it countess you have discharg'd this honestly keep it to yourself many likelihoods inform'd me of this before which hung so tott'ring in the balance that i could neither believe nor misdoubt pray you leave me stall this in your bosom and i thank you for your honest care i will speak with you further anon exit steward enter helena even so it was with me when i was young if ever we are nature's these are ours this thorn doth to our rose of youth rightly belong our blood to us this to our blood is born it is the show and seal of nature's truth where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth by our remembrances of days foregone such were our faults or then we thought them none her eye is sick on't i observe her now helena what is your pleasure madam countess you know helen i am a mother to you helena mine honourable mistress countess nay a mother why not a mother when i said 'a mother ' methought you saw a serpent what's in 'mother' that you start at it i say i am your mother and put you in the catalogue of those that were enwombed mine 'tis often seen adoption strives with nature and choice breeds a native slip to us from foreign seeds you ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan yet i express to you a mother's care god's mercy maiden! does it curd thy blood to say i am thy mother what's the matter that this distempered messenger of wet the many-colour'd iris rounds thine eye why that you are my daughter helena that i am not countess i say i am your mother helena pardon madam the count rousillon cannot be my brother i am from humble he from honoured name no note upon my parents his all noble my master my dear lord he is and i his servant live and will his vassal die he must not be my brother countess nor i your mother helena you are my mother madam would you were- so that my lord your son were not my brother- indeed my mother! or were you both our mothers i care no more for than i do for heaven so i were not his sister can't no other but i your daughter he must be my brother countess yes helen you might be my daughter-in-law god shield you mean it not! 'daughter' and 'mother' so strive upon your pulse what! pale again my fear hath catch'd your fondness now i see the myst'ry of your loneliness and find your salt tears' head now to all sense 'tis gross you love my son invention is asham'd against the proclamation of thy passion to say thou dost not therefore tell me true but tell me then 'tis so for look thy cheeks confess it th' one to th' other and thine eyes see it so grossly shown in thy behaviours that in their kind they speak it only sin and hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue that truth should be suspected speak is't so if it be so you have wound a goodly clew if it be not forswear't howe'er i charge thee as heaven shall work in me for thine avail to tell me truly helena good madam pardon me countess do you love my son helena your pardon noble mistress countess love you my son helena do not you love him madam countess go not about my love hath in't a bond whereof the world takes note come come disclose the state of your affection for your passions have to the full appeach'd helena then i confess here on my knee before high heaven and you that before you and next unto high heaven i love your son my friends were poor but honest so's my love be not offended for it hurts not him that he is lov'd of me i follow him not by any token of presumptuous suit nor would i have him till i do deserve him yet never know how that desert should be i know i love in vain strive against hope yet in this captious and intenible sieve i still pour in the waters of my love and lack not to lose still thus indian-like religious in mine error i adore the sun that looks upon his worshipper but knows of him no more my dearest madam let not your hate encounter with my love for loving where you do but if yourself whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth did ever in so true a flame of liking wish chastely and love dearly that your dian was both herself and love o then give pity to her whose state is such that cannot choose but lend and give where she is sure to lose that seeks not to find that her search implies but riddle-like lives sweetly where she dies! countess had you not lately an intent-speak truly- to go to paris helena madam i had countess wherefore tell true helena i will tell truth by grace itself i swear you know my father left me some prescriptions of rare and prov'd effects such as his reading and manifest experience had collected for general sovereignty and that he will'd me in heedfull'st reservation to bestow them as notes whose faculties inclusive were more than they were in note amongst the rest there is a remedy approv'd set down to cure the desperate languishings whereof the king is render'd lost countess this was your motive for paris was it speak helena my lord your son made me to think of this else paris and the medicine and the king had from the conversation of my thoughts haply been absent then countess but think you helen if you should tender your supposed aid he would receive it he and his physicians are of a mind he that they cannot help him they that they cannot help how shall they credit a poor unlearned virgin when the schools embowell'd of their doctrine have let off the danger to itself helena there's something in't more than my father's skill which was the great'st of his profession that his good receipt shall for my legacy be sanctified by th' luckiest stars in heaven and would your honour but give me leave to try success i'd venture the well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure by such a day and hour countess dost thou believe't helena ay madam knowingly countess why helen thou shalt have my leave and love means and attendants and my loving greetings to those of mine in court i'll stay at home and pray god's blessing into thy attempt be gone to-morrow and be sure of this what i can help thee to thou shalt not miss exeunt act ii scene 1 paris the king's palace flourish of cornets enter the king with divers young lords taking leave for the florentine war bertram and parolles attendants king farewell young lords these war-like principles do not throw from you and you my lords farewell share the advice betwixt you if both gain all the gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd and is enough for both first lord 'tis our hope sir after well-ent'red soldiers to return and find your grace in health king no no it cannot be and yet my heart will not confess he owes the malady that doth my life besiege farewell young lords whether i live or die be you the sons of worthy frenchmen let higher italy- those bated that inherit but the fall of the last monarchy-see that you come not to woo honour but to wed it when the bravest questant shrinks find what you seek that fame may cry you aloud i say farewell second lord health at your bidding serve your majesty! king those girls of italy take heed of them they say our french lack language to deny if they demand beware of being captives before you serve both our hearts receive your warnings king farewell to attendants come hither to me the king retires attended first lord o my sweet lord that you will stay behind us! parolles 'tis not his fault the spark second lord o 'tis brave wars! parolles most admirable! i have seen those wars bertram i am commanded here and kept a coil with 'too young' and next year' and "tis too early ' parolles an thy mind stand to 't boy steal away bravely bertram i shall stay here the forehorse to a smock creaking my shoes on the plain masonry till honour be bought up and no sword worn but one to dance with by heaven i'll steal away first lord there's honour in the theft parolles commit it count second lord i am your accessary and so farewell bertram i grow to you and our parting is a tortur'd body first lord farewell captain second lord sweet monsieur parolles! parolles noble heroes my sword and yours are kin good sparks and lustrous a word good metals you shall find in the regiment of the spinii one captain spurio with his cicatrice an emblem of war here on his sinister cheek it was this very sword entrench'd it say to him i live and observe his reports for me first lord we shall noble captain parolles mars dote on you for his novices! exeunt lords what will ye do re-enter the king bertram stay the king! parolles use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords you have restrain'd yourself within the list of too cold an adieu be more expressive to them for they wear themselves in the cap of the time there do muster true gait eat speak and move under the influence of the most receiv'd star and though the devil lead the measure such are to be followed after them and take a more dilated farewell bertram and i will do so parolles worthy fellows and like to prove most sinewy sword-men exeunt bertram and parolles enter lafeu lafeu kneeling pardon my lord for me and for my tidings king i'll fee thee to stand up lafeu then here's a man stands that has brought his pardon i would you had kneel'd my lord to ask me mercy and that at my bidding you could so stand up king i would i had so i had broke thy pate and ask'd thee mercy for't lafeu good faith across! but my good lord 'tis thus will you be cur'd of your infirmity king no lafeu o will you eat no grapes my royal fox yes but you will my noble grapes an if my royal fox could reach them i have seen a medicine that's able to breathe life into a stone quicken a rock and make you dance canary with spritely fire and motion whose simple touch is powerful to araise king pepin nay to give great charlemain a pen in's hand and write to her a love-line king what her is this lafeu why doctor she! my lord there's one arriv'd if you will see her now by my faith and honour if seriously i may convey my thoughts in this my light deliverance i have spoke with one that in her sex her years profession wisdom and constancy hath amaz'd me more than i dare blame my weakness will you see her for that is her demand and know her business that done laugh well at me king now good lafeu bring in the admiration that we with the may spend our wonder too or take off thine by wond'ring how thou took'st it lafeu nay i'll fit you and not be all day neither exit lafeu king thus he his special nothing ever prologues re-enter lafeu with helena lafeu nay come your ways king this haste hath wings indeed lafeu nay come your ways this is his majesty say your mind to him a traitor you do look like but such traitors his majesty seldom fears i am cressid's uncle that dare leave two together fare you well exit king now fair one does your business follow us helena ay my good lord gerard de narbon was my father in what he did profess well found king i knew him helena the rather will i spare my praises towards him knowing him is enough on's bed of death many receipts he gave me chiefly one which as the dearest issue of his practice and of his old experience th' only darling he bade me store up as a triple eye safer than mine own two more dear i have so and hearing your high majesty is touch'd with that malignant cause wherein the honour of my dear father's gift stands chief in power i come to tender it and my appliance with all bound humbleness king we thank you maiden but may not be so credulous of cure when our most learned doctors leave us and the congregated college have concluded that labouring art can never ransom nature from her inaidable estate-i say we must not so stain our judgment or corrupt our hope to prostitute our past-cure malady to empirics or to dissever so our great self and our credit to esteem a senseless help when help past sense we deem helena my duty then shall pay me for my pains i will no more enforce mine office on you humbly entreating from your royal thoughts a modest one to bear me back again king i cannot give thee less to be call'd grateful thou thought'st to help me and such thanks i give as one near death to those that wish him live but what at full i know thou know'st no part i knowing all my peril thou no art helena what i can do can do no hurt to try since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy he that of greatest works is finisher oft does them by the weakest minister so holy writ in babes hath judgment shown when judges have been babes great floods have flown from simple sources and great seas have dried when miracles have by the greatest been denied oft expectation fails and most oft there where most it promises and oft it hits where hope is coldest and despair most fits king i must not hear thee fare thee well kind maid thy pains not us'd must by thyself be paid proffers not took reap thanks for their reward helena inspired merit so by breath is barr'd it is not so with him that all things knows as 'tis with us that square our guess by shows but most it is presumption in us when the help of heaven we count the act of men dear sir to my endeavours give consent of heaven not me make an experiment i am not an impostor that proclaim myself against the level of mine aim but know i think and think i know most sure my art is not past power nor you past cure king art thou so confident within what space hop'st thou my cure helena the greatest grace lending grace ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring their fiery torcher his diurnal ring ere twice in murk and occidental damp moist hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp or four and twenty times the pilot's glass hath told the thievish minutes how they pass what is infirm from your sound parts shall fly health shall live free and sickness freely die king upon thy certainty and confidence what dar'st thou venture helena tax of impudence a strumpet's boldness a divulged shame traduc'd by odious ballads my maiden's name sear'd otherwise ne worse of worst-extended with vilest torture let my life be ended king methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak his powerful sound within an organ weak and what impossibility would slay in common sense sense saves another way thy life is dear for all that life can rate worth name of life in thee hath estimate youth beauty wisdom courage all that happiness and prime can happy call thou this to hazard needs must intimate skill infinite or monstrous desperate sweet practiser thy physic i will try that ministers thine own death if i die helena if i break time or flinch in property of what i spoke unpitied let me die and well deserv'd not helping death's my fee but if i help what do you promise me king make thy demand helena but will you make it even king ay by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven helena then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand what husband in thy power i will command exempted be from me the arrogance to choose from forth the royal blood of france my low and humble name to propagate with any branch or image of thy state but such a one thy vassal whom i know is free for me to ask thee to bestow king here is my hand the premises observ'd thy will by my performance shall be serv'd so make the choice of thy own time for i thy resolv'd patient on thee still rely more should i question thee and more i must though more to know could not be more to trust from whence thou cam'st how tended on but rest unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest give me some help here ho! if thou proceed as high as word my deed shall match thy deed flourish exeunt act ii scene 2 rousillon the count's palace enter countess and clown countess come on sir i shall now put you to the height of your breeding clown i will show myself highly fed and lowly taught i know my business is but to the court countess to the court! why what place make you special when you put off that with such contempt but to the court! clown truly madam if god have lent a man any manners he may easily put it off at court he that cannot make a leg put off's cap kiss his hand and say nothing has neither leg hands lip nor cap and indeed such a fellow to say precisely were not for the court but for me i have an answer will serve all men countess marry that's a bountiful answer that fits all questions clown it is like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks-the pin buttock the quatch buttock the brawn buttock or any buttock countess will your answer serve fit to all questions clown as fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney as your french crown for your taffety punk as tib's rush for tom's forefinger as a pancake for shrove tuesday a morris for mayday as the nail to his hole the cuckold to his horn as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth nay as the pudding to his skin countess have you i say an answer of such fitness for all questions clown from below your duke to beneath your constable it will fit any question countess it must be an answer of most monstrous size that must fit all demands clown but a trifle neither in good faith if the learned should speak truth of it here it is and all that belongs to't ask me if i am a courtier it shall do you no harm to learn countess to be young again if we could i will be a fool in question hoping to be the wiser by your answer i pray you sir are you a courtier clown o lord sir!-there's a simple putting off more more a hundred of them countess sir i am a poor friend of yours that loves you clown o lord sir!-thick thick spare not me countess i think sir you can eat none of this homely meat clown o lord sir!-nay put me to't i warrant you countess you were lately whipp'd sir as i think clown o lord sir!-spare not me countess do you cry 'o lord sir!' at your whipping and 'spare not me' indeed your 'o lord sir!' is very sequent to your whipping you would answer very well to a whipping if you were but bound to't clown i ne'er had worse luck in my life in my 'o lord sir!' i see thing's may serve long but not serve ever countess i play the noble housewife with the time to entertain it so merrily with a fool clown o lord sir!-why there't serves well again countess an end sir! to your business give helen this and urge her to a present answer back commend me to my kinsmen and my son this is not much clown not much commendation to them countess not much employment for you you understand me clown most fruitfully i am there before my legs countess haste you again exeunt act ii scene 3 paris the king's palace enter bertram lafeu and parolles lafeu they say miracles are past and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless hence is it that we make trifles of terrors ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear parolles why 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our latter times bertram and so 'tis lafeu to be relinquish'd of the artists- parolles so i say-both of galen and paracelsus lafeu of all the learned and authentic fellows- parolles right so i say lafeu that gave him out incurable- parolles why there 'tis so say i too lafeu not to be help'd- parolles right as 'twere a man assur'd of a- lafeu uncertain life and sure death parolles just you say well so would i have said lafeu i may truly say it is a novelty to the world parolles it is indeed if you will have it in showing you shall read it in what-do-ye-call't here lafeu reading the ballad title 'a showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor ' parolles that's it i would have said the very same lafeu why your dolphin is not lustier 'fore me i speak in respect- parolles nay 'tis strange 'tis very strange that is the brief and the tedious of it and he's of a most facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the- lafeu very hand of heaven parolles ay so i say lafeu in a most weak- parolles and debile minister great power great transcendence which should indeed give us a further use to be made than alone the recov'ry of the king as to be- lafeu generally thankful enter king helena and attendants parolles i would have said it you say well here comes the king lafeu lustig as the dutchman says i'll like a maid the better whilst i have a tooth in my head why he's able to lead her a coranto parolles mort du vinaigre! is not this helen lafeu 'fore god i think so king go call before me all the lords in court exit an attendant sit my preserver by thy patient's side and with this healthful hand whose banish'd sense thou has repeal'd a second time receive the confirmation of my promis'd gift which but attends thy naming enter three or four lords fair maid send forth thine eye this youthful parcel of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing o'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice i have to use thy frank election make thou hast power to choose and they none to forsake helena to each of you one fair and virtuous mistress fall when love please marry to each but one! lafeu i'd give bay curtal and his furniture my mouth no more were broken than these boys' and writ as little beard king peruse them well not one of those but had a noble father helena gentlemen heaven hath through me restor'd the king to health all we understand it and thank heaven for you helena i am a simple maid and therein wealthiest that i protest i simply am a maid please it your majesty i have done already the blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me 'we blush that thou shouldst choose but be refused let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever we'll ne'er come there again ' king make choice and see who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me helena now dian from thy altar do i fly and to imperial love that god most high do my sighs stream sir will you hear my suit first lord and grant it helena thanks sir all the rest is mute lafeu i had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace for my life helena the honour sir that flames in your fair eyes before i speak too threat'ningly replies love make your fortunes twenty times above her that so wishes and her humble love! second lord no better if you please helena my wish receive which great love grant and so i take my leave lafeu do all they deny her an they were sons of mine i'd have them whipt or i would send them to th' turk to make eunuchs of helena be not afraid that i your hand should take i'll never do you wrong for your own sake blessing upon your vows and in your bed find fairer fortune if you ever wed! lafeu these boys are boys of ice they'll none have her sure they are bastards to the english the french ne'er got 'em helena you are too young too happy and too good to make yourself a son out of my blood fourth lord fair one i think not so lafeu there's one grape yet i am sure thy father drunk wine-but if thou be'st not an ass i am a youth of fourteen i have known thee already helena to bertram i dare not say i take you but i give me and my service ever whilst i live into your guiding power this is the man king why then young bertram take her she's thy wife bertram my wife my liege! i shall beseech your highness in such a business give me leave to use the help of mine own eyes king know'st thou not bertram what she has done for me bertram yes my good lord but never hope to know why i should marry her king thou know'st she has rais'd me from my sickly bed bertram but follows it my lord to bring me down must answer for your raising i know her well she had her breeding at my father's charge a poor physician's daughter my wife! disdain rather corrupt me ever! king 'tis only title thou disdain'st in her the which i can build up strange is it that our bloods of colour weight and heat pour'd all together would quite confound distinction yet stand off in differences so mighty if she be all that is virtuous-save what thou dislik'st a poor physician's daughter-thou dislik'st of virtue for the name but do not so from lowest place when virtuous things proceed the place is dignified by the doer's deed where great additions swell's and virtue none it is a dropsied honour good alone is good without a name vileness is so the property by what it is should go not by the title she is young wise fair in these to nature she's immediate heir and these breed honour that is honour's scorn which challenges itself as honour's born and is not like the sire honours thrive when rather from our acts we them derive than our fore-goers the mere word's a slave debauch'd on every tomb on every grave a lying trophy and as oft is dumb where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb of honour'd bones indeed what should be said if thou canst like this creature as a maid i can create the rest virtue and she is her own dower honour and wealth from me bertram i cannot love her nor will strive to do 't king thou wrong'st thyself if thou shouldst strive to choose helena that you are well restor'd my lord i'm glad let the rest go king my honour's at the stake which to defeat i must produce my power here take her hand proud scornful boy unworthy this good gift that dost in vile misprision shackle up my love and her desert that canst not dream we poising us in her defective scale shall weigh thee to the beam that wilt not know it is in us to plant thine honour where we please to have it grow check thy contempt obey our will which travails in thy good believe not thy disdain but presently do thine own fortunes that obedient right which both thy duty owes and our power claims or i will throw thee from my care for ever into the staggers and the careless lapse of youth and ignorance both my revenge and hate loosing upon thee in the name of justice without all terms of pity speak thine answer bertram pardon my gracious lord for i submit my fancy to your eyes when i consider what great creation and what dole of honour flies where you bid it i find that she which late was in my nobler thoughts most base is now the praised of the king who so ennobled is as 'twere born so king take her by the hand and tell her she is thine to whom i promise a counterpoise if not to thy estate a balance more replete bertram i take her hand king good fortune and the favour of the king smile upon this contract whose ceremony shall seem expedient on the now-born brief and be perform'd to-night the solemn feast shall more attend upon the coming space expecting absent friends as thou lov'st her thy love's to me religious else does err exeunt all but lafeu and parolles who stay behind commenting of this wedding lafeu do you hear monsieur a word with you parolles your pleasure sir lafeu your lord and master did well to make his recantation parolles recantation! my lord! my master! lafeu ay is it not a language i speak parolles a most harsh one and not to be understood without bloody succeeding my master! lafeu are you companion to the count rousillon parolles to any count to all counts to what is man lafeu to what is count's man count's master is of another style parolles you are too old sir let it satisfy you you are too old lafeu i must tell thee sirrah i write man to which title age cannot bring thee parolles what i dare too well do i dare not do lafeu i did think thee for two ordinaries to be a pretty wise fellow thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel it might pass yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden i have now found thee when i lose thee again i care not yet art thou good for nothing but taking up and that thou'rt scarce worth parolles hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee- lafeu do not plunge thyself too far in anger lest thou hasten thy trial which if-lord have mercy on thee for a hen! so my good window of lattice fare thee well thy casement i need not open for i look through thee give me thy hand parolles my lord you give me most egregious indignity lafeu ay with all my heart and thou art worthy of it parolles i have not my lord deserv'd it lafeu yes good faith ev'ry dram of it and i will not bate thee a scruple parolles well i shall be wiser lafeu ev'n as soon as thou canst for thou hast to pull at a smack o' th' contrary if ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf and beaten thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage i have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee or rather my knowledge that i may say in the default 'he is a man i know ' parolles my lord you do me most insupportable vexation lafeu i would it were hell pains for thy sake and my poor doing eternal for doing i am past as i will by thee in what motion age will give me leave exit parolles well thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me scurvy old filthy scurvy lord! well i must be patient there is no fettering of authority i'll beat him by my life if i can meet him with any convenience an he were double and double a lord i'll have no more pity of his age than i would have of- i'll beat him and if i could but meet him again re-enter lafeu lafeu sirrah your lord and master's married there's news for you you have a new mistress parolles i most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs he is my good lord whom i serve above is my master lafeu who god parolles ay sir lafeu the devil it is that's thy master why dost thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion dost make hose of thy sleeves do other servants so thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose stands by mine honour if i were but two hours younger i'd beat thee methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee i think thou wast created for men to breathe themselves upon thee parolles this is hard and undeserved measure my lord lafeu go to sir you were beaten in italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate you are a vagabond and no true traveller you are more saucy with lords and honourable personages than the commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry you are not worth another word else i'd call you knave i leave you exit enter bertram parolles good very good it is so then good very good let it be conceal'd awhile bertram undone and forfeited to cares for ever! parolles what's the matter sweetheart bertram although before the solemn priest i have sworn i will not bed her parolles what what sweetheart bertram o my parolles they have married me! i'll to the tuscan wars and never bed her parolles france is a dog-hole and it no more merits the tread of a man's foot to th' wars! bertram there's letters from my mother what th' import is i know not yet parolles ay that would be known to th' wars my boy to th' wars! he wears his honour in a box unseen that hugs his kicky-wicky here at home spending his manly marrow in her arms which should sustain the bound and high curvet of mars's fiery steed to other regions! france is a stable we that dwell in't jades therefore to th' war! bertram it shall be so i'll send her to my house acquaint my mother with my hate to her and wherefore i am fled write to the king that which i durst not speak his present gift shall furnish me to those italian fields where noble fellows strike war is no strife to the dark house and the detested wife parolles will this capriccio hold in thee art sure bertram go with me to my chamber and advise me i'll send her straight away to-morrow i'll to the wars she to her single sorrow parolles why these balls bound there's noise in it 'tis hard a young man married is a man that's marr'd therefore away and leave her bravely go the king has done you wrong but hush 'tis so exeunt act ii scene 4 paris the king's palace enter helena and clown helena my mother greets me kindly is she well clown she is not well but yet she has her health she's very merry but yet she is not well but thanks be given she's very well and wants nothing i' th' world but yet she is not well helena if she be very well what does she ail that she's not very well clown truly she's very well indeed but for two things helena what two things clown one that she's not in heaven whither god send her quickly! the other that she's in earth from whence god send her quickly! enter parolles parolles bless you my fortunate lady! helena i hope sir i have your good will to have mine own good fortunes parolles you had my prayers to lead them on and to keep them on have them still o my knave how does my old lady clown so that you had her wrinkles and i her money i would she did as you say parolles why i say nothing clown marry you are the wiser man for many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing to say nothing to do nothing to know nothing and to have nothing is to be a great part of your title which is within a very little of nothing parolles away! th'art a knave clown you should have said sir 'before a knave th'art a knave' that's 'before me th'art a knave ' this had been truth sir parolles go to thou art a witty fool i have found thee clown did you find me in yourself sir or were you taught to find me the search sir was profitable and much fool may you find in you even to the world's pleasure and the increase of laughter parolles a good knave i' faith and well fed madam my lord will go away to-night a very serious business calls on him the great prerogative and rite of love which as your due time claims he does acknowledge but puts it off to a compell'd restraint whose want and whose delay is strew'd with sweets which they distil now in the curbed time to make the coming hour o'erflow with joy and pleasure drown the brim helena what's his else parolles that you will take your instant leave o' th' king and make this haste as your own good proceeding strength'ned with what apology you think may make it probable need helena what more commands he parolles that having this obtain'd you presently attend his further pleasure helena in everything i wait upon his will parolles i shall report it so helena i pray you exit parolles come sirrah exeunt act ii scene 5 paris the king's palace enter lafeu and bertram lafeu but i hope your lordship thinks not him a soldier bertram yes my lord and of very valiant approof lafeu you have it from his own deliverance bertram and by other warranted testimony lafeu then my dial goes not true i took this lark for a bunting bertram i do assure you my lord he is very great in knowledge and accordingly valiant lafeu i have then sinn'd against his experience and transgress'd against his valour and my state that way is dangerous since i cannot yet find in my heart to repent here he comes i pray you make us friends i will pursue the amity enter parolles parolles to bertram these things shall be done sir lafeu pray you sir who's his tailor parolles sir! lafeu o i know him well ay sir he sir 's a good workman a very good tailor bertram aside to parolles is she gone to the king parolles she is bertram will she away to-night parolles as you'll have her bertram i have writ my letters casketed my treasure given order for our horses and to-night when i should take possession of the bride end ere i do begin lafeu a good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner but one that lies three-thirds and uses a known truth to pass a thousand nothings with should be once heard and thrice beaten god save you captain bertram is there any unkindness between my lord and you monsieur parolles i know not how i have deserved to run into my lord's displeasure lafeu you have made shift to run into 't boots and spurs and all like him that leapt into the custard and out of it you'll run again rather than suffer question for your residence bertram it may be you have mistaken him my lord lafeu and shall do so ever though i took him at's prayers fare you well my lord and believe this of me there can be no kernal in this light nut the soul of this man is his clothes trust him not in matter of heavy consequence i have kept of them tame and know their natures farewell monsieur i have spoken better of you than you have or will to deserve at my hand but we must do good against evil exit parolles an idle lord i swear bertram i think so parolles why do you not know him bertram yes i do know him well and common speech gives him a worthy pass here comes my clog enter helena helena i have sir as i was commanded from you spoke with the king and have procur'd his leave for present parting only he desires some private speech with you bertram i shall obey his will you must not marvel helen at my course which holds not colour with the time nor does the ministration and required office on my particular prepar'd i was not for such a business therefore am i found so much unsettled this drives me to entreat you that presently you take your way for home and rather muse than ask why i entreat you for my respects are better than they seem and my appointments have in them a need greater than shows itself at the first view to you that know them not this to my mother giving a letter 'twill be two days ere i shall see you so i leave you to your wisdom helena sir i can nothing say but that i am your most obedient servant bertram come come no more of that helena and ever shall with true observance seek to eke out that wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd to equal my great fortune bertram let that go my haste is very great farewell hie home helena pray sir your pardon bertram well what would you say helena i am not worthy of the wealth i owe nor dare i say 'tis mine and yet it is but like a timorous thief most fain would steal what law does vouch mine own bertram what would you have helena something and scarce so much nothing indeed i would not tell you what i would my lord faith yes strangers and foes do sunder and not kiss bertram i pray you stay not but in haste to horse helena i shall not break your bidding good my lord bertram where are my other men monsieur farewell! exit helena go thou toward home where i will never come whilst i can shake my sword or hear the drum away and for our flight parolles bravely coragio! exeunt act iii scene 1 florence the duke's palace flourish enter the duke of florence attended two french lords with a troop of soldiers duke so that from point to point now have you hear the fundamental reasons of this war whose great decision hath much blood let forth and more thirsts after first lord holy seems the quarrel upon your grace's part black and fearful on the opposer duke therefore we marvel much our cousin france would in so just a business shut his bosom against our borrowing prayers second lord good my lord the reasons of our state i cannot yield but like a common and an outward man that the great figure of a council frames by self-unable motion therefore dare not say what i think of it since i have found myself in my incertain grounds to fail as often as i guess'd duke be it his pleasure first lord but i am sure the younger of our nature that surfeit on their ease will day by day come here for physic duke welcome shall they be and all the honours that can fly from us shall on them settle you know your places well when better fall for your avails they fell to-morrow to th' field flourish exeunt act iii scene 2 rousillon the count's palace enter countess and clown countess it hath happen'd all as i would have had it save that he comes not along with her clown by my troth i take my young lord to be a very melancholy man countess by what observance i pray you clown why he will look upon his boot and sing mend the ruff and sing ask questions and sing pick his teeth and sing i know a man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song countess let me see what he writes and when he means to come opening a letter clown i have no mind to isbel since i was at court our old ling and our isbels o' th' country are nothing like your old ling and your isbels o' th' court the brains of my cupid's knock'd out and i begin to love as an old man loves money with no stomach countess what have we here clown e'en that you have there exit countess reads 'i have sent you a daughter-in-law she hath recovered the king and undone me i have wedded her not bedded her and sworn to make the "not" eternal you shall hear i am run away know it before the report come if there be breadth enough in the world i will hold a long distance my duty to you your unfortunate son bertram ' this is not well rash and unbridled boy to fly the favours of so good a king to pluck his indignation on thy head by the misprizing of a maid too virtuous for the contempt of empire re-enter clown clown o madam yonder is heavy news within between two soldiers and my young lady countess what is the -matter clown nay there is some comfort in the news some comfort your son will not be kill'd so soon as i thought he would countess why should he be kill'd clown so say i madam if he run away as i hear he does the danger is in standing to 't that's the loss of men though it be the getting of children here they come will tell you more for my part i only hear your son was run away exit enter helena and the two french gentlemen second gentleman save you good madam helena madam my lord is gone for ever gone first gentleman do not say so countess think upon patience pray you gentlemen- i have felt so many quirks of joy and grief that the first face of neither on the start can woman me unto 't where is my son i pray you first gentleman madam he's gone to serve the duke of florence we met him thitherward for thence we came and after some dispatch in hand at court thither we bend again helena look on this letter madam here's my passport reads 'when thou canst get the ring upon my finger which never shall come off and show me a child begotten of thy body that i am father to then call me husband but in such a "then" i write a "never " this is a dreadful sentence countess brought you this letter gentlemen first gentleman ay madam and for the contents' sake are sorry for our pains countess i prithee lady have a better cheer if thou engrossest all the griefs are thine thou robb'st me of a moiety he was my son but i do wash his name out of my blood and thou art all my child towards florence is he first gentleman ay madam countess and to be a soldier first gentleman such is his noble purpose and believe 't the duke will lay upon him all the honour that good convenience claims countess return you thither second gentleman ay madam with the swiftest wing of speed helena reads 'till i have no wife i have nothing in france ' 'tis bitter countess find you that there helena ay madam second gentleman 'tis but the boldness of his hand haply which his heart was not consenting to countess nothing in france until he have no wife! there's nothing here that is too good for him but only she and she deserves a lord that twenty such rude boys might tend upon and call her hourly mistress who was with him second gentleman a servant only and a gentleman which i have sometime known countess parolles was it not second gentleman ay my good lady he countess a very tainted fellow and full of wickedness my son corrupts a well-derived nature with his inducement second gentleman indeed good lady the fellow has a deal of that too much which holds him much to have countess y'are welcome gentlemen i will entreat you when you see my son to tell him that his sword can never win the honour that he loses more i'll entreat you written to bear along first gentleman we serve you madam in that and all your worthiest affairs countess not so but as we change our courtesies will you draw near exeunt countess and gentlemen helena 'till i have no wife i have nothing in france ' nothing in france until he has no wife! thou shalt have none rousillon none in france then hast thou all again poor lord! is't that chase thee from thy country and expose those tender limbs of thine to the event of the non-sparing war and is it i that drive thee from the sportive court where thou wast shot at with fair eyes to be the mark of smoky muskets o you leaden messengers that ride upon the violent speed of fire fly with false aim move the still-piecing air that sings with piercing do not touch my lord whoever shoots at him i set him there whoever charges on his forward breast i am the caitiff that do hold him to't and though i kill him not i am the cause his death was so effected better 'twere i met the ravin lion when he roar'd with sharp constraint of hunger better 'twere that all the miseries which nature owes were mine at once no come thou home rousillon whence honour but of danger wins a scar as oft it loses all i will be gone my being here it is that holds thee hence shall i stay here to do 't no no although the air of paradise did fan the house and angels offic'd all i will be gone that pitiful rumour may report my flight to consolate thine ear come night end day for with the dark poor thief i'll steal away exit act iii scene 3 florence before the duke's palace flourish enter the duke of florence bertram parolles soldiers drum and trumpets duke the general of our horse thou art and we great in our hope lay our best love and credence upon thy promising fortune bertram sir it is a charge too heavy for my strength but yet we'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake to th' extreme edge of hazard duke then go thou forth and fortune play upon thy prosperous helm as thy auspicious mistress! bertram this very day great mars i put myself into thy file make me but like my thoughts and i shall prove a lover of thy drum hater of love exeunt act iii scene 4 rousillon the count's palace enter countess and steward countess alas! and would you take the letter of her might you not know she would do as she has done by sending me a letter read it again steward reads 'i am saint jaques' pilgrim thither gone ambitious love hath so in me offended that barefoot plod i the cold ground upon with sainted vow my faults to have amended write write that from the bloody course of war my dearest master your dear son may hie bless him at home in peace whilst i from far his name with zealous fervour sanctify his taken labours bid him me forgive i his despiteful juno sent him forth from courtly friends with camping foes to live where death and danger dogs the heels of worth he is too good and fair for death and me whom i myself embrace to set him free ' countess ah what sharp stings are in her mildest words! rinaldo you did never lack advice so much as letting her pass so had i spoke with her i could have well diverted her intents which thus she hath prevented steward pardon me madam if i had given you this at over-night she might have been o'er ta'en and yet she writes pursuit would be but vain countess what angel shall bless this unworthy husband he cannot thrive unless her prayers whom heaven delights to hear and loves to grant reprieve him from the wrath of greatest justice write write rinaldo to this unworthy husband of his wife let every word weigh heavy of her worth that he does weigh too light my greatest grief though little he do feel it set down sharply dispatch the most convenient messenger when haply he shall hear that she is gone he will return and hope i may that she hearing so much will speed her foot again led hither by pure love which of them both is dearest to me i have no skill in sense to make distinction provide this messenger my heart is heavy and mine age is weak grief would have tears and sorrow bids me speak exeunt act iii scene 5 without the walls of florence a tucket afar off enter an old widow of florence her daughter diana violenta and mariana with other citizens widow nay come for if they do approach the city we shall lose all the sight diana they say the french count has done most honourable service widow it is reported that he has taken their great'st commander and that with his own hand he slew the duke's brother tucket we have lost our labour they are gone a contrary way hark! you may know by their trumpets mariana come let's return again and suffice ourselves with the report of it well diana take heed of this french earl the honour of a maid is her name and no legacy is so rich as honesty widow i have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a gentleman his companion mariana i know that knave hang him! one parolles a filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl beware of them diana their promises enticements oaths tokens and all these engines of lust are not the things they go under many a maid hath been seduced by them and the misery is example that so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood cannot for all that dissuade succession but that they are limed with the twigs that threatens them i hope i need not to advise you further but i hope your own grace will keep you where you are though there were no further danger known but the modesty which is so lost diana you shall not need to fear me enter helena in the dress of a pilgrim widow i hope so look here comes a pilgrim i know she will lie at my house thither they send one another i'll question her god save you pilgrim! whither are bound helena to saint jaques le grand where do the palmers lodge i do beseech you widow at the saint francis here beside the port helena is this the way a march afar widow ay marry is't hark you! they come this way if you will tarry holy pilgrim but till the troops come by i will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd the rather for i think i know your hostess as ample as myself helena is it yourself widow if you shall please so pilgrim helena i thank you and will stay upon your leisure widow you came i think from france helena i did so widow here you shall see a countryman of yours that has done worthy service helena his name i pray you diana the count rousillon know you such a one helena but by the ear that hears most nobly of him his face i know not diana what some'er he is he's bravely taken here he stole from france as 'tis reported for the king had married him against his liking think you it is so helena ay surely mere the truth i know his lady diana there is a gentleman that serves the count reports but coarsely of her helena what's his name diana monsieur parolles helena o i believe with him in argument of praise or to the worth of the great count himself she is too mean to have her name repeated all her deserving is a reserved honesty and that i have not heard examin'd diana alas poor lady! 'tis a hard bondage to become the wife of a detesting lord widow i sweet good creature wheresoe'er she is her heart weighs sadly this young maid might do her a shrewd turn if she pleas'd helena how do you mean may be the amorous count solicits her in the unlawful purpose widow he does indeed and brokes with all that can in such a suit corrupt the tender honour of a maid but she is arm'd for him and keeps her guard in honestest defence enter with drum and colours bertram parolles and the whole army mariana the gods forbid else! widow so now they come that is antonio the duke's eldest son that escalus helena which is the frenchman diana he- that with the plume 'tis a most gallant fellow i would he lov'd his wife if he were honester he were much goodlier is't not a handsome gentleman helena i like him well diana 'tis pity he is not honest yond's that same knave that leads him to these places were i his lady i would poison that vile rascal helena which is he diana that jack-an-apes with scarfs why is he melancholy helena perchance he's hurt i' th' battle parolles lose our drum! well mariana he's shrewdly vex'd at something look he has spied us widow marry hang you! mariana and your courtesy for a ring-carrier! exeunt bertram parolles and army widow the troop is past come pilgrim i will bring you where you shall host of enjoin'd penitents there's four or five to great saint jaques bound already at my house helena i humbly thank you please it this matron and this gentle maid to eat with us to-night the charge and thanking shall be for me and to requite you further i will bestow some precepts of this virgin worthy the note both we'll take your offer kindly exeunt act iii scene 6 camp before florence enter bertram and the two french lords second lord nay good my lord put him to't let him have his way first lord if your lordship find him not a hiding hold me no more in your respect second lord on my life my lord a bubble bertram do you think i am so far deceived in him second lord believe it my lord in mine own direct knowledge without any malice but to speak of him as my kinsman he's a most notable coward an infinite and endless liar an hourly promise-breaker the owner of no one good quality worthy your lordship's entertainment first lord it were fit you knew him lest reposing too far in his virtue which he hath not he might at some great and trusty business in a main danger fail you bertram i would i knew in what particular action to try him first lord none better than to let him fetch off his drum which you hear him so confidently undertake to do second lord i with a troop of florentines will suddenly surprise him such i will have whom i am sure he knows not from the enemy we will bind and hoodwink him so that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries when we bring him to our own tents be but your lordship present at his examination if he do not for the promise of his life and in the highest compulsion of base fear offer to betray you and deliver all the intelligence in his power against you and that with the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath never trust my judgment in anything first lord o for the love of laughter let him fetch his drum he says he has a stratagem for't when your lordship sees the bottom of his success in't and to what metal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted if you give him not john drum's entertainment your inclining cannot be removed here he comes enter parolles second lord o for the love of laughter hinder not the honour of his design let him fetch off his drum in any hand bertram how now monsieur! this drum sticks sorely in your disposition first lord a pox on 't let it go 'tis but a drum parolles but a drum! is't but a drum a drum so lost! there was excellent command to charge in with our horse upon our own wings and to rend our own soldiers! first lord that was not to be blam'd in the command of the service it was a disaster of war that caesar himself could not have prevented if he had been there to command bertram well we cannot greatly condemn our success some dishonour we had in the loss of that drum but it is not to be recovered parolles it might have been recovered bertram it might but it is not now parolles it is to be recovered but that the merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer i would have that drum or another or 'hic jacet ' bertram why if you have a stomach to't monsieur if you think your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honour again into his native quarter be magnanimous in the enterprise and go on i will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit if you speed well in it the duke shall both speak of it and extend to you what further becomes his greatness even to the utmost syllable of our worthiness parolles by the hand of a soldier i will undertake it bertram but you must not now slumber in it parolles i'll about it this evening and i will presently pen down my dilemmas encourage myself in my certainty put myself into my mortal preparation and by midnight look to hear further from me bertram may i be bold to acquaint his grace you are gone about it parolles i know not what the success will be my lord but the attempt i vow bertram i know th' art valiant and to the of thy soldiership will subscribe for thee farewell parolles i love not many words exit second lord no more than a fish loves water is not this a strange fellow my lord that so confidently seems to undertake this business which he knows is not to be done damns himself to do and dares better be damn'd than to do 't first lord you do not know him my lord as we do certain it is that he will steal himself into a man's favour and for a week escape a great deal of discoveries but when you find him out you have him ever after bertram why do you think he will make no deed at all of this that so seriously he does address himself unto second lord none in the world but return with an invention and clap upon you two or three probable lies but we have almost emboss'd him you shall see his fall to-night for indeed he is not for your lordship's respect first lord we'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him he was first smok'd by the old lord lafeu when his disguise and he is parted tell me what a sprat you shall find him which you shall see this very night second lord i must go look my twigs he shall be caught bertram your brother he shall go along with me second lord as't please your lordship i'll leave you exit bertram now will i lead you to the house and show you the lass i spoke of first lord but you say she's honest bertram that's all the fault i spoke with her but once and found her wondrous cold but i sent to her by this same coxcomb that we have i' th' wind tokens and letters which she did re-send and this is all i have done she's a fair creature will you go see her first lord with all my heart my lord exeunt act iii scene 7 florence the widow's house enter helena and widow helena if you misdoubt me that i am not she i know not how i shall assure you further but i shall lose the grounds i work upon widow though my estate be fall'n i was well born nothing acquainted with these businesses and would not put my reputation now in any staining act helena nor would i wish you first give me trust the count he is my husband and what to your sworn counsel i have spoken is so from word to word and then you cannot by the good aid that i of you shall borrow err in bestowing it widow i should believe you for you have show'd me that which well approves y'are great in fortune helena take this purse of gold and let me buy your friendly help thus far which i will over-pay and pay again when i have found it the count he woos your daughter lays down his wanton siege before her beauty resolv'd to carry her let her in fine consent as we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it now his important blood will nought deny that she'll demand a ring the county wears that downward hath succeeded in his house from son to son some four or five descents since the first father wore it this ring he holds in most rich choice yet in his idle fire to buy his will it would not seem too dear howe'er repented after widow now i see the bottom of your purpose helena you see it lawful then it is no more but that your daughter ere she seems as won desires this ring appoints him an encounter in fine delivers me to fill the time herself most chastely absent after this to marry her i'll add three thousand crowns to what is pass'd already widow i have yielded instruct my daughter how she shall persever that time and place with this deceit so lawful may prove coherent every night he comes with musics of all sorts and songs compos'd to her unworthiness it nothing steads us to chide him from our eaves for he persists as if his life lay on 't helena why then to-night let us assay our plot which if it speed is wicked meaning in a lawful deed and lawful meaning in a lawful act where both not sin and yet a sinful fact but let's about it exeunt act iv scene 1 without the florentine camp enter second french lord with five or six other soldiers in ambush second lord he can come no other way but by this hedge-corner when you sally upon him speak what terrible language you will though you understand it not yourselves no matter for we must not seem to understand him unless some one among us whom we must produce for an interpreter first soldier good captain let me be th' interpreter second lord art not acquainted with him knows he not thy voice first soldier no sir i warrant you second lord but what linsey-woolsey has thou to speak to us again first soldier e'en such as you speak to me second lord he must think us some band of strangers i' th' adversary's entertainment now he hath a smack of all neighbouring languages therefore we must every one be a man of his own fancy not to know what we speak one to another so we seem to know is to know straight our purpose choughs' language gabble enough and good enough as for you interpreter you must seem very politic but couch ho! here he comes to beguile two hours in a sleep and then to return and swear the lies he forges enter parolles parolles ten o'clock within these three hours 'twill be time enough to go home what shall i say i have done it must be a very plausive invention that carries it they begin to smoke me and disgraces have of late knock'd to often at my door i find my tongue is too foolhardy but my heart hath the fear of mars before it and of his creatures not daring the reports of my tongue second lord this is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was guilty of parolles what the devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this drum being not ignorant of the impossibility and knowing i had no such purpose i must give myself some hurts and say i got them in exploit yet slight ones will not carry it they will say 'came you off with so little ' and great ones i dare not give wherefore what's the instance tongue i must put you into a butterwoman's mouth and buy myself another of bajazet's mule if you prattle me into these perils second lord is it possible he should know what he is and be that he is parolles i would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn or the breaking of my spanish sword second lord we cannot afford you so parolles or the baring of my beard and to say it was in stratagem second lord 'twould not do parolles or to drown my clothes and say i was stripp'd second lord hardly serve parolles though i swore i leap'd from the window of the citadel- second lord how deep parolles thirty fathom second lord three great oaths would scarce make that be believed parolles i would i had any drum of the enemy's i would swear i recover'd it second lord you shall hear one anon alarum within parolles a drum now of the enemy's! second lord throca movousus cargo cargo cargo all cargo cargo cargo villianda par corbo cargo parolles o ransom ransom! do not hide mine eyes they blindfold him first soldier boskos thromuldo boskos parolles i know you are the muskos' regiment and i shall lose my life for want of language if there be here german or dane low dutch italian or french let him speak to me i'll discover that which shall undo the florentine first soldier boskos vauvado i understand thee and can speak thy tongue kerely-bonto sir betake thee to thy faith for seventeen poniards are at thy bosom parolles o! first soldier o pray pray pray! manka revania dulche second lord oscorbidulchos volivorco first soldier the general is content to spare thee yet and hoodwink'd as thou art will lead thee on to gather from thee haply thou mayst inform something to save thy life parolles o let me live and all the secrets of our camp i'll show their force their purposes nay i'll speak that which you will wonder at first soldier but wilt thou faithfully parolles if i do not damn me first soldier acordo linta come on thou art granted space exit parolles guarded a short alarum within second lord go tell the count rousillon and my brother we have caught the woodcock and will keep him muffled till we do hear from them second soldier captain i will second lord 'a will betray us all unto ourselves- inform on that second soldier so i will sir second lord till then i'll keep him dark and safely lock'd exeunt act iv scene 2 florence the widow's house enter bertram and diana bertram they told me that your name was fontibell diana no my good lord diana bertram titled goddess and worth it with addition! but fair soul in your fine frame hath love no quality if the quick fire of youth light not your mind you are no maiden but a monument when you are dead you should be such a one as you are now for you are cold and stern and now you should be as your mother was when your sweet self was got diana she then was honest bertram so should you be diana no my mother did but duty such my lord as you owe to your wife bertram no more o'that! i prithee do not strive against my vows i was compell'd to her but i love the by love's own sweet constraint and will for ever do thee all rights of service diana ay so you serve us till we serve you but when you have our roses you barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves and mock us with our bareness bertram how have i sworn! diana 'tis not the many oaths that makes the truth but the plain single vow that is vow'd true what is not holy that we swear not by but take the high'st to witness then pray you tell me if i should swear by jove's great attributes i lov'd you dearly would you believe my oaths when i did love you ill this has no holding to swear by him whom i protest to love that i will work against him therefore your oaths are words and poor conditions but unseal'd- at least in my opinion bertram change it change it be not so holy-cruel love is holy and my integrity ne'er knew the crafts that you do charge men with stand no more off but give thyself unto my sick desires who then recovers say thou art mine and ever my love as it begins shall so persever diana i see that men make ropes in such a scarre that we'll forsake ourselves give me that ring bertram i'll lend it thee my dear but have no power to give it from me diana will you not my lord bertram it is an honour 'longing to our house bequeathed down from many ancestors which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world in me to lose diana mine honour's such a ring my chastity's the jewel of our house bequeathed down from many ancestors which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world in me to lose thus your own proper wisdom brings in the champion honour on my part against your vain assault bertram here take my ring my house mine honour yea my life be thine and i'll be bid by thee diana when midnight comes knock at my chamber window i'll order take my mother shall not hear now will i charge you in the band of truth when you have conquer'd my yet maiden bed remain there but an hour nor speak to me my reasons are most strong and you shall know them when back again this ring shall be deliver'd and on your finger in the night i'll put another ring that what in time proceeds may token to the future our past deeds adieu till then then fail not you have won a wife of me though there my hope be done bertram a heaven on earth i have won by wooing thee exit diana for which live long to thank both heaven and me! you may so in the end my mother told me just how he would woo as if she sat in's heart she says all men have the like oaths he had sworn to marry me when his wife's dead therefore i'll lie with him when i am buried since frenchmen are so braid marry that will i live and die a maid only in this disguise i think't no sin to cozen him that would unjustly win exit act iv scene 3 the florentine camp enter the two french lords and two or three soldiers second lord you have not given him his mother's letter first lord i have deliv'red it an hour since there is something in't that stings his nature for on the reading it he chang'd almost into another man second lord he has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off so good a wife and so sweet a lady first lord especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure of the king who had even tun'd his bounty to sing happiness to him i will tell you a thing but you shall let it dwell darkly with you second lord when you have spoken it 'tis dead and i am the grave of it first lord he hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in florence of a most chaste renown and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour he hath given her his monumental ring and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition second lord now god delay our rebellion! as we are ourselves what things are we! first lord merely our own traitors and as in the common course of all treasons we still see them reveal themselves till they attain to their abhorr'd ends so he that in this action contrives against his own nobility in his proper stream o'erflows himself second lord is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents we shall not then have his company to-night first lord not till after midnight for he is dieted to his hour second lord that approaches apace i would gladly have him see his company anatomiz'd that he might take a measure of his own judgments wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit first lord we will not meddle with him till he come for his presence must be the whip of the other second lord in the meantime what hear you of these wars first lord i hear there is an overture of peace second lord nay i assure you a peace concluded first lord what will count rousillon do then will he travel higher or return again into france second lord i perceive by this demand you are not altogether of his counsel first lord let it be forbid sir! so should i be a great deal of his act second lord sir his wife some two months since fled from his house her pretence is a pilgrimage to saint jaques le grand which holy undertaking with most austere sanctimony she accomplish'd and there residing the tenderness of her nature became as a prey to her grief in fine made a groan of her last breath and now she sings in heaven first lord how is this justified second lord the stronger part of it by her own letters which makes her story true even to the point of her death her death itself which could not be her office to say is come was faithfully confirm'd by the rector of the place first lord hath the count all this intelligence second lord ay and the particular confirmations point from point to the full arming of the verity first lord i am heartily sorry that he'll be glad of this second lord how mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our losses! first lord and how mightily some other times we drown our gain in tears! the great dignity that his valour hath here acquir'd for him shall at home be encount'red with a shame as ample second lord the web of our life is of a mingled yarn good and ill together our virtues would be proud if our faults whipt them not and our crimes would despair if they were not cherish'd by our virtues enter a messenger how now where's your master servant he met the duke in the street sir of whom he hath taken a solemn leave his lordship will next morning for france the duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the king second lord they shall be no more than needful there if they were more than they can commend first lord they cannot be too sweet for the king's tartness here's his lordship now enter bertram how now my lord is't not after midnight bertram i have to-night dispatch'd sixteen businesses a month's length apiece by an abstract of success i have congied with the duke done my adieu with his nearest buried a wife mourn'd for her writ to my lady mother i am returning entertain'd my convoy and between these main parcels of dispatch effected many nicer needs the last was the greatest but that i have not ended yet second lord if the business be of any difficulty and this morning your departure hence it requires haste of your lordship bertram i mean the business is not ended as fearing to hear of it hereafter but shall we have this dialogue between the fool and the soldier come bring forth this counterfeit module has deceiv'd me like a double-meaning prophesier second lord bring him forth exeunt soldiers has sat i' th' stocks all night poor gallant knave bertram no matter his heels have deserv'd it in usurping his spurs so long how does he carry himself second lord i have told your lordship already the stocks carry him but to answer you as you would be understood he weeps like a wench that had shed her milk he hath confess'd himself to morgan whom he supposes to be a friar from the time of his remembrance to this very instant disaster of his setting i' th' stocks and what think you he hath confess'd bertram nothing of me has 'a second lord his confession is taken and it shall be read to his face if your lordship be in't as i believe you are you must have the patience to hear it enter parolles guarded and first soldier as interpreter bertram a plague upon him! muffled! he can say nothing of me second lord hush hush! hoodman comes portotartarossa first soldier he calls for the tortures what will you say without 'em parolles i will confess what i know without constraint if ye pinch me like a pasty i can say no more first soldier bosko chimurcho second lord boblibindo chicurmurco first soldier you are a merciful general our general bids you answer to what i shall ask you out of a note parolles and truly as i hope to live first soldier 'first demand of him how many horse the duke is strong ' what say you to that parolles five or six thousand but very weak and unserviceable the troops are all scattered and the commanders very poor rogues upon my reputation and credit and as i hope to live first soldier shall i set down your answer so parolles do i'll take the sacrament on 't how and which way you will bertram all's one to him what a past-saving slave is this! second lord y'are deceiv'd my lord this is monsieur parolles the gallant militarist-that was his own phrase-that had the whole theoric of war in the knot of his scarf and the practice in the chape of his dagger first lord i will never trust a man again for keeping his sword clean nor believe he can have everything in him by wearing his apparel neatly first soldier well that's set down parolles 'five or six thousand horse' i said-i will say true- 'or thereabouts' set down for i'll speak truth second lord he's very near the truth in this bertram but i con him no thanks for't in the nature he delivers it parolles 'poor rogues' i pray you say first soldier well that's set down parolles i humbly thank you sir a truth's a truth-the rogues are marvellous poor first soldier 'demand of him of what strength they are a-foot ' what say you to that parolles by my troth sir if i were to live this present hour i will tell true let me see spurio a hundred and fifty sebastian so many corambus so many jaques so many guiltian cosmo lodowick and gratii two hundred fifty each mine own company chitopher vaumond bentii two hundred fifty each so that the muster-file rotten and sound upon my life amounts not to fifteen thousand poll half of the which dare not shake the snow from off their cassocks lest they shake themselves to pieces bertram what shall be done to him second lord nothing but let him have thanks demand of him my condition and what credit i have with the duke first soldier well that's set down 'you shall demand of him whether one captain dumain be i' th' camp a frenchman what his reputation is with the duke what his valour honesty expertness in wars or whether he thinks it were not possible with well-weighing sums of gold to corrupt him to a revolt ' what say you to this what do you know of it parolles i beseech you let me answer to the particular of the inter'gatories demand them singly first soldier do you know this captain dumain parolles i know him 'a was a botcher's prentice in paris from whence he was whipt for getting the shrieve's fool with child-a dumb innocent that could not say him nay bertram nay by your leave hold your hands though i know his brains are forfeit to the next tile that falls first soldier well is this captain in the duke of florence's camp parolles upon my knowledge he is and lousy second lord nay look not so upon me we shall hear of your lordship anon first soldier what is his reputation with the duke parolles the duke knows him for no other but a poor officer of mine and writ to me this other day to turn him out o' th' band i think i have his letter in my pocket first soldier marry we'll search parolles in good sadness i do not know either it is there or it is upon a file with the duke's other letters in my tent first soldier here 'tis here's a paper shall i read it to you parolles i do not know if it be it or no bertram our interpreter does it well second lord excellently first soldier reads 'dian the count's a fool and full of gold ' parolles that is not the duke's letter sir that is an advertisement to a proper maid in florence one diana to take heed of the allurement of one count rousillon a foolish idle boy but for all that very ruttish i pray you sir put it up again first soldier nay i'll read it first by your favour parolles my meaning in't i protest was very honest in the behalf of the maid for i knew the young count to be a dangerous and lascivious boy who is a whale to virginity and devours up all the fry it finds bertram damnable both-sides rogue! first soldier reads 'when he swears oaths bid him drop gold and take it after he scores he never pays the score half won is match well made match and well make it he ne'er pays after-debts take it before and say a soldier dian told thee this men are to mell with boys are not to kiss for count of this the count's a fool i know it who pays before but not when he does owe it thine as he vow'd to thee in thine ear parolles ' bertram he shall be whipt through the army with this rhyme in's forehead first lord this is your devoted friend sir the manifold linguist and the amnipotent soldier bertram i could endure anything before but a cat and now he's a cat to me first soldier i perceive sir by our general's looks we shall be fain to hang you parolles my life sir in any case! not that i am afraid to die but that my offences being many i would repent out the remainder of nature let me live sir in a dungeon i' th' stocks or anywhere so i may live first soldier we'll see what may be done so you confess freely therefore once more to this captain dumain you have answer'd to his reputation with the duke and to his valour what is his honesty parolles he will steal sir an egg out of a cloister for rapes and ravishments he parallels nessus he professes not keeping of oaths in breaking 'em he is stronger than hercules he will lie sir with such volubility that you would think truth were a fool drunkenness is his best virtue for he will be swine-drunk and in his sleep he does little harm save to his bedclothes about him but they know his conditions and lay him in straw i have but little more to say sir of his honesty he has everything that an honest man should not have what an honest man should have he has nothing second lord i begin to love him for this bertram for this description of thine honesty a pox upon him! for me he's more and more a cat first soldier what say you to his expertness in war parolles faith sir has led the drum before the english tragedians-to belie him i will not-and more of his soldier-ship i know not except in that country he had the honour to be the officer at a place there called mile-end to instruct for the doubling of files-i would do the man what honour i can-but of this i am not certain second lord he hath out-villain'd villainy so far that the rarity redeems him bertram a pox on him! he's a cat still first soldier his qualities being at this poor price i need not to ask you if gold will corrupt him to revolt parolles sir for a cardecue he will sell the fee-simple of his salvation the inheritance of it and cut th' entail from all remainders and a perpetual succession for it perpetually first soldier what's his brother the other captain dumain first lord why does he ask him of me first soldier what's he parolles e'en a crow o' th' same nest not altogether so great as the first in goodness but greater a great deal in evil he excels his brother for a coward yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is in a retreat he outruns any lackey marry in coming on he has the cramp first soldier if your life be saved will you undertake to betray the florentine parolles ay and the captain of his horse count rousillon first soldier i'll whisper with the general and know his pleasure parolles aside i'll no more drumming a plague of all drums! only to seem to deserve well and to beguile the supposition of that lascivious young boy the count have i run into this danger yet who would have suspected an ambush where i was taken first soldier there is no remedy sir but you must die the general says you that have so traitorously discover'd the secrets of your army and made such pestiferous reports of men very nobly held can serve the world for no honest use therefore you must die come headsman of with his head parolles o lord sir let me live or let me see my death! first soldier that shall you and take your leave of all your friends unmuffling him so look about you know you any here bertram good morrow noble captain first lord god bless you captain parolles second lord god save you noble captain first lord captain what greeting will you to my lord lafeu i am for france second lord good captain will you give me a copy of the sonnet you writ to diana in behalf of the count rousillon an i were not a very coward i'd compel it of you but fare you well exeunt bertram and lords first soldier you are undone captain all but your scarf that has a knot on 't yet parolles who cannot be crush'd with a plot first soldier if you could find out a country where but women were that had received so much shame you might begin an impudent nation fare ye well sir i am for france too we shall speak of you there exit with soldiers parolles yet am i thankful if my heart were great 'twould burst at this captain i'll be no more but i will eat and drink and sleep as soft as captain shall simply the thing i am shall make me live who knows himself a braggart let him fear this for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass rust sword cool blushes and parolles live safest in shame being fool'd by fool'ry thrive there's place and means for every man alive i'll after them exit act iv scene 4 the widow's house enter helena widow and diana helena that you may well perceive i have not wrong'd you! one of the greatest in the christian world shall be my surety fore whose throne 'tis needful ere i can perfect mine intents to kneel time was i did him a desired office dear almost as his life which gratitude through flinty tartar's bosom would peep forth and answer 'thanks ' i duly am inform'd his grace is at marseilles to which place we have convenient convoy you must know i am supposed dead the army breaking my husband hies him home where heaven aiding and by the leave of my good lord the king we'll be before our welcome widow gentle madam you never had a servant to whose trust your business was more welcome helena nor you mistress ever a friend whose thoughts more truly labour to recompense your love doubt not but heaven hath brought me up to be your daughter's dower as it hath fated her to be my motive and helper to a husband but o strange men! that can such sweet use make of what they hate when saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts defiles the pitchy night so lust doth play with what it loathes for that which is away but more of this hereafter you diana under my poor instructions yet must suffer something in my behalf diana let death and honesty go with your impositions i am yours upon your will to suffer helena yet i pray you but with the word the time will bring on summer when briers shall have leaves as well as thorns and be as sweet as sharp we must away our waggon is prepar'd and time revives us all's well that ends well still the fine's the crown whate'er the course the end is the renown exeunt act iv scene 5 rousillon the count's palace enter countess lafeu and clown lafeu no no no son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbak'd and doughy youth of a nation in his colour your daughter-in-law had been alive at this hour and your son here at home more advanc'd by the king than by that red-tail'd humble-bee i speak of countess i would i had not known him it was the death of the most virtuous gentlewoman that ever nature had praise for creating if she had partaken of my flesh and cost me the dearest groans of a mother i could not have owed her a more rooted love lafeu 'twas a good lady 'twas a good lady we may pick a thousand sallets ere we light on such another herb clown indeed sir she was the sweet-marjoram of the sallet or rather the herb of grace lafeu they are not sallet-herbs you knave they are nose-herbs clown i am no great nebuchadnezzar sir i have not much skill in grass lafeu whether dost thou profess thyself-a knave or a fool clown a fool sir at a woman's service and a knave at a man's lafeu your distinction clown i would cozen the man of his wife and do his service lafeu so you were a knave at his service indeed clown and i would give his wife my bauble sir to do her service lafeu i will subscribe for thee thou art both knave and fool clown at your service lafeu no no no clown why sir if i cannot serve you i can serve as great a prince as you are lafeu who's that a frenchman clown faith sir 'a has an english name but his fisnomy is more hotter in france than there lafeu what prince is that clown the black prince sir alias the prince of darkness alias the devil lafeu hold thee there's my purse i give thee not this to suggest thee from thy master thou talk'st of serve him still clown i am a woodland fellow sir that always loved a great fire and the master i speak of ever keeps a good fire but sure he is the prince of the world let his nobility remain in's court i am for the house with the narrow gate which i take to be too little for pomp to enter some that humble themselves may but the many will be too chill and tender and they'll be for the flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire lafeu go thy ways i begin to be aweary of thee and i tell thee so before because i would not fall out with thee go thy ways let my horses be well look'd to without any tricks clown if i put any tricks upon 'em sir they shall be jades' tricks which are their own right by the law of nature exit lafeu a shrewd knave and an unhappy countess so 'a is my lord that's gone made himself much sport out of him by his authority he remains here which he thinks is a patent for his sauciness and indeed he has no pace but runs where he will lafeu i like him well 'tis not amiss and i was about to tell you since i heard of the good lady's death and that my lord your son was upon his return home i moved the king my master to speak in the behalf of my daughter which in the minority of them both his majesty out of a self-gracious remembrance did first propose his highness hath promis'd me to do it and to stop up the displeasure he hath conceived against your son there is no fitter matter how does your ladyship like it countess with very much content my lord and i wish it happily effected lafeu his highness comes post from marseilles of as able body as when he number'd thirty 'a will be here to-morrow or i am deceiv'd by him that in such intelligence hath seldom fail'd countess it rejoices me that i hope i shall see him ere i die i have letters that my son will be here to-night i shall beseech your lordship to remain with me tal they meet together lafeu madam i was thinking with what manners i might safely be admitted countess you need but plead your honourable privilege lafeu lady of that i have made a bold charter but i thank my god it holds yet re-enter clown clown o madam yonder's my lord your son with a patch of velvet on's face whether there be a scar under 't or no the velvet knows but 'tis a goodly patch of velvet his left cheek is a cheek of two pile and a half but his right cheek is worn bare lafeu a scar nobly got or a noble scar is a good liv'ry of honour so belike is that clown but it is your carbonado'd face lafeu let us go see your son i pray you i long to talk with the young noble soldier clown faith there's a dozen of 'em with delicate fine hats and most courteous feathers which bow the head and nod at every man exeunt act v scene 1 marseilles a street enter helena widow and diana with two attendants helena but this exceeding posting day and night must wear your spirits low we cannot help it but since you have made the days and nights as one to wear your gentle limbs in my affairs be bold you do so grow in my requital as nothing can unroot you enter a gentleman in happy time! this man may help me to his majesty's ear if he would spend his power god save you sir gentleman and you helena sir i have seen you in the court of france gentleman i have been sometimes there helena i do presume sir that you are not fall'n from the report that goes upon your goodness and therefore goaded with most sharp occasions which lay nice manners by i put you to the use of your own virtues for the which i shall continue thankful gentleman what's your will helena that it will please you to give this poor petition to the king and aid me with that store of power you have to come into his presence gentleman the king's not here helena not here sir gentleman not indeed he hence remov'd last night and with more haste than is his use widow lord how we lose our pains! helena all's well that ends well yet though time seem so adverse and means unfit i do beseech you whither is he gone gentleman marry as i take it to rousillon whither i am going helena i do beseech you sir since you are like to see the king before me commend the paper to his gracious hand which i presume shall render you no blame but rather make you thank your pains for it i will come after you with what good speed our means will make us means gentleman this i'll do for you helena and you shall find yourself to be well thank'd whate'er falls more we must to horse again go go provide exeunt act v scene 2 rousillon the inner court of the count's palace enter clown and parolles parolles good monsieur lavache give my lord lafeu this letter i have ere now sir been better known to you when i have held familiarity with fresher clothes but i am now sir muddied in fortune's mood and smell somewhat strong of her strong displeasure clown truly fortune's displeasure is but sluttish if it smell so strongly as thou speak'st of i will henceforth eat no fish of fortune's butt'ring prithee allow the wind parolles nay you need not to stop your nose sir i spake but by a metaphor clown indeed sir if your metaphor stink i will stop my nose or against any man's metaphor prithee get thee further parolles pray you sir deliver me this paper clown foh! prithee stand away a paper from fortune's close-stool to give to a nobleman! look here he comes himself enter lafeu here is a pur of fortune's sir or of fortune's cat but not a musk-cat that has fall'n into the unclean fishpond of her displeasure and as he says is muddied withal pray you sir use the carp as you may for he looks like a poor decayed ingenious foolish rascally knave i do pity his distress in my similes of comfort and leave him to your lordship exit parolles my lord i am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratch'd lafeu and what would you have me to do 'tis too late to pare her nails now wherein have you played the knave with fortune that she should scratch you who of herself is a good lady and would not have knaves thrive long under her there's a cardecue for you let the justices make you and fortune friends i am for other business parolles i beseech your honour to hear me one single word lafeu you beg a single penny more come you shall ha't save your word parolles my name my good lord is parolles lafeu you beg more than word then cox my passion! give me your hand how does your drum parolles o my good lord you were the first that found me lafeu was i in sooth and i was the first that lost thee parolles it lies in you my lord to bring me in some grace for you did bring me out lafeu out upon thee knave! dost thou put upon me at once both the office of god and the devil one brings the in grace and the other brings thee out trumpets sound the king's coming i know by his trumpets sirrah inquire further after me i had talk of you last night though you are a fool and a knave you shall eat go to follow parolles i praise god for you exeunt act v scene 3 rousillon the count's palace flourish enter king countess lafeu the two french lords with attendants king we lost a jewel of her and our esteem was made much poorer by it but your son as mad in folly lack'd the sense to know her estimation home countess 'tis past my liege and i beseech your majesty to make it natural rebellion done i' th' blaze of youth when oil and fire too strong for reason's force o'erbears it and burns on king my honour'd lady i have forgiven and forgotten all though my revenges were high bent upon him and watch'd the time to shoot lafeu this i must say- but first i beg my pardon the young lord did to his majesty his mother and his lady offence of mighty note but to himself the greatest wrong of all he lost a wife whose beauty did astonish the survey of richest eyes whose words all ears took captive whose dear perfection hearts that scorn'd to serve humbly call'd mistress king praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear well call him hither we are reconcil'd and the first view shall kill all repetition let him not ask our pardon the nature of his great offence is dead and deeper than oblivion do we bury th' incensing relics of it let him approach a stranger no offender and inform him so 'tis our will he should gentleman i shall my liege exit gentleman king what says he to your daughter have you spoke lafeu all that he is hath reference to your highness king then shall we have a match i have letters sent me that sets him high in fame enter bertram lafeu he looks well on 't king i am not a day of season for thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail in me at once but to the brightest beams distracted clouds give way so stand thou forth the time is fair again bertram my high-repented blames dear sovereign pardon to me king all is whole not one word more of the consumed time let's take the instant by the forward top for we are old and on our quick'st decrees th' inaudible and noiseless foot of time steals ere we can effect them you remember the daughter of this lord bertram admiringly my liege at first i stuck my choice upon her ere my heart durst make too bold herald of my tongue where the impression of mine eye infixing contempt his scornful perspective did lend me which warp'd the line of every other favour scorn'd a fair colour or express'd it stol'n extended or contracted all proportions to a most hideous object thence it came that she whom all men prais'd and whom myself since i have lost have lov'd was in mine eye the dust that did offend it king well excus'd that thou didst love her strikes some scores away from the great compt but love that comes too late like a remorseful pardon slowly carried to the great sender turns a sour offence crying 'that's good that's gone ' our rash faults make trivial price of serious things we have not knowing them until we know their grave oft our displeasures to ourselves unjust destroy our friends and after weep their dust our own love waking cries to see what's done while shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon be this sweet helen's knell and now forget her send forth your amorous token for fair maudlin the main consents are had and here we'll stay to see our widower's second marriage-day countess which better than the first o dear heaven bless! or ere they meet in me o nature cesse! lafeu come on my son in whom my house's name must be digested give a favour from you to sparkle in the spirits of my daughter that she may quickly come bertram gives a ring by my old beard and ev'ry hair that's on 't helen that's dead was a sweet creature such a ring as this the last that e'er i took her leave at court i saw upon her finger bertram hers it was not king now pray you let me see it for mine eye while i was speaking oft was fasten'd to't this ring was mine and when i gave it helen i bade her if her fortunes ever stood necessitied to help that by this token i would relieve her had you that craft to reave her of what should stead her most bertram my gracious sovereign howe'er it pleases you to take it so the ring was never hers countess son on my life i have seen her wear it and she reckon'd it at her life's rate lafeu i am sure i saw her wear it bertram you are deceiv'd my lord she never saw it in florence was it from a casement thrown me wrapp'd in a paper which contain'd the name of her that threw it noble she was and thought i stood engag'd but when i had subscrib'd to mine own fortune and inform'd her fully i could not answer in that course of honour as she had made the overture she ceas'd in heavy satisfaction and would never receive the ring again king plutus himself that knows the tinct and multiplying med'cine hath not in nature's mystery more science than i have in this ring 'twas mine 'twas helen's whoever gave it you then if you know that you are well acquainted with yourself confess 'twas hers and by what rough enforcement you got it from her she call'd the saints to surety that she would never put it from her finger unless she gave it to yourself in bed- where you have never come- or sent it us upon her great disaster bertram she never saw it king thou speak'st it falsely as i love mine honour and mak'st conjectural fears to come into me which i would fain shut out if it should prove that thou art so inhuman- 'twill not prove so and yet i know not- thou didst hate her deadly and she is dead which nothing but to close her eyes myself could win me to believe more than to see this ring take him away guards seize bertram my fore-past proofs howe'er the matter fall shall tax my fears of little vanity having vainly fear'd too little away with him we'll sift this matter further bertram if you shall prove this ring was ever hers you shall as easy prove that i husbanded her bed in florence where she yet never was exit guarded king i am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings enter a gentleman gentleman gracious sovereign whether i have been to blame or no i know not here's a petition from a florentine who hath for four or five removes come short to tender it herself i undertook it vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech of the poor suppliant who by this i know is here attending her business looks in her with an importing visage and she told me in a sweet verbal brief it did concern your highness with herself king reads the letter 'upon his many protestations to marry me when his wife was dead i blush to say it he won me now is the count rousillon a widower his vows are forfeited to me and my honour's paid to him he stole from florence taking no leave and i follow him to his country for justice grant it me o king! in you it best lies otherwise a seducer flourishes and a poor maid is undone diana capilet ' lafeu i will buy me a son-in-law in a fair and toll for this i'll none of him king the heavens have thought well on thee lafeu to bring forth this discov'ry seek these suitors go speedily and bring again the count exeunt attendants i am afeard the life of helen lady was foully snatch'd countess now justice on the doers! enter bertram guarded king i wonder sir sith wives are monsters to you and that you fly them as you swear them lordship yet you desire to marry enter widow and diana what woman's that diana i am my lord a wretched florentine derived from the ancient capilet my suit as i do understand you know and therefore know how far i may be pitied widow i am her mother sir whose age and honour both suffer under this complaint we bring and both shall cease without your remedy king come hither count do you know these women bertram my lord i neither can nor will deny but that i know them do they charge me further diana why do you look so strange upon your wife bertram she's none of mine my lord diana if you shall marry you give away this hand and that is mine you give away heaven's vows and those are mine you give away myself which is known mine for i by vow am so embodied yours that she which marries you must marry me either both or none lafeu to bertram your reputation comes too short for my daughter you are no husband for her bertram my lord this is a fond and desp'rate creature whom sometime i have laugh'd with let your highness lay a more noble thought upon mine honour than for to think that i would sink it here king sir for my thoughts you have them ill to friend till your deeds gain them fairer prove your honour than in my thought it lies! diana good my lord ask him upon his oath if he does think he had not my virginity king what say'st thou to her bertram she's impudent my lord and was a common gamester to the camp diana he does me wrong my lord if i were so he might have bought me at a common price do not believe him o behold this ring whose high respect and rich validity did lack a parallel yet for all that he gave it to a commoner o' th' camp if i be one countess he blushes and 'tis it of six preceding ancestors that gem conferr'd by testament to th' sequent issue hath it been ow'd and worn this is his wife that ring's a thousand proofs king methought you said you saw one here in court could witness it diana i did my lord but loath am to produce so bad an instrument his name's parolles lafeu i saw the man to-day if man he be king find him and bring him hither exit an attendant bertram what of him he's quoted for a most perfidious slave with all the spots o' th' world tax'd and debauch'd whose nature sickens but to speak a truth am i or that or this for what he'll utter that will speak anything king she hath that ring of yours bertram i think she has certain it is i lik'd her and boarded her i' th' wanton way of youth she knew her distance and did angle for me madding my eagerness with her restraint as all impediments in fancy's course are motives of more fancy and in fine her infinite cunning with her modern grace subdu'd me to her rate she got the ring and i had that which any inferior might at market-price have bought diana i must be patient you that have turn'd off a first so noble wife may justly diet me i pray you yet- since you lack virtue i will lose a husband- send for your ring i will return it home and give me mine again bertram i have it not king what ring was yours i pray you diana sir much like the same upon your finger king know you this ring this ring was his of late diana and this was it i gave him being abed king the story then goes false you threw it him out of a casement diana i have spoke the truth enter parolles bertram my lord i do confess the ring was hers king you boggle shrewdly every feather starts you is this the man you speak of diana ay my lord king tell me sirrah-but tell me true i charge you not fearing the displeasure of your master which on your just proceeding i'll keep off- by him and by this woman here what know you parolles so please your majesty my master hath been an honourable gentleman tricks he hath had in him which gentlemen have king come come to th' purpose did he love this woman parolles faith sir he did love her but how king how i pray you parolles he did love her sir as a gentleman loves a woman king how is that parolles he lov'd her sir and lov'd her not king as thou art a knave and no knave what an equivocal companion is this! parolles i am a poor man and at your majesty's command lafeu he's a good drum my lord but a naughty orator diana do you know he promis'd me marriage parolles faith i know more than i'll speak king but wilt thou not speak all thou know'st parolles yes so please your majesty i did go between them as i said but more than that he loved her-for indeed he was mad for her and talk'd of satan and of limbo and of furies and i know not what yet i was in that credit with them at that time that i knew of their going to bed and of other motions as promising her marriage and things which would derive me ill will to speak of therefore i will not speak what i know king thou hast spoken all already unless thou canst say they are married but thou art too fine in thy evidence therefore stand aside this ring you say was yours diana ay my good lord king where did you buy it or who gave it you diana it was not given me nor i did not buy it king who lent it you diana it was not lent me neither king where did you find it then diana i found it not king if it were yours by none of all these ways how could you give it him diana i never gave it him lafeu this woman's an easy glove my lord she goes of and on at pleasure king this ring was mine i gave it his first wife diana it might be yours or hers for aught i know king take her away i do not like her now to prison with her and away with him unless thou tell'st me where thou hadst this ring thou diest within this hour diana i'll never tell you king take her away diana i'll put in bail my liege king i think thee now some common customer diana by jove if ever i knew man 'twas you king wherefore hast thou accus'd him all this while diana because he's guilty and he is not guilty he knows i am no maid and he'll swear to't i'll swear i am a maid and he knows not great king i am no strumpet by my life i am either maid or else this old man's wife pointing to lafeu king she does abuse our ears to prison with her diana good mother fetch my bail stay royal sir exit widow the jeweller that owes the ring is sent for and he shall surety me but for this lord who hath abus'd me as he knows himself though yet he never harm'd me here i quit him he knows himself my bed he hath defil'd and at that time he got his wife with child dead though she be she feels her young one kick so there's my riddle one that's dead is quick- and now behold the meaning re-enter widow with helena king is there no exorcist beguiles the truer office of mine eyes is't real that i see helena no my good lord 'tis but the shadow of a wife you see the name and not the thing bertram both both o pardon! helena o my good lord when i was like this maid i found you wondrous kind there is your ring and look you here's your letter this it says 'when from my finger you can get this ring and are by me with child ' etc this is done will you be mine now you are doubly won bertram if she my liege can make me know this clearly i'll love her dearly ever ever dearly helena if it appear not plain and prove untrue deadly divorce step between me and you! o my dear mother do i see you living lafeu mine eyes smell onions i shall weep anon to parolles good tom drum lend me a handkercher so i thank thee wait on me home i'll make sport with thee let thy curtsies alone they are scurvy ones king let us from point to point this story know to make the even truth in pleasure flow to diana if thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower choose thou thy husband and i'll pay thy dower for i can guess that by thy honest aid thou kept'st a wife herself thyself a maid - of that and all the progress more and less resolvedly more leisure shall express all yet seems well and if it end so meet the bitter past more welcome is the sweet flourish epilogue epilogue king the king's a beggar now the play is done all is well ended if this suit be won that you express content which we will pay with strife to please you day exceeding day ours be your patience then and yours our parts your gentle hands lend us and take our hearts exeunt omnes the end 1607 the tragedy of antony and cleopatra by william shakespeare dramatis personae mark antony triumvirs octavius caesar " m aemilius lepidus " sextus pompeius " domitius enobarbus friend to antony ventidius " " " eros " " " scarus " " " dercetas " " " demetrius " " " philo " " " maecenas friend to caesar agrippa " " " dolabella " " " proculeius " " " thyreus " " " gallus " " " menas friend to pompey menecrates " " " varrius " " " taurus lieutenant-general to caesar canidius lieutenant-general to antony silius an officer in ventidius's army euphronius an ambassador from antony to caesar alexas attendant on cleopatra mardian " " " seleucus " " " diomedes " " " a soothsayer a clown cleopatra queen of egypt octavia sister to caesar and wife to antony charmian lady attending on cleopatra iras " " " " officers soldiers messengers and attendants scene the roman empire act i scene i alexandria cleopatra's palace enter demetrius and philo philo nay but this dotage of our general's o'erflows the measure those his goodly eyes that o'er the files and musters of the war have glow'd like plated mars now bend now turn the office and devotion of their view upon a tawny front his captain's heart which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst the buckles on his breast reneges all temper and is become the bellows and the fan to cool a gipsy's lust flourish enter antony cleopatra her ladies the train with eunuchs fanning her look where they come! take but good note and you shall see in him the triple pillar of the world transform'd into a strumpet's fool behold and see cleopatra if it be love indeed tell me how much antony there's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd cleopatra i'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd antony then must thou needs find out new heaven new earth enter a messenger messenger news my good lord from rome antony grates me the sum cleopatra nay hear them antony fulvia perchance is angry or who knows if the scarce-bearded caesar have not sent his pow'rful mandate to you 'do this or this take in that kingdom and enfranchise that perform't or else we damn thee ' antony how my love cleopatra perchance nay and most like you must not stay here longer your dismission is come from caesar therefore hear it antony where's fulvia's process caesar's i would say both call in the messengers as i am egypt's queen thou blushest antony and that blood of thine is caesar's homager else so thy cheek pays shame when shrill-tongu'd fulvia scolds the messengers! antony let rome in tiber melt and the wide arch of the rang'd empire fall! here is my space kingdoms are clay our dungy earth alike feeds beast as man the nobleness of life is to do thus emhracing when such a mutual pair and such a twain can do't in which i bind on pain of punishment the world to weet we stand up peerless cleopatra excellent falsehood! why did he marry fulvia and not love her i'll seem the fool i am not antony will be himself antony but stirr'd by cleopatra now for the love of love and her soft hours let's not confound the time with conference harsh there's not a minute of our lives should stretch without some pleasure now what sport to-night cleopatra hear the ambassadors antony fie wrangling queen! whom everything becomes- to chide to laugh to weep whose every passion fully strives to make itself in thee fair and admir'd no messenger but thine and all alone to-night we'll wander through the streets and note the qualities of people come my queen last night you did desire it speak not to us exeunt antony and cleopatra with the train demetrius is caesar with antonius priz'd so slight philo sir sometimes when he is not antony he comes too short of that great property which still should go with antony demetrius i am full sorry that he approves the common liar who thus speaks of him at rome but i will hope of better deeds to-morrow rest you happy! exeunt scene ii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter charmian iras alexas and a soothsayer charmian lord alexas sweet alexas most anything alexas almost most absolute alexas where's the soothsayer that you prais'd so to th' queen o that i knew this husband which you say must charge his horns with garlands! alexas soothsayer! soothsayer your will charmian is this the man is't you sir that know things soothsayer in nature's infinite book of secrecy a little i can read alexas show him your hand enter enobarbus enobarbus bring in the banquet quickly wine enough cleopatra's health to drink charmian good sir give me good fortune soothsayer i make not but foresee charmian pray then foresee me one soothsayer you shall be yet far fairer than you are charmian he means in flesh iras no you shall paint when you are old charmian wrinkles forbid! alexas vex not his prescience be attentive charmian hush! soothsayer you shall be more beloving than beloved charmian i had rather heat my liver with drinking alexas nay hear him charmian good now some excellent fortune! let me be married to three kings in a forenoon and widow them all let me have a child at fifty to whom herod of jewry may do homage find me to marry me with octavius caesar and companion me with my mistress soothsayer you shall outlive the lady whom you serve charmian o excellent! i love long life better than figs soothsayer you have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune than that which is to approach charmian then belike my children shall have no names prithee how many boys and wenches must i have soothsayer if every of your wishes had a womb and fertile every wish a million charmian out fool! i forgive thee for a witch alexas you think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes charmian nay come tell iras hers alexas we'll know all our fortunes enobarbus mine and most of our fortunes to-night shall be- drunk to bed iras there's a palm presages chastity if nothing else charmian e'en as the o'erflowing nilus presageth famine iras go you wild bedfellow you cannot soothsay charmian nay if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication i cannot scratch mine ear prithee tell her but worky-day fortune soothsayer your fortunes are alike iras but how but how give me particulars soothsayer i have said iras am i not an inch of fortune better than she charmian well if you were but an inch of fortune better than i where would you choose it iras not in my husband's nose charmian our worser thoughts heavens mend! alexas- come his fortune his fortune! o let him marry a woman that cannot go sweet isis i beseech thee! and let her die too and give him a worse! and let worse follow worse till the worst of all follow him laughing to his grave fiftyfold a cuckold! good isis hear me this prayer though thou deny me a matter of more weight good isis i beseech thee! iras amen dear goddess hear that prayer of the people! for as it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wiv'd so it is a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded therefore dear isis keep decorum and fortune him accordingly! charmian amen alexas lo now if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold they would make themselves whores but they'ld do't! enter cleopatra enobarbus hush! here comes antony charmian not he the queen cleopatra saw you my lord enobarbus no lady cleopatra was he not here charmian no madam cleopatra he was dispos'd to mirth but on the sudden a roman thought hath struck him enobarbus! enobarbus madam cleopatra seek him and bring him hither where's alexas alexas here at your service my lord approaches enter antony with a messenger and attendants cleopatra we will not look upon him go with us exeunt cleopatra enobarbus and the rest messenger fulvia thy wife first came into the field antony against my brother lucius messenger ay but soon that war had end and the time's state made friends of them jointing their force 'gainst caesar whose better issue in the war from italy upon the first encounter drave them antony well what worst messenger the nature of bad news infects the teller antony when it concerns the fool or coward on! things that are past are done with me 'tis thus who tells me true though in his tale lie death i hear him as he flatter'd messenger labienus- this is stiff news- hath with his parthian force extended asia from euphrates his conquering banner shook from syria to lydia and to ionia whilst- antony antony thou wouldst say messenger o my lord! antony speak to me home mince not the general tongue name cleopatra as she is call'd in rome rail thou in fulvia's phrase and taunt my faults with such full licence as both truth and malice have power to utter o then we bring forth weeds when our quick minds lie still and our ills told us is as our earing fare thee well awhile messenger at your noble pleasure exit antony from sicyon ho the news! speak there! first attendant the man from sicyon- is there such an one second attendant he stays upon your will antony let him appear these strong egyptian fetters i must break or lose myself in dotage enter another messenger with a letter what are you second messenger fulvia thy wife is dead antony where died she second messenger in sicyon her length of sickness with what else more serious importeth thee to know this bears gives the letter antony forbear me exit messenger there's a great spirit gone! thus did i desire it what our contempts doth often hurl from us we wish it ours again the present pleasure by revolution low'ring does become the opposite of itself she's good being gone the hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on i must from this enchanting queen break off ten thousand harms more than the ills i know my idleness doth hatch how now enobarbus! re-enter enobarbus enobarbus what's your pleasure sir antony i must with haste from hence enobarbus why then we kill all our women we see how mortal an unkindness is to them if they suffer our departure death's the word antony i must be gone enobarbus under a compelling occasion let women die it were pity to cast them away for nothing though between them and a great cause they should be esteemed nothing cleopatra catching but the least noise of this dies instantly i have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment i do think there is mettle in death which commits some loving act upon her she hath such a celerity in dying antony she is cunning past man's thought enobarbus alack sir no! her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love we cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report this cannot be cunning in her if it be she makes a show'r of rain as well as jove antony would i had never seen her! enobarbus o sir you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work which not to have been blest withal would have discredited your travel antony fulvia is dead enobarbus sir antony fulvia is dead enobarbus fulvia antony dead enobarbus why sir give the gods a thankful sacrifice when it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him it shows to man the tailors of the earth comforting therein that when old robes are worn out there are members to make new if there were no more women but fulvia then had you indeed a cut and the case to be lamented this grief is crown'd with consolation your old smock brings forth a new petticoat and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow antony the business she hath broached in the state cannot endure my absence enobarbus and the business you have broach'd here cannot be without you especially that of cleopatra's which wholly depends on your abode antony no more light answers let our officers have notice what we purpose i shall break the cause of our expedience to the queen and get her leave to part for not alone the death of fulvia with more urgent touches do strongly speak to us but the letters to of many our contriving friends in rome petition us at home sextus pompeius hath given the dare to caesar and commands the empire of the sea our slippery people whose love is never link'd to the deserver till his deserts are past begin to throw pompey the great and all his dignities upon his son who high in name and power higher than both in blood and life stands up for the main soldier whose quality going on the sides o' th' world may danger much is breeding which like the courser's hair hath yet but life and not a serpent's poison say our pleasure to such whose place is under us requires our quick remove from hence enobarbus i shall do't exeunt scene iii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra charmian iras and alexas cleopatra where is he charmian i did not see him since cleopatra see where he is who's with him what he does i did not send you if you find him sad say i am dancing if in mirth report that i am sudden sick quick and return exit alexas charmian madam methinks if you did love him dearly you do not hold the method to enforce the like from him cleopatra what should i do i do not charmian in each thing give him way cross him in nothing cleopatra thou teachest like a fool- the way to lose him charmian tempt him not so too far i wish forbear in time we hate that which we often fear enter antony but here comes antony cleopatra i am sick and sullen antony i am sorry to give breathing to my purpose- cleopatra help me away dear charmian i shall fall it cannot be thus long the sides of nature will not sustain it antony now my dearest queen- cleopatra pray you stand farther from me antony what's the matter cleopatra i know by that same eye there's some good news what says the married woman you may go would she had never given you leave to come! let her not say 'tis i that keep you here- i have no power upon you hers you are antony the gods best know- cleopatra o never was there queen so mightily betray'd! yet at the first i saw the treasons planted antony cleopatra- cleopatra why should i think you can be mine and true though you in swearing shake the throned gods who have been false to fulvia riotous madness to be entangled with those mouth-made vows which break themselves in swearing! antony most sweet queen- cleopatra nay pray you seek no colour for your going but bid farewell and go when you sued staying then was the time for words no going then! eternity was in our lips and eyes bliss in our brows' bent none our parts so poor but was a race of heaven they are so still or thou the greatest soldier of the world art turn'd the greatest liar antony how now lady! cleopatra i would i had thy inches thou shouldst know there were a heart in egypt antony hear me queen the strong necessity of time commands our services awhile but my full heart remains in use with you our italy shines o'er with civil swords sextus pompeius makes his approaches to the port of rome equality of two domestic powers breed scrupulous faction the hated grown to strength are newly grown to love the condemn'd pompey rich in his father's honour creeps apace into the hearts of such as have not thrived upon the present state whose numbers threaten and quietness grown sick of rest would purge by any desperate change my more particular and that which most with you should safe my going is fulvia's death cleopatra though age from folly could not give me freedom it does from childishness can fulvia die antony she's dead my queen look here and at thy sovereign leisure read the garboils she awak'd at the last best see when and where she died cleopatra o most false love! where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill with sorrowful water now i see i see in fulvia's death how mine receiv'd shall be antony quarrel no more but be prepar'd to know the purposes i bear which are or cease as you shall give th' advice by the fire that quickens nilus' slime i go from hence thy soldier servant making peace or war as thou affects cleopatra cut my lace charmian come! but let it be i am quickly ill and well- so antony loves antony my precious queen forbear and give true evidence to his love which stands an honourable trial cleopatra so fulvia told me i prithee turn aside and weep for her then bid adieu to me and say the tears belong to egypt good now play one scene of excellent dissembling and let it look like perfect honour antony you'll heat my blood no more cleopatra you can do better yet but this is meetly antony now by my sword- cleopatra and target still he mends but this is not the best look prithee charmian how this herculean roman does become the carriage of his chafe antony i'll leave you lady cleopatra courteous lord one word sir you and i must part- but that's not it sir you and i have lov'd- but there's not it that you know well something it is i would- o my oblivion is a very antony and i am all forgotten! antony but that your royalty holds idleness your subject i should take you for idleness itself cleopatra 'tis sweating labour to bear such idleness so near the heart as cleopatra this but sir forgive me since my becomings kill me when they do not eye well to you your honour calls you hence therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly and all the gods go with you! upon your sword sit laurel victory and smooth success be strew'd before your feet! antony let us go come our separation so abides and flies that thou residing here goes yet with me and i hence fleeting here remain with thee away! exeunt scene iv rome caesar's house enter octavius caesar reading a letter lepidus and their train caesar you may see lepidus and henceforth know it is not caesar's natural vice to hate our great competitor from alexandria this is the news he fishes drinks and wastes the lamps of night in revel is not more manlike than cleopatra nor the queen of ptolemy more womanly than he hardly gave audience or vouchsaf'd to think he had partners you shall find there a man who is the abstract of all faults that all men follow lepidus i must not think there are evils enow to darken all his goodness his faults in him seem as the spots of heaven more fiery by night's blackness hereditary rather than purchas'd what he cannot change than what he chooses caesar you are too indulgent let's grant it is not amiss to tumble on the bed of ptolemy to give a kingdom for a mirth to sit and keep the turn of tippling with a slave to reel the streets at noon and stand the buffet with knaves that smell of sweat say this becomes him- as his composure must be rare indeed whom these things cannot blemish- yet must antony no way excuse his foils when we do bear so great weight in his lightness if he fill'd his vacancy with his voluptuousness full surfeits and the dryness of his bones call on him for't! but to confound such time that drums him from his sport and speaks as loud as his own state and ours- 'tis to be chid as we rate boys who being mature in knowledge pawn their experience to their present pleasure and so rebel to judgment enter a messenger lepidus here's more news messenger thy biddings have been done and every hour most noble caesar shalt thou have report how 'tis abroad pompey is strong at sea and it appears he is belov'd of those that only have fear'd caesar to the ports the discontents repair and men's reports give him much wrong'd caesar i should have known no less it hath been taught us from the primal state that he which is was wish'd until he were and the ebb'd man ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love comes dear'd by being lack'd this common body like to a vagabond flag upon the stream goes to and back lackeying the varying tide to rot itself with motion messenger caesar i bring thee word menecrates and menas famous pirates make the sea serve them which they ear and wound with keels of every kind many hot inroads they make in italy the borders maritime lack blood to think on't and flush youth revolt no vessel can peep forth but 'tis as soon taken as seen for pompey's name strikes more than could his war resisted caesar antony leave thy lascivious wassails when thou once was beaten from modena where thou slew'st hirtius and pansa consuls at thy heel did famine follow whom thou fought'st against though daintily brought up with patience more than savages could suffer thou didst drink the stale of horses and the gilded puddle which beasts would cough at thy palate then did deign the roughest berry on the rudest hedge yea like the stag when snow the pasture sheets the barks of trees thou brows'd on the alps it is reported thou didst eat strange flesh which some did die to look on and all this- it wounds thine honour that i speak it now- was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek so much as lank'd not lepidus 'tis pity of him caesar let his shames quickly drive him to rome 'tis time we twain did show ourselves i' th' field and to that end assemble we immediate council pompey thrives in our idleness lepidus to-morrow caesar i shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly both what by sea and land i can be able to front this present time caesar till which encounter it is my business too farewell lepidus farewell my lord what you shall know meantime of stirs abroad i shall beseech you sir to let me be partaker caesar doubt not sir i knew it for my bond exeunt scene v alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra charmian iras and mardian cleopatra charmian! charmian madam cleopatra ha ha! give me to drink mandragora charmian why madam cleopatra that i might sleep out this great gap of time my antony is away charmian you think of him too much cleopatra o 'tis treason! charmian madam i trust not so cleopatra thou eunuch mardian! mardian what's your highness' pleasure cleopatra not now to hear thee sing i take no pleasure in aught an eunuch has 'tis well for thee that being unseminar'd thy freer thoughts may not fly forth of egypt hast thou affections mardian yes gracious madam cleopatra indeed mardian not in deed madam for i can do nothing but what indeed is honest to be done yet have i fierce affections and think what venus did with mars cleopatra o charmian where think'st thou he is now stands he or sits he or does he walk or is he on his horse o happy horse to bear the weight of antony! do bravely horse for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st the demi-atlas of this earth the arm and burgonet of men he's speaking now or murmuring 'where's my serpent of old nile ' for so he calls me now i feed myself with most delicious poison think on me that am with phoebus' amorous pinches black and wrinkled deep in time broad-fronted caesar when thou wast here above the ground i was a morsel for a monarch and great pompey would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow there would he anchor his aspect and die with looking on his life enter alexas alexas sovereign of egypt hail! cleopatra how much unlike art thou mark antony! yet coming from him that great med'cine hath with his tinct gilded thee how goes it with my brave mark antony alexas last thing he did dear queen he kiss'd- the last of many doubled kisses- this orient pearl his speech sticks in my heart cleopatra mine ear must pluck it thence alexas 'good friend ' quoth he 'say the firm roman to great egypt sends this treasure of an oyster at whose foot to mend the petty present i will piece her opulent throne with kingdoms all the east say thou shall call her mistress ' so he nodded and soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed who neigh'd so high that what i would have spoke was beastly dumb'd by him cleopatra what was he sad or merry alexas like to the time o' th' year between the extremes of hot and cold he was nor sad nor merry cleopatra o well-divided disposition! note him note him good charmian 'tis the man but note him! he was not sad for he would shine on those that make their looks by his he was not merry which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay in egypt with his joy but between both o heavenly mingle! be'st thou sad or merry the violence of either thee becomes so does it no man else met'st thou my posts alexas ay madam twenty several messengers why do you send so thick cleopatra who's born that day when i forget to send to antony shall die a beggar ink and paper charmian welcome my good alexas did i charmian ever love caesar so charmian o that brave caesar! cleopatra be chok'd with such another emphasis! say 'the brave antony ' charmian the valiant caesar! cleopatra by isis i will give thee bloody teeth if thou with caesar paragon again my man of men charmian by your most gracious pardon i sing but after you cleopatra my salad days when i was green in judgment cold in blood to say as i said then but come away! get me ink and paper he shall have every day a several greeting or i'll unpeople egypt exeunt act ii scene i messina pompey's house enter pompey menecrates and menas in warlike manner pompey if the great gods be just they shall assist the deeds of justest men menecrates know worthy pompey that what they do delay they not deny pompey whiles we are suitors to their throne decays the thing we sue for menecrates we ignorant of ourselves beg often our own harms which the wise pow'rs deny us for our good so find we profit by losing of our prayers pompey i shall do well the people love me and the sea is mine my powers are crescent and my auguring hope says it will come to th' full mark antony in egypt sits at dinner and will make no wars without doors caesar gets money where he loses hearts lepidus flatters both of both is flatter'd but he neither loves nor either cares for him menas caesar and lepidus are in the field a mighty strength they carry pompey where have you this 'tis false menas from silvius sir pompey he dreams i know they are in rome together looking for antony but all the charms of love salt cleopatra soften thy wan'd lip! let witchcraft join with beauty lust with both tie up the libertine in a field of feasts keep his brain fuming epicurean cooks sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite that sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour even till a lethe'd dullness- enter varrius how now varrius! varrius this is most certain that i shall deliver mark antony is every hour in rome expected since he went from egypt 'tis a space for farther travel pompey i could have given less matter a better ear menas i did not think this amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm for such a petty war his soldiership is twice the other twain but let us rear the higher our opinion that our stirring can from the lap of egypt's widow pluck the ne'er-lust-wearied antony menas i cannot hope caesar and antony shall well greet together his wife that's dead did trespasses to caesar his brother warr'd upon him although i think not mov'd by antony pompey i know not menas how lesser enmities may give way to greater were't not that we stand up against them all 'twere pregnant they should square between themselves for they have entertained cause enough to draw their swords but how the fear of us may cement their divisions and bind up the petty difference we yet not know be't as our gods will have't! it only stands our lives upon to use our strongest hands come menas exeunt scene ii rome the house of lepidus enter enobarbus and lepidus lepidus good enobarbus 'tis a worthy deed and shall become you well to entreat your captain to soft and gentle speech enobarbus i shall entreat him to answer like himself if caesar move him let antony look over caesar's head and speak as loud as mars by jupiter were i the wearer of antonius' beard i would not shave't to-day lepidus 'tis not a time for private stomaching enobarbus every time serves for the matter that is then born in't lepidus but small to greater matters must give way enobarbus not if the small come first lepidus your speech is passion but pray you stir no embers up here comes the noble antony enter antony and ventidius enobarbus and yonder caesar enter caesar maecenas and agrippa antony if we compose well here to parthia hark ventidius caesar i do not know maecenas ask agrippa lepidus noble friends that which combin'd us was most great and let not a leaner action rend us what's amiss may it be gently heard when we debate our trivial difference loud we do commit murder in healing wounds then noble partners the rather for i earnestly beseech touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms nor curstness grow to th' matter antony 'tis spoken well were we before our arinies and to fight i should do thus flourish caesar welcome to rome antony thank you caesar sit antony sit sir caesar nay then they sit antony i learn you take things ill which are not so or being concern you not caesar i must be laugh'd at if or for nothing or a little should say myself offended and with you chiefly i' the world more laugh'd at that i should once name you derogately when to sound your name it not concern'd me antony my being in egypt caesar what was't to you caesar no more than my residing here at rome might be to you in egypt yet if you there did practise on my state your being in egypt might be my question antony how intend you- practis'd caesar you may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent by what did here befall me your wife and brother made wars upon me and their contestation was theme for you you were the word of war antony you do mistake your business my brother never did urge me in his act i did inquire it and have my learning from some true reports that drew their swords with you did he not rather discredit my authority with yours and make the wars alike against my stomach having alike your cause of this my letters before did satisfy you if you'll patch a quarrel as matter whole you have not to make it with it must not be with this caesar you praise yourself by laying defects of judgment to me but you patch'd up your excuses antony not so not so i know you could not lack i am certain on't very necessity of this thought that i your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought could not with graceful eyes attend those wars which fronted mine own peace as for my wife i would you had her spirit in such another! the third o' th' world is yours which with a snaffle you may pace easy but not such a wife enobarbus would we had all such wives that the men might go to wars with the women! antony so much uncurbable her garboils caesar made out of her impatience- which not wanted shrewdness of policy too- i grieving grant did you too much disquiet for that you must but say i could not help it caesar i wrote to you when rioting in alexandria you did pocket up my letters and with taunts did gibe my missive out of audience antony sir he fell upon me ere admitted then three kings i had newly feasted and did want of what i was i' th' morning but next day i told him of myself which was as much as to have ask'd him pardon let this fellow be nothing of our strife if we contend out of our question wipe him caesar you have broken the article of your oath which you shall never have tongue to charge me with lepidus soft caesar! antony no lepidus let him speak the honour is sacred which he talks on now supposing that i lack'd it but on caesar the article of my oath- caesar to lend me arms and aid when i requir'd them the which you both denied antony neglected rather and then when poisoned hours had bound me up from mine own knowledge as nearly as i may i'll play the penitent to you but mine honesty shall not make poor my greatness nor my power work without it truth is that fulvia to have me out of egypt made wars here for which myself the ignorant motive do so far ask pardon as befits mine honour to stoop in such a case lepidus 'tis noble spoken maecenas if it might please you to enforce no further the griefs between ye- to forget them quite were to remember that the present need speaks to atone you lepidus worthily spoken maecenas enobarbus or if you borrow one another's love for the instant you may when you hear no more words of pompey return it again you shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do antony thou art a soldier only speak no more enobarbus that truth should be silent i had almost forgot antony you wrong this presence therefore speak no more enobarbus go to then- your considerate stone! caesar i do not much dislike the matter but the manner of his speech for't cannot be we shall remain in friendship our conditions so diff'ring in their acts yet if i knew what hoop should hold us stanch from edge to edge o' th' world i would pursue it agrippa give me leave caesar caesar speak agrippa agrippa thou hast a sister by the mother's side admir'd octavia great mark antony is now a widower caesar say not so agrippa if cleopatra heard you your reproof were well deserv'd of rashness antony i am not married caesar let me hear agrippa further speak agrippa to hold you in perpetual amity to make you brothers and to knit your hearts with an unslipping knot take antony octavia to his wife whose beauty claims no worse a husband than the best of men whose virtue and whose general graces speak that which none else can utter by this marriage all little jealousies which now seem great and all great fears which now import their dangers would then be nothing truths would be tales where now half tales be truths her love to both would each to other and all loves to both draw after her pardon what i have spoke for 'tis a studied not a present thought by duty ruminated antony will caesar speak caesar not till he hears how antony is touch'd with what is spoke already antony what power is in agrippa if i would say 'agrippa be it so ' to make this good caesar the power of caesar and his power unto octavia antony may i never to this good purpose that so fairly shows dream of impediment! let me have thy hand further this act of grace and from this hour the heart of brothers govern in our loves and sway our great designs! caesar there is my hand a sister i bequeath you whom no brother did ever love so dearly let her live to join our kingdoms and our hearts and never fly off our loves again! lepidus happily amen! antony i did not think to draw my sword 'gainst pompey for he hath laid strange courtesies and great of late upon me i must thank him only lest my remembrance suffer ill report at heel of that defy him lepidus time calls upon's of us must pompey presently be sought or else he seeks out us antony where lies he caesar about the mount misenum antony what is his strength by land caesar great and increasing but by sea he is an absolute master antony so is the fame would we had spoke together! haste we for it yet ere we put ourselves in arms dispatch we the business we have talk'd of caesar with most gladness and do invite you to my sister's view whither straight i'll lead you antony let us lepidus not lack your company lepidus noble antony not sickness should detain me flourish exeunt all but enobarbus agrippa maecenas maecenas welcome from egypt sir enobarbus half the heart of caesar worthy maecenas! my honourable friend agrippa! agrippa good enobarbus! maecenas we have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested you stay'd well by't in egypt enobarbus ay sir we did sleep day out of countenance and made the night light with drinking maecenas eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast and but twelve persons there is this true enobarbus this was but as a fly by an eagle we had much more monstrous matter of feast which worthily deserved noting maecenas she's a most triumphant lady if report be square to her enobarbus when she first met mark antony she purs'd up his heart upon the river of cydnus agrippa there she appear'd indeed! or my reporter devis'd well for her enobarbus i will tell you the barge she sat in like a burnish'd throne burn'd on the water the poop was beaten gold purple the sails and so perfumed that the winds were love-sick with them the oars were silver which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made the water which they beat to follow faster as amorous of their strokes for her own person it beggar'd all description she did lie in her pavilion cloth-of-gold of tissue o'erpicturing that venus where we see the fancy out-work nature on each side her stood pretty dimpled boys like smiling cupids with divers-colour'd fans whose wind did seem to glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool and what they undid did agrippa o rare for antony! enobarbus her gentlewomen like the nereides so many mermaids tended her i' th' eyes and made their bends adornings at the helm a seeming mermaid steers the silken tackle swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands that yarely frame the office from the barge a strange invisible perfume hits the sense of the adjacent wharfs the city cast her people out upon her and antony enthron'd i' th' market-place did sit alone whistling to th' air which but for vacancy had gone to gaze on cleopatra too and made a gap in nature agrippa rare egyptian! enobarbus upon her landing antony sent to her invited her to supper she replied it should be better he became her guest which she entreated our courteous antony whom ne'er the word of 'no' woman heard speak being barber'd ten times o'er goes to the feast and for his ordinary pays his heart for what his eyes eat only agrippa royal wench! she made great caesar lay his sword to bed he ploughed her and she cropp'd enobarbus i saw her once hop forty paces through the public street and having lost her breath she spoke and panted that she did make defect perfection and breathless pow'r breathe forth maecenas now antony must leave her utterly enobarbus never! he will not age cannot wither her nor custom stale her infinite variety other women cloy the appetites they feed but she makes hungry where most she satisfies for vilest things become themselves in her that the holy priests bless her when she is riggish maecenas if beauty wisdom modesty can settle the heart of antony octavia is a blessed lottery to him agrippa let us go good enobarbus make yourself my guest whilst you abide here enobarbus humbly sir i thank you exeunt scene iii rome caesar's house enter antony caesar octavia between them antony the world and my great office will sometimes divide me from your bosom octavia all which time before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers to them for you antony good night sir my octavia read not my blemishes in the world's report i have not kept my square but that to come shall all be done by th' rule good night dear lady octavia good night sir caesar good night exeunt caesar and octavia enter soothsayer antony now sirrah you do wish yourself in egypt soothsayer would i had never come from thence nor you thither! antony if you can- your reason soothsayer i see it in my motion have it not in my tongue but yet hie you to egypt again antony say to me whose fortunes shall rise higher caesar's or mine soothsayer caesar's therefore o antony stay not by his side thy daemon that thy spirit which keeps thee is noble courageous high unmatchable where caesar's is not but near him thy angel becomes a fear as being o'erpow'r'd therefore make space enough between you antony speak this no more soothsayer to none but thee no more but when to thee if thou dost play with him at any game thou art sure to lose and of that natural luck he beats thee 'gainst the odds thy lustre thickens when he shines by i say again thy spirit is all afraid to govern thee near him but he away 'tis noble antony get thee gone say to ventidius i would speak with him exit soothsayer he shall to parthia - be it art or hap he hath spoken true the very dice obey him and in our sports my better cunning faints under his chance if we draw lots he speeds his cocks do win the battle still of mine when it is all to nought and his quails ever beat mine inhoop'd at odds i will to egypt and though i make this marriage for my peace i' th' east my pleasure lies enter ventidius o come ventidius you must to parthia your commission's ready follow me and receive't exeunt scene iv rome a street enter lepidus maecenas and agrippa lepidus trouble yourselves no further pray you hasten your generals after agrippa sir mark antony will e'en but kiss octavia and we'll follow lepidus till i shall see you in your soldier's dress which will become you both farewell maecenas we shall as i conceive the journey be at th' mount before you lepidus lepidus your way is shorter my purposes do draw me much about you'll win two days upon me both sir good success! lepidus farewell exeunt scene v alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra charmian iras and alexas cleopatra give me some music- music moody food of us that trade in love all the music ho! enter mardian the eunuch cleopatra let it alone! let's to billiards come charmian charmian my arm is sore best play with mardian cleopatra as well a woman with an eunuch play'd as with a woman come you'll play with me sir mardian as well as i can madam cleopatra and when good will is show'd though't come too short the actor may plead pardon i'll none now give me mine angle- we'll to th' river there my music playing far off i will betray tawny-finn'd fishes my bended hook shall pierce their slimy jaws and as i draw them up i'll think them every one an antony and say 'ah ha! y'are caught ' charmian 'twas merry when you wager'd on your angling when your diver did hang a salt fish on his hook which he with fervency drew up cleopatra that time o times i laughed him out of patience and that night i laugh'd him into patience and next morn ere the ninth hour i drunk him to his bed then put my tires and mantles on him whilst i wore his sword philippan enter a messenger o! from italy ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears that long time have been barren messenger madam madam- cleopatra antony's dead! if thou say so villain thou kill'st thy mistress but well and free if thou so yield him there is gold and here my bluest veins to kiss- a hand that kings have lipp'd and trembled kissing messenger first madam he is well cleopatra why there's more gold but sirrah mark we use to say the dead are well bring it to that the gold i give thee will i melt and pour down thy ill-uttering throat messenger good madam hear me cleopatra well go to i will but there's no goodness in thy face if antony be free and healthful- why so tart a favour to trumpet such good tidings if not well thou shouldst come like a fury crown'd with snakes not like a formal man messenger will't please you hear me cleopatra i have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st yet if thou say antony lives is well or friends with caesar or not captive to him i'll set thee in a shower of gold and hail rich pearls upon thee messenger madam he's well cleopatra well said messenger and friends with caesar cleopatra th'art an honest man messenger caesar and he are greater friends than ever cleopatra make thee a fortune from me messenger but yet madam- cleopatra i do not like 'but yet ' it does allay the good precedence fie upon 'but yet'! 'but yet' is as a gaoler to bring forth some monstrous malefactor prithee friend pour out the pack of matter to mine ear the good and bad together he's friends with caesar in state of health thou say'st and thou say'st free messenger free madam! no i made no such report he's bound unto octavia cleopatra for what good turn messenger for the best turn i' th' bed cleopatra i am pale charmian messenger madam he's married to octavia cleopatra the most infectious pestilence upon thee! strikes him down messenger good madam patience cleopatra what say you hence strikes him horrible villain! or i'll spurn thine eyes like balls before me i'll unhair thy head she hales him up and down thou shalt be whipp'd with wire and stew'd in brine smarting in ling'ring pickle messenger gracious madam i that do bring the news made not the match cleopatra say 'tis not so a province i will give thee and make thy fortunes proud the blow thou hadst shall make thy peace for moving me to rage and i will boot thee with what gift beside thy modesty can beg messenger he's married madam cleopatra rogue thou hast liv'd too long draws a knife messenger nay then i'll run what mean you madam i have made no fault exit charmian good madam keep yourself within yourself the man is innocent cleopatra some innocents scape not the thunderbolt melt egypt into nile! and kindly creatures turn all to serpents! call the slave again though i am mad i will not bite him call! charmian he is afear'd to come cleopatra i will not hurt him these hands do lack nobility that they strike a meaner than myself since i myself have given myself the cause enter the messenger again come hither sir though it be honest it is never good to bring bad news give to a gracious message an host of tongues but let ill tidings tell themselves when they be felt messenger i have done my duty cleopatra is he married i cannot hate thee worser than i do if thou again say 'yes ' messenger he's married madam cleopatra the gods confound thee! dost thou hold there still messenger should i lie madam cleopatra o i would thou didst so half my egypt were submerg'd and made a cistern for scal'd snakes! go get thee hence hadst thou narcissus in thy face to me thou wouldst appear most ugly he is married messenger i crave your highness' pardon cleopatra he is married messenger take no offence that i would not offend you to punish me for what you make me do seems much unequal he's married to octavia cleopatra o that his fault should make a knave of thee that art not what th'art sure of! get thee hence the merchandise which thou hast brought from rome are all too dear for me lie they upon thy hand and be undone by 'em! exit messenger charmian good your highness patience cleopatra in praising antony i have disprais'd caesar charmian many times madam cleopatra i am paid for't now lead me from hence i faint o iras charmian! 'tis no matter go to the fellow good alexas bid him report the feature of octavia her years her inclination let him not leave out the colour of her hair bring me word quickly exit alexas let him for ever go- let him not charmian- though he be painted one way like a gorgon the other way's a mars to mardian bid you alexas bring me word how tall she is - pity me charmian but do not speak to me lead me to my chamber exeunt scene vi near misenum flourish enter pompey and menas at one door with drum and trumpet at another caesar antony lepidus enobarbus maecenas agrippa with soldiers marching pompey your hostages i have so have you mine and we shall talk before we fight caesar most meet that first we come to words and therefore have we our written purposes before us sent which if thou hast considered let us know if 'twill tie up thy discontented sword and carry back to sicily much tall youth that else must perish here pompey to you all three the senators alone of this great world chief factors for the gods i do not know wherefore my father should revengers want having a son and friends since julius caesar who at philippi the good brutus ghosted there saw you labouring for him what was't that mov'd pale cassius to conspire and what made the all-honour'd honest roman brutus with the arm'd rest courtiers of beauteous freedom to drench the capitol but that they would have one man but a man and that is it hath made me rig my navy at whose burden the anger'd ocean foams with which i meant to scourge th' ingratitude that despiteful rome cast on my noble father caesar take your time antony thou canst not fear us pompey with thy sails we'll speak with thee at sea at land thou know'st how much we do o'er-count thee pompey at land indeed thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house but since the cuckoo builds not for himself remain in't as thou mayst lepidus be pleas'd to tell us- for this is from the present- how you take the offers we have sent you caesar there's the point antony which do not be entreated to but weigh what it is worth embrac'd caesar and what may follow to try a larger fortune pompey you have made me offer of sicily sardinia and i must rid all the sea of pirates then to send measures of wheat to rome this 'greed upon to part with unhack'd edges and bear back our targes undinted all that's our offer pompey know then i came before you here a man prepar'd to take this offer but mark antony put me to some impatience though i lose the praise of it by telling you must know when caesar and your brother were at blows your mother came to sicily and did find her welcome friendly antony i have heard it pompey and am well studied for a liberal thanks which i do owe you pompey let me have your hand i did not think sir to have met you here antony the beds i' th' east are soft and thanks to you that call'd me timelier than my purpose hither for i have gained by't caesar since i saw you last there is a change upon you pompey well i know not what counts harsh fortune casts upon my face but in my bosom shall she never come to make my heart her vassal lepidus well met here pompey i hope so lepidus thus we are agreed i crave our composition may be written and seal'd between us caesar that's the next to do pompey we'll feast each other ere we part and let's draw lots who shall begin antony that will i pompey pompey no antony take the lot but first or last your fine egyptian cookery shall have the fame i have heard that julius caesar grew fat with feasting there antony you have heard much pompey i have fair meanings sir antony and fair words to them pompey then so much have i heard and i have heard apollodorus carried- enobarbus no more of that! he did so pompey what i pray you enobarbus a certain queen to caesar in a mattress pompey i know thee now how far'st thou soldier enobarbus well and well am like to do for i perceive four feasts are toward pompey let me shake thy hand i never hated thee i have seen thee fight when i have envied thy behaviour enobarbus sir i never lov'd you much but i ha' prais'd ye when you have well deserv'd ten times as much as i have said you did pompey enjoy thy plainness it nothing ill becomes thee aboard my galley i invite you all will you lead lords all show's the way sir pompey come exeunt all but enobarbus and menas menas aside thy father pompey would ne'er have made this treaty - you and i have known sir enobarbus at sea i think menas we have sir enobarbus you have done well by water menas and you by land enobarbus i will praise any man that will praise me though it cannot be denied what i have done by land menas nor what i have done by water enobarbus yes something you can deny for your own safety you have been a great thief by sea menas and you by land enobarbus there i deny my land service but give me your hand menas if our eyes had authority here they might take two thieves kissing menas all men's faces are true whatsome'er their hands are enobarbus but there is never a fair woman has a true face menas no slander they steal hearts enobarbus we came hither to fight with you menas for my part i am sorry it is turn'd to a drinking pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune enobarbus if he do sure he cannot weep't back again menas y'have said sir we look'd not for mark antony here pray you is he married to cleopatra enobarbus caesar' sister is call'd octavia menas true sir she was the wife of caius marcellus enobarbus but she is now the wife of marcus antonius menas pray ye sir enobarbus 'tis true menas then is caesar and he for ever knit together enobarbus if i were bound to divine of this unity i would not prophesy so menas i think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage than the love of the parties enobarbus i think so too but you shall find the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity octavia is of a holy cold and still conversation menas who would not have his wife so enobarbus not he that himself is not so which is mark antony he will to his egyptian dish again then shall the sighs of octavia blow the fire up in caesar and as i said before that which is the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of their variance antony will use his affection where it is he married but his occasion here menas and thus it may be come sir will you aboard i have a health for you enobarbus i shall take it sir we have us'd our throats in egypt menas come let's away exeunt act_2|sc_7 scene vii on board pompey's galley off misenum music plays enter two or three servants with a banquet first servant here they'll be man some o' their plants are ill-rooted already the least wind i' th' world will blow them down second servant lepidus is high-colour'd first servant they have made him drink alms-drink second servant as they pinch one another by the disposition he cries out 'no more!' reconciles them to his entreaty and himself to th' drink first servant but it raises the greater war between him and his discretion second servant why this it is to have a name in great men's fellowship i had as lief have a reed that will do me no service as a partizan i could not heave first servant to be call'd into a huge sphere and not to be seen to move in't are the holes where eyes should be which pitifully disaster the cheeks a sennet sounded enter caesar antony lepidus pompey agrippa maecenas enobarbus menas with other captains antony to caesar thus do they sir they take the flow o' th' nile by certain scales i' th' pyramid they know by th' height the lowness or the mean if dearth or foison follow the higher nilus swells the more it promises as it ebbs the seedsman upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain and shortly comes to harvest lepidus y'have strange serpents there antony ay lepidus lepidus your serpent of egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun so is your crocodile antony they are so pompey sit- and some wine! a health to lepidus! lepidus i am not so well as i should be but i'll ne'er out enobarbus not till you have slept i fear me you'll be in till then lepidus nay certainly i have heard the ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things without contradiction i have heard that menas aside to pompey pompey a word pompey aside to menas say in mine ear what is't menas aside to pompey forsake thy seat i do beseech thee captain and hear me speak a word pompey whispers in's ear forbear me till anon- this wine for lepidus! lepidus what manner o' thing is your crocodile antony it is shap'd sir like itself and it is as broad as it hath breadth it is just so high as it is and moves with it own organs it lives by that which nourisheth it and the elements once out of it it transmigrates lepidus what colour is it of antony of it own colour too lepidus 'tis a strange serpent antony 'tis so and the tears of it are wet caesar will this description satisfy him antony with the health that pompey gives him else he is a very epicure pompey aside to menas go hang sir hang! tell me of that! away! do as i bid you - where's this cup i call'd for menas aside to pompey if for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me rise from thy stool pompey aside to menas i think th'art mad rises and walks aside the matter menas i have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes pompey thou hast serv'd me with much faith what's else to say - be jolly lords antony these quicksands lepidus keep off them for you sink menas wilt thou be lord of all the world pompey what say'st thou menas wilt thou be lord of the whole world that's twice pompey how should that be menas but entertain it and though you think me poor i am the man will give thee all the world pompey hast thou drunk well menas no pompey i have kept me from the cup thou art if thou dar'st be the earthly jove whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips is thine if thou wilt ha't pompey show me which way menas these three world-sharers these competitors are in thy vessel let me cut the cable and when we are put off fall to their throats all there is thine pompey ah this thou shouldst have done and not have spoke on't in me 'tis villainy in thee't had been good service thou must know 'tis not my profit that does lead mine honour mine honour it repent that e'er thy tongue hath so betray'd thine act being done unknown i should have found it afterwards well done but must condemn it now desist and drink menas aside for this i'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more who seeks and will not take when once 'tis offer'd shall never find it more pompey this health to lepidus! antony bear him ashore i'll pledge it for him pompey enobarbus here's to thee menas! menas enobarbus welcome! pompey fill till the cup be hid enobarbus there's a strong fellow menas pointing to the servant who carries off lepidus menas why enobarbus 'a bears the third part of the world man see'st not menas the third part then is drunk would it were all that it might go on wheels! enobarbus drink thou increase the reels menas come pompey this is not yet an alexandrian feast antony it ripens towards it strike the vessels ho! here's to caesar! caesar i could well forbear't it's monstrous labour when i wash my brain and it grows fouler antony be a child o' th' time caesar possess it i'll make answer but i had rather fast from all four days than drink so much in one enobarbus to antony ha my brave emperor! shall we dance now the egyptian bacchanals and celebrate our drink pompey let's ha't good soldier antony come let's all take hands till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense in soft and delicate lethe enobarbus all take hands make battery to our ears with the loud music the while i'll place you then the boy shall sing the holding every man shall bear as loud as his strong sides can volley music plays enobarbus places them hand in hand the song come thou monarch of the vine plumpy bacchus with pink eyne! in thy fats our cares be drown'd with thy grapes our hairs be crown'd cup us till the world go round cup us till the world go round! caesar what would you more pompey good night good brother let me request you off our graver business frowns at this levity gentle lords let's part you see we have burnt our cheeks strong enobarb is weaker than the wine and mine own tongue splits what it speaks the wild disguise hath almost antick'd us all what needs more words good night good antony your hand pompey i'll try you on the shore antony and shall sir give's your hand pompey o antony you have my father's house- but what we are friends come down into the boat enobarbus take heed you fall not exeunt all but enobarbus and menas menas i'll not on shore menas no to my cabin these drums! these trumpets flutes! what! let neptune hear we bid a loud farewell to these great fellows sound and be hang'd sound out! sound a flourish with drums enobarbus hoo! says 'a there's my cap menas hoo! noble captain come exeunt act_3|sc_1 act iii scene i a plain in syria enter ventidius as it were in triumph with silius and other romans officers and soldiers the dead body of pacorus borne before him ventidius now darting parthia art thou struck and now pleas'd fortune does of marcus crassus' death make me revenger bear the king's son's body before our army thy pacorus orodes pays this for marcus crassus silius noble ventidius whilst yet with parthian blood thy sword is warm the fugitive parthians follow spur through media mesopotamia and the shelters whither the routed fly so thy grand captain antony shall set thee on triumphant chariots and put garlands on thy head ventidius o silius silius i have done enough a lower place note well may make too great an act for learn this silius better to leave undone than by our deed acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away caesar and antony have ever won more in their officer than person sossius one of my place in syria his lieutenant for quick accumulation of renown which he achiev'd by th' minute lost his favour who does i' th' wars more than his captain can becomes his captain's captain and ambition the soldier's virtue rather makes choice of loss than gain which darkens him i could do more to do antonius good but 'twould offend him and in his offence should my performance perish silius thou hast ventidius that without the which a soldier and his sword grants scarce distinction thou wilt write to antony ventidius i'll humbly signify what in his name that magical word of war we have effected how with his banners and his well-paid ranks the ne'er-yet-beaten horse of parthia we have jaded out o' th' field silius where is he now ventidius he purposeth to athens whither with what haste the weight we must convey with's will permit we shall appear before him - on there pass along exeunt act_3|sc_2 scene ii rome caesar's house enter agrippa at one door enobarbus at another agrippa what are the brothers parted enobarbus they have dispatch'd with pompey he is gone the other three are sealing octavia weeps to part from rome caesar is sad and lepidus since pompey's feast as menas says is troubled with the green sickness agrippa 'tis a noble lepidus enobarbus a very fine one o how he loves caesar! agrippa nay but how dearly he adores mark antony! enobarbus caesar why he's the jupiter of men agrippa what's antony the god of jupiter enobarbus spake you of caesar how! the nonpareil! agrippa o antony! o thou arabian bird! enobarbus would you praise caesar say 'caesar'- go no further agrippa indeed he plied them both with excellent praises enobarbus but he loves caesar best yet he loves antony hoo! hearts tongues figures scribes bards poets cannot think speak cast write sing number- hoo!- his love to antony but as for caesar kneel down kneel down and wonder agrippa both he loves enobarbus they are his shards and he their beetle trumpets within so- this is to horse adieu noble agrippa agrippa good fortune worthy soldier and farewell enter caesar antony lepidus and octavia antony no further sir caesar you take from me a great part of myself use me well in't sister prove such a wife as my thoughts make thee and as my farthest band shall pass on thy approof most noble antony let not the piece of virtue which is set betwixt us as the cement of our love to keep it builded be the ram to batter the fortress of it for better might we have lov'd without this mean if on both parts this be not cherish'd antony make me not offended in your distrust caesar i have said antony you shall not find though you be therein curious the least cause for what you seem to fear so the gods keep you and make the hearts of romans serve your ends! we will here part caesar farewell my dearest sister fare thee well the elements be kind to thee and make thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well octavia my noble brother! antony the april's in her eyes it is love's spring and these the showers to bring it on be cheerful octavia sir look well to my husband's house and- caesar what octavia octavia i'll tell you in your ear antony her tongue will not obey her heart nor can her heart inform her tongue- the swan's down feather that stands upon the swell at the full of tide and neither way inclines enobarbus aside to agrippa will caesar weep agrippa aside to enobarbus he has a cloud in's face enobarbus aside to agrippa he were the worse for that were he a horse so is he being a man agrippa aside to enobarbus why enobarbus when antony found julius caesar dead he cried almost to roaring and he wept when at philippi he found brutus slain enobarbus aside to agrippa that year indeed he was troubled with a rheum what willingly he did confound he wail'd believe't- till i weep too caesar no sweet octavia you shall hear from me still the time shall not out-go my thinking on you antony come sir come i'll wrestle with you in my strength of love look here i have you thus i let you go and give you to the gods caesar adieu be happy! lepidus let all the number of the stars give light to thy fair way! caesar farewell farewell! kisses octavia antony farewell! trumpets sound exeunt act_3|sc_3 scene iii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra charmian iras and alexas cleopatra where is the fellow alexas half afeard to come cleopatra go to go to enter the messenger as before come hither sir alexas good majesty herod of jewry dare not look upon you but when you are well pleas'd cleopatra that herod's head i'll have but how when antony is gone through whom i might command it come thou near messenger most gracious majesty! cleopatra didst thou behold octavia messenger ay dread queen cleopatra where messenger madam in rome i look'd her in the face and saw her led between her brother and mark antony cleopatra is she as tall as me messenger she is not madam cleopatra didst hear her speak is she shrill-tongu'd or low messenger madam i heard her speak she is low-voic'd cleopatra that's not so good he cannot like her long charmian like her o isis! 'tis impossible cleopatra i think so charmian dull of tongue and dwarfish! what majesty is in her gait remember if e'er thou look'dst on majesty messenger she creeps her motion and her station are as one she shows a body rather than a life a statue than a breather cleopatra is this certain messenger or i have no observance charmian three in egypt cannot make better note cleopatra he's very knowing i do perceive't there's nothing in her yet the fellow has good judgment charmian excellent cleopatra guess at her years i prithee messenger madam she was a widow cleopatra widow charmian hark! messenger and i do think she's thirty cleopatra bear'st thou her face in mind is't long or round messenger round even to faultiness cleopatra for the most part too they are foolish that are so her hair what colour messenger brown madam and her forehead as low as she would wish it cleopatra there's gold for thee thou must not take my former sharpness ill i will employ thee back again i find thee most fit for business go make thee ready our letters are prepar'd exeunt messenger charmian a proper man cleopatra indeed he is so i repent me much that so i harried him why methinks by him this creature's no such thing charmian nothing madam cleopatra the man hath seen some majesty and should know charmian hath he seen majesty isis else defend and serving you so long! cleopatra i have one thing more to ask him yet good charmian but 'tis no matter thou shalt bring him to me where i will write all may be well enough charmian i warrant you madam exeunt act_3|sc_4 scene iv athens antony's house enter antony and octavia antony nay nay octavia not only that- that were excusable that and thousands more of semblable import- but he hath wag'd new wars 'gainst pompey made his will and read it to public ear spoke scandy of me when perforce he could not but pay me terms of honour cold and sickly he vented them most narrow measure lent me when the best hint was given him he not took't or did it from his teeth octavia o my good lord believe not all or if you must believe stomach not all a more unhappy lady if this division chance ne'er stood between praying for both parts the good gods will mock me presently when i shall pray 'o bless my lord and husband!' undo that prayer by crying out as loud 'o bless my brother!' husband win win brother prays and destroys the prayer no mid-way 'twixt these extremes at all antony gentle octavia let your best love draw to that point which seeks best to preserve it if i lose mine honour i lose myself better i were not yours than yours so branchless but as you requested yourself shall go between's the meantime lady i'll raise the preparation of a war shall stain your brother make your soonest haste so your desires are yours octavia thanks to my lord the jove of power make me most weak most weak your reconciler! wars 'twixt you twain would be as if the world should cleave and that slain men should solder up the rift antony when it appears to you where this begins turn your displeasure that way for our faults can never be so equal that your love can equally move with them provide your going choose your own company and command what cost your heart has mind to exeunt act_3|sc_5 scene v athens antony's house enter enobarbus and eros meeting enobarbus how now friend eros! eros there's strange news come sir enobarbus what man eros caesar and lepidus have made wars upon pompey enobarbus this is old what is the success eros caesar having made use of him in the wars 'gainst pompey presently denied him rivality would not let him partake in the glory of the action and not resting here accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to pompey upon his own appeal seizes him so the poor third is up till death enlarge his confine enobarbus then world thou hast a pair of chaps- no more and throw between them all the food thou hast they'll grind the one the other where's antony eros he's walking in the garden- thus and spurns the rush that lies before him cries 'fool lepidus!' and threats the throat of that his officer that murd'red pompey enobarbus our great navy's rigg'd eros for italy and caesar more domitius my lord desires you presently my news i might have told hereafter enobarbus 'twill be naught but let it be bring me to antony eros come sir exeunt act_3|sc_6 scene vi rome caesar's house enter caesar agrippa and maecenas caesar contemning rome he has done all this and more in alexandria here's the manner of't i' th' market-place on a tribunal silver'd cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold were publicly enthron'd at the feet sat caesarion whom they call my father's son and all the unlawful issue that their lust since then hath made between them unto her he gave the stablishment of egypt made her of lower syria cyprus lydia absolute queen maecenas this in the public eye caesar i' th' common show-place where they exercise his sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings great media parthia and armenia he gave to alexander to ptolemy he assign'd syria cilicia and phoenicia she in th' habiliments of the goddess isis that day appear'd and oft before gave audience as 'tis reported so maecenas let rome be thus inform'd agrippa who queasy with his insolence already will their good thoughts call from him caesar the people knows it and have now receiv'd his accusations agrippa who does he accuse caesar caesar and that having in sicily sextus pompeius spoil'd we had not rated him his part o' th' isle then does he say he lent me some shipping unrestor'd lastly he frets that lepidus of the triumvirate should be depos'd and being that we detain all his revenue agrippa sir this should be answer'd caesar 'tis done already and messenger gone i have told him lepidus was grown too cruel that he his high authority abus'd and did deserve his change for what i have conquer'd i grant him part but then in his armenia and other of his conquer'd kingdoms demand the like maecenas he'll never yield to that caesar nor must not then be yielded to in this enter octavia with her train octavia hail caesar and my lord! hail most dear caesar! caesar that ever i should call thee cast-away! octavia you have not call'd me so nor have you cause caesar why have you stol'n upon us thus you come not like caesar's sister the wife of antony should have an army for an usher and the neighs of horse to tell of her approach long ere she did appear the trees by th' way should have borne men and expectation fainted longing for what it had not nay the dust should have ascended to the roof of heaven rais'd by your populous troops but you are come a market-maid to rome and have prevented the ostentation of our love which left unshown is often left unlov'd we should have met you by sea and land supplying every stage with an augmented greeting octavia good my lord to come thus was i not constrain'd but did it on my free will my lord mark antony hearing that you prepar'd for war acquainted my grieved ear withal whereon i begg'd his pardon for return caesar which soon he granted being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him octavia do not say so my lord caesar i have eyes upon him and his affairs come to me on the wind where is he now octavia my lord in athens caesar no my most wronged sister cleopatra hath nodded him to her he hath given his empire up to a whore who now are levying the kings o' th' earth for war he hath assembled bocchus the king of libya archelaus of cappadocia philadelphos king of paphlagonia the thracian king adallas king manchus of arabia king of pont herod of jewry mithridates king of comagene polemon and amyntas the kings of mede and lycaonia with more larger list of sceptres octavia ay me most wretched that have my heart parted betwixt two friends that does afflict each other! caesar welcome hither your letters did withhold our breaking forth till we perceiv'd both how you were wrong led and we in negligent danger cheer your heart be you not troubled with the time which drives o'er your content these strong necessities but let determin'd things to destiny hold unbewail'd their way welcome to rome nothing more dear to me you are abus'd beyond the mark of thought and the high gods to do you justice make their ministers of us and those that love you best of comfort and ever welcome to us agrippa welcome lady maecenas welcome dear madam each heart in rome does love and pity you only th' adulterous antony most large in his abominations turns you off and gives his potent regiment to a trull that noises it against us octavia is it so sir caesar most certain sister welcome pray you be ever known to patience my dear'st sister! exeunt act_3|sc_7 scene vii antony's camp near actium enter cleopatra and enobarbus cleopatra i will be even with thee doubt it not enobarbus but why why cleopatra thou hast forspoke my being in these wars and say'st it is not fit enobarbus well is it is it cleopatra is't not denounc'd against us why should not we be there in person enobarbus aside well i could reply if we should serve with horse and mares together the horse were merely lost the mares would bear a soldier and his horse cleopatra what is't you say enobarbus your presence needs must puzzle antony take from his heart take from his brain from's time what should not then be spar'd he is already traduc'd for levity and 'tis said in rome that photinus an eunuch and your maids manage this war cleopatra sink rome and their tongues rot that speak against us! a charge we bear i' th' war and as the president of my kingdom will appear there for a man speak not against it i will not stay behind enter antony and canidius enobarbus nay i have done here comes the emperor antony is it not strange canidius that from tarentum and brundusium he could so quickly cut the ionian sea and take in toryne - you have heard on't sweet cleopatra celerity is never more admir'd than by the negligent antony a good rebuke which might have well becom'd the best of men to taunt at slackness canidius we will fight with him by sea cleopatra by sea! what else canidius why will my lord do so antony for that he dares us to't enobarbus so hath my lord dar'd him to single fight canidius ay and to wage this battle at pharsalia where caesar fought with pompey but these offers which serve not for his vantage he shakes off and so should you enobarbus your ships are not well mann'd your mariners are muleteers reapers people ingross'd by swift impress in caesar's fleet are those that often have 'gainst pompey fought their ships are yare yours heavy no disgrace shall fall you for refusing him at sea being prepar'd for land antony by sea by sea enobarbus most worthy sir you therein throw away the absolute soldiership you have by land distract your army which doth most consist of war-mark'd footmen leave unexecuted your own renowned knowledge quite forgo the way which promises assurance and give up yourself merely to chance and hazard from firm security antony i'll fight at sea cleopatra i have sixty sails caesar none better antony our overplus of shipping will we burn and with the rest full-mann'd from th' head of actium beat th' approaching caesar but if we fail we then can do't at land enter a messenger thy business messenger the news is true my lord he is descried caesar has taken toryne antony can he be there in person 'tis impossible- strange that his power should be canidius our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land and our twelve thousand horse we'll to our ship away my thetis! enter a soldier how now worthy soldier soldier o noble emperor do not fight by sea trust not to rotten planks do you misdoubt this sword and these my wounds let th' egyptians and the phoenicians go a-ducking we have us'd to conquer standing on the earth and fighting foot to foot antony well well- away exeunt antony cleopatra and enobarbus soldier by hercules i think i am i' th' right canidius soldier thou art but his whole action grows not in the power on't so our leader's led and we are women's men soldier you keep by land the legions and the horse whole do you not canidius marcus octavius marcus justeius publicola and caelius are for sea but we keep whole by land this speed of caesar's carries beyond belief soldier while he was yet in rome his power went out in such distractions as beguil'd all spies canidius who's his lieutenant hear you soldier they say one taurus canidius well i know the man enter a messenger messenger the emperor calls canidius canidius with news the time's with labour and throes forth each minute some exeunt act_3|sc_8 scene viii a plain near actium enter caesar with his army marching caesar taurus! taurus my lord caesar strike not by land keep whole provoke not battle till we have done at sea do not exceed the prescript of this scroll our fortune lies upon this jump exeunt act_3|sc_9 scene ix another part of the plain enter antony and enobarbus antony set we our squadrons on yon side o' th' hill in eye of caesar's battle from which place we may the number of the ships behold and so proceed accordingly exeunt act_3|sc_10 scene x another part of the plain canidius marcheth with his land army one way over the stage and taurus the lieutenant of caesar the other way after their going in is heard the noise of a sea-fight alarum enter enobarbus enobarbus naught naught all naught! i can behold no longer th' antoniad the egyptian admiral with all their sixty fly and turn the rudder to see't mine eyes are blasted enter scarus scarus gods and goddesses all the whole synod of them! enobarbus what's thy passion scarus the greater cantle of the world is lost with very ignorance we have kiss'd away kingdoms and provinces enobarbus how appears the fight scarus on our side like the token'd pestilence where death is sure yon ribaudred nag of egypt- whom leprosy o'ertake!- i' th' midst o' th' fight when vantage like a pair of twins appear'd both as the same or rather ours the elder- the breese upon her like a cow in june- hoists sails and flies enobarbus that i beheld mine eyes did sicken at the sight and could not endure a further view scarus she once being loof'd the noble ruin of her magic antony claps on his sea-wing and like a doting mallard leaving the fight in height flies after her i never saw an action of such shame experience manhood honour ne'er before did violate so itself enobarbus alack alack! enter canidius canidius our fortune on the sea is out of breath and sinks most lamentably had our general been what he knew himself it had gone well o he has given example for our flight most grossly by his own! enobarbus ay are you thereabouts why then good night indeed canidius toward peloponnesus are they fled scarus 'tis easy to't and there i will attend what further comes canidius to caesar will i render my legions and my horse six kings already show me the way of yielding enobarbus i'll yet follow the wounded chance of antony though my reason sits in the wind against me exeunt act_3|sc_11 scene xi alexandria cleopatra's palace enter antony with attendants antony hark! the land bids me tread no more upon't it is asham'd to bear me friends come hither i am so lated in the world that i have lost my way for ever i have a ship laden with gold take that divide it fly and make your peace with caesar all fly not we! antony i have fled myself and have instructed cowards to run and show their shoulders friends be gone i have myself resolv'd upon a course which has no need of you be gone my treasure's in the harbour take it o i follow'd that i blush to look upon my very hairs do mutiny for the white reprove the brown for rashness and they them for fear and doting friends be gone you shall have letters from me to some friends that will sweep your way for you pray you look not sad nor make replies of loathness take the hint which my despair proclaims let that be left which leaves itself to the sea-side straight way i will possess you of that ship and treasure leave me i pray a little pray you now nay do so for indeed i have lost command therefore i pray you i'll see you by and by sits down enter cleopatra led by charmian and iras eros following eros nay gentle madam to him! comfort him iras do most dear queen charmian do why what else cleopatra let me sit down o juno! antony no no no no no eros see you here sir antony o fie fie fie! charmian madam! iras madam o good empress! eros sir sir! antony yes my lord yes he at philippi kept his sword e'en like a dancer while i struck the lean and wrinkled cassius and 'twas i that the mad brutus ended he alone dealt on lieutenantry and no practice had in the brave squares of war yet now- no matter cleopatra ah stand by! eros the queen my lord the queen! iras go to him madam speak to him he is unqualitied with very shame cleopatra well then sustain me o! eros most noble sir arise the queen approaches her head's declin'd and death will seize her but your comfort makes the rescue antony i have offended reputation- a most unnoble swerving eros sir the queen antony o whither hast thou led me egypt see how i convey my shame out of thine eyes by looking back what i have left behind 'stroy'd in dishonour cleopatra o my lord my lord forgive my fearful sails! i little thought you would have followed antony egypt thou knew'st too well my heart was to thy rudder tied by th' strings and thou shouldst tow me after o'er my spirit thy full supremacy thou knew'st and that thy beck might from the bidding of the gods command me cleopatra o my pardon! antony now i must to the young man send humble treaties dodge and palter in the shifts of lowness who with half the bulk o' th' world play'd as i pleas'd making and marring fortunes you did know how much you were my conqueror and that my sword made weak by my affection would obey it on all cause cleopatra pardon pardon! antony fall not a tear i say one of them rates all that is won and lost give me a kiss even this repays me we sent our schoolmaster is 'a come back love i am full of lead some wine within there and our viands! fortune knows we scorn her most when most she offers blows exeunt act_3|sc_12 scene xii caesar's camp in egypt enter caesar agrippa dolabella thyreus with others caesar let him appear that's come from antony know you him dolabella caesar 'tis his schoolmaster an argument that he is pluck'd when hither he sends so poor a pinion of his wing which had superfluous kings for messengers not many moons gone by enter euphronius ambassador from antony caesar approach and speak euphronius such as i am i come from antony i was of late as petty to his ends as is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf to his grand sea caesar be't so declare thine office euphronius lord of his fortunes he salutes thee and requires to live in egypt which not granted he lessens his requests and to thee sues to let him breathe between the heavens and earth a private man in athens this for him next cleopatra does confess thy greatness submits her to thy might and of thee craves the circle of the ptolemies for her heirs now hazarded to thy grace caesar for antony i have no ears to his request the queen of audience nor desire shall fail so she from egypt drive her all-disgraced friend or take his life there this if she perform she shall not sue unheard so to them both euphronius fortune pursue thee! caesar bring him through the bands exit euphronius to thyreus to try thy eloquence now 'tis time dispatch from antony win cleopatra promise and in our name what she requires add more from thine invention offers women are not in their best fortunes strong but want will perjure the ne'er-touch'd vestal try thy cunning thyreus make thine own edict for thy pains which we will answer as a law thyreus caesar i go caesar observe how antony becomes his flaw and what thou think'st his very action speaks in every power that moves thyreus caesar i shall exeunt act_3|sc_13 scene xiii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra enobarbus charmian and iras cleopatra what shall we do enobarbus enobarbus think and die cleopatra is antony or we in fault for this enobarbus antony only that would make his will lord of his reason what though you fled from that great face of war whose several ranges frighted each other why should he follow the itch of his affection should not then have nick'd his captainship at such a point when half to half the world oppos'd he being the mered question 'twas a shame no less than was his loss to course your flying flags and leave his navy gazing cleopatra prithee peace enter euphronius the ambassador with antony antony is that his answer euphronius ay my lord antony the queen shall then have courtesy so she will yield us up euphronius he says so antony let her know't to the boy caesar send this grizzled head and he will fill thy wishes to the brim with principalities cleopatra that head my lord antony to him again tell him he wears the rose of youth upon him from which the world should note something particular his coin ships legions may be a coward's whose ministers would prevail under the service of a child as soon as i' th' command of caesar i dare him therefore to lay his gay comparisons apart and answer me declin'd sword against sword ourselves alone i'll write it follow me exeunt antony and euphronius euphronius aside yes like enough high-battled caesar will unstate his happiness and be stag'd to th' show against a sworder! i see men's judgments are a parcel of their fortunes and things outward do draw the inward quality after them to suffer all alike that he should dream knowing all measures the full caesar will answer his emptiness! caesar thou hast subdu'd his judgment too enter a servant servant a messenger from caesar cleopatra what no more ceremony see my women! against the blown rose may they stop their nose that kneel'd unto the buds admit him sir exit servant enobarbus aside mine honesty and i begin to square the loyalty well held to fools does make our faith mere folly yet he that can endure to follow with allegiance a fall'n lord does conquer him that did his master conquer and earns a place i' th' story enter thyreus cleopatra caesar's will thyreus hear it apart cleopatra none but friends say boldly thyreus so haply are they friends to antony enobarbus he needs as many sir as caesar has or needs not us if caesar please our master will leap to be his friend for us you know whose he is we are and that is caesar's thyreus so thus then thou most renown'd caesar entreats not to consider in what case thou stand'st further than he is caesar cleopatra go on right royal! thyreus he knows that you embrace not antony as you did love but as you fear'd him cleopatra o! thyreus the scars upon your honour therefore he does pity as constrained blemishes not as deserv'd cleopatra he is a god and knows what is most right mine honour was not yielded but conquer'd merely enobarbus aside to be sure of that i will ask antony sir sir thou art so leaky that we must leave thee to thy sinking for thy dearest quit thee exit thyreus shall i say to caesar what you require of him for he partly begs to be desir'd to give it much would please him that of his fortunes you should make a staff to lean upon but it would warm his spirits to hear from me you had left antony and put yourself under his shroud the universal landlord cleopatra what's your name thyreus my name is thyreus cleopatra most kind messenger say to great caesar this in deputation i kiss his conquring hand tell him i am prompt to lay my crown at 's feet and there to kneel tell him from his all-obeying breath i hear the doom of egypt thyreus 'tis your noblest course wisdom and fortune combating together if that the former dare but what it can no chance may shake it give me grace to lay my duty on your hand cleopatra your caesar's father oft when he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place as it rain'd kisses re-enter antony and enobarbus antony favours by jove that thunders! what art thou fellow thyreus one that but performs the bidding of the fullest man and worthiest to have command obey'd enobarbus aside you will be whipt antony approach there - ah you kite!- now gods and devils! authority melts from me of late when i cried 'ho!' like boys unto a muss kings would start forth and cry 'your will ' have you no ears i am antony yet enter servants take hence this jack and whip him enobarbus 'tis better playing with a lion's whelp than with an old one dying antony moon and stars! whip him were't twenty of the greatest tributaries that do acknowledge caesar should i find them so saucy with the hand of she here- what's her name since she was cleopatra whip him fellows till like a boy you see him cringe his face and whine aloud for mercy take him hence thymus mark antony- antony tug him away being whipt bring him again the jack of caesar's shall bear us an errand to him exeunt servants with thyreus you were half blasted ere i knew you ha! have i my pillow left unpress'd in rome forborne the getting of a lawful race and by a gem of women to be abus'd by one that looks on feeders cleopatra good my lord- antony you have been a boggler ever but when we in our viciousness grow hard- o misery on't!- the wise gods seel our eyes in our own filth drop our clear judgments make us adore our errors laugh at's while we strut to our confusion cleopatra o is't come to this antony i found you as a morsel cold upon dead caesar's trencher nay you were a fragment of cneius pompey's besides what hotter hours unregist'red in vulgar fame you have luxuriously pick'd out for i am sure though you can guess what temperance should be you know not what it is cleopatra wherefore is this antony to let a fellow that will take rewards and say 'god quit you!' be familiar with my playfellow your hand this kingly seal and plighter of high hearts! o that i were upon the hill of basan to outroar the horned herd! for i have savage cause and to proclaim it civilly were like a halter'd neck which does the hangman thank for being yare about him re-enter a servant with thyreus is he whipt servant soundly my lord antony cried he and begg'd 'a pardon servant he did ask favour antony if that thy father live let him repent thou wast not made his daughter and be thou sorry to follow caesar in his triumph since thou hast been whipt for following him henceforth the white hand of a lady fever thee! shake thou to look on't get thee back to caesar tell him thy entertainment look thou say he makes me angry with him for he seems proud and disdainful harping on what i am not what he knew i was he makes me angry and at this time most easy 'tis to do't when my good stars that were my former guides have empty left their orbs and shot their fires into th' abysm of hell if he mislike my speech and what is done tell him he has hipparchus my enfranched bondman whom he may at pleasure whip or hang or torture as he shall like to quit me urge it thou hence with thy stripes be gone exit thyreus cleopatra have you done yet antony alack our terrene moon is now eclips'd and it portends alone the fall of antony cleopatra i must stay his time antony to flatter caesar would you mingle eyes with one that ties his points cleopatra not know me yet antony cold-hearted toward me cleopatra ah dear if i be so from my cold heart let heaven engender hail and poison it in the source and the first stone drop in my neck as it determines so dissolve my life! the next caesarion smite! till by degrees the memory of my womb together with my brave egyptians all by the discandying of this pelleted storm lie graveless till the flies and gnats of nile have buried them for prey antony i am satisfied caesar sits down in alexandria where i will oppose his fate our force by land hath nobly held our sever'd navy to have knit again and fleet threat'ning most sea-like where hast thou been my heart dost thou hear lady if from the field i shall return once more to kiss these lips i will appear in blood i and my sword will earn our chronicle there's hope in't yet cleopatra that's my brave lord! antony i will be treble-sinew'd hearted breath'd and fight maliciously for when mine hours were nice and lucky men did ransom lives of me for jests but now i'll set my teeth and send to darkness all that stop me come let's have one other gaudy night call to me all my sad captains fill our bowls once more let's mock the midnight bell cleopatra it is my birthday i had thought t'have held it poor but since my lord is antony again i will be cleopatra antony we will yet do well cleopatra call all his noble captains to my lord antony do so we'll speak to them and to-night i'll force the wine peep through their scars come on my queen there's sap in't yet the next time i do fight i'll make death love me for i will contend even with his pestilent scythe exeunt all but enobarbus enobarbus now he'll outstare the lightning to be furious is to be frighted out of fear and in that mood the dove will peck the estridge and i see still a diminution in our captain's brain restores his heart when valour preys on reason it eats the sword it fights with i will seek some way to leave him exit act_4|sc_1 act iv scene i caesar's camp before alexandria enter caesar agrippa and maecenas with his army caesar reading a letter caesar he calls me boy and chides as he had power to beat me out of egypt my messenger he hath whipt with rods dares me to personal combat caesar to antony let the old ruffian know i have many other ways to die meantime laugh at his challenge maecenas caesar must think when one so great begins to rage he's hunted even to falling give him no breath but now make boot of his distraction never anger made good guard for itself caesar let our best heads know that to-morrow the last of many battles we mean to fight within our files there are of those that serv'd mark antony but late enough to fetch him in see it done and feast the army we have store to do't and they have earn'd the waste poor antony! exeunt act_4|sc_2 scene ii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter antony cleopatra enobarbus charmian iras alexas with others antony he will not fight with me domitius enobarbus no antony why should he not enobarbus he thinks being twenty times of better fortune he is twenty men to one antony to-morrow soldier by sea and land i'll fight or i will live or bathe my dying honour in the blood shall make it live again woo't thou fight well enobarbus i'll strike and cry 'take all ' antony well said come on call forth my household servants let's to-night be bounteous at our meal enter three or four servitors give me thy hand thou has been rightly honest so hast thou thou and thou and thou you have serv'd me well and kings have been your fellows cleopatra aside to enobarbus what means this enobarbus aside to cleopatra 'tis one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots out of the mind antony and thou art honest too i wish i could be made so many men and all of you clapp'd up together in an antony that i might do you service so good as you have done servant the gods forbid! antony well my good fellows wait on me to-night scant not my cups and make as much of me as when mine empire was your fellow too and suffer'd my command cleopatra aside to enobarbus what does he mean enobarbus aside to cleopatra to make his followers weep antony tend me to-night may be it is the period of your duty haply you shall not see me more or if a mangled shadow perchance to-morrow you'll serve another master i look on you as one that takes his leave mine honest friends i turn you not away but like a master married to your good service stay till death tend me to-night two hours i ask no more and the gods yield you for't! enobarbus what mean you sir to give them this discomfort look they weep and i an ass am onion-ey'd for shame! transform us not to women antony ho ho ho! now the witch take me if i meant it thus! grace grow where those drops fall! my hearty friends you take me in too dolorous a sense for i spake to you for your comfort did desire you to burn this night with torches know my hearts i hope well of to-morrow and will lead you where rather i'll expect victorious life than death and honour let's to supper come and drown consideration exeunt act_4|sc_3 scene iii alexandria before cleopatra's palace enter a company of soldiers first soldier brother good night to-morrow is the day second soldier it will determine one way fare you well heard you of nothing strange about the streets first soldier nothing what news second soldier belike 'tis but a rumour good night to you first soldier well sir good night they meet other soldiers second soldier soldiers have careful watch first soldier and you good night good night the two companies separate and place themselves in every corner of the stage second soldier here we and if to-morrow our navy thrive i have an absolute hope our landmen will stand up third soldier 'tis a brave army and full of purpose music of the hautboys is under the stage second soldier peace what noise third soldier list list! second soldier hark! third soldier music i' th' air fourth soldier under the earth third soldier it signs well does it not fourth soldier no third soldier peace i say! what should this mean second soldier 'tis the god hercules whom antony lov'd now leaves him third soldier walk let's see if other watchmen do hear what we do second soldier how now masters! soldiers speaking together how now! how now! do you hear this first soldier ay is't not strange third soldier do you hear masters do you hear first soldier follow the noise so far as we have quarter let's see how it will give off soldiers content 'tis strange exeunt act_4|sc_4 scene iv alexandria cleopatra's palace enter antony and cleopatra charmian iras with others antony eros! mine armour eros! cleopatra sleep a little antony no my chuck eros! come mine armour eros! enter eros with armour come good fellow put mine iron on if fortune be not ours to-day it is because we brave her come cleopatra nay i'll help too what's this for antony ah let be let be! thou art the armourer of my heart false false this this cleopatra sooth la i'll help thus it must be antony well well we shall thrive now seest thou my good fellow go put on thy defences eros briefly sir cleopatra is not this buckled well antony rarely rarely! he that unbuckles this till we do please to daff't for our repose shall hear a storm thou fumblest eros and my queen's a squire more tight at this than thou dispatch o love that thou couldst see my wars to-day and knew'st the royal occupation! thou shouldst see a workman in't enter an armed soldier good-morrow to thee welcome thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge to business that we love we rise betime and go to't with delight soldier a thousand sir early though't be have on their riveted trim and at the port expect you shout flourish of trumpets within enter captains and soldiers captain the morn is fair good morrow general all good morrow general antony 'tis well blown lads this morning like the spirit of a youth that means to be of note begins betimes so so come give me that this way well said fare thee well dame whate'er becomes of me this is a soldier's kiss rebukeable and worthy shameful check it were to stand on more mechanic compliment i'll leave thee now like a man of steel you that will fight follow me close i'll bring you to't adieu exeunt antony eros captains and soldiers charmian please you retire to your chamber cleopatra lead me he goes forth gallantly that he and caesar might determine this great war in single fight! then antony- but now well on exeunt act_4|sc_5 scene v alexandria antony's camp trumpets sound enter antony and eros a soldier meeting them soldier the gods make this a happy day to antony! antony would thou and those thy scars had once prevail'd to make me fight at land! soldier hadst thou done so the kings that have revolted and the soldier that has this morning left thee would have still followed thy heels antony who's gone this morning soldier who one ever near thee call for enobarbus he shall not hear thee or from caesar's camp say 'i am none of thine ' antony what say'st thou soldier sir he is with caesar eros sir his chests and treasure he has not with him antony is he gone soldier most certain antony go eros send his treasure after do it detain no jot i charge thee write to him- i will subscribe- gentle adieus and greetings say that i wish he never find more cause to change a master o my fortunes have corrupted honest men! dispatch enobarbus! exeunt act_4|sc_6 scene vi alexandria caesar's camp flourish enter agrippa caesar with dolabella and enobarbus caesar go forth agrippa and begin the fight our will is antony be took alive make it so known agrippa caesar i shall exit caesar the time of universal peace is near prove this a prosp'rous day the three-nook'd world shall bear the olive freely enter a messenger messenger antony is come into the field caesar go charge agrippa plant those that have revolted in the vant that antony may seem to spend his fury upon himself exeunt all but enobarbus enobarbus alexas did revolt and went to jewry on affairs of antony there did dissuade great herod to incline himself to caesar and leave his master antony for this pains casaer hath hang'd him canidius and the rest that fell away have entertainment but no honourable trust i have done ill of which i do accuse myself so sorely that i will joy no more enter a soldier of caesar's soldier enobarbus antony hath after thee sent all thy treasure with his bounty overplus the messenger came on my guard and at thy tent is now unloading of his mules enobarbus i give it you soldier mock not enobarbus i tell you true best you saf'd the bringer out of the host i must attend mine office or would have done't myself your emperor continues still a jove exit enobarbus i am alone the villain of the earth and feel i am so most o antony thou mine of bounty how wouldst thou have paid my better service when my turpitude thou dost so crown with gold! this blows my heart if swift thought break it not a swifter mean shall outstrike thought but thought will do't i feel i fight against thee no! i will go seek some ditch wherein to die the foul'st best fits my latter part of life exit act_4|sc_7 scene vii field of battle between the camps alarum drums and trumpets enter agrippa and others agrippa retire we have engag'd ourselves too far caesar himself has work and our oppression exceeds what we expected exeunt alarums enter antony and scarus wounded scarus o my brave emperor this is fought indeed! had we done so at first we had droven them home with clouts about their heads antony thou bleed'st apace scarus i had a wound here that was like a t but now 'tis made an h antony they do retire scarus we'll beat'em into bench-holes i have yet room for six scotches more enter eros eros they are beaten sir and our advantage serves for a fair victory scarus let us score their backs and snatch 'em up as we take hares behind 'tis sport to maul a runner antony i will reward thee once for thy sprightly comfort and tenfold for thy good valour come thee on scarus i'll halt after exeunt act_4|sc_8 scene viii under the walls of alexandria alarum enter antony again in a march scarus with others antony we have beat him to his camp run one before and let the queen know of our gests to-morrow before the sun shall see's we'll spill the blood that has to-day escap'd i thank you all for doughty-handed are you and have fought not as you serv'd the cause but as't had been each man's like mine you have shown all hectors enter the city clip your wives your friends tell them your feats whilst they with joyful tears wash the congealment from your wounds and kiss the honour'd gashes whole enter cleopatra attended to scarus give me thy hand- to this great fairy i'll commend thy acts make her thanks bless thee o thou day o' th' world chain mine arm'd neck leap thou attire and all through proof of harness to my heart and there ride on the pants triumphing cleopatra lord of lords! o infinite virtue com'st thou smiling from the world's great snare uncaught antony mine nightingale we have beat them to their beds what girl! though grey do something mingle with our younger brown yet ha' we a brain that nourishes our nerves and can get goal for goal of youth behold this man commend unto his lips thy favouring hand- kiss it my warrior- he hath fought to-day as if a god in hate of mankind had destroyed in such a shape cleopatra i'll give thee friend an armour all of gold it was a king's antony he has deserv'd it were it carbuncled like holy phoebus' car give me thy hand through alexandria make a jolly march bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them had our great palace the capacity to camp this host we all would sup together and drink carouses to the next day's fate which promises royal peril trumpeters with brazen din blast you the city's ear make mingle with our rattling tabourines that heaven and earth may strike their sounds together applauding our approach exeunt act_4|sc_9 scene ix caesar's camp enter a centurion and his company enobarbus follows centurion if we be not reliev'd within this hour we must return to th' court of guard the night is shiny and they say we shall embattle by th' second hour i' th' morn first watch this last day was a shrewd one to's enobarbus o bear me witness night- second watch what man is this first watch stand close and list him enobarbus be witness to me o thou blessed moon when men revolted shall upon record bear hateful memory poor enobarbus did before thy face repent! centurion enobarbus second watch peace! hark further enobarbus o sovereign mistress of true melancholy the poisonous damp of night disponge upon me that life a very rebel to my will may hang no longer on me throw my heart against the flint and hardness of my fault which being dried with grief will break to powder and finish all foul thoughts o antony nobler than my revolt is infamous forgive me in thine own particular but let the world rank me in register a master-leaver and a fugitive! o antony! o antony! dies first watch let's speak to him centurion let's hear him for the things he speaks may concern caesar second watch let's do so but he sleeps centurion swoons rather for so bad a prayer as his was never yet for sleep first watch go we to him second watch awake sir awake speak to us first watch hear you sir centurion the hand of death hath raught him drums afar off hark! the drums demurely wake the sleepers let us bear him to th' court of guard he is of note our hour is fully out second watch come on then he may recover yet exeunt with the body act_4|sc_10 scene x between the two camps enter antony and scarus with their army antony their preparation is to-day by sea we please them not by land scarus for both my lord antony i would they'd fight i' th' fire or i' th' air we'd fight there too but this it is our foot upon the hills adjoining to the city shall stay with us- order for sea is given they have put forth the haven- where their appointment we may best discover and look on their endeavour exeunt act_4|sc_11 scene xi between the camps enter caesar and his army caesar but being charg'd we will be still by land which as i take't we shall for his best force is forth to man his galleys to the vales and hold our best advantage exeunt act_4|sc_12 scene xii a hill near alexandria enter antony and scarus antony yet they are not join'd where yond pine does stand i shall discover all i'll bring thee word straight how 'tis like to go exit scarus swallows have built in cleopatra's sails their nests the augurers say they know not they cannot tell look grimly and dare not speak their knowledge antony is valiant and dejected and by starts his fretted fortunes give him hope and fear of what he has and has not alarum afar off as at a sea-fight re-enter antony antony all is lost! this foul egyptian hath betrayed me my fleet hath yielded to the foe and yonder they cast their caps up and carouse together like friends long lost triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou hast sold me to this novice and my heart makes only wars on thee bid them all fly for when i am reveng'd upon my charm i have done all bid them all fly begone exit scarus o sun thy uprise shall i see no more! fortune and antony part here even here do we shake hands all come to this the hearts that spaniel'd me at heels to whom i gave their wishes do discandy melt their sweets on blossoming caesar and this pine is bark'd that overtopp'd them all betray'd i am o this false soul of egypt! this grave charm- whose eye beck'd forth my wars and call'd them home whose bosom was my crownet my chief end- like a right gypsy hath at fast and loose beguil'd me to the very heart of loss what eros eros! enter cleopatra ah thou spell! avaunt! cleopatra why is my lord enrag'd against his love antony vanish or i shall give thee thy deserving and blemish caesar's triumph let him take thee and hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians follow his chariot like the greatest spot of all thy sex most monster-like be shown for poor'st diminutives for doits and let patient octavia plough thy visage up with her prepared nails exit cleopatra 'tis well th'art gone if it be well to live but better 'twere thou fell'st into my fury for one death might have prevented many eros ho! the shirt of nessus is upon me teach me alcides thou mine ancestor thy rage let me lodge lichas on the horns o' th' moon and with those hands that grasp'd the heaviest club subdue my worthiest self the witch shall die to the young roman boy she hath sold me and i fall under this plot she dies for't eros ho! exit act_4|sc_13 scene xiii alexandria cleopatra's palace enter cleopatra charmian iras and mardian cleopatra help me my women o he is more mad than telamon for his shield the boar of thessaly was never so emboss'd charmian to th'monument! there lock yourself and send him word you are dead the soul and body rive not more in parting than greatness going off cleopatra to th' monument! mardian go tell him i have slain myself say that the last i spoke was 'antony' and word it prithee piteously hence mardian and bring me how he takes my death to th' monument! exeunt act_4|sc_14 scene xiv cleopatra's palace enter antony and eros antony eros thou yet behold'st me eros ay noble lord antony sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish a vapour sometime like a bear or lion a tower'd citadel a pendent rock a forked mountain or blue promontory with trees upon't that nod unto the world and mock our eyes with air thou hast seen these signs they are black vesper's pageants eros ay my lord antony that which is now a horse even with a thought the rack dislimns and makes it indistinct as water is in water eros it does my lord antony my good knave eros now thy captain is even such a body here i am antony yet cannot hold this visible shape my knave i made these wars for egypt and the queen- whose heart i thought i had for she had mine which whilst it was mine had annex'd unto't a million moe now lost- she eros has pack'd cards with caesar and false-play'd my glory unto an enemy's triumph nay weep not gentle eros there is left us ourselves to end ourselves enter mardian o thy vile lady! she has robb'd me of my sword mardian no antony my mistress lov'd thee and her fortunes mingled with thine entirely antony hence saucy eunuch peace! she hath betray'd me and shall die the death mardian death of one person can be paid but once and that she has discharg'd what thou wouldst do is done unto thy hand the last she spake was 'antony! most noble antony!' then in the midst a tearing groan did break the name of antony it was divided between her heart and lips she rend'red life thy name so buried in her antony dead then mardian dead antony unarm eros the long day's task is done and we must sleep that thou depart'st hence safe does pay thy labour richly go exit mardian off pluck off! the sevenfold shield of ajax cannot keep the battery from my heart o cleave my sides! heart once be stronger than thy continent crack thy frail case apace eros apace - no more a soldier bruised pieces go you have been nobly borne - from me awhile exit eros i will o'ertake thee cleopatra and weep for my pardon so it must be for now all length is torture since the torch is out lie down and stray no farther now all labour mars what it does yea very force entangles itself with strength seal then and all is done eros!- i come my queen - eros!- stay for me where souls do couch on flowers we'll hand in hand and with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze dido and her aeneas shall want troops and all the haunt be ours - come eros eros! re-enter eros eros what would my lord antony since cleopatra died i have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods detest my baseness i that with my sword quarter'd the world and o'er green neptune's back with ships made cities condemn myself to lack the courage of a woman less noble mind than she which by her death our caesar tells 'i am conqueror of myself ' thou art sworn eros that when the exigent should come- which now is come indeed- when i should see behind me th' inevitable prosecution of disgrace and horror that on my command thou then wouldst kill me do't the time is come thou strik'st not me 'tis caesar thou defeat'st put colour in thy cheek eros the gods withhold me! shall i do that which all the parthian darts though enemy lost aim and could not antony eros wouldst thou be window'd in great rome and see thy master thus with pleach'd arms bending down his corrigible neck his face subdu'd to penetrative shame whilst the wheel'd seat of fortunate caesar drawn before him branded his baseness that ensued eros i would not see't antony come then for with a wound i must be cur'd draw that thy honest sword which thou hast worn most useful for thy country eros o sir pardon me! antony when i did make thee free swor'st thou not then to do this when i bade thee do it at once or thy precedent services are all but accidents unpurpos'd draw and come eros turn from me then that noble countenance wherein the worship of the whole world lies antony lo thee! turning from him eros my sword is drawn antony then let it do at once the thing why thou hast drawn it eros my dear master my captain and my emperor let me say before i strike this bloody stroke farewell antony 'tis said man and farewell eros farewell great chief shall i strike now antony now eros eros why there then! thus do i escape the sorrow of antony's death kills himself antony thrice nobler than myself! thou teachest me o valiant eros what i should and thou couldst not my queen and eros have by their brave instruction got upon me a nobleness in record but i will be a bridegroom in my death and run into't as to a lover's bed come then and eros thy master dies thy scholar to do thus falling on his sword i learn'd of thee how not dead not dead - the guard ho! o dispatch me! enter dercetas and a guard first guard what's the noise antony i have done my work ill friends o make an end of what i have begun second guard the star is fall'n first guard and time is at his period all alas and woe! antony let him that loves me strike me dead first guard not i second guard nor i third guard nor any one exeunt guard dercetas thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly this sword but shown to caesar with this tidings shall enter me with him enter diomedes diomedes where's antony dercetas there diomed there diomedes lives he wilt thou not answer man exit dercetas antony art thou there diomed draw thy sword and give me sufficing strokes for death diomedes most absolute lord my mistress cleopatra sent me to thee antony when did she send thee diomedes now my lord antony where is she diomedes lock'd in her monument she had a prophesying fear of what hath come to pass for when she saw- which never shall be found- you did suspect she had dispos'd with caesar and that your rage would not be purg'd she sent you word she was dead but fearing since how it might work hath sent me to proclaim the truth and i am come i dread too late antony too late good diomed call my guard i prithee diomedes what ho! the emperor's guard! the guard what ho! come your lord calls! enter four or five of the guard of antony antony bear me good friends where cleopatra bides 'tis the last service that i shall command you first guard woe woe are we sir you may not live to wear all your true followers out all most heavy day! antony nay good my fellows do not please sharp fate to grace it with your sorrows bid that welcome which comes to punish us and we punish it seeming to bear it lightly take me up i have led you oft carry me now good friends and have my thanks for all exeunt hearing antony act_4|sc_15 scene xv alexandria a monument enter cleopatra and her maids aloft with charmian and iras cleopatra o charmian i will never go from hence! charmian be comforted dear madam cleopatra no i will not all strange and terrible events are welcome but comforts we despise our size of sorrow proportion'd to our cause must be as great as that which makes it enter diomedes below how now! is he dead diomedes his death's upon him but not dead look out o' th' other side your monument his guard have brought him thither enter below antony borne by the guard cleopatra o sun burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! darkling stand the varying shore o' th' world o antony antony antony! help charmian help iras help help friends below! let's draw him hither antony peace! not caesar's valour hath o'erthrown antony but antony's hath triumph'd on itself cleopatra so it should be that none but antony should conquer antony but woe 'tis so! antony i am dying egypt dying only i here importune death awhile until of many thousand kisses the poor last i lay upon thy lips cleopatra i dare not dear dear my lord pardon! i dare not lest i be taken not th' imperious show of the full-fortun'd caesar ever shall be brooch'd with me if knife drugs serpents have edge sting or operation i am safe your wife octavia with her modest eyes and still conclusion shall acquire no honour demuring upon me but come come antony- help me my women- we must draw thee up assist good friends antony o quick or i am gone cleopatra here's sport indeed! how heavy weighs my lord! our strength is all gone into heaviness that makes the weight had i great juno's power the strong-wing'd mercury should fetch thee up and set thee by jove's side yet come a little wishers were ever fools o come come they heave antony aloft to cleopatra and welcome welcome! die where thou hast liv'd quicken with kissing had my lips that power thus would i wear them out all a heavy sight! antony i am dying egypt dying give me some wine and let me speak a little cleopatra no let me speak and let me rail so high that the false huswife fortune break her wheel provok'd by my offence antony one word sweet queen of caesar seek your honour with your safety o! cleopatra they do not go together antony gentle hear me none about caesar trust but proculeius cleopatra my resolution and my hands i'll trust none about caesar antony the miserable change now at my end lament nor sorrow at but please your thoughts in feeding them with those my former fortunes wherein i liv'd the greatest prince o' th' world the noblest and do now not basely die not cowardly put off my helmet to my countryman- a roman by a roman valiantly vanquish'd now my spirit is going i can no more cleopatra noblest of men woo't die hast thou no care of me shall i abide in this dull world which in thy absence is no better than a sty o see my women antony dies the crown o' th' earth doth melt my lord! o wither'd is the garland of the war the soldier's pole is fall'n! young boys and girls are level now with men the odds is gone and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon swoons charmian o quietness lady! iras she's dead too our sovereign charmian lady! iras madam! charmian o madam madam madam! iras royal egypt empress! charmian peace peace iras! cleopatra no more but e'en a woman and commanded by such poor passion as the maid that milks and does the meanest chares it were for me to throw my sceptre at the injurious gods to tell them that this world did equal theirs till they had stol'n our jewel all's but nought patience is sottish and impatience does become a dog that's mad then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death ere death dare come to us how do you women what what! good cheer! why how now charmian! my noble girls! ah women women look our lamp is spent it's out! good sirs take heart we'll bury him and then what's brave what's noble let's do it after the high roman fashion and make death proud to take us come away this case of that huge spirit now is cold ah women women! come we have no friend but resolution and the briefest end exeunt those above hearing off antony's body act_5|sc_1 act v scene i alexandria caesar's camp enter caesar agrippa dolabella maecenas gallus proculeius and others his council of war caesar go to him dolabella bid him yield being so frustrate tell him he mocks the pauses that he makes dolabella caesar i shall exit enter dercetas with the sword of antony caesar wherefore is that and what art thou that dar'st appear thus to us dercetas i am call'd dercetas mark antony i serv'd who best was worthy best to be serv'd whilst he stood up and spoke he was my master and i wore my life to spend upon his haters if thou please to take me to thee as i was to him i'll be to caesar if thou pleasest not i yield thee up my life caesar what is't thou say'st dercetas i say o caesar antony is dead caesar the breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack the round world should have shook lions into civil streets and citizens to their dens the death of antony is not a single doom in the name lay a moiety of the world dercetas he is dead caesar not by a public minister of justice nor by a hired knife but that self hand which writ his honour in the acts it did hath with the courage which the heart did lend it splitted the heart this is his sword i robb'd his wound of it behold it stain'd with his most noble blood caesar look you sad friends the gods rebuke me but it is tidings to wash the eyes of kings agrippa and strange it is that nature must compel us to lament our most persisted deeds maecenas his taints and honours wag'd equal with him agrippa a rarer spirit never did steer humanity but you gods will give us some faults to make us men caesar is touch'd maecenas when such a spacious mirror's set before him he needs must see himself caesar o antony i have follow'd thee to this! but we do lance diseases in our bodies i must perforce have shown to thee such a declining day or look on thine we could not stall together in the whole world but yet let me lament with tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts that thou my brother my competitor in top of all design my mate in empire friend and companion in the front of war the arm of mine own body and the heart where mine his thoughts did kindle- that our stars unreconciliable should divide our equalness to this hear me good friends- enter an egyptian but i will tell you at some meeter season the business of this man looks out of him we'll hear him what he says whence are you egyptian a poor egyptian yet the queen my mistress confin'd in all she has her monument of thy intents desires instruction that she preparedly may frame herself to th' way she's forc'd to caesar bid her have good heart she soon shall know of us by some of ours how honourable and how kindly we determine for her for caesar cannot learn to be ungentle egyptian so the gods preserve thee! exit caesar come hither proculeius go and say we purpose her no shame give her what comforts the quality of her passion shall require lest in her greatness by some mortal stroke she do defeat us for her life in rome would be eternal in our triumph go and with your speediest bring us what she says and how you find her proculeius caesar i shall exit caesar gallus go you along exit gallus where's dolabella to second proculeius all dolabella! caesar let him alone for i remember now how he's employ'd he shall in time be ready go with me to my tent where you shall see how hardly i was drawn into this war how calm and gentle i proceeded still in all my writings go with me and see what i can show in this exeunt act_5|sc_2 scene ii alexandria the monument enter cleopatra charmian iras and mardian cleopatra my desolation does begin to make a better life 'tis paltry to be caesar not being fortune he's but fortune's knave a minister of her will and it is great to do that thing that ends all other deeds which shackles accidents and bolts up change which sleeps and never palates more the dug the beggar's nurse and caesar's enter to the gates of the monument proculeius gallus and soldiers proculeius caesar sends greetings to the queen of egypt and bids thee study on what fair demands thou mean'st to have him grant thee cleopatra what's thy name proculeius my name is proculeius cleopatra antony did tell me of you bade me trust you but i do not greatly care to be deceiv'd that have no use for trusting if your master would have a queen his beggar you must tell him that majesty to keep decorum must no less beg than a kingdom if he please to give me conquer'd egypt for my son he gives me so much of mine own as i will kneel to him with thanks proculeius be of good cheer y'are fall'n into a princely hand fear nothing make your full reference freely to my lord who is so full of grace that it flows over on all that need let me report to him your sweet dependency and you shall find a conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness where he for grace is kneel'd to cleopatra pray you tell him i am his fortune's vassal and i send him the greatness he has got i hourly learn a doctrine of obedience and would gladly look him i' th' face proculeius this i'll report dear lady have comfort for i know your plight is pitied of him that caus'd it gallus you see how easily she may be surpris'd here proculeius and two of the guard ascend the monument by a ladder placed against a window and come behind cleopatra some of the guard unbar and open the gates guard her till caesar come exit iras royal queen! charmian o cleopatra! thou art taken queen! cleopatra quick quick good hands drawing a dagger proculeius hold worthy lady hold disarms her do not yourself such wrong who are in this reliev'd but not betray'd cleopatra what of death too that rids our dogs of languish proculeius cleopatra do not abuse my master's bounty by th' undoing of yourself let the world see his nobleness well acted which your death will never let come forth cleopatra where art thou death come hither come! come come and take a queen worth many babes and beggars! proculeius o temperance lady! cleopatra sir i will eat no meat i'll not drink sir if idle talk will once be necessary i'll not sleep neither this mortal house i'll ruin do caesar what he can know sir that i will not wait pinion'd at your master's court nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye of dull octavia shall they hoist me up and show me to the shouting varletry of censuring rome rather a ditch in egypt be gentle grave unto me! rather on nilus' mud lay me stark-nak'd and let the water-flies blow me into abhorring! rather make my country's high pyramides my gibbet and hang me up in chains! proculeius you do extend these thoughts of horror further than you shall find cause in caesar enter dolabella dolabella proculeius what thou hast done thy master caesar knows and he hath sent for thee for the queen i'll take her to my guard proculeius so dolabella it shall content me best be gentle to her to cleopatra to caesar i will speak what you shall please if you'll employ me to him cleopatra say i would die exeunt proculeius and soldiers dolabella most noble empress you have heard of me cleopatra i cannot tell dolabella assuredly you know me cleopatra no matter sir what i have heard or known you laugh when boys or women tell their dreams is't not your trick dolabella i understand not madam cleopatra i dreamt there was an emperor antony- o such another sleep that i might see but such another man! dolabella if it might please ye- cleopatra his face was as the heav'ns and therein stuck a sun and moon which kept their course and lighted the little o the earth dolabella most sovereign creature- cleopatra his legs bestrid the ocean his rear'd arm crested the world his voice was propertied as all the tuned spheres and that to friends but when he meant to quail and shake the orb he was as rattling thunder for his bounty there was no winter in't an autumn 'twas that grew the more by reaping his delights were dolphin-like they show'd his back above the element they liv'd in in his livery walk'd crowns and crownets realms and islands were as plates dropp'd from his pocket dolabella cleopatra- cleopatra think you there was or might be such a man as this i dreamt of dolabella gentle madam no cleopatra you lie up to the hearing of the gods but if there be nor ever were one such it's past the size of drearning nature wants stuff to vie strange forms with fancy yet t' imagine an antony were nature's piece 'gainst fancy condemning shadows quite dolabella hear me good madam your loss is as yourself great and you bear it as answering to the weight would i might never o'ertake pursu'd success but i do feel by the rebound of yours a grief that smites my very heart at root cleopatra i thank you sir know you what caesar means to do with me dolabella i am loath to tell you what i would you knew cleopatra nay pray you sir dolabella though he be honourable- cleopatra he'll lead me then in triumph dolabella madam he will i know't flourish within 'make way there-caesar!' enter caesar gallus proculeius maecenas seleucus and others of his train caesar which is the queen of egypt dolabella it is the emperor madam cleopatpa kneels caesar arise you shall not kneel i pray you rise rise egypt cleopatra sir the gods will have it thus my master and my lord i must obey caesar take to you no hard thoughts the record of what injuries you did us though written in our flesh we shall remember as things but done by chance cleopatra sole sir o' th' world i cannot project mine own cause so well to make it clear but do confess i have been laden with like frailties which before have often sham'd our sex caesar cleopatra know we will extenuate rather than enforce if you apply yourself to our intents- which towards you are most gentle- you shall find a benefit in this change but if you seek to lay on me a cruelty by taking antony's course you shall bereave yourself of my good purposes and put your children to that destruction which i'll guard them from if thereon you rely i'll take my leave cleopatra and may through all the world 'tis yours and we your scutcheons and your signs of conquest shall hang in what place you please here my good lord caesar you shall advise me in all for cleopatra cleopatra this is the brief of money plate and jewels i am possess'd of 'tis exactly valued not petty things admitted where's seleucus seleucus here madam cleopatra this is my treasurer let him speak my lord upon his peril that i have reserv'd to myself nothing speak the truth seleucus seleucus madam i had rather seal my lips than to my peril speak that which is not cleopatra what have i kept back seleucus enough to purchase what you have made known caesar nay blush not cleopatra i approve your wisdom in the deed cleopatra see caesar! o behold how pomp is followed! mine will now be yours and should we shift estates yours would be mine the ingratitude of this seleucus does even make me wild o slave of no more trust than love that's hir'd! what goest thou back thou shalt go back i warrant thee but i'll catch thine eyes though they had wings slave soulless villain dog! o rarely base! caesar good queen let us entreat you cleopatra o caesar what a wounding shame is this that thou vouchsafing here to visit me doing the honour of thy lordliness to one so meek that mine own servant should parcel the sum of my disgraces by addition of his envy! say good caesar that i some lady trifles have reserv'd immoment toys things of such dignity as we greet modern friends withal and say some nobler token i have kept apart for livia and octavia to induce their mediation- must i be unfolded with one that i have bred the gods! it smites me beneath the fall i have to seleucus prithee go hence or i shall show the cinders of my spirits through th' ashes of my chance wert thou a man thou wouldst have mercy on me caesar forbear seleucus exit seleucus cleopatra be it known that we the greatest are misthought for things that others do and when we fall we answer others' merits in our name are therefore to be pitied caesar cleopatra not what you have reserv'd nor what acknowledg'd put we i' th' roll of conquest still be't yours bestow it at your pleasure and believe caesar's no merchant to make prize with you of things that merchants sold therefore be cheer'd make not your thoughts your prisons no dear queen for we intend so to dispose you as yourself shall give us counsel feed and sleep our care and pity is so much upon you that we remain your friend and so adieu cleopatra my master and my lord! caesar not so adieu flourish exeunt caesar and his train cleopatra he words me girls he words me that i should not be noble to myself but hark thee charmian! whispers charmian iras finish good lady the bright day is done and we are for the dark cleopatra hie thee again i have spoke already and it is provided go put it to the haste charmian madam i will re-enter dolabella dolabella where's the queen charmian behold sir exit cleopatra dolabella! dolabella madam as thereto sworn by your command which my love makes religion to obey i tell you this caesar through syria intends his journey and within three days you with your children will he send before make your best use of this i have perform'd your pleasure and my promise cleopatra dolabella i shall remain your debtor dolabella i your servant adieu good queen i must attend on caesar cleopatra farewell and thanks exit dolabella now iras what think'st thou thou an egyptian puppet shall be shown in rome as well as i mechanic slaves with greasy aprons rules and hammers shall uplift us to the view in their thick breaths rank of gross diet shall we be enclouded and forc'd to drink their vapour iras the gods forbid! cleopatra nay 'tis most certain iras saucy lictors will catch at us like strumpets and scald rhymers ballad us out o' tune the quick comedians extemporally will stage us and present our alexandrian revels antony shall be brought drunken forth and i shall see some squeaking cleopatra boy my greatness i' th' posture of a whore iras o the good gods! cleopatra nay that's certain iras i'll never see't for i am sure mine nails are stronger than mine eyes cleopatra why that's the way to fool their preparation and to conquer their most absurd intents enter charmian now charmian! show me my women like a queen go fetch my best attires i am again for cydnus to meet mark antony sirrah iras go now noble charmian we'll dispatch indeed and when thou hast done this chare i'll give thee leave to play till doomsday bring our crown and all exit iras a noise within wherefore's this noise enter a guardsman guardsman here is a rural fellow that will not be denied your highness' presence he brings you figs cleopatra let him come in exit guardsman what poor an instrument may do a noble deed! he brings me liberty my resolution's plac'd and i have nothing of woman in me now from head to foot i am marble-constant now the fleeting moon no planet is of mine re-enter guardsman and clown with a basket guardsman this is the man cleopatra avoid and leave him exit guardsman hast thou the pretty worm of nilus there that kills and pains not clown truly i have him but i would not be the party that should desire you to touch him for his biting is immortal those that do die of it do seldom or never recover cleopatra remember'st thou any that have died on't clown very many men and women too i heard of one of them no longer than yesterday a very honest woman but something given to lie as a woman should not do but in the way of honesty how she died of the biting of it what pain she felt- truly she makes a very good report o' th' worm but he that will believe all that they say shall never be saved by half that they do but this is most falliable the worm's an odd worm cleopatra get thee hence farewell clown i wish you all joy of the worm sets down the basket cleopatra farewell clown you must think this look you that the worm will do his kind cleopatra ay ay farewell clown look you the worm is not to be trusted but in the keeping of wise people for indeed there is no goodness in the worm cleopatra take thou no care it shall be heeded clown very good give it nothing i pray you for it is not worth the feeding cleopatra will it eat me clown you must not think i am so simple but i know the devil himself will not eat a woman i know that a woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not but truly these same whoreson devils do the gods great harm in their women for in every ten that they make the devils mar five cleopatra well get thee gone farewell clown yes forsooth i wish you joy o' th' worm exit re-enter iras with a robe crown &c cleopatra give me my robe put on my crown i have immortal longings in me now no more the juice of egypt's grape shall moist this lip yare yare good iras quick methinks i hear antony call i see him rouse himself to praise my noble act i hear him mock the luck of caesar which the gods give men to excuse their after wrath husband i come now to that name my courage prove my title! i am fire and air my other elements i give to baser life so have you done come then and take the last warmth of my lips farewell kind charmian iras long farewell kisses them iras falls and dies have i the aspic in my lips dost fall if thus thou and nature can so gently part the stroke of death is as a lover's pinch which hurts and is desir'd dost thou lie still if thou vanishest thou tell'st the world it is not worth leave-taking charmian dissolve thick cloud and rain that i may say the gods themselves do weep cleopatra this proves me base if she first meet the curled antony he'll make demand of her and spend that kiss which is my heaven to have come thou mortal wretch to an asp which she applies to her breast with thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate of life at once untie poor venomous fool be angry and dispatch o couldst thou speak that i might hear thee call great caesar ass unpolicied! charmian o eastern star! cleopatra peace peace! dost thou not see my baby at my breast that sucks the nurse asleep charmian o break! o break! cleopatra as sweet as balm as soft as air as gentle- o antony! nay i will take thee too applying another asp to her arm what should i stay- dies charmian in this vile world so fare thee well now boast thee death in thy possession lies a lass unparallel'd downy windows close and golden phoebus never be beheld of eyes again so royal! your crown's awry i'll mend it and then play- enter the guard rushing in first guard where's the queen charmian speak softly wake her not first guard caesar hath sent- charmian too slow a messenger applies an asp o come apace dispatch i partly feel thee first guard approach ho! all's not well caesar's beguil'd second guard there's dolabella sent from caesar call him first guard what work is here! charmian is this well done charmian it is well done and fitting for a princes descended of so many royal kings ah soldier! charmian dies re-enter dolabella dolabella how goes it here second guard all dead dolabella caesar thy thoughts touch their effects in this thyself art coming to see perform'd the dreaded act which thou so sought'st to hinder within 'a way there a way for caesar!' re-enter caesar and all his train dolabella o sir you are too sure an augurer that you did fear is done caesar bravest at the last she levell'd at our purposes and being royal took her own way the manner of their deaths i do not see them bleed dolabella who was last with them first guard a simple countryman that brought her figs this was his basket caesar poison'd then first guard o caesar this charmian liv'd but now she stood and spake i found her trimming up the diadem on her dead mistress tremblingly she stood and on the sudden dropp'd caesar o noble weakness! if they had swallow'd poison 'twould appear by external swelling but she looks like sleep as she would catch another antony in her strong toil of grace dolabella here on her breast there is a vent of blood and something blown the like is on her arm first guard this is an aspic's trail and these fig-leaves have slime upon them such as th' aspic leaves upon the caves of nile caesar most probable that so she died for her physician tells me she hath pursu'd conclusions infinite of easy ways to die take up her bed and bear her women from the monument she shall be buried by her antony no grave upon the earth shall clip in it a pair so famous high events as these strike those that make them and their story is no less in pity than his glory which brought them to be lamented our army shall in solemn show attend this funeral and then to rome come dolabella see high order in this great solemnity exeunt the end 1601 as you like it by william shakespeare dramatis personae duke living in exile frederick his brother and usurper of his dominions amiens lord attending on the banished duke jaques " " " " " " le beau a courtier attending upon frederick charles wrestler to frederick oliver son of sir rowland de boys jaques " " " " " " orlando " " " " " " adam servant to oliver dennis " " " touchstone the court jester sir oliver martext a vicar corin shepherd silvius " william a country fellow in love with audrey a person representing hymen rosalind daughter to the banished duke celia daughter to frederick phebe a shepherdes audrey a country wench lords pages foresters and attendants scene oliver's house frederick's court and the forest of arden act i scene i orchard of oliver's house enter orlando and adam orlando as i remember adam it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns and as thou say'st charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well and there begins my sadness my brother jaques he keeps at school and report speaks goldenly of his profit for my part he keeps me rustically at home or to speak more properly stays me here at home unkept for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox his horses are bred better for besides that they are fair with their feeding they are taught their manage and to that end riders dearly hir'd but i his brother gain nothing under him but growth for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as i besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me the something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from me he lets me feed with his hinds bars me the place of a brother and as much as in him lies mines my gentility with my education this is it adam that grieves me and the spirit of my father which i think is within me begins to mutiny against this servitude i will no longer endure it though yet i know no wise remedy how to avoid it enter oliver adam yonder comes my master your brother orlando go apart adam and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up adam retires oliver now sir! what make you here orlando nothing i am not taught to make any thing oliver what mar you then sir orlando marry sir i am helping you to mar that which god made a poor unworthy brother of yours with idleness oliver marry sir be better employed and be nought awhile orlando shall i keep your hogs and eat husks with them what prodigal portion have i spent that i should come to such penury oliver know you where you are sir orlando o sir very well here in your orchard oliver know you before whom sir orlando ay better than him i am before knows me i know you are my eldest brother and in the gentle condition of blood you should so know me the courtesy of nations allows you my better in that you are the first-born but the same tradition takes not away my blood were there twenty brothers betwixt us i have as much of my father in me as you albeit i confess your coming before me is nearer to his reverence oliver what boy! strikes him orlando come come elder brother you are too young in this oliver wilt thou lay hands on me villain orlando i am no villain i am the youngest son of sir rowland de boys he was my father and he is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains wert thou not my brother i would not take this hand from thy throat till this other had pull'd out thy tongue for saying so thou has rail'd on thyself adam coming forward sweet masters be patient for your father's remembrance be at accord oliver let me go i say orlando i will not till i please you shall hear me my father charg'd you in his will to give me good education you have train'd me like a peasant obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities the spirit of my father grows strong in me and i will no longer endure it therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament with that i will go buy my fortunes oliver and what wilt thou do beg when that is spent well sir get you in i will not long be troubled with you you shall have some part of your will i pray you leave me orlando i no further offend you than becomes me for my good oliver get you with him you old dog adam is 'old dog' my reward most true i have lost my teeth in your service god be with my old master! he would not have spoke such a word exeunt orlando and adam oliver is it even so begin you to grow upon me i will physic your rankness and yet give no thousand crowns neither holla dennis! enter dennis dennis calls your worship oliver not charles the duke's wrestler here to speak with me dennis so please you he is here at the door and importunes access to you oliver call him in exit dennis 'twill be a good way and to-morrow the wrestling is enter charles charles good morrow to your worship oliver good monsieur charles! what's the new news at the new court charles there's no news at the court sir but the old news that is the old duke is banished by his younger brother the new duke and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary exile with him whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke therefore he gives them good leave to wander oliver can you tell if rosalind the duke's daughter be banished with her father charles o no for the duke's daughter her cousin so loves her being ever from their cradles bred together that she would have followed her exile or have died to stay behind her she is at the court and no less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter and never two ladies loved as they do oliver where will the old duke live charles they say he is already in the forest of arden and a many merry men with him and there they live like the old robin hood of england they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world oliver what you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke charles marry do i sir and i came to acquaint you with a matter i am given sir secretly to understand that your younger brother orlando hath a disposition to come in disguis'd against me to try a fall to-morrow sir i wrestle for my credit and he that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him well your brother is but young and tender and for your love i would be loath to foil him as i must for my own honour if he come in therefore out of my love to you i came hither to acquaint you withal that either you might stay him from his intendment or brook such disgrace well as he shall run into in that it is thing of his own search and altogether against my will oliver charles i thank thee for thy love to me which thou shalt find i will most kindly requite i had myself notice of my brother's purpose herein and have by underhand means laboured to dissuade him from it but he is resolute i'll tell thee charles it is the stubbornest young fellow of france full of ambition an envious emulator of every man's good parts a secret and villainous contriver against me his natural brother therefore use thy discretion i had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger and thou wert best look to't for if thou dost him any slight disgrace or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee he will practise against thee by poison entrap thee by some treacherous device and never leave thee till he hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other for i assure thee and almost with tears i speak it there is not one so young and so villainous this day living i speak but brotherly of him but should i anatomize him to thee as he is i must blush and weep and thou must look pale and wonder charles i am heartily glad i came hither to you if he come to-morrow i'll give him his payment if ever he go alone again i'll never wrestle for prize more and so god keep your worship! exit oliver farewell good charles now will i stir this gamester i hope i shall see an end of him for my soul yet i know not why hates nothing more than he yet he's gentle never school'd and yet learned full of noble device of all sorts enchantingly beloved and indeed so much in the heart of the world and especially of my own people who best know him that i am altogether misprised but it shall not be so long this wrestler shall clear all nothing remains but that i kindle the boy thither which now i'll go about exit scene ii a lawn before the duke's palace enter rosalind and celia celia i pray thee rosalind sweet my coz be merry rosalind dear celia i show more mirth than i am mistress of and would you yet i were merrier unless you could teach me to forget a banished father you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure celia herein i see thou lov'st me not with the full weight that i love thee if my uncle thy banished father had banished thy uncle the duke my father so thou hadst been still with me i could have taught my love to take thy father for mine so wouldst thou if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously temper'd as mine is to thee rosalind well i will forget the condition of my estate to rejoice in yours celia you know my father hath no child but i nor none is like to have and truly when he dies thou shalt be his heir for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce i will render thee again in affection by mine honour i will and when i break that oath let me turn monster therefore my sweet rose my dear rose be merry rosalind from henceforth i will coz and devise sports let me see what think you of falling in love celia marry i prithee do to make sport withal but love no man in good earnest nor no further in sport neither than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in honour come off again rosalind what shall be our sport then celia let us sit and mock the good housewife fortune from her wheel that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally rosalind i would we could do so for her benefits are mightily misplaced and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her gifts to women celia 'tis true for those that she makes fair she scarce makes honest and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-favouredly rosalind nay now thou goest from fortune's office to nature's fortune reigns in gifts of the world not in the lineaments of nature enter touchstone celia no when nature hath made a fair creature may she not by fortune fall into the fire though nature hath given us wit to flout at fortune hath not fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument rosalind indeed there is fortune too hard for nature when fortune makes nature's natural the cutter-off of nature's wit celia peradventure this is not fortune's work neither but nature's who perceiveth our natural wits too dull to reason of such goddesses and hath sent this natural for our whetstone for always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits how now wit! whither wander you touchstone mistress you must come away to your father celia were you made the messenger touchstone no by mine honour but i was bid to come for you rosalind where learned you that oath fool touchstone of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes and swore by his honour the mustard was naught now i'll stand to it the pancakes were naught and the mustard was good and yet was not the knight forsworn celia how prove you that in the great heap of your knowledge rosalind ay marry now unmuzzle your wisdom touchstone stand you both forth now stroke your chins and swear by your beards that i am a knave celia by our beards if we had them thou art touchstone by my knavery if i had it then i were but if you swear by that that not you are not forsworn no more was this knight swearing by his honour for he never had any or if he had he had sworn it away before ever he saw those pancackes or that mustard celia prithee who is't that thou mean'st touchstone one that old frederick your father loves celia my father's love is enough to honour him enough speak no more of him you'll be whipt for taxation one of these days touchstone the more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly celia by my troth thou sayest true for since the little wit that fools have was silenced the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show here comes monsieur le beau enter le beau rosalind with his mouth full of news celia which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young rosalind then shall we be news-cramm'd celia all the better we shall be the more marketable bon jour monsieur le beau what's the news le beau fair princess you have lost much good sport celia sport! of what colour le beau what colour madam how shall i answer you rosalind as wit and fortune will touchstone or as the destinies decrees celia well said that was laid on with a trowel touchstone nay if i keep not my rank- rosalind thou losest thy old smell le beau you amaze me ladies i would have told you of good wrestling which you have lost the sight of rosalind yet tell us the manner of the wrestling le beau i will tell you the beginning and if it please your ladyships you may see the end for the best is yet to do and here where you are they are coming to perform it celia well the beginning that is dead and buried le beau there comes an old man and his three sons- celia i could match this beginning with an old tale le beau three proper young men of excellent growth and presence rosalind with bills on their necks 'be it known unto all men by these presents'- le beau the eldest of the three wrestled with charles the duke's wrestler which charles in a moment threw him and broke three of his ribs that there is little hope of life in him so he serv'd the second and so the third yonder they lie the poor old man their father making such pitiful dole over them that all the beholders take his part with weeping rosalind alas! touchstone but what is the sport monsieur that the ladies have lost le beau why this that i speak of touchstone thus men may grow wiser every day it is the first time that ever i heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies celia or i i promise thee rosalind but is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking shall we see this wrestling cousin le beau you must if you stay here for here is the place appointed for the wrestling and they are ready to perform it celia yonder sure they are coming let us now stay and see it flourish enter duke frederick lords orlando charles and attendants frederick come on since the youth will not be entreated his own peril on his forwardness rosalind is yonder the man le beau even he madam celia alas he is too young yet he looks successfully frederick how now daughter and cousin! are you crept hither to see the wrestling rosalind ay my liege so please you give us leave frederick you will take little delight in it i can tell you there is such odds in the man in pity of the challenger's youth i would fain dissuade him but he will not be entreated speak to him ladies see if you can move him celia call him hither good monsieur le beau frederick do so i'll not be by duke frederick goes apart le beau monsieur the challenger the princess calls for you orlando i attend them with all respect and duty rosalind young man have you challeng'd charles the wrestler orlando no fair princess he is the general challenger i come but in as others do to try with him the strength of my youth celia young gentleman your spirits are too bold for your years you have seen cruel proof of this man's strength if you saw yourself with your eyes or knew yourself with your judgment the fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise we pray you for your own sake to embrace your own safety and give over this attempt rosalind do young sir your reputation shall not therefore be misprised we will make it our suit to the duke that the wrestling might not go forward orlando i beseech you punish me not with your hard thoughts wherein i confess me much guilty to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing but let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial wherein if i be foil'd there is but one sham'd that was never gracious if kill'd but one dead that is willing to be so i shall do my friends no wrong for i have none to lament me the world no injury for in it i have nothing only in the world i fill up a place which may be better supplied when i have made it empty rosalind the little strength that i have i would it were with you celia and mine to eke out hers rosalind fare you well pray heaven i be deceiv'd in you! celia your heart's desires be with you! charles come where is this young gallant that is so desirous to lie with his mother earth orlando ready sir but his will hath in it a more modest working frederick you shall try but one fall charles no i warrant your grace you shall not entreat him to a second that have so mightily persuaded him from a first orlando you mean to mock me after you should not have mock'd me before but come your ways rosalind now hercules be thy speed young man! celia i would i were invisible to catch the strong fellow by the leg they wrestle rosalind o excellent young man! celia if i had a thunderbolt in mine eye i can tell who should down charles is thrown shout frederick no more no more orlando yes i beseech your grace i am not yet well breath'd frederick how dost thou charles le beau he cannot speak my lord frederick bear him away what is thy name young man orlando orlando my liege the youngest son of sir rowland de boys frederick i would thou hadst been son to some man else the world esteem'd thy father honourable but i did find him still mine enemy thou shouldst have better pleas'd me with this deed hadst thou descended from another house but fare thee well thou art a gallant youth i would thou hadst told me of another father exeunt duke train and le beau celia were i my father coz would i do this orlando i am more proud to be sir rowland's son his youngest son- and would not change that calling to be adopted heir to frederick rosalind my father lov'd sir rowland as his soul and all the world was of my father's mind had i before known this young man his son i should have given him tears unto entreaties ere he should thus have ventur'd celia gentle cousin let us go thank him and encourage him my father's rough and envious disposition sticks me at heart sir you have well deserv'd if you do keep your promises in love but justly as you have exceeded all promise your mistress shall be happy rosalind gentleman giving him a chain from her neck wear this for me one out of suits with fortune that could give more but that her hand lacks means shall we go coz celia ay fare you well fair gentleman orlando can i not say 'i thank you' my better parts are all thrown down and that which here stands up is but a quintain a mere lifeless block rosalind he calls us back my pride fell with my fortunes i'll ask him what he would did you call sir sir you have wrestled well and overthrown more than your enemies celia will you go coz rosalind have with you fare you well exeunt rosalind and celia orlando what passion hangs these weights upon my tongue i cannot speak to her yet she urg'd conference o poor orlando thou art overthrown! or charles or something weaker masters thee re-enter le beau le beau good sir i do in friendship counsel you to leave this place albeit you have deserv'd high commendation true applause and love yet such is now the duke's condition that he misconstrues all that you have done the duke is humorous what he is indeed more suits you to conceive than i to speak of orlando i thank you sir and pray you tell me this which of the two was daughter of the duke that here was at the wrestling le beau neither his daughter if we judge by manners but yet indeed the smaller is his daughter the other is daughter to the banish'd duke and here detain'd by her usurping uncle to keep his daughter company whose loves are dearer than the natural bond of sisters but i can tell you that of late this duke hath ta'en displeasure 'gainst his gentle niece grounded upon no other argument but that the people praise her for her virtues and pity her for her good father's sake and on my life his malice 'gainst the lady will suddenly break forth sir fare you well hereafter in a better world than this i shall desire more love and knowledge of you orlando i rest much bounden to you fare you well exit le beau thus must i from the smoke into the smother from tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother but heavenly rosalind! exit scene iii the duke's palace enter celia and rosalind celia why cousin! why rosalind! cupid have mercy! not a word rosalind not one to throw at a dog celia no thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs throw some of them at me come lame me with reasons rosalind then there were two cousins laid up when the one should be lam'd with reasons and the other mad without any celia but is all this for your father rosalind no some of it is for my child's father o how full of briers is this working-day world! celia they are but burs cousin thrown upon thee in holiday foolery if we walk not in the trodden paths our very petticoats will catch them rosalind i could shake them off my coat these burs are in my heart celia hem them away rosalind i would try if i could cry 'hem' and have him celia come come wrestle with thy affections rosalind o they take the part of a better wrestler than myself celia o a good wish upon you! you will try in time in despite of a fall but turning these jests out of service let us talk in good earnest is it possible on such a sudden you should fall into so strong a liking with old sir rowland's youngest son rosalind the duke my father lov'd his father dearly celia doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly by this kind of chase i should hate him for my father hated his father dearly yet i hate not orlando rosalind no faith hate him not for my sake celia why should i not doth he not deserve well enter duke frederick with lords rosalind let me love him for that and do you love him because i do look here comes the duke celia with his eyes full of anger frederick mistress dispatch you with your safest haste and get you from our court rosalind me uncle frederick you cousin within these ten days if that thou beest found so near our public court as twenty miles thou diest for it rosalind i do beseech your grace let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me if with myself i hold intelligence or have acquaintance with mine own desires if that i do not dream or be not frantic- as i do trust i am not- then dear uncle never so much as in a thought unborn did i offend your highness frederick thus do all traitors if their purgation did consist in words they are as innocent as grace itself let it suffice thee that i trust thee not rosalind yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor tell me whereon the likelihood depends 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 treason is not inherited my lord or if we did derive it from our friends what's that to me my father was no traitor then good my liege mistake me not so much to think my poverty is treacherous celia dear sovereign hear me speak 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 it was your pleasure and your own remorse i was too young that time to value her but now i know her if she be a traitor why so am i we still have slept together rose at an instant learn'd play'd eat together and wheresoe'er we went like juno's swans still we went coupled and inseparable 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 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 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 which teacheth thee that thou and i am one shall we be sund'red shall we part sweet girl no let my father seek another heir therefore devise with me how we may fly whither to go and what to bear with us and do not seek to take your charge upon you to bear your griefs yourself and leave me out for by this heaven now at our sorrows pale say what thou canst i'll go along with thee rosalind why whither shall we go celia to seek my uncle in the forest of arden rosalind alas what danger will it be to us maids as we are to travel forth so far! beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold celia i'll put myself in poor and mean attire and with a kind of umber smirch my face the like do you so shall we pass along and never stir assailants rosalind were it not better because that i am more than common tall that i did suit me all points like a man a gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh a boar spear in my hand and- in my heart lie there what hidden woman's fear there will- we'll have a swashing and a martial outside as many other mannish cowards have that do outface it with their semblances celia what shall i call thee when thou art a man 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 would he not be a comfort to our travel celia he'll go along o'er the wide world with me leave me alone to woo him let's away and get our jewels and our wealth together devise the fittest time and safest way to hide us from pursuit that will be made after my flight now go we in content to liberty and not to banishment exeunt act ii 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 and churlish chiding of the winter's wind which when it bites and blows upon my body even till i shrink with cold i smile and say 'this is no flattery these are counsellors that feelingly persuade me what i am ' sweet are the uses of adversity which like the toad ugly and venomous wears yet a precious jewel in his head and this our life exempt from public haunt finds tongues in trees books in the running brooks sermons in stones and good in everything i would not change it amiens happy is your grace that can translate the stubbornness of fortune into so quiet and so sweet a style duke senior come shall we go and kill us venison and yet it irks me the poor dappled fools being native burghers of this desert city should in their own confines with forked heads have their round haunches gor'd first lord indeed my lord the melancholy jaques grieves at that and in that kind swears you do more usurp than doth your brother that hath banish'd you to-day my lord of amiens and myself did steal behind him as he lay along under an oak whose antique root peeps out upon the brook that brawls along this wood! to the which place a poor sequest'red stag that from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt did come to languish and indeed my lord the wretched animal heav'd forth such groans that their discharge did stretch his leathern coat almost to bursting and the big round tears cours'd one another down his innocent nose in piteous chase and thus the hairy fool much marked of the melancholy jaques stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook augmenting it with tears duke senior but what said jaques did he not moralize this spectacle first lord o yes into a thousand similes first for his weeping into the needless stream 'poor deer ' quoth he 'thou mak'st a testament as worldlings do giving thy sum of more to that which had too much ' then being there alone left and abandoned of his velvet friends ''tis right' quoth he 'thus misery doth part the flux of company ' anon a careless herd full of the pasture jumps along by him and never stays to greet him 'ay ' quoth jaques 'sweep on you fat and greasy citizens 'tis just the fashion wherefore do you look upon that poor and broken bankrupt there ' thus most invectively he pierceth through the body of the country city court yea and of this our life swearing that we are mere usurpers tyrants and what's worse to fright the animals and to kill them up in their assign'd and native dwelling-place duke senior and did you leave him in this contemplation second lord we did my lord weeping and commenting upon the sobbing deer duke senior show me the place i love to cope him in these sullen fits for then he's full of matter first lord i'll bring you to him straight exeunt scene ii the duke's palace enter duke frederick with lords frederick can it be possible that no man saw them it cannot be some villains of my court are of consent and sufferance in this first lord i cannot hear of any that did see her the ladies her attendants of her chamber saw her abed and in the morning early they found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress second lord my lord the roynish clown at whom so oft your grace was wont to laugh is also missing hisperia the princess' gentlewoman confesses that she secretly o'erheard your daughter and her cousin much commend the parts and graces of the wrestler that did but lately foil the sinewy charles and she believes wherever they are gone that youth is surely in their company frederick send to his brother fetch that gallant hither if he be absent bring his brother to me i'll make him find him do this suddenly and let not search and inquisition quail to bring again these foolish runaways exeunt scene iii before oliver's house enter orlando and adam meeting orlando who's there adam what my young master o my gentle master! o my sweet master! o you memory of old sir rowland! why what make you here why are you virtuous why do people love you and wherefore are you gentle strong and valiant why would you be so fond to overcome the bonny prizer of the humorous duke your praise is come too swiftly home before you know you not master to some kind of men their graces serve them but as enemies no more do yours your virtues gentle master are sanctified and holy traitors to you o what a world is this when what is comely envenoms him that bears it! orlando why what's the matter adam o unhappy youth! come not within these doors within this roof the enemy of all your graces lives your brother- no no brother yet the son- yet not the son i will not call him son of him i was about to call his father- hath heard your praises and this night he means to burn the lodging where you use to lie and you within it if he fail of that he will have other means to cut you off i overheard him and his practices this is no place this house is but a butchery abhor it fear it do not enter it orlando why whither adam wouldst thou have me go adam no matter whither so you come not here orlando what wouldst thou have me go and beg my food or with a base and boist'rous sword enforce a thievish living on the common road this i must do or know not what to do yet this i will not do do how i can i rather will subject me to the malice of a diverted blood and bloody brother adam but do not so i have five hundred crowns the thrifty hire i sav'd under your father which i did store to be my foster-nurse when service should in my old limbs lie lame and unregarded age in corners thrown take that and he that doth the ravens feed yea providently caters for the sparrow be comfort to my age! here is the gold all this i give you let me be your servant though i look old yet i am strong and lusty for in my youth i never did apply hot and rebellious liquors in my blood nor did not with unbashful forehead woo the means of weakness and debility therefore my age is as a lusty winter frosty but kindly let me go with you i'll do the service of a younger man in all your business and necessities orlando o good old man how well in thee appears the constant service of the antique world when service sweat for duty not for meed! thou art not for the fashion of these times where none will sweat but for promotion and having that do choke their service up even with the having it is not so with thee but poor old man thou prun'st a rotten tree that cannot so much as a blossom yield in lieu of all thy pains and husbandry but come thy ways we'll go along together and ere we have thy youthful wages spent we'll light upon some settled low content adam master go on and i will follow the to the last gasp with truth and loyalty from seventeen years till now almost four-score here lived i but now live here no more at seventeen years many their fortunes seek but at fourscore it is too late a week yet fortune cannot recompense me better than to die well and not my master's debtor exeunt scene iv the forest of arden enter rosalind for ganymede celia for aliena and clown alias touchstone rosalind o jupiter how weary are my spirits! touchstone i care not for my spirits if my legs were not weary rosalind i could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel and to cry like a woman but i must comfort the weaker vessel as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat therefore courage good aliena celia i pray you bear with me i cannot go no further touchstone for my part i had rather bear with you than bear you yet i should bear no cross if i did bear you for i think you have no money in your purse rosalind well this is the forest of arden touchstone ay now am i in arden the more fool i when i was at home i was in a better place but travellers must be content enter corin and silvius rosalind ay be so good touchstone look you who comes here a young man and an old in solemn talk corin that is the way to make her scorn you still silvius o corin that thou knew'st how i do love her! corin i partly guess for i have lov'd ere now silvius no corin being old thou canst not guess though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover as ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow but if thy love were ever like to mine as sure i think did never man love so how many actions most ridiculous hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy corin into a thousand that i have forgotten silvius o thou didst then never love so heartily! if thou rememb'rest not the slightest folly that ever love did make thee run into thou hast not lov'd or if thou hast not sat as i do now wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise thou hast not lov'd or if thou hast not broke from company abruptly as my passion now makes me thou hast not lov'd o phebe phebe phebe! exit silvius rosalind alas poor shepherd! searching of thy wound i have by hard adventure found mine own touchstone and i mine i remember when i was in love i broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to jane smile and i remember the kissing of her batler and the cow's dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milk'd and i remember the wooing of peascod instead of her from whom i took two cods and giving her them again said with weeping tears 'wear these for my sake ' we that are true lovers run into strange capers but as all is mortal in nature so is all nature in love mortal in folly rosalind thou speak'st wiser than thou art ware of touchstone nay i shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till i break my shins against it rosalind jove jove! this shepherd's passion is much upon my fashion touchstone and mine but it grows something stale with me celia i pray you one of you question yond man if he for gold will give us any food i faint almost to death touchstone holla you clown! rosalind peace fool he's not thy ensman corin who calls touchstone your betters sir corin else are they very wretched rosalind peace i say good even to you friend corin and to you gentle sir and to you all rosalind i prithee shepherd if that love or gold can in this desert place buy entertainment bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed here's a young maid with travel much oppress'd and faints for succour corin fair sir i pity her and wish for her sake more than for mine own my fortunes were more able to relieve her but i am shepherd to another man and do not shear the fleeces that i graze my master is of churlish disposition and little recks to find the way to heaven by doing deeds of hospitality besides his cote his flocks and bounds of feed are now on sale and at our sheepcote now by reason of his absence there is nothing that you will feed on but what is come see and in my voice most welcome shall you be rosalind what is he that shall buy his flock and pasture corin that young swain that you saw here but erewhile that little cares for buying any thing rosalind i pray thee if it stand with honesty buy thou the cottage pasture and the flock and thou shalt have to pay for it of us celia and we will mend thy wages i like this place and willingly could waste my time in it corin assuredly the thing is to be sold go with me if you like upon report the soil the profit and this kind of life i will your very faithful feeder be and buy it with your gold right suddenly exeunt scene v another part of the forest enter amiens jaques and others song amiens under the greenwood tree who loves to lie with me and turn his merry note unto the sweet bird's throat come hither come hither come hither here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather jaques more more i prithee more amiens it will make you melancholy monsieur jaques jaques i thank it more i prithee more i can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs more i prithee more amiens my voice is ragged i know i cannot please you jaques i do not desire you to please me i do desire you to sing come more another stanzo call you 'em stanzos amiens what you will monsieur jaques jaques nay i care not for their names they owe me nothing will you sing amiens more at your request than to please myself jaques well then if ever i thank any man i'll thank you but that they call compliment is like th' encounter of two dog-apes and when a man thanks me heartily methinks have given him a penny and he renders me the beggarly thanks come sing and you that will not hold your tongues amiens well i'll end the song sirs cover the while the duke will drink under this tree he hath been all this day to look you jaques and i have been all this day to avoid him he is to disputable for my company i think of as many matters as he but i give heaven thanks and make no boast of them come warble come song all together here who doth ambition shun and loves to live i' th' sun seeking the food he eats and pleas'd with what he gets come hither come hither come hither here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather jaques i'll give you a verse to this note that i made yesterday in despite of my invention amiens and i'll sing it jaques thus it goes if it do come to pass that any man turn ass leaving his wealth and ease a stubborn will to please ducdame ducdame ducdame here shall he see gross fools as he an if he will come to me amiens what's that 'ducdame' jaques 'tis a greek invocation to call fools into a circle i'll go sleep if i can if i cannot i'll rail against all the first-born of egypt amiens and i'll go seek the duke his banquet is prepar'd exeunt severally scene vi the forest enter orlando and adam adam dear master i can go no further o i die for food! here lie i down and measure out my grave farewell kind master orlando why how now adam! no greater heart in thee live a little comfort a little cheer thyself a little if this uncouth forest yield anything savage i will either be food for it or bring it for food to thee thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers for my sake be comfortable hold death awhile at the arm's end i will here be with the presently and if i bring thee not something to eat i will give thee leave to die but if thou diest before i come thou art a mocker of my labour well said! thou look'st cheerly and i'll be with thee quickly yet thou liest in the bleak air come i will bear thee to some shelter and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner if there live anything in this desert cheerly good adam! exeunt scene vii the forest a table set out enter duke senior amiens and lords like outlaws duke senior i think he be transform'd into a beast for i can nowhere find him like a man first lord my lord he is but even now gone hence here was he merry hearing of a song duke senior if he compact of jars grow musical we shall have shortly discord in the spheres go seek him tell him i would speak with him enter jaques first lord he saves my labour by his own approach duke senior why how now monsieur! what a life is this that your poor friends must woo your company what you look merrily! jaques a fool a fool! i met a fool i' th' forest a motley fool a miserable world! as i do live by food i met a fool who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun and rail'd on lady fortune in good terms in good set terms- and yet a motley fool 'good morrow fool ' quoth i 'no sir ' quoth he 'call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune ' and then he drew a dial from his poke and looking on it with lack-lustre eye says very wisely 'it is ten o'clock thus we may see ' quoth he 'how the world wags 'tis but an hour ago since it was nine and after one hour more 'twill be eleven and so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe and then from hour to hour we rot and rot and thereby hangs a tale ' when i did hear the motley fool thus moral on the time my lungs began to crow like chanticleer that fools should be so deep contemplative and i did laugh sans intermission an hour by his dial o noble fool! a worthy fool! motley's the only wear duke senior what fool is this jaques o worthy fool! one that hath been a courtier and says if ladies be but young and fair they have the gift to know it and in his brain which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage he hath strange places cramm'd with observation the which he vents in mangled forms o that i were a fool! i am ambitious for a motley coat duke senior thou shalt have one jaques it is my only suit provided that you weed your better judgments of all opinion that grows rank in them that i am wise i must have liberty withal as large a charter as the wind to blow on whom i please for so fools have and they that are most galled with my folly they most must laugh and why sir must they so the why is plain as way to parish church he that a fool doth very wisely hit doth very foolishly although he smart not to seem senseless of the bob if not the wise man's folly is anatomiz'd even by the squand'ring glances of the fool invest me in my motley give me leave to speak my mind and i will through and through cleanse the foul body of th' infected world if they will patiently receive my medicine duke senior fie on thee! i can tell what thou wouldst do jaques what for a counter would i do but good duke senior most mischievous foul sin in chiding sin for thou thyself hast been a libertine as sensual as the brutish sting itself and all th' embossed sores and headed evils that thou with license of free foot hast caught wouldst thou disgorge into the general world jaques why who cries out on pride that can therein tax any private party doth it not flow as hugely as the sea till that the wearer's very means do ebb what woman in the city do i name when that i say the city-woman bears the cost of princes on unworthy shoulders who can come in and say that i mean her when such a one as she such is her neighbour or what is he of basest function that says his bravery is not on my cost thinking that i mean him but therein suits his folly to the mettle of my speech there then! how then what then let me see wherein my tongue hath wrong'd him if it do him right then he hath wrong'd himself if he be free why then my taxing like a wild-goose flies unclaim'd of any man but who comes here enter orlando with his sword drawn orlando forbear and eat no more jaques why i have eat none yet orlando nor shalt not till necessity be serv'd jaques of what kind should this cock come of duke senior art thou thus bolden'd man by thy distress or else a rude despiser of good manners that in civility thou seem'st so empty orlando you touch'd my vein at first the thorny point of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show of smooth civility yet arn i inland bred and know some nurture but forbear i say he dies that touches any of this fruit till i and my affairs are answered jaques an you will not be answer'd with reason i must die duke senior what would you have your gentleness shall force more than your force move us to gentleness orlando i almost die for food and let me have it duke senior sit down and feed and welcome to our table orlando speak you so gently pardon me i pray you i thought that all things had been savage here and therefore put i on the countenance of stern commandment but whate'er you are that in this desert inaccessible under the shade of melancholy boughs lose and neglect the creeping hours of time if ever you have look'd on better days if ever been where bells have knoll'd to church if ever sat at any good man's feast if ever from your eyelids wip'd a tear and know what 'tis to pity and be pitied let gentleness my strong enforcement be in the which hope i blush and hide my sword duke senior true is it that we have seen better days and have with holy bell been knoll'd to church and sat at good men's feasts and wip'd our eyes of drops that sacred pity hath engend'red and therefore sit you down in gentleness and take upon command what help we have that to your wanting may be minist'red orlando then but forbear your food a little while whiles like a doe i go to find my fawn and give it food there is an old poor man who after me hath many a weary step limp'd in pure love till he be first suffic'd oppress'd with two weak evils age and hunger i will not touch a bit duke senior go find him out and we will nothing waste till you return orlando i thank ye and be blest for your good comfort! exit duke senior thou seest we are not all alone unhappy this wide and universal theatre presents more woeful pageants than the scene wherein we play in jaques all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts his acts being seven ages at first the infant mewling and puking in the nurse's arms then the whining school-boy with his satchel and shining morning face creeping like snail unwillingly to school and then the lover sighing like furnace with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow then a soldier full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard jealous in honour sudden and quick in quarrel seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth and then the justice in fair round belly with good capon lin'd with eyes severe and beard of formal cut full of wise saws and modern instances and so he plays his part the sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon with spectacles on nose and pouch on side his youthful hose well sav'd a world too wide for his shrunk shank and his big manly voice turning again toward childish treble pipes and whistles in his sound last scene of all that ends this strange eventful history is second childishness and mere oblivion sans teeth sans eyes sans taste sans every thing re-enter orlando with adam duke senior welcome set down your venerable burden and let him feed orlando i thank you most for him adam so had you need i scarce can speak to thank you for myself duke senior welcome fall to i will not trouble you as yet to question you about your fortunes give us some music and good cousin sing song blow blow thou winter wind thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude thy tooth is not so keen because thou art not seen although thy breath be rude heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly most friendship is feigning most loving mere folly then heigh-ho the holly! this life is most jolly freeze freeze thou bitter sky that dost not bite so nigh as benefits forgot though thou the waters warp thy sting is not so sharp as friend rememb'red not heigh-ho! sing &c duke senior if that you were the good sir rowland's son as you have whisper'd faithfully you were and as mine eye doth his effigies witness most truly limn'd and living in your face be truly welcome hither i am the duke that lov'd your father the residue of your fortune go to my cave and tell me good old man thou art right welcome as thy master is support him by the arm give me your hand and let me all your fortunes understand exeunt act iii scene i the palace enter duke frederick oliver and lords frederick not see him since! sir sir that cannot be but were i not the better part made mercy i should not seek an absent argument of my revenge thou present but look to it find out thy brother wheresoe'er he is seek him with candle bring him dead or living within this twelvemonth or turn thou no more to seek a living in our territory thy lands and all things that thou dost call thine worth seizure do we seize into our hands till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth of what we think against thee oliver o that your highness knew my heart in this! i never lov'd my brother in my life frederick more villain thou well push him out of doors and let my officers of such a nature make an extent upon his house and lands do this expediently and turn him going exeunt scene ii the forest enter orlando with a paper orlando hang there my verse in witness of my love and thou thrice-crowned queen of night survey with thy chaste eye from thy pale sphere above thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway o rosalind! these trees shall be my books and in their barks my thoughts i'll character that every eye which in this forest looks shall see thy virtue witness'd every where run run orlando carve on every tree the fair the chaste and unexpressive she exit enter corin and touchstone corin and how like you this shepherd's life master touchstone touchstone truly shepherd in respect of itself it is a good life but in respect that it is a shepherd's life it is nought in respect that it is solitary i like it very well but in respect that it is private it is a very vile life now in respect it is in the fields it pleaseth me well but in respect it is not in the court it is tedious as it is a spare life look you it fits my humour well but as there is no more plenty in it it goes much against my stomach hast any philosophy in thee shepherd corin no more but that i know the more one sickens the worse at ease he is and that he that wants money means and content is without three good friends that the property of rain is to wet and fire to burn that good pasture makes fat sheep and that a great cause of the night is lack of the sun that he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred touchstone such a one is a natural philosopher wast ever in court shepherd corin no truly touchstone then thou art damn'd corin nay i hope touchstone truly thou art damn'd like an ill-roasted egg all on one side corin for not being at court your reason touchstone why if thou never wast at court thou never saw'st good manners if thou never saw'st good manners then thy manners must be wicked and wickedness is sin and sin is damnation thou art in a parlous state shepherd corin not a whit touchstone those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court you told me you salute not at the court but you kiss your hands that courtesy would be uncleanly if courtiers were shepherds touchstone instance briefly come instance corin why we are still handling our ewes and their fells you know are greasy touchstone why do not your courtier's hands sweat and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man shallow shallow a better instance i say come corin besides our hands are hard touchstone your lips will feel them the sooner shallow again a more sounder instance come corin and they are often tarr'd over with the surgery of our sheep and would you have us kiss tar the courtier's hands are perfum'd with civet touchstone most shallow man! thou worm's meat in respect of a good piece of flesh indeed! learn of the wise and perpend civet is of a baser birth than tar- the very uncleanly flux of a cat mend the instance shepherd corin you have too courtly a wit for me i'll rest touchstone wilt thou rest damn'd god help thee shallow man! god make incision in thee! thou art raw corin sir i am a true labourer i earn that i eat get that i wear owe no man hate envy no man's happiness glad of other men's good content with my harm and the greatest of my pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck touchstone that is another simple sin in you to bring the ewes and the rams together and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle to be bawd to a bell-wether and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram out of all reasonable match if thou beest not damn'd for this the devil himself will have no shepherds i cannot see else how thou shouldst scape corin here comes young master ganymede my new mistress's brother enter rosalind reading a paper rosalind 'from the east to western inde no jewel is like rosalinde her worth being mounted on the wind through all the world bears rosalinde all the pictures fairest lin'd are but black to rosalinde let no face be kept in mind but the fair of rosalinde ' touchstone i'll rhyme you so eight years together dinners and suppers and sleeping hours excepted it is the right butter-women's rank to market rosalind out fool! touchstone for a taste if a hart do lack a hind let him seek out rosalinde if the cat will after kind so be sure will rosalinde winter garments must be lin'd so must slender rosalinde they that reap must sheaf and bind then to cart with rosalinde sweetest nut hath sourest rind such a nut is rosalinde he that sweetest rose will find must find love's prick and rosalinde this is the very false gallop of verses why do you infect yourself with them rosalind peace you dull fool! i found them on a tree touchstone truly the tree yields bad fruit rosalind i'll graff it with you and then i shall graff it with a medlar then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe and that's the right virtue of the medlar touchstone you have said but whether wisely or no let the forest judge enter celia with a writing rosalind peace! here comes my sister reading stand aside celia 'why should this a desert be for it is unpeopled no tongues i'll hang on every tree that shall civil sayings show some how brief the life of man runs his erring pilgrimage that the streching of a span buckles in his sum of age some of violated vows 'twixt the souls of friend and friend but upon the fairest boughs or at every sentence end will i rosalinda write teaching all that read to know the quintessence of every sprite heaven would in little show therefore heaven nature charg'd that one body should be fill'd with all graces wide-enlarg'd nature presently distill'd helen's cheek but not her heart cleopatra's majesty atalanta's better part sad lucretia's modesty thus rosalinde of many parts by heavenly synod was devis'd of many faces eyes and hearts to have the touches dearest priz'd heaven would that she these gifts should have and i to live and die her slave ' rosalind o most gentle pulpiter! what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal and never cried 'have patience good people ' celia how now! back friends shepherd go off a little go with him sirrah touchstone come shepherd let us make an honourable retreat though not with bag and baggage yet with scrip and scrippage exeunt corin and touchstone celia didst thou hear these verses rosalind o yes i heard them all and more too for some of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear celia that's no matter the feet might bear the verses rosalind ay but the feet were lame and could not bear themselves without the verse and therefore stood lamely in the verse celia but didst thou hear without wondering how thy name should be hang'd and carved upon these trees rosalind i was seven of the nine days out of the wonder before you came for look here what i found on a palm-tree i was never so berhym'd since pythagoras' time that i was an irish rat which i can hardly remember celia trow you who hath done this rosalind is it a man celia and a chain that you once wore about his neck change you colour rosalind i prithee who celia o lord lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet but mountains may be remov'd with earthquakes and so encounter rosalind nay but who is it celia is it possible rosalind nay i prithee now with most petitionary vehemence tell me who it is celia o wonderful wonderful most wonderful wonderful and yet again wonderful and after that out of all whooping! rosalind good my complexion! dost thou think though i am caparison'd like a man i have a doublet and hose in my disposition one inch of delay more is a south sea of discovery i prithee tell me who is it quickly and speak apace i would thou could'st stammer that thou mightst pour this conceal'd man out of thy mouth as wine comes out of narrow-mouth'd bottle- either too much at once or none at all i prithee take the cork out of thy mouth that i may drink thy tidings celia so you may put a man in your belly rosalind is he of god's making what manner of man is his head worth a hat or his chin worth a beard celia nay he hath but a little beard rosalind why god will send more if the man will be thankful let me stay the growth of his beard if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin celia it is young orlando that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels and your heart both in an instant rosalind nay but the devil take mocking! speak sad brow and true maid celia i' faith coz 'tis he rosalind orlando celia orlando rosalind alas the day! what shall i do with my doublet and hose what did he when thou saw'st him what said he how look'd he wherein went he what makes he here did he ask for me where remains he how parted he with thee and when shalt thou see him again answer me in one word celia you must borrow me gargantua's mouth first 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size to say ay and no to these particulars is more than to answer in a catechism rosalind but doth he know that i am in this forest and in man's apparel looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled celia it is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the propositions of a lover but take a taste of my finding him and relish it with good observance i found him under a tree like a dropp'd acorn rosalind it may well be call'd jove's tree when it drops forth such fruit celia give me audience good madam rosalind proceed celia there lay he stretch'd along like a wounded knight rosalind though it be pity to see such a sight it well becomes the ground celia cry 'holla' to thy tongue i prithee it curvets unseasonably he was furnish'd like a hunter rosalind o ominous! he comes to kill my heart celia i would sing my song without a burden thou bring'st me out of tune rosalind do you not know i am a woman when i think i must speak sweet say on celia you bring me out soft! comes he not here enter orlando and jaques rosalind 'tis he slink by and note him jaques i thank you for your company but good faith i had as lief have been myself alone orlando and so had i but yet for fashion sake i thank you too for your society jaques god buy you let's meet as little as we can orlando i do desire we may be better strangers jaques i pray you mar no more trees with writing love songs in their barks orlando i pray you mar no more of my verses with reading them ill-favouredly jaques rosalind is your love's name orlando yes just jaques i do not like her name orlando there was no thought of pleasing you when she was christen'd jaques what stature is she of orlando just as high as my heart jaques you are full of pretty answers have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives and conn'd them out of rings orlando not so but i answer you right painted cloth from whence you have studied your questions jaques you have a nimble wit i think 'twas made of atalanta's heels will you sit down with me and we two will rail against our mistress the world and all our misery orlando i will chide no breather in the world but myself against whom i know most faults jaques the worst fault you have is to be in love orlando 'tis a fault i will not change for your best virtue i am weary of you jaques by my troth i was seeking for a fool when i found you orlando he is drown'd in the brook look but in and you shall see him jaques there i shall see mine own figure orlando which i take to be either a fool or a cipher jaques i'll tarry no longer with you farewell good signior love orlando i am glad of your departure adieu good monsieur melancholy exit jaques rosalind aside to celia i will speak to him like a saucy lackey and under that habit play the knave with him - do you hear forester orlando very well what would you rosalind i pray you what is't o'clock orlando you should ask me what time o' day there's no clock in the forest rosalind then there is no true lover in the forest else sighing every minute and groaning every hour would detect the lazy foot of time as well as a clock orlando and why not the swift foot of time had not that been as proper rosalind by no means sir time travels in divers paces with divers persons i'll tell you who time ambles withal who time trots withal who time gallops withal and who he stands still withal orlando i prithee who doth he trot withal rosalind marry he trots hard with a young maid between the contract of her marriage and the day it is solemniz'd if the interim be but a se'nnight time's pace is so hard that it seems the length of seven year orlando who ambles time withal rosalind with a priest that lacks latin and a rich man that hath not the gout for the one sleeps easily because he cannot study and the other lives merrily because he feels no pain the one lacking the burden of lean and wasteful learning the other knowing no burden of heavy tedious penury these time ambles withal orlando who doth he gallop withal rosalind with a thief to the gallows for though he go as softly as foot can fall he thinks himself too soon there orlando who stays it still withal rosalind with lawyers in the vacation for they sleep between term and term and then they perceive not how time moves orlando where dwell you pretty youth rosalind with this shepherdess my sister here in the skirts of the forest like fringe upon a petticoat orlando are you native of this place rosalind as the coney that you see dwell where she is kindled orlando your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling rosalind i have been told so of many but indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak who was in his youth an inland man one that knew courtship too well for there he fell in love i have heard him read many lectures against it and i thank god i am not a woman to be touch'd with so many giddy offences as he hath generally tax'd their whole sex withal orlando can you remember any of the principal evils that he laid to the charge of women rosalind there were none principal they were all like one another as halfpence are every one fault seeming monstrous till his fellow-fault came to match it orlando i prithee recount some of them rosalind no i will not cast away my physic but on those that are sick there is a man haunts the forest that abuses our young plants with carving 'rosalind' on their barks hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies on brambles all forsooth deifying the name of rosalind if i could meet that fancy-monger i would give him some good counsel for he seems to have the quotidian of love upon him orlando i am he that is so love-shak'd i pray you tell me your remedy rosalind there is none of my uncle's marks upon you he taught me how to know a man in love in which cage of rushes i am sure you are not prisoner orlando what were his marks rosalind a lean cheek which you have not a blue eye and sunken which you have not an unquestionable spirit which you have not a beard neglected which you have not but i pardon you for that for simply your having in beard is a younger brother's revenue then your hose should be ungarter'd your bonnet unbanded your sleeve unbutton'd your shoe untied and every thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation but you are no such man you are rather point-device in your accoutrements as loving yourself than seeming the lover of any other orlando fair youth i would i could make thee believe i love rosalind me believe it! you may as soon make her that you love believe it which i warrant she is apter to do than to confess she does that is one of the points in the which women still give the lie to their consciences but in good sooth are you he that hangs the verses on the trees wherein rosalind is so admired orlando i swear to thee youth by the white hand of rosalind i am that he that unfortunate he rosalind but are you so much in love as your rhymes speak orlando neither rhyme nor reason can express how much rosalind love is merely a madness and i tell you deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too yet i profess curing it by counsel orlando did you ever cure any so rosalind yes one and in this manner he was to imagine me his love his mistress and i set him every day to woo me at which time would i being but a moonish youth grieve be effeminate changeable longing and liking proud fantastical apish shallow inconstant full of tears full of smiles for every passion something and for no passion truly anything as boys and women are for the most part cattle of this colour would now like him now loathe him then entertain him then forswear him now weep for him then spit at him that i drave my suitor from his mad humour of love to a living humour of madness which was to forswear the full stream of the world and to live in a nook merely monastic and thus i cur'd him and this way will i take upon me to wash your liver as clean as a sound sheep's heart that there shall not be one spot of love in 't orlando i would not be cured youth rosalind i would cure you if you would but call me rosalind and come every day to my cote and woo me orlando now by the faith of my love i will tell me where it is rosalind go with me to it and i'll show it you and by the way you shall tell me where in the forest you live will you go orlando with all my heart good youth rosalind nay you must call me rosalind come sister will you go exeunt scene iii the forest enter touchstone and audrey jaques behind touchstone come apace good audrey i will fetch up your goats audrey and how audrey am i the man yet doth my simple feature content you audrey your features! lord warrant us! what features touchstone i am here with thee and thy goats as the most capricious poet honest ovid was among the goths jaques aside o knowledge ill-inhabited worse than jove in a thatch'd house! touchstone when a man's verses cannot be understood nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room truly i would the gods had made thee poetical audrey i do not know what 'poetical' is is it honest in deed and word is it a true thing touchstone no truly for the truest poetry is the most feigning and lovers are given to poetry and what they swear in poetry may be said as lovers they do feign audrey do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical touchstone i do truly for thou swear'st to me thou art honest now if thou wert a poet i might have some hope thou didst feign audrey would you not have me honest touchstone no truly unless thou wert hard-favour'd for honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar jaques aside a material fool! audrey well i am not fair and therefore i pray the gods make me honest touchstone truly and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut were to put good meat into an unclean dish audrey i am not a slut though i thank the gods i am foul touchstone well praised be the gods for thy foulness sluttishness may come hereafter but be it as it may be i will marry thee and to that end i have been with sir oliver martext the vicar of the next village who hath promis'd to meet me in this place of the forest and to couple us jaques aside i would fain see this meeting audrey well the gods give us joy! touchstone amen a man may if he were of a fearful heart stagger in this attempt for here we have no temple but the wood no assembly but horn-beasts but what though courage! as horns are odious they are necessary it is said 'many a man knows no end of his goods ' right! many a man has good horns and knows no end of them well that is the dowry of his wife 'tis none of his own getting horns even so poor men alone no no the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal is the single man therefore blessed no as a wall'd town is more worthier than a village so is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor and by how much defence is better than no skill by so much is horn more precious than to want here comes sir oliver enter sir oliver martext sir oliver martext you are well met will you dispatch us here under this tree or shall we go with you to your chapel martext is there none here to give the woman touchstone i will not take her on gift of any man martext truly she must be given or the marriage is not lawful jaques discovering himself proceed proceed i'll give her touchstone good even good master what-ye-call't how do you sir you are very well met goddild you for your last company i am very glad to see you even a toy in hand here sir nay pray be cover'd jaques will you be married motley touchstone as the ox hath his bow sir the horse his curb and the falcon her bells so man hath his desires and as pigeons bill so wedlock would be nibbling jaques and will you being a man of your breeding be married under a bush like a beggar get you to church and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot then one of you will prove a shrunk panel and like green timber warp warp touchstone aside i am not in the mind but i were better to be married of him than of another for he is not like to marry me well and not being well married it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife jaques go thou with me and let me counsel thee touchstone come sweet audrey we must be married or we must live in bawdry farewell good master oliver not- o sweet oliver o brave oliver leave me not behind thee but- wind away begone i say i will not to wedding with thee exeunt jaques touchstone and audrey martext 'tis no matter ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling exit scene iv the forest enter rosalind and celia rosalind never talk to me i will weep celia do i prithee but yet have the grace to consider that tears do not become a man rosalind but have i not cause to weep celia as good cause as one would desire therefore weep rosalind his very hair is of the dissembling colour celia something browner than judas's marry his kisses are judas's own children rosalind i' faith his hair is of a good colour celia an excellent colour your chestnut was ever the only colour rosalind and his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch of holy bread celia he hath bought a pair of cast lips of diana a nun of winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously the very ice of chastity is in them rosalind but why did he swear he would come this morning and comes not celia nay certainly there is no truth in him rosalind do you think so celia yes i think he is not a pick-purse nor a horse-stealer but for his verity in love i do think him as concave as covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut rosalind not true in love celia yes when he is in but i think he is not in rosalind you have heard him swear downright he was celia 'was' is not 'is' besides the oath of a lover is no stronger than the word of a tapster they are both the confirmer of false reckonings he attends here in the forest on the duke your father rosalind i met the duke yesterday and had much question with him he asked me of what parentage i was i told him of as good as he so he laugh'd and let me go but what talk we of fathers when there is such a man as orlando celia o that's a brave man! he writes brave verses speaks brave words swears brave oaths and breaks them bravely quite traverse athwart the heart of his lover as a puny tilter that spurs his horse but on one side breaks his staff like a noble goose but all's brave that youth mounts and folly guides who comes here enter corin corin mistress and master you have oft enquired after the shepherd that complain'd of love who you saw sitting by me on the turf praising the proud disdainful shepherdess that was his mistress celia well and what of him corin if you will see a pageant truly play'd between the pale complexion of true love and the red glow of scorn and proud disdain go hence a little and i shall conduct you if you will mark it rosalind o come let us remove! the sight of lovers feedeth those in love bring us to this sight and you shall say i'll prove a busy actor in their play exeunt scene v another part of the forest enter silvius and phebe silvius sweet phebe do not scorn me do not phebe say that you love me not but say not so in bitterness the common executioner whose heart th' accustom'd sight of death makes hard falls not the axe upon the humbled neck but first begs pardon will you sterner be than he that dies and lives by bloody drops enter rosalind celia and corin at a distance phebe i would not be thy executioner i fly thee for i would not injure thee thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye 'tis pretty sure and very probable that eyes that are the frail'st and softest things who shut their coward gates on atomies should be call'd tyrants butchers murderers! now i do frown on thee with all my heart and if mine eyes can wound now let them kill thee now counterfeit to swoon why now fall down or if thou canst not o for shame for shame lie not to say mine eyes are murderers now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee scratch thee but with a pin and there remains some scar of it lean upon a rush the cicatrice and capable impressure thy palm some moment keeps but now mine eyes which i have darted at thee hurt thee not nor i am sure there is not force in eyes that can do hurt silvius o dear phebe if ever- as that ever may be near- you meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy then shall you know the wounds invisible that love's keen arrows make phebe but till that time come not thou near me and when that time comes afflict me with thy mocks pity me not as till that time i shall not pity thee rosalind advancing and why i pray you who might be your mother that you insult exult and all at once over the wretched what though you have no beauty- as by my faith i see no more in you than without candle may go dark to bed- must you be therefore proud and pitiless why what means this why do you look on me i see no more in you than in the ordinary of nature's sale-work 'od's my little life i think she means to tangle my eyes too! no faith proud mistress hope not after it 'tis not your inky brows your black silk hair your bugle eyeballs nor your cheek of cream that can entame my spirits to your worship you foolish shepherd wherefore do you follow her like foggy south puffing with wind and rain you are a thousand times a properer man than she a woman 'tis such fools as you that makes the world full of ill-favour'd children 'tis not her glass but you that flatters her and out of you she sees herself more proper than any of her lineaments can show her but mistress know yourself down on your knees and thank heaven fasting for a good man's love for i must tell you friendly in your ear sell when you can you are not for all markets cry the man mercy love him take his offer foul is most foul being foul to be a scoffer so take her to thee shepherd fare you well phebe sweet youth i pray you chide a year together i had rather hear you chide than this man woo rosalind he's fall'n in love with your foulness and she'll fall in love with my anger if it be so as fast as she answers thee with frowning looks i'll sauce her with bitter words why look you so upon me phebe for no ill will i bear you rosalind i pray you do not fall in love with me for i am falser than vows made in wine besides i like you not if you will know my house 'tis at the tuft of olives here hard by will you go sister shepherd ply her hard come sister shepherdess look on him better and be not proud though all the world could see none could be so abus'd in sight as he come to our flock exeunt rosalind celia and corin phebe dead shepherd now i find thy saw of might 'who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight ' silvius sweet phebe phebe ha! what say'st thou silvius silvius sweet phebe pity me phebe why i arn sorry for thee gentle silvius silvius wherever sorrow is relief would be if you do sorrow at my grief in love by giving love your sorrow and my grief were both extermin'd phebe thou hast my love is not that neighbourly silvius i would have you phebe why that were covetousness 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 sundry contemplation 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 beloved mistress 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 rosalind alas dear love i cannot lack thee two hours! orlando i must attend the duke at dinner by two o'clock i will be with thee again rosalind ay go your ways go your ways i knew what you would prove my friends told me as much and i thought no less that flattering tongue of yours won me 'tis but one cast away and so come death! two o'clock is your hour orlando ay sweet rosalind rosalind by my troth and in good earnest and so god mend me and by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous if you break one jot of your promise or come one minute behind your hour i will think you the most pathetical break-promise and the most hollow lover and the most unworthy of her you call rosalind that may be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful therefore beware my censure and keep your promise orlando with no less religion than if thou wert indeed my rosalind so adieu rosalind well time is the old justice that examines all such offenders and let time try adieu exit orlando celia you have simply misus'd our sex in your love-prate we must have your doublet and hose pluck'd over your head and show the world what the bird hath done to her own nest rosalind o coz coz coz my pretty little coz that thou didst know how many fathom deep i am in love! but it cannot be sounded my affection hath an unknown bottom like the bay of portugal celia or rather bottomless that as fast as you pour affection in it runs out rosalind no that same wicked bastard of venus that was begot of thought conceiv'd of spleen and born of madness that blind rascally boy that abuses every one's eyes because his own are out- let him be judge how deep i am in love i'll tell thee aliena i cannot be out of the sight of orlando i'll go find a shadow and sigh till he come celia and i'll sleep exeunt scene ii the forest enter jaques and lords in the habit of foresters jaques which is he that killed the deer lord sir it was i jaques let's present him to the duke like a roman conqueror and it would do well to set the deer's horns upon his head for a branch of victory have you no song forester for this purpose lord yes sir jaques sing it 'tis no matter how it be in tune so it make noise enough song what shall he have that kill'd the deer his leather skin and horns to wear the rest shall hear this burden then sing him home take thou no scorn to wear the horn it was a crest ere thou wast born thy father's father wore it and thy father bore it the horn the horn the lusty horn is not a thing to laugh to scorn exeunt scene iii the forest enter rosalind and celia rosalind how say you now is it not past two o'clock and here much orlando! celia i warrant you with pure love and troubled brain he hath ta'en his bow and arrows and is gone forth- to sleep look who comes here enter silvius silvius my errand is to you fair youth my gentle phebe did bid me give you this i know not the contents but as i guess by the stern brow and waspish action which she did use as she was writing of it it bears an angry tenour pardon me i am but as a guiltless messenger rosalind patience herself would startle at this letter and play the swaggerer bear this bear all she says i am not fair that i lack manners she calls me proud and that she could not love me were man as rare as phoenix 'od's my will! her love is not the hare that i do hunt why writes she so to me well shepherd well this is a letter of your own device silvius no i protest i know not the contents phebe did write it rosalind come come you are a fool and turn'd into the extremity of love i saw her hand she has a leathern hand a freestone-colour'd hand i verily did think that her old gloves were on but 'twas her hands she has a huswife's hand- but that's no matter i say she never did invent this letter this is a man's invention and his hand silvius sure it is hers rosalind why 'tis a boisterous and a cruel style a style for challengers why she defies me like turk to christian women's gentle brain could not drop forth such giant-rude invention such ethiope words blacker in their effect than in their countenance will you hear the letter silvius so please you for i never heard it yet yet heard too much of phebe's cruelty rosalind she phebes me mark how the tyrant writes reads 'art thou god to shepherd turn'd that a maiden's heart hath burn'd ' can a woman rail thus silvius call you this railing rosalind 'why thy godhead laid apart warr'st thou with a woman's heart ' did you ever hear such railing 'whiles the eye of man did woo me that could do no vengeance to me ' meaning me a beast 'if the scorn of your bright eyne have power to raise such love in mine alack in me what strange effect would they work in mild aspect! whiles you chid me i did love how then might your prayers move! he that brings this love to the little knows this love in me and by him seal up thy mind whether that thy youth and kind will the faithful offer take of me and all that i can make or else by him my love deny and then i'll study how to die ' silvius call you this chiding celia alas poor shepherd! rosalind do you pity him no he deserves no pity wilt thou love such a woman what to make thee an instrument and play false strains upon thee! not to be endur'd! well go your way to her for i see love hath made thee tame snake and say this to her- that if she love me i charge her to love thee if she will not i will never have her unless thou entreat for her if you be a true lover hence and not a word for here comes more company exit silvius enter oliver oliver good morrow fair ones pray you if you know where in the purlieus of this forest stands a sheep-cote fenc'd about with olive trees celia west of this place down in the neighbour bottom the rank of osiers by the murmuring stream left on your right hand brings you to the place but at this hour the house doth keep itself there's none within oliver if that an eye may profit by a tongue then should i know you by description- such garments and such years 'the boy is fair of female favour and bestows himself like a ripe sister the woman low and browner than her brother ' are not you the owner of the house i did inquire for celia it is no boast being ask'd to say we are oliver orlando doth commend him to you both and to that youth he calls his rosalind he sends this bloody napkin are you he rosalind i am what must we understand by this oliver some of my shame if you will know of me what man i am and how and why and where this handkercher was stain'd celia i pray you tell it oliver when last the young orlando parted from you he left a promise to return again within an hour and pacing through the forest chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy lo what befell! he threw his eye aside and mark what object did present itself under an oak whose boughs were moss'd with age and high top bald with dry antiquity a wretched ragged man o'ergrown with hair lay sleeping on his back about his neck a green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself who with her head nimble in threats approach'd the opening of his mouth but suddenly seeing orlando it unlink'd itself and with indented glides did slip away into a bush under which bush's shade a lioness with udders all drawn dry lay couching head on ground with catlike watch when that the sleeping man should stir for 'tis the royal disposition of that beast to prey on nothing that doth seem as dead this seen orlando did approach the man and found it was his brother his elder brother celia o i have heard him speak of that same brother and he did render him the most unnatural that liv'd amongst men oliver and well he might so do for well i know he was unnatural rosalind but to orlando did he leave him there food to the suck'd and hungry lioness oliver twice did he turn his back and purpos'd so but kindness nobler ever than revenge and nature stronger than his just occasion made him give battle to the lioness who quickly fell before him in which hurtling from miserable slumber i awak'd celia are you his brother rosalind was't you he rescu'd celia was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him oliver 'twas i but 'tis not i i do not shame to tell you what i was since my conversion so sweetly tastes being the thing i am rosalind but for the bloody napkin oliver by and by when from the first to last betwixt us two tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd as how i came into that desert place- in brief he led me to the gentle duke who gave me fresh array and entertainment committing me unto my brother's love who led me instantly unto his cave there stripp'd himself and here upon his arm the lioness had torn some flesh away which all this while had bled and now he fainted and cried in fainting upon rosalind brief i recover'd him bound up his wound and after some small space being strong at heart he sent me hither stranger as i am to tell this story that you might excuse his broken promise and to give this napkin dy'd in his blood unto the shepherd youth that he in sport doth call his rosalind rosalind swoons celia why how now ganymede! sweet ganymede! oliver many will swoon when they do look on blood celia there is more in it cousin ganymede! oliver look he recovers rosalind i would i were at home celia we'll lead you thither i pray you will you take him by the arm oliver be of good cheer youth you a man! you lack a man's heart rosalind i do so i confess it ah sirrah a body would think this was well counterfeited i pray you tell your brother how well i counterfeited heigh-ho! oliver this was not counterfeit there is too great testimony in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest rosalind counterfeit i assure you oliver well then take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man rosalind so i do but i' faith i should have been a woman by right celia come you look paler and paler pray you draw homewards good sir go with us oliver that will i for i must bear answer back how you excuse my brother rosalind rosalind i shall devise something but i pray you commend my counterfeiting to him will you go exeunt act v scene i the forest enter touchstone and audrey touchstone we shall find a time audrey patience gentle audrey audrey faith the priest was good enough for all the old gentleman's saying touchstone a most wicked sir oliver audrey a most vile martext but audrey there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you audrey ay i know who 'tis he hath no interest in me in the world here comes the man you mean enter william touchstone it is meat and drink to me to see a clown by my troth we that have good wits have much to answer for we shall be flouting we cannot hold william good ev'n audrey audrey god ye good ev'n william william and good ev'n to you sir touchstone good ev'n gentle friend cover thy head cover thy head nay prithee be cover'd how old are you friend william five and twenty sir touchstone a ripe age is thy name william william william sir touchstone a fair name wast born i' th' forest here william ay sir i thank god touchstone 'thank god ' a good answer art rich william faith sir so so touchstone 'so so' is good very good very excellent good and yet it is not it is but so so art thou wise william ay sir i have a pretty wit touchstone why thou say'st well i do now remember a saying 'the fool doth think he is wise but the wise man knows himself to be a fool ' the heathen philosopher when he had a desire to eat a grape would open his lips when he put it into his mouth meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open you do love this maid william i do sir touchstone give me your hand art thou learned william no sir touchstone then learn this of me to have is to have for it is a figure in rhetoric that drink being pour'd out of cup into a glass by filling the one doth empty the other for all your writers do consent that ipse is he now you are not ipse for i am he william which he sir touchstone he sir that must marry this woman therefore you clown abandon- which is in the vulgar leave- the society- which in the boorish is company- of this female- which in the common is woman- which together is abandon the society of this female or clown thou perishest or to thy better understanding diest or to wit i kill thee make thee away translate thy life into death thy liberty into bondage i will deal in poison with thee or in bastinado or in steel i will bandy with thee in faction will o'er-run thee with policy i will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways therefore tremble and depart audrey do good william william god rest you merry sir exit enter corin corin our master and mistress seeks you come away away touchstone trip audrey trip audrey i attend i attend exeunt scene ii the forest enter orlando and oliver orlando 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 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 orlando 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 rosalind god save you brother oliver and you fair sister exit rosalind o my dear orlando how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf! orlando it is my arm rosalind i thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion orlando wounded it is but with the eyes of a lady rosalind did your brother tell you how i counterfeited to swoon when he show'd me your handkercher orlando ay and greater wonders than that rosalind 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 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 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 rosalind why then to-morrow i cannot serve your turn for rosalind orlando i can live no longer by thinking rosalind 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 labour 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 to-morrow human as she is and without any danger orlando speak'st thou in sober meanings rosalind 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 phebe youth you have done me much ungentleness to show the letter that i writ to you rosalind i care not if i have it is my study to seem despiteful and ungentle to you you are there follow'd by a faithful shepherd look upon him love him he worships you phebe good shepherd tell this youth what 'tis to love silvius it is to be all made of sighs and tears and so am i for phebe phebe and i for ganymede orlando and i for rosalind rosalind and i for no woman silvius it is to be all made of faith and service and so am i for phebe phebe and i for ganymede orlando and i for rosalind rosalind and i for no woman silvius 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 obedience and so am i for phebe phebe and so am i for ganymede orlando and so am i for rosalind rosalind and so am i for no woman phebe if this be so why blame you me to love you silvius if this be so why blame you me to love you orlando if this be so why blame you me to love you rosalind why do you speak too 'why blame you me to love you ' orlando to her that is not here nor doth not hear rosalind 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 - to-morrow meet me all together to phebe i will marry you if ever i marry woman and i'll be married to-morrow to orlando i will satisfy you if ever i satisfied man and you shall be married to-morrow to silvius i will content you if what pleases you contents you and you shall be married to-morrow 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 i'll not fail if i live phebe nor i orlando nor i exeunt scene iii the forest enter touchstone and audrey touchstone to-morrow is the joyful day audre'y to-morrow will we be married audrey i do desire it with all my heart and i hope it is no dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the world here come two of the banish'd duke's pages enter two pages first page well met honest gentleman touchstone by my troth well met come sit sit and a song second page we are for you sit i' th' middle first page shall we clap into't roundly without hawking or spitting or saying we are hoarse which are the only prologues to a bad voice second page i'faith i'faith and both in a tune like two gipsies on a horse song it was a lover and his lass with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino that o'er the green corn-field did pass in the spring time the only pretty ring time when birds do sing hey ding a ding ding sweet lovers love the spring between the acres of the rye with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino these pretty country folks would lie in the spring time &c this carol they began that hour with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino how that a life was but a flower in the spring time &c and therefore take the present time with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino for love is crowned with the prime in the spring time &c touchstone truly young gentlemen though there was no great matter in the ditty yet the note was very untuneable first page you are deceiv'd sir we kept time we lost not our time touchstone by my troth yes i count it but time lost to hear such a foolish song god buy you and god mend your voices come audrey exeunt scene iv the forest enter duke senior amiens jaques orlando oliver and celia duke senior dost thou believe orlando that the boy can do all this that he hath promised orlando i sometimes do believe and sometimes do not as those that fear they hope and know they fear enter rosalind silvius and phebe rosalind patience once more whiles our compact is urg'd you say if i bring in your rosalind you will bestow her on orlando here duke senior that would i had i kingdoms to give with her rosalind and you say you will have her when i bring her orlando that would i were i of all kingdoms king rosalind you say you'll marry me if i be willing phebe that will i should i die the hour after rosalind but if you do refuse to marry me you'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd phebe so is the bargain rosalind you say that you'll have phebe if she will silvius though to have her and death were both one thing rosalind i have promis'd to make all this matter even keep you your word o duke to give your daughter you yours orlando to receive his daughter keep your word phebe that you'll marry me or else refusing me to wed this shepherd keep your word silvius that you'll marry her if she refuse me and from hence i go to make these doubts all even exeunt rosalind and celia duke senior i do remember in this shepherd boy some lively touches of my daughter's favour orlando my lord the first time that i ever saw him methought he was a brother to your daughter but my good lord this boy is forest-born and hath been tutor'd in the rudiments of many desperate studies by his uncle whom he reports to be a great magician obscured in the circle of this forest enter touchstone and audrey jaques there is sure another flood toward and these couples are coming to the ark here comes a pair of very strange beasts which in all tongues are call'd fools touchstone salutation and greeting to you all! jaques good my lord bid him welcome this is the motley-minded gentleman that i have so often met in the forest he hath been a courtier he swears touchstone if any man doubt that let him put me to my purgation i have trod a measure i have flatt'red a lady i have been politic with my friend smooth with mine enemy i have undone three tailors i have had four quarrels and like to have fought one jaques and how was that ta'en up touchstone faith we met and found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause jaques how seventh cause good my lord like this fellow duke senior i like him very well touchstone god 'ild you sir i desire you of the like i press in here sir amongst the rest of the country copulatives to swear and to forswear according as marriage binds and blood breaks a poor virgin sir an ill-favour'd thing sir but mine own a poor humour of mine sir to take that that man else will rich honesty dwells like a miser sir in a poor house as your pearl in your foul oyster duke senior by my faith he is very swift and sententious touchstone according to the fool's bolt sir and such dulcet diseases jaques but for the seventh cause how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause touchstone upon a lie seven times removed- bear your body more seeming audrey- as thus sir i did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard he sent me word if i said his beard was not cut well he was in the mind it was this is call'd the retort courteous if i sent him word again it was not well cut he would send me word he cut it to please himself this is call'd the quip modest if again it was not well cut he disabled my judgment this is call'd the reply churlish if again it was not well cut he would answer i spake not true this is call'd the reproof valiant if again it was not well cut he would say i lie this is call'd the countercheck quarrelsome and so to the lie circumstantial and the lie direct jaques and how oft did you say his beard was not well cut touchstone i durst go no further than the lie circumstantial nor he durst not give me the lie direct and so we measur'd swords and parted jaques can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie touchstone o sir we quarrel in print by the book as you have books for good manners i will name you the degrees the first the retort courteous the second the quip modest the third the reply churlish the fourth the reproof valiant the fifth the countercheck quarrelsome the sixth the lie with circumstance the seventh the lie direct all these you may avoid but the lie direct and you may avoid that too with an if i knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel but when the parties were met themselves one of them thought but of an if as 'if you said so then i said so ' and they shook hands and swore brothers your if is the only peace-maker much virtue in if jaques is not this a rare fellow my lord he's as good at any thing and yet a fool duke senior he uses his folly like a stalking-horse and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit enter hymen rosalind and celia still music hymen then is there mirth in heaven when earthly things made even atone together good duke receive thy daughter hymen from heaven brought her yea brought her hither that thou mightst join her hand with his whose heart within his bosom is rosalind to duke to you i give myself for i am yours to orlando to you i give myself for i am yours duke senior if there be truth in sight you are my daughter orlando if there be truth in sight you are my rosalind phebe if sight and shape be true why then my love adieu! rosalind i'll have no father if you be not he i'll have no husband if you be not he nor ne'er wed woman if you be not she hymen peace ho! i bar confusion 'tis i must make conclusion of these most strange events here's eight that must take hands to join in hymen's bands if truth holds true contents you and you no cross shall part you and you are heart in heart you to his love must accord or have a woman to your lord you and you are sure together as the winter to foul weather whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing feed yourselves with questioning that reason wonder may diminish how thus we met and these things finish song wedding is great juno's crown o blessed bond of board and bed! 'tis hymen peoples every town high wedlock then be honoured honour high honour and renown to hymen god of every town! duke senior o my dear niece welcome thou art to me! even daughter welcome in no less degree phebe i will not eat my word now thou art mine thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine enter jaques de boys jaques de boys let me have audience for a word or two i am the second son of old sir rowland that bring these tidings to this fair assembly duke frederick hearing how that every day men of great worth resorted to this forest address'd a mighty power which were on foot in his own conduct purposely to take his brother here and put him to the sword and to the skirts of this wild wood he came where meeting with an old religious man after some question with him was converted both from his enterprise and from the world his crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother and all their lands restor'd to them again that were with him exil'd this to be true i do engage my life duke senior welcome young man thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding to one his lands withheld and to the other a land itself at large a potent dukedom first in this forest let us do those ends that here were well begun and well begot and after every of this happy number that have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us shall share the good of our returned fortune according to the measure of their states meantime forget this new-fall'n dignity and fall into our rustic revelry play music and you brides and bridegrooms all with measure heap'd in joy to th' measures fall jaques sir by your patience if i heard you rightly the duke hath put on a religious life and thrown into neglect the pompous court jaques de boys he hath jaques to him will i out of these convertites there is much matter to be heard and learn'd to duke you to your former honour i bequeath your patience and your virtue well deserves it to orlando you to a love that your true faith doth merit to oliver you to your land and love and great allies to silvius you to a long and well-deserved bed to touchstone and you to wrangling for thy loving voyage is but for two months victuall'd - so to your pleasures i am for other than for dancing measures duke senior stay jaques stay jaques to see no pastime i what you would have i'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave exit duke senior proceed proceed we will begin these rites as we do trust they'll end in true delights a dance exeunt epilogue epilogue rosalind it is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue if it be true that good wine needs no bush 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue yet to good wine they do use good bushes and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues what a case am i in then that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! i am not furnish'd like a beggar therefore to beg will not become me my way is to conjure you and i'll begin with the women i charge you o women for the love you bear to men to like as much of this play as please you and i charge you o men for the love you bear to women- as i perceive by your simp'ring none of you hates them- that between you and the women the play may please if i were a woman i would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me complexions that lik'd me and breaths that i defied not and i am sure as many as have good beards or good faces or sweet breaths will for my kind offer when i make curtsy bid me farewell the end 1593 the comedy of errors by william shakespeare dramatis personae solinus duke of ephesus aegeon a merchant of syracuse antipholus of ephesus twin brothers and sons to antipholus of syracuse aegion and aemelia dromio of ephesus twin brothers and attendants on dromio of syracuse the two antipholuses balthazar a merchant angelo a goldsmith first merchant friend to antipholus of syracuse second merchant to whom angelo is a debtor pinch a schoolmaster aemilia wife to aegeon an abbess at ephesus adriana wife to antipholus of ephesus luciana her sister luce servant to adriana a courtezan gaoler officers attendants scene ephesus the comedy of errors act i scene 1 a hall in the duke's palace enter the duke of ephesus aegeon the merchant of syracuse gaoler officers and other attendants aegeon proceed solinus to procure my fall and by the doom of death end woes and all duke merchant of syracuse plead no more i am not partial to infringe our laws the enmity and discord which of late sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke to merchants our well-dealing countrymen who wanting guilders to redeem their lives have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks for since the mortal and intestine jars 'twixt thy seditious countrymen and us it hath in solemn synods been decreed both by the syracusians and ourselves to admit no traffic to our adverse towns nay more if any born at ephesus be seen at any syracusian marts and fairs again if any syracusian born come to the bay of ephesus-he dies his goods confiscate to the duke's dispose unless a thousand marks be levied to quit the penalty and to ransom him thy substance valued at the highest rate cannot amount unto a hundred marks therefore by law thou art condemn'd to die aegeon yet this my comfort when your words are done my woes end likewise with the evening sun duke well syracusian say in brief the cause why thou departed'st from thy native home and for what cause thou cam'st to ephesus aegeon a heavier task could not have been impos'd than i to speak my griefs unspeakable yet that the world may witness that my end was wrought by nature not by vile offence i'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave in syracuse was i born and wed unto a woman happy but for me and by me had not our hap been bad with her i liv'd in joy our wealth increas'd by prosperous voyages i often made to epidamnum till my factor's death and the great care of goods at random left drew me from kind embracements of my spouse from whom my absence was not six months old before herself almost at fainting under the pleasing punishment that women bear had made provision for her following me and soon and safe arrived where i was there had she not been long but she became a joyful mother of two goodly sons and which was strange the one so like the other as could not be disdnguish'd but by names that very hour and in the self-same inn a mean woman was delivered of such a burden male twins both alike those for their parents were exceeding poor i bought and brought up to attend my sons my wife not meanly proud of two such boys made daily motions for our home return unwilling i agreed alas! too soon we came aboard a league from epidamnum had we sail'd before the always-wind-obeying deep gave any tragic instance of our harm but longer did we not retain much hope for what obscured light the heavens did grant did but convey unto our fearful minds a doubtful warrant of immediate death which though myself would gladly have embrac'd yet the incessant weepings of my wife weeping before for what she saw must come and piteous plainings of the pretty babes that mourn'd for fashion ignorant what to fear forc'd me to seek delays for them and me and this it was for other means was none the sailors sought for safety by our boat and left the ship then sinking-ripe to us my wife more careful for the latter-born had fast'ned him unto a small spare mast such as sea-faring men provide for storms to him one of the other twins was bound whilst i had been like heedful of the other the children thus dispos'd my wife and i fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd fast'ned ourselves at either end the mast and floating straight obedient to the stream was carried towards corinth as we thought at length the sun gazing upon the earth dispers'd those vapours that offended us and by the benefit of his wished light the seas wax'd calm and we discovered two ships from far making amain to us- of corinth that of epidaurus this but ere they came-o let me say no more! gather the sequel by that went before duke nay forward old man do not break off so for we may pity though not pardon thee aegeon o had the gods done so i had not now worthily term'd them merciless to us! for ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues we were encount'red by a mighty rock which being violently borne upon our helpful ship was splitted in the midst so that in this unjust divorce of us fortune had left to both of us alike what to delight in what to sorrow for her part poor soul seeming as burdened with lesser weight but not with lesser woe was carried with more speed before the wind and in our sight they three were taken up by fishermen of corinth as we thought at length another ship had seiz'd on us and knowing whom it was their hap to save gave healthful welcome to their ship-wreck'd guests and would have reft the fishers of their prey had not their bark been very slow of sail and therefore homeward did they bend their course thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss that by misfortunes was my life prolong'd to tell sad stories of my own mishaps duke and for the sake of them thou sorrowest for do me the favour to dilate at full what have befall'n of them and thee till now aegeon my youngest boy and yet my eldest care at eighteen years became inquisitive after his brother and importun'd me that his attendant-so his case was like reft of his brother but retain'd his name- might bear him company in the quest of him whom whilst i laboured of a love to see i hazarded the loss of whom i lov'd five summers have i spent in farthest greece roaming clean through the bounds of asia and coasting homeward came to ephesus hopeless to find yet loath to leave unsought or that or any place that harbours men but here must end the story of my life and happy were i in my timely death could all my travels warrant me they live duke hapless aegeon whom the fates have mark'd to bear the extremity of dire mishap! now trust me were it not against our laws against my crown my oath my dignity which princes would they may not disannul my soul should sue as advocate for thee but though thou art adjudged to the death and passed sentence may not be recall'd but to our honour's great disparagement yet will i favour thee in what i can therefore merchant i'll limit thee this day to seek thy help by beneficial hap try all the friends thou hast in ephesus beg thou or borrow to make up the sum and live if no then thou art doom'd to die gaoler take him to thy custody gaoler i will my lord aegeon hopeless and helpless doth aegeon wend but to procrastinate his lifeless end exeunt scene 2 the mart enter antipholus of syracuse dromio of syracuse and first merchant first merchant therefore give out you are of epidamnum lest that your goods too soon be confiscate this very day a syracusian merchant is apprehended for arrival here and not being able to buy out his life according to the statute of the town dies ere the weary sun set in the west there is your money that i had to keep antipholus of syracuse go bear it to the centaur where we host and stay there dromio till i come to thee within this hour it will be dinner-time till that i'll view the manners of the town peruse the traders gaze upon the buildings and then return and sleep within mine inn for with long travel i am stiff and weary get thee away dromio of syracuse many a man would take you at your word and go indeed having so good a mean