AS YOU LIKE IT
Page: 12

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 loved 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?

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.

[Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with Lords.]

DUKE FREDERICK.
Mistress, despatch you with your safest haste,
And get you from our court.

ROSALIND.
Me, uncle?

DUKE FREDERICK.
You, cousin:
Within these ten days if that thou be'st 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.

DUKE 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.

DUKE FREDERICK.
Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.

ROSALIND.
So was I when your highness took his dukedom;
So was I when your highness banish'd him:
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.