Home → No Fear Shakespeare → As You Like It → Act 3, Scene 4, Page 2

As You Like It

No Fear Shakespeare

	Original Text	Modern Text
	CELIA Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him.	CELIA Really, he’s a total liar.
	ROSALIND Do you think so?	ROSALIND Do you think so?
20	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 a covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut.	CELIA Yes. He’s not a pickpocket or a horse thief, but when it comes to truth in love, he’s as hollow as a cup or a nut hollowed out by a worm.
	ROSALIND Not true in love?	ROSALIND You think his feelings aren’t true?
	CELIA Yes, when he is in, but I think he is not in.	CELIA Oh, I think they are—when he’s in love. But he’s not in love.
25	ROSALIND You have heard him swear downright he was.	ROSALIND But you heard him swear up and down that 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.	CELIA He “was,” but that doesn’t mean he is anymore. Besides, the promises of a lover are as untrustworthy as a bartender handing you an inflated tab: they both swear to their lies. He’s staying in the forest with your father now.
30	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 laughed and let me go. But what talk we of fathers when there is such a man as Orlando?	ROSALIND I met my father in the woods yesterday and had a long conversation with him. He asked me who my parents were, and I told him they were as good as he was. He laughed at that and let me go. But why are we talking about my father, when a man like Orlando exists?
	CELIA Oh, 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.	CELIA Oh, sure, he’s a brave man! He writes brave poems, speaks brave words, makes brave promises, and then breaks them just as bravely. He’s like a cowardly jouster This was considered a dishonorable move in jousting. jouster, who breaks his lance across his opponent’s shield, rather than directly against it. But everything’s brave that a young man does and foolishness leads.

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