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As You Like It

William Shakespeare

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Act 1, Scene 2

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Enter CELIA and ROSALIND
CELIA and ROSALIND enter.

CELIA
I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.
 CELIA
Please, Rosalind, my sweet cousin—be happy.




5		 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.
 ROSALIND
Dear Celia—I already look much happier than I feel, but you want me to look even happier? Unless you can also teach me how to forget my banished father, you shouldn’t try to teach me how to be happy.





10
 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 tempered as mine is to thee.
 CELIA
Well, by this I can see that you don’t love me as much as I love you. If your father had banished my father, I could have learned to love your father as my own, as long as I still had you. You’d do the same, if your love for me were as true as mine for you.


ROSALIND
Well, I will forget the condition of my estate to rejoice in
yours.
 ROSALIND
Well, I’ll just forget the difficulties of my situation, in order to focus on the happiness of yours.


15



 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 honor I will, and
when I break that oath, let me turn monster. Therefore, my
sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry.
 CELIA
You know I’m my father’s only child, and he isn’t likely to have another. And when he dies, you will inherit his fortune—because whatever he took from your father by force, I will return to you as affection. I swear I will, and if I ever break my promise let me turn into a monster. So please, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be happy.

20
 ROSALIND
From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. Let me
see—what think you of falling in love?
 ROSALIND
From now on I will, cousin, and I’ll think of all kinds of games for us. Let me see—what do you think about 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 honor come off again.
 CELIA
Yes, please do, so we can have a good laugh about it. But don’t fall in love for real, and don’t take the game too far. You want to get out of it easily, and with your honor intact.
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