No Fear Shakespeare
As You Like It
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 5, Scene 2, Page 3
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ROSALIND
Why, then, tomorrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?
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ROSALIND
Well then, can’t I act as Rosalind for you tomorrow?
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ORLANDO
I can live no longer by thinking.
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ORLANDO
I can’t live by pretending anymore.
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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 labor for a
greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a
belief from you to do yourself good, and not to grace me.
Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things. I
have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician,
most profound in his art and yet not damnable. If you do
love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out,
when your brother marries Aliena shall you marry her. I
know into what straits of fortune she is driven, and it is not
impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set
her before your eyes tomorrow, human as she is, and
without any danger.
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ROSALIND
I won’t exhaust you anymore with idle chitchat. You should know that I think you’re a smart man. I really mean it. I’m not telling you this so you’ll think well of me (who wouldn’t think well of someone who thought well of him, after all?) And I’m not trying to enhance my own reputation, but only to do you good. Believe me, then, that I have special powers. Since I was three years old, I’ve been in contact with a powerful but virtuous magician—no black magic here. If you love Rosalind as much as you say you do, you will marry her when your brother marries Aliena. I know where she is and, if you don’t mind, I will set her before you tomorrow, whole and unharmed.
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ORLANDO
Speak’st thou in sober meanings?
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ORLANDO
Are you serious?
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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 tomorrow, you shall, and
to Rosalind, if you will.
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ROSALIND
I swear on my life, which I take pretty seriously, even if I am a magician. So put on your best clothes and tell your friends to come. Because if you want to be married tomorrow, you will, and if you want to be married to Rosalind, you will.
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Enter SILVIUS and PHOEBE
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SILVIUS and PHOEBE enter. |
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Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.
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Look, here comes someone who loves me, along with someone who loves her.
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PHOEBE
Youth, you have done me much ungentleness
To show the letter that I writ to you.
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PHOEBE
Young man, it was very rude of you to show him the letter I wrote you.
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