Love's Labour's Lost (version 2) - Free Audiobook

Scene II. The forest.

AYLI V. 2 Enter Orlando and Oliver.

Orl. 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 004 you persever to enjoy her?

005 Oli. Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, 007 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 010 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.

012 Orl. You have my consent. Let your wedding be to-morrow: 013 thither will I invite the Duke and all’s contented followers. Go you and prepare Aliena; for look you, here 015 comes my Rosalind.

Enter Rosalind.

Ros. God save you, brother.

017 Oli. And you, fair sister. [Exit.

Ros. O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf!

020 Orl. It is my arm.

Ros. I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion.

Orl. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady.

Ros. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to 025 swoon when he showed me your handkercher?

Orl. Ay, and greater wonders than that.

Ros. O, I know where you are: nay, ’tis true: there 028 was never any thing so sudden but the fight of two rams, 029 and Cæsar’s thrasonical brag of ‘I came, saw, and overcame:’ 030 for your brother and my sister no sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy: and in these degrees have they 035 made a 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.

Orl. They shall be married to-morrow, and I will bid 040 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.

045 Ros. Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?

Orl. I can live no longer by thinking.

Ros. I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know of me then, for now I speak to some purpose, that 050 I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I speak not this that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge, 052 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. 055 Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things: I 056 have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician, most profound in his art and yet not damnable. If you do 058 love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out, 059 when your brother marries Aliena, shall you marry her: I 060 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.

064 Orl. Speakest thou in sober meanings?

065 Ros. 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.

069 Look, here comes a lover of mine and a lover of hers.

070 Phe. Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,

To show the letter that I writ to you.

Ros. I care not if I have: it is my study

To seem despiteful and ungentle to you:

You are there followed by a faithful shepherd;

075 Look upon him, love him; he worships you.

Phe. Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.

077 Sil. It is to be all made of sighs and tears;

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe. And I for Ganymede.

080 Orl. And I for Rosalind.

Ros. And I for no woman.

082 Sil. It is to be all made of faith and service;

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe. And I for Ganymede.

085 Orl. And I for Rosalind.

Ros. And I for no woman.

Sil. It is to be all made of fantasy,

All made of passion, and all made of wishes;

089 All adoration, duty, and observance,

090 All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,

091 All purity, all trial, all observance;

And so am I for Phebe.

Phe. And so am I for Ganymede.

Orl. And so am I for Rosalind.

095 Ros. And so am I for no woman.

Phe. If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

Sil. If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

Orl. If this be so, why blame you me to love you?

099 Ros. Who do you speak to, ‘Why blame you me to 100 love you?’

Orl. To her that is not here, nor doth not hear.

Ros. Pray you, no more of this; ’tis like the howling 103 of Irish wolves against the moon. [To Sil.] I will help you, 104 if I can: [To Phe.] I would love you, if I could. To-morrow 105 meet me all together. [To Phe.] I will marry you, if 106 ever I marry woman, and I’ll be married to-morrow: [To Orl.] 107 I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow: [To Sil.] I will content you, if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married 110 to-morrow. [To Orl.] As you love Rosalind, meet: [To Sil.] as you love Phebe, meet: and as I love no woman, I ’ll meet. So, fare you well: I have left you commands.

113 Sil. I’ll not fail, if I live.

Phe. Nor I.

115 Orl. Nor I. [Exeunt.