JAQUES And how oft did you say his beard was not well cut?
TOUCHSTONE I durst go no further than the Lie Circumstantial, nor he durst not give me the Lie Direct; and so we measured swords, and parted.
JAQUES Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie?
TOUCHSTONE O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book, as you have books for good manners. I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may avoid that, too, with an
JAQUES (to the Duke) Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? He’s as good at anything, and yet a fool.
DUKE SENIOR He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.
⌈Still music⌉ Enter Hymen with Rosalind and Celia as themselves
HYMEN Then is there mirth in heaven
When earthly things made even
Atone together.
Good Duke, receive thy daughter;
Hymen from heaven brought her,
Yea, brought her hither,
That thou mightst join her hand with his
Whose heart within his bosom is.
ROSALIND (to the Duke)
To you I give myself, for I am yours.
(To Orlando) To you I give myself, for I am yours.
DUKE SENIOR
If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter.
ORLANDO
If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind.
PHOEBE
If sight and shape be true,
Why then, my love adieu!
ROSALIND (to the Duke)
I’ll have no father if you be not he.
(To Orlando) I’ll have no husband if you be not he,
(To Phoebe) Nor ne’er wed woman if you be not she.
HYMEN Peace, ho, I bar confusion.
‘Tis I must make conclusion
Of these most strange events.
Here’s eight that must take hands
To join in Hymen’s bands,
If truth holds true contents.
(To Orlando and Rosalind)
You and you no cross shall part.
(To Oliver and Celia)
You and you are heart in heart.
(To Phoebe)
You to his love must accord,
Or have a woman to your lord.
(To Touchstone and Audrey)
You and you are sure together
As the winter to foul weather.—
Whiles a wedlock hymn we sing,
Feed yourselves with questioning,
That reason wonder may diminish
How thus we met, and these things finish.
Song
Wedding is great Juno’s crown,
O blessèd bond of board and bed.
‘Tis Hymen peoples every town.
High wedlock then be honoured.
Honour, high honour and renown
To Hymen, god of every town.
DUKE SENIOR (to Celia)
O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me,
Even daughter; welcome in no less degree.
PHOEBE (to Silvius.)
I will not eat my word. Now thou art mine,
Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine.
Enter Jaques de Bois, the second brother
JAQUES DE BOIS
Let me have audience for a word or two.
I am the second son of old Sir Rowland,
That bring these tidings to this fair assembly.
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Addressed a mighty power, which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take
His brother here, and put him to the sword.
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him was converted
Both from his enterprise and from the world,
His crown bequeathing to his banished brother,
And all their lands restored to them again
That were with him exiled. This to be true
I do engage my life.
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome, young man.
Thou offer’st fairly to thy brothers’ wedding:
To one his lands withheld, and to the other
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this forest let us do those ends
That here were well begun, and well begot.
And after, every of this happy number
That have endured shrewd days and nights with us
Shall share the good of our returned fortune
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fallen dignity
And fall into our rustic revelry.
Play, music, and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heaped in joy to th’ measures fall.
JAQUES
Sir, by your patience. (To Jaques de Bois) If I heard you