A Room in the Palace.
 Enter CELIA and ROSALIND.

Celia	Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy, not a word?

Rosalind	Not one to throw at a dog.

Celia	No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs; 
	throw some of them at me. Come, lame me with reasons.

Rosalind	Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should be 
	lamed with reasons and the other mad without any.

Celia	But is all this for your father?

Rosalind	No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how full of 
	briers is this working-day world!

Celia	They are but burrs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday 
	foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths our very 
	petticoats will catch them.

Rosalind	I could shake them off my coat; these burrs are in my 
	heart.

Celia	Hem them away.

Rosalind	I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have him.

Celia	Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.

Rosalind	O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.

Celia	O, a good wish upon you! You will cry in time, in despite 
	of a fall. But, turning these jests out of service, let us 
	talk in good earnest. Is it possible, on such a sudden, you 
	should fall into so strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's 
	youngest son?

Rosalind	The duke my father loved his father dearly.

Celia	Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son 
	dearly? By this kind of chase, I should hate him, for my 
	father hated his father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando.

Rosalind	No, faith, hate him not, for my sake.

Celia	Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well?

                    Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with LORDS.

Rosalind	Let me love him for that, and do you love him because I do. 
	Look, here comes the duke.

Celia	With his eyes full of anger.

Frederick	Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste,
	And get you from our court.

Rosalind									Me, uncle?

Frederick												You, cousin.
	Within these ten days if that thou be'st found
	So near our public court as twenty miles,
	Thou diest for it.

Rosalind						I do beseech your grace,
	Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me.
	If with myself I hold intelligence,
	Or have acquaintance with mine own desires;
	If that I do not dream or be not frantic,
	As I do trust I am not, then, dear uncle,
	Never so much as in a thought unborn
	Did I offend your highness.

Frederick									Thus do all traitors:
	If their purgation did consist in words,
	They are as innocent as grace itself.
	Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.

Rosalind	Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor.
	Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.

Frederick	Thou art thy father's daughter, there's enough.

Rosalind	So was I when your highness took his dukedom,
	So was I when your highness banished him.
	Treason is not inherited, my lord;
	Or, if we did derive it from our friends,
	What's that to me? My father was no traitor.
	Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much
	To think my poverty is treacherous.

Celia	Dear sovereign, hear me speak.

Frederick	Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake;
	Else had she with her father ranged along.

Celia	I did not then entreat to have her stay;
	It was your pleasure, and your own remorse.
	I was too young that time to value her,
	But now I know her. If she be a traitor,
	Why, so am I. We still have slept together,
	Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together,
	And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
	Still we went coupled and inseparable.

Frederick	She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness,
	Her very silence and her patience,
	Speak to the people and they pity her.
	Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name;
	And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous
	When she is gone. Then open not thy lips.
	Firm and irrevocable is my doom
	Which I have passed upon her; she is banished.

Celia	Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege;
	I cannot live out of her company.

Frederick	You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself;
	If you outstay the time, upon mine honour
	And in the greatness of my word, you die.
										  [Exeunt FREDERICK and LORDS.

Celia	O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
	Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
	I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.

Rosalind	I have more cause.

Celia							Thou hast not, cousin.
	Prithee, be cheerful. Know'st thou not the duke
	Hath banished me, his daughter?

Rosalind											That he hath not.

Celia	No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
	Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one.
	Shall we be sundered? Shall we part, sweet girl?
	No; let my father seek another heir.
	Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
	Whither to go, and what to bear with us;
	And do not seek to take your change upon you,
	To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out;
	For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
	Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.

Rosalind	Why, whither shall we go?

Celia	To seek my uncle in the Forest of Ardenne.

Rosalind	Alas, what danger will it be to us,
	Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
	Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Celia	I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
	And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
	The like do you. So shall we pass along
	And never stir assailants.

Rosalind									Were it not better,
	Because that I am more than common tall,
	That I did suit me all points like a man?
	A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,
	A boar-spear in my hand, and, in my heart
	Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will,
	We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
	As many other mannish cowards have
	That do outface it with their semblances.

Celia	What shall I call thee when thou art a man?

Rosalind	I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page,
	And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
	But what will you be called?

Celia	Something that hath a reference to my state:
	No longer Celia, but Aliena.

Rosalind	But, cousin, what if we assayed to steal
	The clownish fool out of your father's court?
	Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

Celia	He'll go along o'er the wide world with me.
	Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away
	And get our jewels and our wealth together,
	Devise the fittest time and safest way
	To hide us from pursuit that will be made
	After my flight. Now go we in content,
	To liberty, and not to banishment.
															[Exeunt.
