William Shakespeare: As You Like It

ACT I. 3. SCENE III. A Room in the Palace. (continued)

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, learn'd, play'd, eat together;
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.

DUKE 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 pass'd upon her;--she is banish'd.

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

DUKE 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 DUKE 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 griev'd than I am.

ROSALIND.
I have more cause.

CELIA.
Thou hast not, cousin;
Pr'ythee be cheerful: know'st thou not the duke
Hath banish'd 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 sund'red? 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 charge 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.