William Shakespeare: As You Like It

ACT V. 2. SCENE II. Another part of the Forest. (continued)

ORLANDO.
They shall be married to-morrow; and I will bid 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.

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

ORLANDO.
I can live no longer by thinking.

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 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. 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 to-morrow, human as she is, and without any
danger.

ORLANDO.
Speak'st thou in sober meanings?

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 to-morrow, you shall; and
to Rosalind, if you will. Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a
lover of hers.

[Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.]

PHEBE.
Youth, you have done me much ungentleness,
To show the letter that I writ to you.