That ride upon the violent speed of fire,
Fly with false aim; move the still-piercing air,
That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord!
Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;
Whoever charges on his forward breast,
I am the caitiff that do hold him to it;
And, though I kill him not, I am the cause
His death was so effected better 'twere
I met the ravin* lion when he roar'd

With sharp constraint of hunger: better 'twere
That all the miseries, which nature owes,
Weremine at once: No, come thou home, Rousillon.
Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,
As oft it loses all; I will be gone:

My being here it is, that holds thee hence:
Shall I stay here to do't? no, no, although
The air of paradise did fan the house,
And angels officed all: I will be gone;
That pitiful rumour may report my flight,
To consolate thine ear.

A Maid's Honour.

The honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.

Advice to Young Women.

Beware of them, Diana; their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust, and not the things they go under:† many a maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threaten them. hope I need not to advise you further; but I hope

Ravenous.

They are not the things for which their names would make them pass.

your own grace will keep you where you are, though there were no further danger known, but the modesty which is so lost.

ACT IV.

Custom of Seducers.

Ay, so you serve us,

Till we serve you: but when you have our roses, You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves, And mock us with our bareness.

Chastity.

Mine honour's such a ring;

My chastity's the jewel of our house,
Bequeathed down from many ancestors ;
Which were the greatest obloquy i' the world
In me to lose.

Life chequered.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not! and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.

A cowardly Braggart.

Yet I am thankful: if my heart were great,
"Twould burst at this: captain I'll be no more!
But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft
As captain shall: simply the thing I am

Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass,
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust, sword! cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live
Safest in shame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive!
There's place, and means, for every man alive.

ACT V.

Against Delay.

Let's take the instant by the forward top; For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of time Steals ere we can effect them.

Excuse for unreasonable Dislike.

At first

I struck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue :
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stolen;
Extended or contracted all proportions
To a most hideous object: thence it came,
That she, whom all men praised, and whom myself,
Since I have lost, have loved, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT I.

Modesty and Courage in Youth.

I BESEECH you, punish me not with your hard thoughts; wherein I confess me much guilty, to deny so fair and excellent ladies any thing. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go with me to my trial: wherein if be foiled, there is but one shamed that was never gracious; if killed, but one dead that is willing to be so: I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing; only in the world I fill up a

place, which may be better supplied when I havo made it empty.

Play-fellows.

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.

Beauty.

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
Rosalind proposing to wear Men's clothes.
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.

ACT II.

Solitude preferred to a Court Life, and the
Advantages of Adversity.

Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference; as the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say,
This is no flattery: these are counsellors
† Swaggering.

* Cutlace.

That feelingly persuade me what I am.
Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

Reflections on the wounded Stag.

Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison ? And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this desert city,Should, in their own confines, with forked heads* Have their round haunches gored.

1 Lord. Indeed, my lord,

The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.
To-day, my lord of Amiens, and myself,
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood,
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase; and thus the airy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,

Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

Duke S.

But what said Jaques ?

Did he not moralize this spectacle ?

* Barbed arrows.