The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (358 page)

Just be certain: I don’t trust you.

ROSALIND

Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor:

Tell me whereon the likelihood depends.

But you can’t call me a traitor only from mistrust:

please tell me what your suspicion comes from.

DUKE FREDERICK

Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough.

You are your father’s daughter – that’s enough for me.

ROSALIND

So was I when your highness took his dukedom;

So was I when your highness banish'd 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.

I was his daughter when your highness took over his position,

and I was also when your highness banished.

My lord, treason is not inherited,

but even if it is and can come from our friends or family,

what would that matter? My father wasn’t a traitor.

Good duke, do not make the mistake

that because my father is gone, I have become treacherous.

CELIA

Dear sovereign, hear me speak.

Dear duke, let me say something.

DUKE FREDERICK

Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake,

Else had she with her father ranged along.

Yes, Celia. We kept her here for you.

Otherwise she would have gone with her father.

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 wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans,

Still we went coupled and inseparable.

I did not beg you to make her stay.

No, you wanted to, and you felt bad about separating us.

I was too young then to truly value her,

but know I know her well, and if she is a traitor,

than so am I. After all, we have slept together,

gotten up together, learned and played and ate together.

Wherever we went we were like Juno’s swans,

together as a couple, 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.

She is too clever and tricky for you. Her smoothness,

her patience, and her very silence

all speak to the people and maker them pity her.

You are a fool and she is ruining your name –

after all, you will look brighter and more virtuous

when she is gone. Don’t say anything else.

The fate that I have decided for her

is firm and unchangeable: she is banished.

CELIA

Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege:

I cannot live out of her company.

Then banish me as well, my liege:

I can’t live without her.

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.

You are a fool. Niece, prepare yourself.

I swear by my honor and my word, if you stay longer than I allow,

you will 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 grieved than I am.

My poor Rosalind, where will you go?

Can you change fathers? You can have mine.

Please, do not be sadder than me.

ROSALIND

I have more cause.

But I have more reason to be.

CELIA

Thou hast not, cousin;

Prithee be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke

Hath banish'd me, his daughter?

No you don’t, cousin.

Please, be cheerful. Don’t you know that the duke

has banished me, his own daughter, also?

ROSALIND

That he hath not.

No, he hasn’t.

CELIA

No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love

Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:

Shall we be sunder'd? 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.

He hasn’t? Then you still do not know about the love

that says that you and I are one:

Can we be split? Can we be parted?

No. My father can seek another heir.

Therefore let’s plan how we should leave,

where we should go, and what we should bring with us.

Don’t try to take this change of fortune on yourself,

to bear your sadness alone and leave me out of it.

I swear by heaven that, even now, as our sorrows make us pale,

no matter what you say, I will go with you.

ROSALIND

Why, whither shall we go?

Where would we go?

CELIA

To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.

To find my uncle in the forest of Arden.

ROSALIND

Alas, what danger will it be to us,

Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Oh, it is so dangerous for us,

single, pretty women, to travel so far alone!

Our beauty will provoke thieves to steal much quicker than gold will.

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.

Then I will dress myself in ugly clothing

And smudge my face with a dark brown color.

You do the same, and then we will be able to pass

without possible muggers noticing us.

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.

Wouldn’t it be better

if, because I am taller than average,

I dressed up like a man?

I can put a sword at my hip,

and a large spear in my hand. Then – even if in my heart

there is still the natural fear a woman has –

we will look warlike and will walk like a swagger,

like manly cowards do

who look outwardly differently than they feel inwardly.

CELIA

What shall I call thee when thou art a man?

What should I call you when you are 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 call'd?

I will have a name just as good as Jove’s messenger,

so you should call me Ganymede.

What will I call you?

CELIA

Something that hath a reference to my state.

No longer Celia, but Aliena.

Something that refers to my state, become a stranger from home:

don’t call me Celia, but Aliena.

ROSALIND

But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal

The clownish fool out of your father's court?

Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

Cousin, what if we tried to take

the jester away from your father’s court?

Wouldn’t he be a comfort for us while we 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.

He will go all over the world with me if I ask –

I will handle wooing him. Let’s go

and get out jewels and money together

and plan the best time and best path

to keep us from being pursued after

I run away from the court. Now we can go happily

towards our freedom, and not in banishment.

Exeunt

Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and two or three Lords, like foresters