The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 2 of 9]Shakespeare, William
General
The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 2 of 9]
Shakespeare, William
English drama
_Ros._ Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to
rejoice in yours.
_Cel._ You know my father hath no child but I, nor
none is like to have: and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt 15
be his heir; for what he hath taken away from thy father
perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine
honour, I will; and when I break that oath, let me turn
monster: therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be
merry. 20
_Ros._ From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports.
Let me see; what think you of falling in love?
_Cel._ Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal: but
love no man in good earnest; nor no further in sport
neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in 25
honour come off again.
_Ros._ What shall be our sport, then?
_Cel._ Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune
from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed
equally. 30
_Ros._ I would we could do so; for her benefits are
mightily misplaced; and the bountiful blind woman doth
most mistake in her gifts to women.
_Cel._ ’Tis true; for those that she makes fair she scarce
makes honest; and those that she makes honest she makes 35
very ill-favouredly.
_Ros._ Nay, now thou goest from Fortune’s office to Nature’s:
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments
of Nature.
_Enter_ TOUCHSTONE.
_Cel._ No? when Nature hath made a fair creature, may 40
she not by Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature hath
given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in
this fool to cut off the argument?
_Ros._ Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature,
when Fortune makes Nature’s natural the cutter-off of 45
Nature’s wit.
_Cel._ Peradventure this is not Fortune’s work neither,
but Nature’s; who perceiveth our natural wits too dull to
reason of such goddesses, and hath sent this natural for our
whetstone; for always the dulness of the fool is the whetstone 50
of the wits. How now, wit! whither wander you?
_Touch._ Mistress, you must come away to your father.
_Cel._ Were you made the messenger?
_Touch._ No, by mine honour, but I was bid to come
for you. 55
_Ros._ Where learned you that oath, fool?
_Touch._ Of a certain knight that swore by his honour
they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the
mustard was naught: now I’ll stand to it, the pancakes
were naught and the mustard was good, and yet was not 60
the knight forsworn.
_Cel._ How prove you that, in the great heap of your
knowledge?
_Ros._ Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom.
_Touch._ Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, 65
and swear by your beards that I am a knave.
_Cel._ By our beards, if we had them, thou art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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