As You Like It: Act 1, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 1, Scene 3 of As You Like It from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Celia and Rosalind. CELIA Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy, not a word? ROSALIND Not one to throw at a dog. CELIA No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs. Throw some of them at me. Come, lame 5 me with reasons. ROSALIND Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should be lamed with reasons, and the other mad without any. CELIA But is all this for your father? 10 ROSALIND No, some of it is for my child’s father. O, how full of briers is this working-day world! CELIA They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats will catch them. 15 ROSALIND I could shake them off my coat. These burs are in my heart. CELIA Hem them away. ROSALIND I would try, if I could cry “hem” and have him. 20 CELIA Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. ROSALIND O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself. CELIA O, a good wish upon you. You will try in time, in despite of a fall. But turning these jests out of 25 service, let us talk in good earnest. Is it possible on such a sudden you should fall into so strong a liking with old Sir Rowland’s youngest son? ROSALIND The Duke my father loved his father dearly. CELIA Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his 30 son dearly? By this kind of chase I should hate him, for my father hated his father dearly. Yet I hate not Orlando. ROSALIND No, faith, hate him not, for my sake. CELIA Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well? 35 ROSALIND Let me love him for that, and do you love him because I do. Enter Duke Frederick with Lords. Look, here comes the Duke.	Rosalind and Celia engage in some girl talk, where Rosalind is clearly in an emotional state over Orlando. Celia marvels that Rosalind could fall in love so quickly, and Rosalind points out that Orlando's dad was dearly loved by her dad, which lends more credence to her love for Orlando. Celia says by that logic she should hate Orlando, since her dad hated his father. Rosalind begs her to love Orlando for her sake.
CELIA With his eyes full of anger. DUKE FREDERICK, to Rosalind Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, 40 And get you from our court. ROSALIND Me, uncle? DUKE FREDERICK You, cousin. Within these ten days if that thou beest found So near our public court as twenty miles, 45 Thou diest for it. ROSALIND I do beseech your Grace, Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me. If with myself I hold intelligence Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, 50 If that I do not dream or be not frantic— As I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle, Never so much as in a thought unborn Did I offend your Highness. DUKE FREDERICK Thus do all traitors. 55 If their purgation did consist in words, They are as innocent as grace itself. Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. ROSALIND Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor. Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. 60 DUKE FREDERICK Thou art thy father’s daughter. There’s enough. ROSALIND So was I when your Highness took his dukedom. So was I when your Highness banished him. Treason is not inherited, my lord, Or if we did derive it from our friends, 65 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. CELIA Dear sovereign, hear me speak. DUKE FREDERICK Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake; 70 Else had she with her father ranged along. 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, 75 Why, so am I. We still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learned, played, 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, 80 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 85 When she is gone. Then open not thy lips. Firm and irrevocable is my doom Which I have passed upon her. She is banished. CELIA Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege. I cannot live out of her company. 90 DUKE FREDERICK You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself. If you outstay the time, upon mine honor And in the greatness of my word, you die. Duke and Lords exit.	This chatter is interrupted by Celia's father, Duke Frederick, who's still storming and dishing out threats of death and destruction. Duke Frederick tells Rosalind that, if she doesn't leave the court immediately, he'll have her killed. Before she hits the old dusty trail of banishment, though, Rosalind wants to know why she's being sent off. Duke Frederick lamely claims that Rosalind must leave because she's likely to become a traitor, just like her father. (This is curious, as her father wasn't actually a traitor.) As Celia pleads for Rosalind, it becomes clear that the Duke is actually jealous of how people look at Rosalind. Duke Frederick tells Celia that she'll look more attractive once her cousin is gone. He emphasizes Rosalind's death sentence once more before going on his merry way.
CELIA O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. 95 I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am. ROSALIND I have more cause. CELIA Thou hast not, cousin. Prithee, be cheerful. Know’st thou not the Duke Hath banished me, his daughter? 100 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 sundered? Shall we part, sweet girl? No, let my father seek another heir. 105 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, 110 Say what thou canst, I’ll go along with thee. ROSALIND Why, whither shall we go? CELIA To seek 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? 115 Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. 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. 120 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 curtal-ax upon my thigh, A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart 125 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.	Understandably, the girls are bummed. This lasts for two minutes before they hatch a plan to run away together to the Forest of Arden where Duke Senior (Celia's uncle/Rosalind's dad) lives with his merry band. Rosalind points out that it's dangerous for girls to travel alone, so Celia suggests they rub "umber" (brown pigment) all over their faces. The idea is that, if they look like dirty peasants who have been working all day out in the sun, maybe they won't attract any unwanted attention. Rosalind, like all great Shakespearean heroines, has a better idea. She concludes that, because she is particularly tall, she should dress as a man.
CELIA What shall I call thee when thou art a man? 130 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 called? CELIA Something that hath a reference to my state: No longer Celia, but Aliena. 135 ROSALIND But, cousin, what if we assayed to steal The clownish fool out of your father’s court? Would he not be a comfort to our travel? CELIA He’ll go along o’er the wide world with me. Leave me alone to woo him. Let’s away 140 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. 145 They exit.	When she poses as a man, Rosalind says she will be called "Ganymede," which, as she says, is the name of the young hottie who was kidnapped by Jove in myth. And here's another brain snack: In Elizabethan England, the name "Ganymede" was a term applied to the kind of young man who had a sugar daddy. In other words, the name "Ganymede" is synonymous with (male) same-sex desire. Celia decides to go by the name "Aliena," which means "the estranged one" in Latin. (Think "alien" and you have a clever reference to Celia's state of self-banishment.) And of course the girls decide to take along Touchstone, the court fool, because he's so fun to be around and will keep everyone from being bored in the woods. Hey—this is going to be more like summer camp than banishment!

Original Text

Translated Text

Enter Celia and Rosalind.

CELIA Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy,
not a word?

ROSALIND Not one to throw at a dog.

CELIA No, thy words are too precious to be cast away
upon curs. Throw some of them at me. Come, lame 5
me with reasons.

ROSALIND Then there were two cousins laid up, when
the one should be lamed with reasons, and the
other mad without any.

CELIA But is all this for your father? 10

ROSALIND No, some of it is for my child’s father. O,
how full of briers is this working-day world!

CELIA They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in
holiday foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths,
our very petticoats will catch them. 15

ROSALIND I could shake them off my coat. These burs
are in my heart.

CELIA Hem them away.

ROSALIND I would try, if I could cry “hem” and have
him. 20

CELIA Come, come, wrestle with thy affections.

ROSALIND O, they take the part of a better wrestler
than myself.

CELIA O, a good wish upon you. You will try in time, in
despite of a fall. But turning these jests out of 25
service, let us talk in good earnest. Is it possible on
such a sudden you should fall into so strong a liking
with old Sir Rowland’s youngest son?

ROSALIND The Duke my father loved his father dearly.

CELIA Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his 30
son dearly? By this kind of chase I should hate him,
for my father hated his father dearly. Yet I hate not
Orlando.

ROSALIND No, faith, hate him not, for my sake.

CELIA Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well? 35

ROSALIND Let me love him for that, and do you love
him because I do.

Enter Duke Frederick with Lords.

Look, here comes the Duke.

Rosalind and Celia engage in some girl talk, where Rosalind is clearly in an emotional state over Orlando.

Celia marvels that Rosalind could fall in love so quickly, and Rosalind points out that Orlando's dad was dearly loved by her dad, which lends more credence to her love for Orlando.

Celia says by that logic she should hate Orlando, since her dad hated his father. Rosalind begs her to love Orlando for her sake.

CELIA With his eyes full of anger.

DUKE FREDERICK, to Rosalind
Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, 40
And get you from our court.

ROSALIND Me, uncle?

DUKE FREDERICK You, cousin.
Within these ten days if that thou beest found
So near our public court as twenty miles, 45
Thou diest for it.

ROSALIND I do beseech your Grace,
Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me.
If with myself I hold intelligence
Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, 50
If that I do not dream or be not frantic—
As I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle,
Never so much as in a thought unborn
Did I offend your Highness.

DUKE FREDERICK Thus do all traitors. 55
If their purgation did consist in words,
They are as innocent as grace itself.
Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not.

ROSALIND
Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor.
Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. 60

DUKE FREDERICK
Thou art thy father’s daughter. There’s enough.

ROSALIND
So was I when your Highness took his dukedom.
So was I when your Highness banished him.
Treason is not inherited, my lord,
Or if we did derive it from our friends, 65
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.

CELIA Dear sovereign, hear me speak.

DUKE FREDERICK
Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake; 70
Else had she with her father ranged along.

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, 75
Why, so am I. We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learned, played, 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, 80
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 85
When she is gone. Then open not thy lips.
Firm and irrevocable is my doom
Which I have passed upon her. She is banished.

CELIA
Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege.
I cannot live out of her company. 90

DUKE FREDERICK
You are a fool.—You, niece, provide yourself.
If you outstay the time, upon mine honor
And in the greatness of my word, you die.

Duke and Lords exit.

This chatter is interrupted by Celia's father, Duke Frederick, who's still storming and dishing out threats of death and destruction. Duke Frederick tells Rosalind that, if she doesn't leave the court immediately, he'll have her killed.

Before she hits the old dusty trail of banishment, though, Rosalind wants to know why she's being sent off.

Duke Frederick lamely claims that Rosalind must leave because she's likely to become a traitor, just like her father. (This is curious, as her father wasn't actually a traitor.)

As Celia pleads for Rosalind, it becomes clear that the Duke is actually jealous of how people look at Rosalind. Duke Frederick tells Celia that she'll look more attractive once her cousin is gone. He emphasizes Rosalind's death sentence once more before going on his merry way.

CELIA
O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. 95
I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am.

ROSALIND I have more cause.

CELIA Thou hast not, cousin.
Prithee, be cheerful. Know’st thou not the Duke
Hath banished me, his daughter? 100

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 sundered? Shall we part, sweet girl?
No, let my father seek another heir. 105
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, 110
Say what thou canst, I’ll go along with thee.

ROSALIND Why, whither shall we go?

CELIA
To seek 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? 115
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

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. 120

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 curtal-ax upon my thigh,
A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart 125
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.

Understandably, the girls are bummed. This lasts for two minutes before they hatch a plan to run away together to the Forest of Arden where Duke Senior (Celia's uncle/Rosalind's dad) lives with his merry band.

Rosalind points out that it's dangerous for girls to travel alone, so Celia suggests they rub "umber" (brown pigment) all over their faces. The idea is that, if they look like dirty peasants who have been working all day out in the sun, maybe they won't attract any unwanted attention.

Rosalind, like all great Shakespearean heroines, has a better idea. She concludes that, because she is particularly tall, she should dress as a man.

CELIA
What shall I call thee when thou art a man? 130

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 called?

CELIA
Something that hath a reference to my state:
No longer Celia, but Aliena. 135

ROSALIND
But, cousin, what if we assayed to steal
The clownish fool out of your father’s court?
Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

CELIA
He’ll go along o’er the wide world with me.
Leave me alone to woo him. Let’s away 140
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. 145

They exit.

When she poses as a man, Rosalind says she will be called "Ganymede," which, as she says, is the name of the young hottie who was kidnapped by Jove in myth.

And here's another brain snack: In Elizabethan England, the name "Ganymede" was a term applied to the kind of young man who had a sugar daddy. In other words, the name "Ganymede" is synonymous with (male) same-sex desire.

Celia decides to go by the name "Aliena," which means "the estranged one" in Latin. (Think "alien" and you have a clever reference to Celia's state of self-banishment.)

And of course the girls decide to take along Touchstone, the court fool, because he's so fun to be around and will keep everyone from being bored in the woods.

Hey—this is going to be more like summer camp than banishment!

As You Like It: Act 1, Scene 3 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 1, Scene 3 of As You Like It from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text

Translated Text

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