As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

your mistrust cannot make me a traitor: Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. DUKE F. Thou art thy father’s daughter; there’s enough.

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.

Alas, what danger will it be to us, Maids as we are, to travel forth so far! Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head:37 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. I would not change it.

the thorny point Of bare distress hath ta’en from me the show Of smooth civility: yet am I inland77 bred And know some nurture.

What would you have? Your gentleness shall force, More than your force move us to gentleness.

Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in. JAQ. All the world’s a stage,79 And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That does not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember’d not. Heigh-ho! sing, &c.

can one desire too much of a good thing?

men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!