Page:As You Like It (1919) Yale.djvu/23

As You Like It, I. ii

Cel. Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed

their young.

Ros. Then we shall be news-cramm'd.

Cel. All the better; we shall be more market-

able.

Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau: what's the news?

Le Beau. Fair princess, you have lost much

good sport.

Cel. Sport! Of what colour?

Le Beau. What colour, madam! How shall

I answer you?

Ros. As wit and fortune will.

Touch. Or as the Destinies decree.

Cel. Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.

Touch. Nay, if I keep not my rank,—

Ros. Thou losest thy old smell.

Le Beau. You amaze me, ladies: I would

have told you of good wrestling, which you have

lost the sight of.

Ros. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling.

Le Beau. I will tell you the beginning; and,

if it please your ladyships, you may see the end,

for the best is yet to do; and here, where you

are, they are coming to perform it.

Cel. Well, the beginning, that is dead and

buried.

Le Beau. There comes an old man and his

three sons,—

Cel. I could match this beginning with an

old tale.

 100 put on: force on

103 marketable: i.e., 'because we shall be like pigeons fattened for market'

108 Sport; cf. n.

112 Destinies; cf. n.

113 laid trowel: i.e., 'spread thickly'

114 rank; cf. n.

116 amaze: bewilder

129 old tale: i.e., because Le Beau's words resemble the opening line of many old fairy tales 