Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake
Duke Frederick
Ay, Celia, we stayed her for your sake;
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.
Thou art a fool. She robs thee of thy name,
And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous
When she is gone.
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, 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,
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 passed upon her. She is banished.
Celia
Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege.
I cannot live out of her company.
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.