As You Like It: Epilogue Translation

A side-by-side translation of Epilogue of As You Like It from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
ROSALIND It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue, but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes, 5 and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My 10 way is to conjure you, and I’ll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you. And I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive by your simpering, none 15 of you hates them—that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have 20 good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. She exits.	Rosalind appears on stage and admits it's strange to have a female character give the epilogue, but she assures the audience that a good play is made even better by a good epilogue. The problem is, she doesn't have a good epilogue. What's more, she's not sure this was a good play. So, she invites the women in the audience to like the play as much as they can for the love of their men. Then she asks the men to do the same—for the love of their women. (Remember, the name of the play is "As You Like It," which is kind of what Rosalind is saying here: like it as much, or as little, as you want.) Finally, she says that if she were indeed a woman (remember, these parts were played by men) she'd kiss everyone in the audience with a nice beard, pleasing complexions, and good breath.

Original Text

Translated Text

ROSALIND It is not the fashion to see the lady the
epilogue, but it is no more unhandsome than to see
the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine
needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no
epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes, 5
and good plays prove the better by the help of good
epilogues. What a case am I in then that am neither
a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in
the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a
beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My 10
way is to conjure you, and I’ll begin with the
women. I charge you, O women, for the love you
bear to men, to like as much of this play as please
you. And I charge you, O men, for the love you bear
to women—as I perceive by your simpering, none 15
of you hates them—that between you and the
women the play may please. If I were a woman, I
would kiss as many of you as had beards that
pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths
that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have 20
good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will for
my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

She exits.

Rosalind appears on stage and admits it's strange to have a female character give the epilogue, but she assures the audience that a good play is made even better by a good epilogue.

The problem is, she doesn't have a good epilogue. What's more, she's not sure this was a good play.

So, she invites the women in the audience to like the play as much as they can for the love of their men. Then she asks the men to do the same—for the love of their women. (Remember, the name of the play is "As You Like It," which is kind of what Rosalind is saying here: like it as much, or as little, as you want.)

Finally, she says that if she were indeed a woman (remember, these parts were played by men) she'd kiss everyone in the audience with a nice beard, pleasing complexions, and good breath.

As You Like It: Epilogue Translation

A side-by-side translation of Epilogue of As You Like It from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text

Translated Text

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