Epilogue (From "As You Like It")

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,

Then 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue;

Yet to good wine they do use good bushes,

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 way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women.

I charge you, O women, by the love you bear to men,

to like as much of this play as please you:

And I charge you, O men, by the love you bear to women--

As I perceive by your simpering,none 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 good beards

or good faces, or sweet breaths will,

For my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.