How should I understand these lines from As You Like It?

Question

I am currently on my second reading of *As You Like It*. I am having a really hard time comprehending lines 22-25 in Act 1, scene 2. Here are those lines as they appear in the version I am reading (*The Norton Shakespeare*, 3rd edition): "Marry, I prithee do--to make sport withal. But love no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport neither than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in honor come off again." This is Celia's response when Rosalind asks her what she thinks of "falling in love" (1.2.21). I have attempted to paraphrase her response, but this is all that I can come up with: "Oh, I hope you do--in spite of all [that is currently bothering you], enjoy yourself. However, don't be too serious about falling in love, no more in good fun than..." The bit that comes after "good fun than" is just going way over my head. I think what is throwing me off the most is the "nor...neither than" construction. Also, I am not sure I understand the terms "Marry" and "withal" correctly. I would greatly appreciate responses that include a paraphrase of the lines in plain English. Thanks!

Answer 1

You're off to a pretty good start, and it makes sense that you're getting tangled where you are.

Let's start with the vocab questions.

"Marry" is a kind of informal, all-purpose interjection. Something like "well," or, even better, "dude," "hey," or "yo." It doesn't have a meaning per se; it's more like a way to say, "listen to what I'm about to say."

"Withal" in this case just means "with," except it can go at the end of the sentence. You will also see it used to mean either "in addition" or "nevertheless." But that's a tip for further Shakespeare reading; here it just means "with."

"Sport," I think you've picked up on, means "fun" or "pretend."

So, the basic meaning of the passage is Celia tells Rosalind that love may be good for a few laughs, but nothing more than that. If you want to look back at it and try again with that in mind, then stop reading now. Otherwise, after some asterisks, I'll do my line-by-line modern English version.

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"Hey, go ahead, as a game. But don't fall in love for real, and don't let your game go any farther than you can still be innocent and pure when the game is over."