William Shakespeare - Ultimate Collection: Complete Plays & Poetry in One Volume. William Shakespeare

       TOUCHSTONE

       Tomorrow is the joyful day, Audrey; tomorrow will we be married.

       AUDREY

       I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is no dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the world. Here come two of the banished duke’s pages.

       [Enter two Pages.]

       FIRST PAGE

       Well met, honest gentleman.

       TOUCHSTONE

       By my troth, well met. Come sit, sit, and a song.

       SECOND PAGE

       We are for you: sit i’ the middle.

       FIRST PAGE

       Shall we clap into’t roundly, without hawking, or spitting, or saying we are hoarse, which are the only prologues to a bad voice?

       SECOND PAGE

       I’faith, i’faith; and both in a tune, like two gipsies on a horse.

       SONG

       I.

       It was a lover and his lass,

       With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

       That o’er the green corn-field did pass

       In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

       When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:

       Sweet lovers love the spring.

       II.

       Between the acres of the rye,

       With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

       These pretty country folks would lie,

       In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

       When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:

       Sweet lovers love the spring.

       III.

       This carol they began that hour,

       With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

       How that a life was but a flower,

       In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

       When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:

       Sweet lovers love the spring.

       IV.

       And therefore take the present time,

       With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

       For love is crownèd with the prime,

       In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

       When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:

       Sweet lovers love the spring.

       TOUCHSTONE

       Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untimeable.

       FIRST PAGE

       You are deceived, sir; we kept time, we lost not our time.

       TOUCHSTONE

       By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear such a foolish song. God be with you; and God mend your voices! Come, Audrey.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE IV. Another part of the Forest

       [Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, JAQUES, ORLANDO, OLIVER, and CELIA.]

       DUKE SENIOR

       Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy

       Can do all this that he hath promised?

       ORLANDO

       I sometimes do believe and sometimes do not:

       As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.

       [Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE.]

       ROSALIND

       Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg’d:—

       [To the Duke.]

       You say, if I bring in your Rosalind,

       You will bestow her on Orlando here?

       DUKE SENIOR

       That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her.

       ROSALIND

       [To Orlando.] And you say you will have her when I bring her?

       ORLANDO

       That would I, were I of all kingdoms king.

       ROSALIND

       [To Phebe.] You say you’ll marry me, if I be willing?

       PHEBE

       That will I, should I die the hour after.

       ROSALIND

       But if you do refuse to marry me,

       You’ll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd?

       PHEBE

       So is the bargain.

       ROSALIND

       [To Silvius.] You say that you’ll have Phebe, if she will?

       SILVIUS

       Though to have her and death were both one thing.

       ROSALIND

       I have promis’d to make all this matter even.

       Keep you your word, O duke, to give your daughter;—

       You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter;—

       Keep your word, Phebe, that you’ll marry me;

       Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd:—

       Keep your word, Silvius, that you’ll marry her

       If she refuse me:—and from hence I go,

       To make these doubts all even.

       [Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA.]

       DUKE SENIOR

       I do remember in this shepherd-boy

       Some lively touches of my daughter’s favour.

       ORLANDO

       My lord, the first time that I ever saw him

       Methought he was a brother to your daughter:

       But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born,

       And hath been tutor’d in the rudiments

       Of many desperate studies by his uncle,

       Whom he reports to be a great magician,

       Obscurèd in the circle of this forest.

       JAQUES

       There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very strange beasts which in all tongues are called fools.

       [Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.]

       TOUCHSTONE

       Salutation and greeting to you all!

       JAQUES

       Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in the forest: he hath been a courtier, he swears.

       TOUCHSTONE

       If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation. I have trod a measure; I have flattered a lady; I have been politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy; I have undone three tailors; I have had four quarrels, and like to have fought one.

       JAQUES

       And how was that ta’en up?

       TOUCHSTONE

       Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause.

       JAQUES

       How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this fellow?