SCENE III. The same. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Touch. To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; tomorrow will we be married. Aud. 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 comes two of the banished duke's pages. Enter two Pages. 1 Page. Well met, honest gentleman. Touch. By my troth, well met. Come, sit, sit, and a song. 2 Page. We are for you; sit i'the middle. 1 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. 2 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, In the spring time, the only pretty rank time, 1 i. e. a married woman. So in Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice says: "Thus every one goes to the world but I." 2 This burden is common to many old songs. See Florio's Ital. Dict. Ed. 1611, sub voce Fossa. II. Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, III. This carol they began that hour, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, In spring time, &c. IV. And therefore take the present time, In spring time, &c. Touch. Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untunable. 1 Page. You are deceived, sir; we kept time, we lost not our time. Touch. By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear such a foolish song. God be with 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 S. Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy Can do all this that he hath promised? Orl. I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not; As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.1 Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE. Ros. Patience once more, whiles our compact is urged. You say, if I bring in your Rosalind, [To the Duke. You will bestow her on Orlando here? Duke S. That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her. her? Ros. And you say, you will have her, when I bring [TO ORLANDO. Orl. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. Ros. You say, you'll marry me, if I be willing?! [TO PHEBE. Phe. That will I, should I die the hour after. Ros. But if you do refuse to marry me, You'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd? Phe. So is the bargain. Ros. You say, that you'll have Phebe, if she will? [To SILVIUS. Sil. Though to have her and death were both one thing. Ros. I have promised 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 To make these doubts all even. go, [Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA. Duke S. I do remember in this shepherd-boy Some lively touches of my daughter's favor. 1 This line is very obscure, and probably corrupt. Henley proposed to point it thus: "As those that fear; they hope, and know they fear." Heath proposes this emendation: "As those that fear their hope, and know their fear." Orl. 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 tutored in the rudiments Of many desperate studies by his uncle, Whom he reports to be a great magician, Obscured in the circle of this forest. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Jaq. 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. Touch. Salutation and greeting to you all! Jaq. 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. Touch. 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. Jaq. And how was that ta'en up? Touch. 'Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause. Jaq. How seventh cause?-Good my lord, like this fellow. Duke S. I like him very well. Touch. God'ild you, sir; I desire you of the like.2 I press in here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, to swear, and to forswear; according as marriage binds, and blood 3 breaks.—A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favored thing, sir, but mine own; a poor humor of 1 A measure was a stately dance peculiar to the polished part of society, as the minuet in later times. 2 "I desire you of the like." This mode of expression occurs also in the Merchant of Venice, and in A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is frequent in Spenser: mine, sir, to take that that no man else will. Rich hon esty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster. Duke S. By my faith, he is very swift and sententious.1 Touch. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases.2 Jaq. But, for the seventh cause; how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause? Touch. Upon a lie seven times removed.3-Bear your body more seeming, Audrey:-as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was: this is called the Retort courteous. If I send him word again, it was not well cut, he would send me word, he cut it to please himself: this is called the Quip modest. If again, it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment: this is called the Reply churlish. If again, it was not well cut, he would answer, I spake not true: this is called the Reproof valiant. If again, it was not well cut, he would say, I lie: this is called the Countercheck quarrelsome: and so the Lie circumstantial, and the Lie direct. Jaq. And how oft did you say, his beard was not well cut? Touch. I durst go no further than the Lie circumstantial, nor he durst not give me the Lie direct; and so we measured swords, and parted. Jaq. Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? Touch. O, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book;5 as 1 i, e. prompt and pithy. 2 "Dulcet diseases." Johnson thought we should read "discourses." 3 i. e. the lie removed seven times, counting backwards from the last and most aggravated species of lie, viz. the lie direct. 4 Seemly. 5 The poet has in this scene rallied the mode of formal duelling, then so prevalent, with the highest humor and address; nor could he have treated it with a happier contempt than by making his clown so conversant with the forms and preliminaries of it. The book alluded to is entitled, Of Honor and Honorable Quarrels, by Vincentio Saviolo," 1594, 4to. |