Sil. If this be so, why blame you me to love you ? [TO PHEBE. Orl. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? Ros. Who do you speak to, Why blame you me to love you? Orl. To her that is not here, nor doth not hear. Ros. Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon. I will help you [To SILVIUS], if I can.-I would love you [To PHEBE], if I could.-To-morrow meet me altogether.-I will marry you [To PHEBE], if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married to-morrow. I will satisfy you [To ORLANDO], if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow. I will content you [To SILVIUS], if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married to-morrow.- -As you [To ORLANDO] love Rosalind, meet ;-as you [To SILVIUS] love Phebe, meet; and as I love no woman, I'll meet.—So, fare you well; I have left you commands. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Touch. To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow 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 come 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 ring time, 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, &c. 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, &c. IV. And therefore take the present time, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino; In the spring time, &c. Touch. Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untunable. 1 1 The ditty] The words of the song. 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. Come, Audrey. SCENE IV. Another part of the Forest. [Exeunt. 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 :2You 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. Ros. And you say, you will have her, when I bring her? [TO ORLANDO. Orl. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. [To PHEBE. Phe. That will I, should I die the hour after. 1 As those that fear, &c.] The old text is, 'As those that fear they hope, and know they fear,' which has greatly perplexed the commentators. I believe I have removed the difficulty by simply altering the punctuation; and thus the poet's meaning may have been, As those that fear are wont to do: they hope, and yet know that they fear. 2 Urged] Brought forward; enforced. 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 you 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 S. I do remember in this shepherd-boy Some lively touches of my daughter's favour.1 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 1 Favour] Face. 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? 2 Touch. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause. Jaq. How seventh cause?-Good my lord, like this fellow.3 Duke S. I like him very well. of the like. I press you Touch. God 'ild you, sir; I desire in here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, tó swear, and to forswear; according as marriage binds, and blood breaks.4-A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, but mine own; a poor humour of mine, sir, to take that that no man else will. Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house, as your pearl in your foul oyster. 5 Duke S. By my faith, he is very swift and sententious. Touch. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases. Jaq. But, for the seventh cause; how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause? Touch. Upon a lie seven times removed.-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 sent him word 1 Put me to my purgation] A common expression in our early writers. See the Editor's Hamlet, p. 92, note 1. 2 Ta'en up] Stopped; precluded. Like this fellow.] Let this fellow like, or please, you. So the duke's answer, I like him,' means, he pleases me. 4 Blood breaks] Inclination dissolves the bond. 5 According to the fool's bolt] According to the proverb, 'The fool's bolt is soon shot.' F |