tomorrow:—
[to SILVIUS] I will content you if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married tomorrow.
[to ORLANDO] As you love Rosalind, meet.
[to SILVIUS] As you love Phebe, meet;—
and as I love no woman, I’ll meet.—So, fare you well; I have left you commands.
SILVIUS
I’ll not fail, if I live.
PHEBE
Nor I.
ORLANDO
Nor I.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. Another part of the Forest
[Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.]
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!