the way, you shall tell me where in the forest you live: Will you go? Orl. With all my heart, good youth. Ros. Nay, you must call me Rosalind :-Come, sister, will you go? SCENE III. [Exeunt. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES at a distance, observing them. Touch. Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch up your goats, Audrey: And how, Audrey? am I the man yet? Doth my simple feature content you? Aud. Your features! Lord warrant us! what features? Touch. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths. Jaq. O knowledge ill-inhabited!" worse than Jove in a thatched house! [Aside. Touch. When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room: Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical. Aud. I do not know what poetical is: is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing? Touch. No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most feigning; and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry, may be said, as lovers, they do feign. Aud. Do you wish, then, that the gods had made me poetical? Touch. I do, truly for thou swear'st to me thou art honest; now, if thou wert a poet I might have some hope thou didst feign. Aud. Would you not have me honest? a Ill-inhabited-ill-lodged. Touch. No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favoured: for honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey a sauce to sugar. Jaq. A material fool! a [Aside. Aud. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the gods make me honest! Touch. Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut were to put good meat into an unclean dish. Aud. I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.b Touch. Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness! sluttishness may come hereafter. But be it as it may be, I will marry thee: and to that end, I have been with sir Oliver Mar-text, the vicar of the next village; who hath promised to meet me in this place of the forest, and to couple us. Jaq. I would fain see this meeting. [Aside. Touch. Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no assembly but horn-beasts. But what though? Courage! As horns are odious, they are necessary. It is said, Many a man knows no end of his goods: right; many a man has good horns, and knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife; 't is none of his own getting. Horns? Even so: Poor men alone? No, no; the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal. Is the single man therefore blessed? No: as a walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor: and by how much defenced is better than no skill, by so much is a horn more precious than to want. a A fool with matter in him. b Foul is here used in the sense of homely-opposed to fair. • Rascal is the hunter's term given to deer lean and out of season. d Any means of defence is better than the lack of science; in proportion as something is to nothing. Enter Sir OLIVER MAR-TEXT. Here comes sir Oliver :-Sir Oliver Mar-text, you are well met: Will you despatch us here under this tree, or shall we go with you to your chapel? Sir Oli. Is there none here to give the woman? Touch. I will not take her on gift of any man. Sir Oli. Truly she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful. Jaq. [discovering himself.] Proceed, proceed; I 'll give her. Touch. Good even, good master "What ye call 't :" How do you, sir? You are very well met: God 'ild you for your last company: I am very glad to see -Even a toy in hand here, sir:-Nay; pray be a you :covered. Jaq. Will you be married, motley? Touch. As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibbling. Jaq. And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush, like a beggar? Get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp, warp. Touch. I am not in the mind but I were better to be married of him than of another: for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife. [Aside. Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. Touch, Come, sweet Audrey: We must be married, or we must live in bawdry. a God yield you-give you recompense. [Exeunt JAQ., TOUCH., and AUD. Sir Oli. "T is no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling. [Exit. SCENE IV.-The same. Before a Cottage. Enter ROSALIND and CELIA. Ros. Never talk to me, I will weep. Cel. Do, I prithee; but yet have the grace to consider that tears do not become a man. Ros. But have I not cause to weep? Cel. As good cause as one would desire; therefore weep. Ros. His very hair is of the dissembling colour. Cel. Something browner than Judas's: marry, his kisses are Judas's own children. Ros. I' faith, his hair is of a good colour. Cel. An excellent colour: your chesnut was ever the only colour. Ros. And his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch of holy bread. Cel. He hath bought a pair of cast lips of Diana: a nun of winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them. Ros. But why did he swear he would come this morning, and comes not? Cel. Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him. Cel. Yes; I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet, or a worm-eaten nut. a a The goblet is covered when it is empty; when full to be drunk out of, the cover is removed. Ros. Not true in love? Cel. Yes, when he is in; but, I think he is not in. Ros. You have heard him swear downright he was. Cel. Was is not is: besides, the oath of a lover is no stronger than the word of a tapster; they are both the confirmer of false reckonings: He attends here in the forest on the duke your father. Ros. I met the duke yesterday, and had much question with him: He asked me, of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good as he; so he laughed, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there's such a man as Orlando? Cel. O, that 's a brave man! he writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble goose: but all 's brave that youth mounts, and folly guides:-Who comes here? Enter CORIN. Cor. Mistress, and master, you have oft inquir'd Cel. Well, and what of him? Ros. a Question-discourse. [Exeunt. |