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 only the prologues to a bad voice? 2 Page. I'faith, i'faith; and both in a tune, like two gipsies on a horse. SONG. It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,3 Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty country-folks would lie In spring-time, &c. 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 spring-time, &c. 2 "Shall we strike into it directly?" Round, in the sense of downright or straightforward, occurs very often. 3 Coverdale, in the Preface to his Holy Psalms, speaks of these meaningless burdens of songs: "And if women, sitting at their rocks, or spinning at the wheels, had none other songs to pass their time withal, than such as Moses' sister, Elkanah's wife, Debora, and Mary the mother of Christ, have sung before them, they should be better occupied than with hey nony nony, hey troly loly, and such like phantasies." 4 Ring-time is time of marriage, or of making love; probably so called from the use of rings in the plighting of troth. And therefore take the present time, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino; In spring-time, &c. Touch. Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter 5 in the ditty, yet the note was very untimeable. 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 b' wi'6 you; and God mend your voices! 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 to hope, and know they fear.1 Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE. Ros. Patience once more, whiles our compact is urged. — [To the DUKE.] You say, if I bring in your Rosalind, You will bestow her on Orlando here? 5 Matter here stands, apparently, for sense or meaning. 6 God b' wi' you is an old contraction of God be with you, which was used a good deal in Shakespeare's time, and has occurred twice before in this play; on page 63 and page 83. The phrase has been still further contracted into good bye. 1 The meaning appears to be, "As those that fear lest they may believe a thing because they wish it true, and at the same time know that this fear is no better ground of action than their hope." Who has not sometime caught himself in a similar perplexity of hope and fear? Duke S. That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her. Ros. [To ORLANDO.] And you say, you will have her, when I bring her? Orl. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. Ros. [To PHEBE.] You say, you'll marry me, if I be willing? 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. [To SILVIUS.] You say, that you'll have Phebe, if she will? Sil. Though to have her and death were both one thing. Ros. I've 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 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. Orl. My lord, the first time that I ever saw him 2 This aptly shows the danger Rosalind has been in, of being discovered notwithstanding her disguise. Doubtless, we have all found how one face will sometimes remind us of another by tricks of association too subtle for our tracing; so that we seem at the same time to know and not to know the stranger. Obscured in the circle of this forest. 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. Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY. Touch. Salutation and greeting to you all! 3 Jaq. Good my lord, bid him welcome: this is the motleyminded 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.4 I have trod a measure; 5 I have flatter'd 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?7 Touch. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the Seventh Cause.8 3 Touchstone is humorously affecting the stately manners and language of the Court. Peo 4" Put me under oath, make me swear to the truth of the matter." ple were often called upon or permitted to purge, that is, clear themselves of imputed guilt by thus affirming their innocence under oath. Sometimes a man got others to swear with him, who were called compurgators. See page 26, note 4. 5 The measure was a grave, solemn dance, with a slow and measured step, somewhat like a minuet, and therefore well comporting with the dignity of the Court. See vol. iv., page 173, note 5. 6 Smooth was often used in the sense of flattery. So in Richard III., i. 3: "I cannot flatter, and speak fair, smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog." Touchstone means to imply, that to use sharp practice on one's friend, to cajole and beguile one's enemy, and to bankrupt one's tailors by running up huge accounts and leaving them unpaid, are characteristics of Courts and courtiers. 7 Taken up is made up; that is, composed, settled. 8 This means, apparently, that the quarrel had proceeded through six degrees from the original ground or starting-point, and so had come to the seventh degree, the "Lie Direct" where nothing but an if could save the par Jaq. How, the 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. I press in here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, to swear, and to forswear, according as marriage binds and blood breaks.10 A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favour'd thing, sir, but mine own; 11 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.12 Duke S. By my faith, he is very swift and sententious. Touch. According to the fool's bolt,13 sir, and such dulcet diseases.14 Jaq. But, for the Seventh Cause; how did you find the quarrel on the Seventh Cause ? ties from the necessity of fighting it out. In Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4, Tybalt is described as "a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause"; that is, one who will fight on the slightest provocation. 9 This mode of speech was common. See vol. iii., page 206, note 48."God 'ild you" is "God reward you." See page 72, note 11. 10 Blood was much used for passion or impulse. The meaning seems to be, that his being forsworn will depend on which of the two proves the strongest, his fidelity to his marriage-vows, or the temptations of his blood. Such is Heath's interpretation. 11 Touchstone here just hits the very pith of the matter. It is by such strokes as this that the Poet keeps the man, Fool though he be, bound up fresh and warm with our human sympathies. Celia gives the key-note of his real inside character, when she says, i. 3, "He'll go along o'er the wide world with me." 12 The personal pronouns were often used thus in an indefinite sense, for any or a. So in Hamlet, iii. 7: "Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service," &c. 13 The bolt was a short, thick, blunt arrow, for shooting near objects, and requiring little practice or skill. There was an old proverb, "A fool's bolt is soon shot." In the line before, swift is quick-witted, and sententious is full of pithy sayings. 14 The sense of this probably lies in the circumstance of its being meant for nonsense; perhaps for what Barrow calls "acute nonsense." |