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 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 thatch'd 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 Truly, I would the Gods had made thee

room;

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, man 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 ?

Touch. No truly, unless thou. wert hardfavour'd for honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey, a sauce to sugar.

Jaq.. A material fool!

[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.

4

Aud. 1 am not a slut, though I thank the Gods I ara foul.

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,

have been with Sir Oliver Martext, 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. Aud. Well, the Gods give us joy! 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,

Poor men alone?

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; 'tis none of his own getting. Horns. Even so: No, no; the noblest deer hath them as huge the as rascal. Is the single man therefore blessed? No: as a wall'd 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 defence is bretter than no skill, by so much is a horn more precious than to want.

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.

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 callt: How do you, Sir? You are very well met God'ild you for your last company: I am very glad to see you: Even a toy in hand here, Sir: Nay: pray, he cover❜d.

Jaq. Will you be married, motley?

Touch. As the ox hath his bow, Sir, the horse his curb, and the faulcon 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 pannel, 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; well married, it would be a good hereafter to leave my wife.

and not being

excuse for me

[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. Farewell, good Master Oliver!

O brave Oliver,

Leave me not behi' thee:
But Wind away,

Begone, I say,

I will not to wedding wi' thee.

[Exeunt JAQUES, TOUCHSTONE, and AUDREY.

Sir Oli. 'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical kuave of them all shall fout me

calling

out of my

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

The same. Before a Cottage.

Enter ROSALIND and CELIA.

Ros. Never talk to me, I will weep.

Cel. Do, I pr'ythee; 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. Ifaith, 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.

Cell 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. Ros. Do you think so?

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 cover'd goblet, or a

Worm-eaten nut..

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 confirmers of faise. 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 laugh'd, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there is such a man as Orlando?

Cel. 0, 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 ?