SCENE III.

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 capricious1 poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths.

Jaques. O knowlege ill-inhabited! 2 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. 3 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.

3 Where the entertainment is mean, and the bill extravagant.

Aud. Do you wish then, that the gods had made me poetical?

Touch. I do, truly; for thou swearest 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 hard-favored: for honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey a sauce to sugar.

Jaques. A material fool! 1

[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.2

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.

Jaques. I would fain see this meeting.

Aud. Well, the gods give us joy!

[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

A fool with matter in him.

2 Homely.

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; 'tis 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 honorable than the bare brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence 3 is better 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. I will not take her on gift of any man.

Sir Oli. Truly, she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful.

Jaques. [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

What then?

3 The art of fencing.

2 Lean deer are called rascal deer.

• God yield, i. e. reward.

you for your last company : I am very glad to see you. Even a toy in hand here, sir.-Nay; pray, be covered.

Jaques. Will you be married, motley?

Touch. As the ox hath his bow,1 sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibbling.

Jaques. 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. Jaques. 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!

Not--O sweet Oliver,

O brave Oliver,

Leave me not behind thee:

SHAK.

1 Yoke.

IV.

V

But-Wind away;

Begone, I say:

I will not to wedding with thee.

[Exeunt Jaques, Touch, and Aud.

Sir Oli. "Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling. [Erit.

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 color. Cel. Something browner than Judas's:1 marry, his kisses are Judas's own children.

Ros. I' faith, his hair is of a good color.

Cel. An excellent color: your chesnut was ever the only color.

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 :

Judas Iscariot was constantly represented in ancient paintings or tapestry with red hair.