TOUCH. Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untunable.
I PAGE You are deceived, sir; we kept time, we lost not our time. 40
TOUCH. By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear
such a foolish song. God buy you; and God mend your voices. Come, Audrey.
Exeunt
ACT V SCENE IV
The forest
Enter Duke SENIOR, Amiens, Jaques, Orlando, Oliver, and Celia
DUCK Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy
Can do all this that he hath promised?
ORLAND. I sometimes do believe and sometimes do not,
As those that fear they hope, and know they fear.
Enter Rosalind, Silvius, and Phebe
ROSALIN. Patience once more, whiles our compact is urged:
You say, if I bring in your Rosalind,
You will bestow her on Orlando here?
DUCK That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her.
ROSALIN. And you say you will have her when I bring her?
ORLAND. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. 10
ROSALIN. You say you’ll marry me, if I be willing?
PHEBE That will I, should I die the hour after.
ROSALIN. But if you do refuse to marry me, You’ll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd?
PHEBE So is the bargain.
ROSALIN. You say that you’ll have Phebe, if she will?
SILVIUS Though to have her and death were both one thing.
ROSALIN. I have 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. 20
Exeunt Rosalind and Celia
DUCK I do remember in this shepherd boy
Some lively touches of my daughter’s favour.
ORLAND. 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 tutored in the rudiments
Of many desperate studies by his uncle,
Whom he reports to be a great magician,
Obscured in the circle of this forest. 30
Enter Touchstone and Audrey
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.
TOUCH. Salutation and greeting to you all!
JAQUES Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in the forest. He hath been a courtier, he swears. 40
TOUCH. If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation. I have trod a measure; I have flatt’red 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.
JAQUES And how was that ta’en up?
TOUCH. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the seventh cause.
JAQUES How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this fellow. 50
DUCK 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. A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own; a poor humour of mine, sir, to take that that man else will. Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster
DUCK By my faith, he is very swift and sententious. 60
TOUCH. According to the fool’s bolt, sir, and such dulcet diseases.
JAQUES But, for the seventh cause: how did you find the quarrel on the seventh cause?