Scene
III
The forest.
Enter Touchstone and Audrey.
Touchstone
To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow will we be married.
Audrey
I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is no dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the world. Here comes two of the banished duke’s pages.
Enter two Pages.
First Page
Well met, honest gentleman.
Touchstone
By my troth, well met. Come, sit, sit, and a song.
Second Page
We are for you: sit i’ the middle.
First Page
Shall we clap into’t roundly, without hawking or spitting or saying we are hoarse, which are the only prologues to a bad voice?
Second 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,
That o’er the green corn-field did pass
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino
These pretty country folks would lie,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
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 the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino;
For love is crowned with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Touchstone
Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untuneable.
First Page
You are deceived, sir: we kept time, we lost not our time.
Touchstone
By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear such a foolish song. God be wi’ you; and God mend your voices! Come, Audrey. Exeunt.