Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound; And, after some small space, being strong at heart, To tell this story, that you might excuse That he in sport doth call his Rosalind. [Rosalind swoons. blood. CEL. There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede! OLI. Look, he recovers. Ros. I would I were at home. CEL. We'll lead you thither. I pray you, will you take him by the arm? OLI. Be of good cheer, youth: you a man! you lack a man's heart. Ros. I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would think this was well counterfeited! I pray you, tell your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho! OLI. This was not counterfeit: there is too great testimony in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest. Ros. Counterfeit, I assure you. OLI. Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man. Ros. So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right. 150 161 171 CEL. Come, you look paler and paler: pray you, draw homewards. Good sir, go with us. OLI. That will I, for I must bear answer back How you excuse my brother, Rosalind. Ros. I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend my counterfeiting to him. Will you go? [Exeunt. THE FOREST Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY E SHALL FIND A TIME, AUD. Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman's saying. TOUCH. A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you. AUD. Ay, I know who 't is: he hath no interest in me in the world: here comes the man you mean. TOUCH. It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: 10 by my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold. 10 meat and drink] a proverbial expression implying something very congenial. Cf. M. Wives, I, i, 268: "That's meat and drink to me." Enter WILLIAM WILL. Good even, Audrey. AUD. God ye good even, William. WILL. And good even to you, sir. TOUCH. Good even, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy head; nay, prithee, be covered. How old are you, friend? WILL. Five and twenty, sir. TOUCH. A ripe age. Is thy name William? WILL. William, sir. TOUCH. A fair name. Wast born i' the forest here? WILL. Ay, sir, I thank God. TOUCH. "Thank God; a good answer. Art rich? WILL. Faith, sir, so so. TOUCH. "So so" is good, very good, very excellent good; and yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise? WILL. Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit. 20 TOUCH. Why, thou sayest well. I do now remember a saying, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." The heathen philoso- 30 pher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do love this maid? WILL. I do, sir. TOUCH. Give me your hand. Art thou learned? TOUCH. Then learn this of me: to have, is to have; 12 hold] restrain (sc. our wit). for it is a figure in rhetoric that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your writers do consent that ipse is he: 40 now, you are not ipse, for I am he. WILL. Which he, sir? fore, you clown, abandon, TOUCH. He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therewhich is in the vulgar leave, the society, which in the boorish is company, of this female, — which in the common is woman; which together is, abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in 50 poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction; I will o'er-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways: therefore tremble, and depart. AUD. Do, good William. WILL. God rest you merry, sir. Enter CORIN [Exit. COR. Our master and mistress seeks you; come, away, away! TOUCH. Trip, Audrey! trip, Audrey! I attend, I attend. [Exeunt. 51 bastinado] cudgelling. Cf. Florio's Ital.-Eng. Dict.: "A bastonado, or cudgell-blow." bandy] The word literally means "to toss from side to side like a tennis-ball"; but it is here synonymous with "contend" or "fight." |