Open Source Shakespeare

As You Like It

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Act V, Scene 1

The forest

       

Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY

  • Touchstone. We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.
  • Audrey. Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old 2190
    gentleman's saying.
  • Touchstone. A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext.
    But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to
    you.
  • Audrey. Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me in the 2195
    world; here comes the man you mean.

Enter WILLIAM

  • Touchstone. It is meat and drink to me to see a clown. By my troth,
    we that have good wits have much to answer for: we shall be
    flouting; we cannot hold. 2200
  • William. Good ev'n, Audrey.
  • Audrey. God ye good ev'n, William.
  • William. And good ev'n to you, sir.
  • Touchstone. Good ev'n, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy
    head; nay, prithee be cover'd. How old are you, friend? 2205
  • William. Five and twenty, sir.
  • Touchstone. A ripe age. Is thy name William?
  • William. William, sir.
  • Touchstone. A fair name. Wast born i' th' forest here?
  • William. Ay, sir, I thank God. 2210
  • Touchstone. 'Thank God.' A good answer.
    Art rich?
  • William. Faith, sir, so so.
  • Touchstone. 'So so' is good, very good, very excellent good; and
    yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise? 2215
  • William. Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
  • Touchstone. Why, thou say'st 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 philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a
    grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning 2220
    thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do
    love this maid?
  • William. I do, sir.
  • Touchstone. Give me your hand. Art thou learned?
  • William. No, sir. 2225
  • Touchstone. Then learn this of me: to have is to have; for it is a
    figure in rhetoric that drink, being pour'd out of cup into a
    glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your
    writers do consent that ipse is he; now, you are not ipse, for I
    am he. 2230
  • William. Which he, sir?
  • Touchstone. He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you
    clown, abandon- which 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, 2235
    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 poison with thee,
    or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction;
    will o'er-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and 2240
    fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart.
  • Audrey. Do, good William.
  • William. God rest you merry, sir. Exit

Enter CORIN

  • Corin. Our master and mistress seeks you; come away, away. 2245
  • Touchstone. Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey. I attend, I attend.

Exeunt