Act 5

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.