As You Like It (1599-1600)

Intro

Online Critical Edition in Progress - Version 1.c.
Date variant: 1599
Shakespeare Network - https://shakespearenetwork.net/

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Act V, Scene 1

The forest

Touchstone
We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.

Audrey
Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old
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
world; here comes the man you mean.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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
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.

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.

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,
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
fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart.

Audrey
Do, good William.

William
God rest you merry, sir. Exit

Corin
Our master and mistress seeks you; come away, away.

Touchstone
Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey. I attend, I attend.

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As You Like It (1599-1600)

Act V, Scene 1

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