Читать книгу As You Like It (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography - Sidney Lee - Страница 29

[Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.]

TOUCHSTONE

Tomorrow is the joyful day, Audrey; tomorrow 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 come 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

I.

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.

II.

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.

III.

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.

IV.

And therefore take the present time,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

For love is crownèd 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 untimeable.

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 with you; and God mend your voices! Come, Audrey.

[Exeunt.]