Clo.

Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch up your goats, Audrey: And how, Audrey? am I the man yet? doth my simple feature content you^{2 note}

Aud.

Your features! Lord warrant us! what features?

Clo.

I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths.

Jaq. [aside]

O knowledge ill-inhabited! worse than Jove in a thatch'd house!

Clo.

When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room^{3 note}: Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical.

Aud.

I do not know what poetical is: Is it honest in deed, and word? Is it a true thing?

Clo.

No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most feigning; and lovers are given to poetry; and what

they swear in poetry^{4 note}, may be said, as lovers, they do feign.

Aud.

Do you wish then, that the gods had made me poetical?

Clo.

I do truly: for thou swear'st to me, thou art honest; now if thou wert a poet, I might have some hope thou didst feign.

Aud.

Would you not have me honest?

Clo.

No truly, unless thou wert hard-favour'd: for honesty coupled to beauty, is to have honey a sauce to sugar.

Jaq. [aside.]

A material fool^{5 note}!

Aud.

Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the gods make me honest!

Clo.

Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut, were to put good meat into an unclean dish.

Aud.

I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul^{6 note}

Cla.

Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness! sluttishness may come hereafter. But be it as it may be, I will marry thee: and to that end, I have been with Sir Oliver Mar-text, the vicar of the next village; who hath promis'd to meet me in this place of the forest, and to couple us.

Jaq. [aside]

I would fain see this meeting.

Aud.

Well, the gods give us joy!

Clo.

Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful

heart, stagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no assembly but horn-beasts. But what though^{7 note}? Courage! As horns are odious, they are necessary. It is said,—Many a man knows no end of his goods: right; many a man has good horns, and knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife; 'tis none of his own getting. Horns? Even so:—Poor men alone?—No, no; the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal. Is the single man therefore blessed? No: as a wall'd town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a batchelor: and by how much defence is better than no skill, so much is a horn more precious than to want. Enter Sir Oliver Mar-text. Here comes sir Oliver:—Sir Oliver Mar-text^{8 note}

Sir Oli.

Is there none here to give the woman?

Clo.

I will not take her on gift of any man.

Sir Oli.

Truly, she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful.

Jaq. [discovering himself]

Proceed, proceed; I'll give her.

Clo.

Good even, good master What ye call't: How do you, sir? You are very well met: God'ild you^{9 note} for your last company: I am very glad to see you:— Even a toy in hand here, sir: Nay; pray, be covered.

Jaq.

Will you be married, motley?

Clo.

As the ox hath his bow^{1 note}, sir, the horse his curb, and the faulcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibling.

Jaq.

And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush, like a beggar? Get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is: this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a shrunk pannel, and, like green timber, warp, warp.

Clo.

I am not in the mind but I were better to be married of him than of another: for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me hereafter to leave my wife.

Jaq.
Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee.

Clo.
Come, sweet Audrey;
We must be married, or we must live in bawdry.
Farewell, good master Oliver!

  Not—^{2 note}

^note See B. Jonson's Underwood, vol. VI. p. 407:

And, in Every Man in his Humour, p. 88, is the same allusion:

This observation may be supported by the following passage in Decker's Honest Whore, 1635:

Again, in Nash's Lenten-Stuff, &c. 1599:

In the books of the Stationers' Company, Aug. 6, 1584, was entered by Richard Jones the ballad of,

Again, “The answere of O sweete Olyver.”

Again, in 1586: “O sweet Oliver altered to the Scriptures.” Steevens.

I often find a part of this song applied to Cromwell. In a paper called, A Man in the Moon, discovering a World of Knavery under the Sun, “the juncto will go near to give us the bagge, if O brave Oliver come not suddenly to relieve them.” The same allusion is met with in Cleaveland. Wind away, and wind off are still used provincially: and I believe, nothing but the provincial pronunciation is wanting to join the parts together. I read:

Wind is used for wend in Cæsar and Pompey, 1607:

  But—Wind away,
  Begone, I say,
I will not to wedding with thee.

Sir Oli.

'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling.