SCENE III.
Enter Clown, and Audrey.
Clo.
To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; to-morrow
will we be married.
Aud.
I do desire it with all my heart: and I hope
it is no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of
the world6 note. Here come two of the banish'd duke's
pages.
Enter two Pages.
1 Page.
Well met, honest gentleman.
Clo.
By my troth, well met: Come, sit, sit, and a
song.
2 Page.
We are for you: sit i'the middle.
1 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?
2 Page.
I'faith, i'faith; and both in a tune, like
two gypsies on a horse.
-- 375 --
SONG7 note
.
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 pretty rank time8 note
,
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, &c.
The carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
In the spring time, &c.
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, &c.
Clo.
Truly, young gentlemen, though there was
-- 376 --
no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was very
untuneable9 note
.
1 Page.
You are deceiv'd, sir; we kept time, we
lost not our time.
Clo.
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.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
