Audrey.
Clo.
We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle
Audrey.
-- 79 --
Aud.
'Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the
old gentleman's saying.
Clo.
A most wicked sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile
Mar-text. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest
lays claim to you.
Aud.
Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me
in the world: here comes the man you mean.
Enter William.
Clo.
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.
Wil.
Good ev'n, Audrey.
Aud.
God ye good ev'n, William.
Wil.
And good ev'n to you, sir.
Clo.
Good ev'n, gentle friend: Cover thy head, cover
thy head; nay, pr'ythee, be cover'd. How old are
you, friend?
Wil.
Five and twenty, sir.
Clo.
A ripe age: Is thy name, William?
Wil.
William, sir.
Clo.
A fair name: Wast born i' th' forest here?
Wil.
Ay, sir, I thank God.
Clo.
Thank God; A good answer: Art rich?
Wil.
'Faith, sir, so so.
Clo.
So so; 'Tis good, very good, very excellent
good:—and yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise?
Wil.
Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
Clo.
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,14Q0332
when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open
his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby,
-- 80 --
that grapes were made to eat, and lips to open. You
do love this maid?
Wil.
I do, sir.
Clo.
Give me your hand: Art thou learned?
Wil.
No, sir.
Clo.
Then learn this of me; To have, is to have:
For it is a figure in rhetorick, that drink, being pour'd
out of a 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.
Wil.
Which he, sir?
Clo.
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,
dyest; 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; I will o'er-run
thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and fifty
ways; therefore tremble, and depart.
Aud.
Do, good William.
Wil.
God rest you merry, sir.
[Exit William.
Enter Corin.
Cor.
Our master and mistress seek note you; come, away,
away.
Clo.
Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey;—I attend, I attend.
[Exeunt.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
