Audrey.
Clo.
To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey: to-morrow we
will be married.
-- 263 --
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 world. 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'th' 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.
SONG.
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 spring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.
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.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and hey nonino,
These pretty country-folks would lye,
In the spring-time, &c.
-- 264 --
The carrol 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, &c.
Clo.
Truly young gentlemen, though there was no great
matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untunable.
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 b'w'y you, and God mend your voices.
Come, Audrey.
[Exeunt.
George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].
