Another Part of the Forest.
 Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES following behind.

Touchstone	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?

Audrey	Your features? Lord warrant us - what features?

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

Jaques	[Aside.] O knowledge ill-inhabited - worse than Jove in a 
	thatched house!

Touchstone	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. Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical.

Audrey	I do not know what 'poetical' is. Is it honest in deed and 
	word? Is it a true thing?

Touchstone	No, truly, for the truest poetry is the most feigning; and 
	lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry 
	may be said as lovers they do feign.

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

Touchstone	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.

Audrey	Would you not have me honest?

Touchstone	No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favoured; for honesty 
	coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar.

Jaques	[Aside.] A material fool!

Audrey	Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make me 
	honest.

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

Audrey	I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.

Touchstone	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 Martext, 
	the vicar of the next village, who hath promised to meet me 
	in this place of the forest, and to couple us.

Jaques	[Aside.] I would fain see this meeting.

Audrey	Well, the gods give us joy!

Touchstone	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? 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 walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the 
	forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare 
	brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence is better than 
	no skill, by so much is a horn more precious than to want. 
	Here comes Sir Oliver.

                        Enter SIR OLIVER MARTEXT.

	Sir Oliver Martext, you are well met. Will you dispatch us 
	here under this tree, or shall we go with you to your 
	chapel?

Sir Oliver	Is there none here to give the woman?

Touchstone	I will not take her on gift of any man.

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

Jaques	[Advancing.]. Proceed, proceed; I'll give her.

Touchstone	Good even, good Master What-ye-call't; how do you, sir? You 
	are very well met. God-ild you for your last company. I am 
	very glad to see you. Even a toy in hand here, sir. Nay, 
	pray be covered.

Jaques	Will you be married, motley?

Touchstone	As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and the 
	falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons 
	bill, so wedlock would be nibbling.

Jaques	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 panel and, like green timber, 
	warp, warp.

Touchstone	[Aside.] 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.

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

Touchstone	Come, sweet Audrey,
	We must be married, or we must live in bawdry.
	Farewell, good Master Oliver. Not-

				O sweet Oliver,
				O brave Oliver,
			Leave me not behind thee.

	but-
				Wind away,
				Begone I say,
			I will not to wedding with thee.
							 [Exeunt JAQUES, TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY.

Sir Oliver	'Tis no matter. Ne'er a fantastical knave of them all shall 
	flout me out of my calling.
															[Exit.
