As You Like It: Act 5, Scene 3 Translation

Enter Touchstone and Audrey.

TOUCHSTONE Tomorrow is the joyful day, Audrey. Tomorrow
will we be married.

AUDREY 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. 5

Enter two Pages.

Here come two of the banished duke’s pages.

FIRST PAGE Well met, honest gentleman.

TOUCHSTONE By my troth, well met. Come, sit, sit, and
a song.

SECOND PAGE We are for you. Sit i’ th’ middle. 10

They sit.

FIRST 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?

SECOND PAGE I’ faith, i’ faith, and both in a tune like
two gypsies on a horse. 15

Song.

PAGES sing
"It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no,
That o’er the green cornfield did pass
In springtime, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding. 20
Sweet lovers love the spring.

"Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no,
These pretty country folks would lie
In springtime, the only pretty ring time, 25
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring.

"This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no,
How that a life was but a flower 30
In springtime, the only pretty ring 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-nonny-no, 35
For love is crownèd with the prime,
In springtime, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.
Sweet lovers love the spring."

TOUCHSTONE Truly, young gentlemen, though there 40
was no great matter in the ditty, yet the note was
very untunable.

FIRST PAGE You are deceived, sir. We kept time. We lost
not our time.

TOUCHSTONE By my troth, yes. I count it but time lost 45
to hear such a foolish song. God be wi’ you, and
God mend your voices.—Come, Audrey.

They rise and exit.