Page 1997 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

TOUCHSTONE

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

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

FIRST PAGE
Shall we clap into’t roundly, without hawking [10] 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 gipsies on a horse.

(They sing)
It was a lover and his lass, [15]
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn-field did pass,

In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,
Sweet lovers love the spring. [20]

Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,

These pretty country-folks would lie,
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding, [25]
Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,
With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino,
How that a life was but a flower,
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time, [30]
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, [35]