Act V, Scene 3

Summary

As the play opens, Touchstone and Audrey are discussing the fact that they are finally to be married the next day. Audrey is delighted, thinking she will become a real woman of the world. As they talk, two of Duke Senior's pages arrive, singing a merry song about "a lover and his lass." Always the fool, Touchstone, the anti- romantic, criticizes the song as being silly. He tells the singers to go and improve their voices.

Notes

The primary purpose of this scene is to set the stage for the finale of the play, in which all of the weddings will take place. Oliver and Aliena plan to wed tomorrow. In addition, Rosalind has orchestrated the marriage of Orlando and herself and the marriage of Phebe and Silvius. In this short scene, the audience learns that Touchstone and Audrey also plan to wed the next day.

It is appropriate that the pages arrive singing a beautiful love song about a lad and his lass; the words warn the young couple to seize the day and live for the moment, just as the key characters have learned to do in the pastoral setting. Throughout the play, Shakespeare has used music and song to symbolize the freedom of the forest and the beauty of love and romance. Touchstone, always the fool, objects to the music and sends the singers, telling them that they need to work on their voices.

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