Then there is no true lover in the forest
Rosalind, as Ganymede
Then there is no true lover
in the forest; else sighing every minute and
groaning every hour would detect the lazy foot of
time as well as a clock.
Orlando
And why not the swift foot of time? Had not
that been as proper?
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll
tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal,
who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
Rosalind, as Ganymede
By no means, sir. Time
travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll tell
you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal,
who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
Orlando
I prithee, who doth he trot withal?
Rosalind, as Ganymede
Marry, he trots hard with a
young maid between the contract of her marriage
and the day it is solemnized. If the interim be but a
se’nnight, time’s pace is so hard that it seems the
length of seven year.
Orlando
Who ambles time withal?
Rosalind, as Ganymede
With a priest that lacks Latin
and a rich man that hath not the gout, for the one
sleeps easily because he cannot study, and the other
lives merrily because he feels no pain—the one
lacking the burden of lean and wasteful learning,
the other knowing no burden of heavy tedious
penury. These time ambles withal.
Orlando
Who doth he gallop withal?
Rosalind, as Ganymede
With a thief to the gallows,
for though he go as softly as foot can fall, he thinks
himself too soon there.
Orlando
Who stays it still withal?
Rosalind, as Ganymede
With lawyers in the vacation,
for they sleep between term and term, and
then they perceive not how time moves.