The fourth scene begins with Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone arriving in the Forest of Ardenne. All three of them are exhausted from their travels, and Celia tells her companions that she is too tired to continue: “I pray you, bear with me. I cannot go further” (7). Despite being tired himself, Touchstone cannot resist making a joke: “For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you. Yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you, for I think you have no money in your purse” (8-10). Touchstone is stating that he would rather tolerate (bear with) Celia than carry (bear) her. The pun comes with the word cross, a reference to the cross carried by Jesus Christ. The phrase “a cross to bear” has thus come to mean a burden or problem that one must endure or tolerate. The word cross, though, also had a second meaning during the Elizabethan era. The word also meant a coin or money because certain coins at that time were stamped with an image of the cross. So, Touchstone is joking that he will not get any money if he carries the tired Celia because she does not have any money with her.
Touchstone also comments that he is a bigger fool than he had been in the city because he gave up the comfort of life in the court to go out in the rough wilderness with Celia and Rosalind.
However, before Touchstone can make any further jokes, the three companions hear the approach of two shepherds, one old and one young.
Silvius, the young shepherd, is deeply in love