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Jaq. More, more, I pr'ythee, more.

Ami. It will make you melancholy, monsieur Jaques. Jaq. I thank it. More, I pr'ythee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weazel sucks eggs: More, I pr'ythee, more.

Ami. My voice is ragged; I know, I cannot please you. Jaq. I do not desire you to please me, I do desire you to sing: Come,more; another stanza; Call you them stanzas? Ami. What you will, monsieur Jaques.

Jaq. Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing: Will you sing?

Ami. More at your request, than to please myself.

Jaq. Well then, if ever I thank any man, I'll thank you but that they call compliment, is like the encounter of two dog-apes; and when a man thanks me heartily, methinks, I have given him a penny, and he renders me the beggarly thanks. Come, sing; and you that will not, hold your tongues.

Ami. Well, I'll end the song.—Sirs, cover the while; the duke will drink under this tree :-he hath been all this day to look you.

Jaq. And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too dispútable for my company: I think of as many matters as he ; but I give heaven thanks, and make no boast of them. Come, warble, come.

SONG.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live i'the sun,

Seeking the food he eats,

[All together here

And pleas'd with what he gets,

Come hither, come hither, come hither;

Here shall he see

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

Jaq. I'll give you a verse to this note, that I made yesterday in despight of my invention.

Ami. And I'll sing it.

Jaq. Thus it goes:

If it do come to pass,
That any man turn ass

Leaving his wealth and ease,
A stubborn will to please,
Ducdàme, ducdàme, ducdàme;
Here shall he see,

Gross fools as he,

An if he will come to Ami.

Ami. What's that ducdàme ?

Jaq. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a cirele. I'll go sleep if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the first born of Egypt. 8

Ami. And I'll go seek the duke; his banquet is prepar'd. [Exeunt severally.

SCENE VI.

The same.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.

Adam. Dear master, I can go no farther: O, I die for food! Here lie I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell, kind master.

Orla. Why, how now, Adam! no greater heart in thee? Live a little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little: If this uncouth forest yield any thing savage, I will either be food for it, or bring it for food to thee. Thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers. For my sake, be comfortable; hold death a while at the arm's end I will here be with thee presently; and if I bring thee not something to eat, I'll give thee leave to die: but if thou diest before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour. Well said! thou look'st cheerily : and I'll be with thee quickly.-Yet thou liest in the bleak air: Come, I will bear thee to some shelter; and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this desert. Cheerly, good Adam! [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

The same. A table set out. Enter Duke senior, AMIENS, Lords, and others.

Duke S. I think he be transform'd into a beast ; For I can no where find him like a man.

1 Lord. My lord, he is but even now gone hence; Here was he merry, hearing of a song.

[8] A proverbial expression for high-born persons. JOHNSON.

Duke S. If he, compact of jars, grow musical, We shall have shortly discord in the spheres :Go, seek him; tell him, I would speak with him. Enter JAQUES.

1 Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach. Duke S. Why, how now, monsieur! what a life is this, That your poor friends must woo your company? What! you look merrily.

Jaq. A fool, a fool !—I met a fool i' the forest, A motley fool;-a miserable world!

As I do live by food, I met a fool;

Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,
And rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms,
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool.
Good-morrow, fool, quoth I: No, sir, quoth he,
Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune :
And then he drew a dial from his poke;

And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, It is ten o'clock :

Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags :
'Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine;
And after an hour more, twill be eleven ;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot, and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale. When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep-contemplative;
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial-O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.

Duke S. What fool is this?

Jaq. O worthy fool!-One that hath been a courtier ;

And says, if ladies be but young, and fair,

They have the gift to know it: and in his brain,—

Which is as dry as the remainder bisket

After a voyage,-he hath strange places cramm'd.
With observation, the which he vents

In mangled forms:-O, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Duke S. Thou shalt have one.

Jaq. It is my only suit ;

Provided, that you weed your better judgments
Of all opinion that grows rank in them,

That I am wise. I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,

To blow on whom I please; for so fools have:
And they that are most galled with my folly,

They most must laugh: And why, sir, must they so?
The why is plain as way to parish-church:

He, that a fool doth very wisely hit,

Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob: if not,

The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd

Even by the squandering glances of the fool.9
Invest me in my motley; give me leave

To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of the infected world,

If they will patiently receive my medicine.

Duke S. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do. Jaq. What, for a counter, would I do, but good? Duke S. Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin:

For thou thyself hast been a libertine,

As sensual as the brutish sting itself;

And all the embossed sores, and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot hast caught,
Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.
Jaq. Why, who cries out on pride,
That can therein tax any private party?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea,
Till that the very very means do ebb ?
What woman in the city do I mean,
When that I say, The city-woman bears
The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders ?
Who can come in, and say, that I mean her,
When such a one as she, such is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function,

That says, his bravery is not on my cost,
(Thinking that I mean him,) but therein suits
His folly to the mettle of my speech?

There then; How, What then? Let me see wherein
My tongue hath wrong'd him if it do him right,
Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free,
Why then, my taxing like a wild goose flies,
Unclaim'd of any man.-But who comes here?

[9] Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasms of a jester, they subject themselves to his power, and the wise man will have his folly anatomized, that is, dissected and laid open, by the squandering glances or random shots of a fool. JOHNSON,

[graphic]

Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn.

Orla. Forbear, and eat no more.

Jaq. Why, I have eat none yet.

Orla. Nor shalt not, till necessity be serv'd.
Jaq. Of what kind should this cock come of?

Duke S. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress; Or else a rude despiser of good manners,

That in civility thou seem'st so empty?

Orla. You touch'd my vein at first; the thorny point Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show

Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred, 1

-And know some nurture :2 But forbear, I say ;

He dies, that touches any of this fruit,

Till I and my affairs are answered.

Jaq. An you will not be answered with reason, I must die.

Duke S. What would you have? Your gentleness shall force,

More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orla. I almost die for food, and let me have it.

Duke S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.
Orla. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you :

I thought, that all things had been savage here;

And therefore put I on the countenance

Of stern commandment: But whate'er you are,
That in this desart inaccessible,

Under the shade of melancholy boughs,

Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;
If ever you have look'd on better days;

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church;
If ever sat at any good man's feast;

If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear,
And know what 'tis to pity, and be pitied;
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be:

In the which hope, I blush, and hide my sword.

Duke S. True is it that we have seen better days; And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church; And sat at good men's feasts; and wip'd our eyes Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd:

[1] Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is the opposite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say, that he had not been bred among clowns. HOLT WHITE.

[2] Nurture is education. STEEVENS-St. Paul advises the Ephesians, in his Ep istle, ch. vi. 4, to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." HARRIS.

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