Should, in their own confines, with forked heads',
Have their round haunches gor'd.
1 Lord.
Indeed, my lord,
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that;
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you.
To-day, my lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood;
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish and, indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.
Duke S.
But what said Jaques?
Did he not moralize this spectacle?
1 Lord. O! yes, into a thousand similes.
10.
First, for his weeping into the needless stream 1o; "Poor deer," quoth he, "thou mak'st a testament As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much." Then, being there alone, Left and abandon'd of his velvet friend;
""Tis right," quoth he; "thus misery doth part
The flux of company." Anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him: "Ay," quoth Jaques,
"Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;
9
with FORKED heads,] i. e. The "forked," or barbed "heads" of arrows. 10 First, for his weeping INTO the needless stream ;] "Into" is to be read in the time of one syllable. Malone and Steevens altered "into" to in, but the stag did not weep in, but "into" the "needless stream."
"Tis just the fashion: wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?"
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court",
Yea, and of this our life, swearing, that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse,
To fright the animals, and to kill them up
In their assign'd and native dwelling place.
Duke S. And did you leave him in this contem-
plation?
2 Lord. We did, my lord, weeping and commenting Upon the sobbing deer.
Duke S.
Show me the place.
I love to cope him in these sullen fits,
For then he's full of matter.
2 Lord. I'll bring you to him straight.
A Room in the Palace.
Enter Duke FREDERICK, Lords, and Attendants.
Duke F. Can it be possible that no man saw them? It cannot be some villains of my court Are of consent and sufferance in this.
1 Lord. I cannot hear of any that did see her.
The ladies, her attendants of her chamber,
Saw her a-bed; and in the morning early
They found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress.
2 Lord. My lord, the roynish clown'2, at whom so oft Your grace was wont to laugh, is also missing. Hesperia, the princess' gentlewoman,
Confesses that she secretly o'er-heard
11 The body of THE country, city, court,] The first folio omits "the," which is inserted in the second folio.
the ROYNISH clown,] Roynish, from rogneux, Fr. scurvy.
Your daughter and her cousin much commend
The parts and graces of the wrestler,
That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles;
And she believes, wherever they are gone,
That youth is surely in their company.
Duke F. Send to his brother: fetch that gallant
hither;
If he be absent, bring his brother to me,
I'll make him find him. Do this suddenly,
And let not search and inquisition quail
To bring again these foolish runaways.
Before OLIVER'S House.
Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting.
Orl. Who's there?
Adam. What! my young master?-O, my gentle master!
O, my sweet master! O, you memory
Of old sir Rowland! why, what make you here?
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?
And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant?
Why would you be so fond to overcome2
The bony priser3 of the humorous duke?
Your praise is come too swiftly home before you.
Know you not, master, to some kind of men*
Their graces serve them but as enemies?
No more do yours: your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you.
2 SO FOND to overcome] i. e. so foolish. See vol. ii. p. 37, note 5.
3 The BONY priser] In all the folios, "bony" is spelt bonny.
11
to SOME kind of men] Oldest copy, 66 seeme kind." Corrected in the second folio.
O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!
Orl. Why, what's the matter?
Adam.
O, unhappy youth!
Come not within these doors: within this roof
The enemy of all your graces lives.
Your brother (no, no brother; yet the son-
Yet not the son-I will not call him son-
Of him I was about to call his father,)—
Hath heard your praises, and this night he means
To burn the lodging where you use to lie,
And you within it: if he fail of that,
He will have other means to cut you off:
I overheard him, and his practices.
This is no place; this house is but a butchery:
Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.
Orl. Why, whither, Adam, would'st thou have me go?
Adam. No matter whither, so you come not here. Orl. What! would'st thou have me go and beg my
food,
Or with a base and boisterous sword enforce
A thievish living on the common road?
This I must do, or know not what to do;
Yet this I will not do, do how I can.
I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother.
Adam. But do not so. I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse When service should in my old limbs lie lame, And unregarded age in corners thrown. Take that; and He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Why, what's the matter?] These words are made part of Adam's speech in the folio of 1623; but are properly assigned to Orlando in the folio of 1632. An error of a similar kind occurs in Orlando's next speech.
Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold:
All this I give you.
Let me be your servant :
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility:
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly. Let me go with you:
I'll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.
Orl. O, good old man! how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that, do choke their service up
Even with the having: it is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree,
That cannot so much as a blossom yield,
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways: we'll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We'll light upon some settled low content.
Adam. Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years, till now almost fourscore,
Here lived I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years many their fortunes seek;
But at fourscore it is too late a week:
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better,
Than to die well, and not my master's debtor. [Exeunt.
• From SEVENTEEN years,] The old copies read, seventy. The correction was made by Rowe, and is warranted by what follows in the next line but one.
|