I ducdàme ;] For ducdame, Sir Thomas Hanmer, very acutely and judiciously, reads duc ad me, that is, bring him to me. JOHNSON. If duc ad me were right, Amiens would not have asked its meaning, and been put off with "a Greek invocation." It is evidently a word coined for the nonce. We have here, as Butler says, One for sense, and one for rhyme." Indeed we must have a double rhyme; or this stanza cannot well be sung to the same tune with the former. I read thus: 66 "Ducdàme, Ducdàme, Ducdàme, "Gross fools as he, "An' if he will come to Ami.” That is, to Amiens. Jaques did not mean to ridicule himself. FARMER. Duc ad me has hitherto been received as an allusion to the burthen of Amiens's song— "Come hither, come hither, come hither." That Amiens, who is a courtier, should not understand Latin, or be persuaded it was Greek, is no great matter for wonder. An anonymous correspondent proposes to read-Huc ad me. In confirmation of the old reading, however, Dr. Farmer observes to me, that, being at a house not far from Cambridge, when news was brought that the hen roost was robbed, a facetious old squire who was present, immediately sung the following stanza, which has an odd coincidence with the ditty of Jaques : Dame, what makes your ducks to die? 66 I have placed Dr. Farmer's emendation in the text. Ducdàme is a trisyllable. STEEVENS. I have adhered to the old reading, If he will come to me, is if he will come hither. The Reverend Mr. Whiter has made the following observation on this passage. "Amy is the reading of the old copy, and is certainly right. It surely was incumbent on the Doctor [Farmer], or some of his fellow critics, to have given us this information; especially as their attention must naturally be awake in the discussion of so disputed a passage. I have seldom found the interests of learning much promoted by literary fellowships." If Mr. Whiter had taken the trouble of looking at any AMI. What's that ducdame? JAQ. "Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle. I'll go sleep if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the first-born of Egypt 2. 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 further: O, I die for food! Here lie I down, and measure out my grave3. Farewell, kind master. of the old copies, he would not have hazarded so unfounded an assertion. The reading of the text is found both in the first and second folio. MALONE. "Gross fools as he," &c. See Hor. Serm. L. II. sat. iii. : "Audire atque togam jubeo componere, quisquis 66 66 Ambitione mala aut argenti pallet amore; Quisquis luxuriâ tristive superstitione, "Aut alio mentis morbo calet: Huc proprius me, "Dum doceo insanire omnes, vos ordine adite." MALONE. 2 the first-born of Egypt.] A proverbial expression for high-born persons. JOHNSON. The phrase is scriptural, as well as proverbial. So, in Exodus, xii. 29: "And the Lord smote all the first born in Egypt." 3 Here lie I down, and measure out my grave.] 66 fall upon the ground, as I do now, STEEVENS. So, in Romeo Taking the measure of an unmade grave." STEEVENS. ORL. 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 awhile 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. A Table set out. The Same. 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. 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. 4 compact of jars,] i. e. made up of discords. In The Comedy of Errors, we have "compact of credit," for made up of credulity. Again, in Woman is a Weathercock, 1612: like gilded tombs "Compacted of jet pillars." The same expression occurs also in Tamburlane, 1590: "Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil." STEEVENS. 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, In good set terms,—and yet a motley fool. 5 A motley fool;-a miserable WORLD!] What, because he met a motley fool, was it therefore a miserable world? This is sadly blundered; we should read: His head is altogether running on this fool, both before and after these words, and here he calls him a miserable varlet, notwithstanding he railed on lady Fortune in good terms, &c. Nor is the change we may make, so great as appears at first sight. WARBURTON. I see no need of changing world to varlet, nor, if a change were necessary, can I guess how it should certainly be known that varlet is the true word. A miserable world is a parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the sight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of life. JOHNSON. Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune:] Alluding to the common saying, that fools are Fortune's favourites. MALONE. Fortuna favet fatuis, is, as Mr. Upton observes, the saying here alluded to; or, as in Publius Syrus: Fortuna, nimium quem fovet, stultum facit. So, in the Prologue to the Alchemist: "Fortune, that favours fooles, these two short houres Again, in Every Man out of his Humour, Act I. Sc. III. : 66 Sog. Why, who am I, sir? "Mac. One of those that fortune favours. "Car. The periphrasis of a foole." REED. VOL. VI. 2 D wags: And then he drew a dial from his poke; 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 biscuit 7 8 MOTLEY'S the only wear.] It would have been unnecessary to repeat that a motley, or party-coloured coat, was anciently the dress of a fool, had not the editor of Ben Jonson's works been mistaken in his comment on the 53d Epigram: 66 where, out of motly,'s, he "Could save that line to dedicate to thee?" Motly, says Mr. Whalley, is the man who out of any odd mixture, or old scraps, could save, &c. whereas it means only, Who but a fool, i. e. one in a suit of motley, &c. See Fig. XII. in the plate at the end of The First Part of King Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's explanation. The observation-Motley's the only wear, might have been suggested to Shakspeare by the following line in the 4th Satire of Donne: "Your only wearing is your grogaram." STEEVENS. 8 - dry as the remainder biscuit,] So, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour : "And now and then breaks a dry biscuit jest, |