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!5—

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:6
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:

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:

a miserable varlet.

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.

6 Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune:] Fortuna favat 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 "We wish away."

Again, in Every Man out of his Humour, Act I, sc. iii:

"Sog. Why, who am I, sir?

"Mac. One of those that fortune favours.

"Car. The periphrasis of a foole." Reed.

'Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine;
And after one 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.

8

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,9

7

Motley's the only wear.] It would have been unnecessary to repeat that a motley, or parti-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:

where (out of motley)'s he

"Could save that line to dedicate to thee?"

Motley, 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.

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 · only suit;] Suit means petition, I believe, not dress.

Johnson.

The poet meant a quibble. So, Act V: "Not out of your apparel, but out of your suit." Steevens.

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:1 if not, But
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd

Even by the squandring glances of the fool.2
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.

4

Duke S. Fy 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;

9 — as large a charter as the wind,] So, in King Henry V: "The wind, that charter'd libertine, is still." Malone.

1 Not to seem senseless of the bob:] The old copies read onlySeem senseless, &c. Not to were supplied by Mr. Theobald. See the following note. Steevens.

Besides that the third verse is defective one whole foot in measure, the tenour of what Jaques continues to say, and the reasoning of the passage, show it no less defective in the sense. There is no doubt, but the two little monosyllables, which I have supplied, were either by accident wanting in the manuscript, or by inadvertence were left out. Theobald.

2

if not, &c.] 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 squandring glances or random shots of a fool. Johnson.

3 Cleanse the foul body of the infected world,] So, in Macbeth: "Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of the perilous stuff." Douce.

4

for a counter,] Dr. Farmer observes to me, that about the time when this play was written, the French counters (i. e. pieces of false money used as a means of reckoning) were brought into use in England. They are again mentioned in Troilus and

Cressida:

will you with counters sum

"The past-proportion of his infinite?" Steevens.

5 As sensual as the brutish sting-] Though the brutish sting is

And all the embossed sores, and headed evils,
That thou with license 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?" means
What woman in the city do I name,
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,

7

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?

of wear

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?

capable of a sense not inconvenient in this passage, yet as it is a harsh and unusual mode of speech, I should read the brutish fly. Johnson. I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I, c. viii:

A heard of bulls whom kindly rage doth sting."

Again, B. II, c. xii:

"As if that hunger's point, or Venus' sting,
"Had them enrag'd."

Again, in Othello:

66

our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts."

Steevens.

6 Till that the very very-] The old copy reads-weary very. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone.

7

his bravery —] i. e. his fine clothes. So, in The Taming of the Shrew:

"With scarfs and fans, and double change of bravery."

Steevens.

8 There then; How, what then? &c.] The old copy reads, very redundantly

There then; How then? What then? &c.] Steevens.

I believe we should read-Where then? So, in Othello: "What then? How then? Where's satisfaction?" Malone.

Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn.

Orl. Forbear, and eat no more.

Jaq.

Why, I have eat none yet.

Orl. 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?

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

9

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.

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

Duke S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.
Orl. 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 desert inaccessible,3

9

the thorny point

Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show

Of smooth civility:] We might read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not justify alteration. Johnson.

1—

inland bred,] 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. H. White.

2 And know some nurture:] Nurture is education, breeding, manners. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616:

"He shew'd himself as full of nurture as of nature." Again, as Mr. Holt White observes to me, Barret says, in his Alvearie, 1580: "It is a point of nurture, or good manners, to salute them that you meete. Urbanitatis est salutare obvios."

Steevens.

St. Paul advises the Ephesians, in his Epistle, ch. vi, 4, to bring their children up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Harris.