Enter Jaques. 1 Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach. Duke Sen. Why, how now, monsieur!" what a life is this, 5 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 varlet! As I do live by food, I met a fool; 10 Who laid him down, and bask’d him in the sun, And rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms, 1201 In good set terms,-and yet a motley fool. [he, Good-morrow, fool," quoth I: "No, sir," quoth "Call me not fool,till heaven hath sent me fortune:" 15 And then he drew a dial from his poke; And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Says, very wisely, "It is ten a-clock: "Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world “"Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine; [wags: 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 wortby fool! Motley's the only wear. Duke Sen. What fool is this? Juq. O worthy fool!-One that hath been a 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 Jaq. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into 25 a circle. I'll go sleep if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the first-born of Egypt. Ami. And I'll go seek the duke; his banquet is prepar'd. [Exeunt severally. SCENE VI. 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 grave. Farewell, kind master. 30 Orla. Why, how now, Adam! no greater heart 35 Another part of the Forest. I [courtier; In mangled forms:-O, that I were a fool! Provided, that you weed your better judgments. He, that a fool doth very wisely hit, 1 Lord. My lord, he is but even now gone Here was he nierry, hearing of a song. [hence; Duke Sen. 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. That is, bring him to me; alluding to the come hither. A proverbial expression for a parti-coloured fool, alluding to his coat. [do. * i. e. For For thou thyself hast been a libertine, And therefore sit you down in gentleness, Orla. Then but forbear your food a little while, 15 And all the embossed sores, and headed evils, Duke Sen. Go find him out, And we will nothing waste till your return. comfort! [Exit. [happy: Duke Sen. Thou seest, we are not all alone un- Jaq. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: Be answered with reason, I must die. More than your force move us to gentleness. Even in the cannon's mouth: And then, the jus- [you ; 45 50 Orla. I thank you most for him. I scarce can speak to thank you for myself. [you If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church; As man's ingratitude; • Nurture means education. 2 i. e. at your own command. according to Mr. Stevens. i. e. trite, common instances, Heigh Duke Sen. If that you were the good sir Row- As you have whispered faithfully, you were; ACT SCENE I. The Palace. Enter Duke, Lords, and Oliver. Duke. NOT III. Cor. And how like you this shepherd's life, OT see him since? Sir, sir, that 25 master Touchstone? But were I not the better part made mercy, Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine, Oli. Oh, that your highness knew my heart in in witness of my Cio. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I ike it very well; but in respect that it is private, 30 it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my sto35 mach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd? Cor. No more, but that I know, the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends:-That the property of rain is to wet, 40 and fire to burn-That good pasture makes fat sheep: and that a great cause of the night, is the lack of the sun: That he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred. 45 50 And thou, thrice-crowned queen of night, sur And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; Clo. Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd? Cor. No, truly. Clo. Then thou art damn'd. Cor. Nay, I hope,— Clo. Truly, thou art damn'd; like an ill-roastled egg, all on one side. Cor. For not being at court? Your reason. Clo. Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never saw'st good manners: if thon never saw'st good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation: Thou art in a parlous' state, shepherd. Cor. Not a whit, Touchstone: those, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the 1 i, e. turn or change them from their natural state. 2 To make an extent of lands, is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ (extendi facias) whereby the sheriff is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the person entitled under a recognizance, &c. i. e. expeditiously. Inexpressible. Perilous. 5 country, country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me, you salute not at the court, but you kiss your hands; that courtesy would be uncleanly, if courtiers were shepherds. Clo. Instance, briefly; come, instance. Cor. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells you know are greasy. 5 Clo. Why, do not your courtiers' hands sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as wholesome as 10 the sweat of a man? Shallow, shallow: A better instance, I say; come. Cor. Besides, our hands are hard. Clo. Your lips will feel them the sooner. Shallow again: A more sounder instance, come. Cor. And they are often tarr'd over with the surgery of our sheep; And would you have us kiss tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed with ci vet. 15 Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer; I earn that 130 eat, get that I wear; owe no man hate; envy no man's happiness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm: and the greatest of my pride is, to see my ewes graze, and my lambs suck. Clo. That is another simple sin in you; to bring 35 the ewes and rams together, and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle: to be bawd to a bell-wether; and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated, old, cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match. If thou 40 be'st not damn'd for this, the devil himself will have no shepherds; I cannot see else how thou should'st 'scape. Cor. Here comes young Mr. Ganimed, my pew mistress's brother. dinners, and suppers, and sleeping hours excepted; Clo. For a taste: "If a hart do lack a hind, 66 They that reap, must sheaf and bind "He that sweetest rose will find, "Must find love's prick, and Rosalind." This is the very false gallop of verses; Why da you infect yourself with them? Ros. Peace, you dull fool; I found them on a tree. Clo. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit. Ros. I'll graft it with you, and then I shall graft it with a medlar: then it will be the earliest fruit the country; for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right virtue of the medlar. Clo. You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge. Enter Celia, with a writing. 3 Ros. Peace! Here comes my sister, reading; stand aside. Cel. " Why should this desert silent be? "For it is unpeopled? No; "Tongues I'll hang on every tree, "That shall civil sayings show. "Some, how brief the life of man "Runs his erring pilgrimage; "That the stretching of a span "Buckles in his sum of age. "Some, of violated vows ""Twixt the souls of friend and friend: "But upon the fairest boughs, "Or at every sentence' end, "Will I Rosalinda write; 45 Enter Rosalind with a paper. Ros." From the east to western Ind, "No jewel is like Rosalind. "Her worth, being mounted on the wind, "Through all the world bears Rosalind. 50 "Teaching all that read, to know "This quintessence of every sprite "Heaven would in little show. "Therefore heaven nature charg'd "That one body should be fill'd "With all graces wide enlarg'd: "Nature presently distill'd "Helen's cheek, but not her heart; "Cleopatra's majesty: "Atalanta's better part*; "Sad Lucretia's modesty. 4 ' Dr. Warburton says, To make incision was a proverbial expression then in vogue for, to make to understand; while Mr. Steevens thinks, that it alludes to the common expression, of cutting such a one for the simples. 2 Fair means beauty, complexion. 3 Civil is here used in the same sense as when we say civil life, in opposition to the state of nature. The commentators are much divided in their opinions on our author's meaning in this line. Dr. Johnson is of opinion, that Shakspeare seems here to have mistaken some other character for that of Atalanta. Mr. Tollet thinks, the poet may perhaps mean her beauty, and graceful elegance of shape, which he would prefer to her swiftness; or that it may allude probably to her being a maiden; while Mr. Farmer supposes Atalanta's better part is her wit, i. e. the swiftness of her mind. i. e. grave or suber. "Thus "And I to live and die her slave." Ros. O most gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cry'd, "Have patience, good 10 people!" Cel. How now! back-friends?-Shepherd, go off a little:-Go with him, sirrah. Clo. Come,shepherd, led us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet 15 with scrip and scrippage. [Exeunt Corin and Clo. Cel. Didst thou hear these verses? Ros. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of them had in them more feet than the verses would bear. Cel. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verses. Ros. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verse, and therefore stood lamely in the verse. Cel. But didst thou hear, without wondering how thy name should be hang'd and carv'd upon these trees? Cel. So you may put a man in your belly. Ros. Is he of God's making? What manner of man? Is his head worth a hat, or his chin worth a beard? Cel. Nay, he hath but a little beard. Ros. Why, God will send more, if the man will be thankful: let me stay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the knowledge of his chin. Cel. It is young Orlando, that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels, and your heart, both in an instant. Ros. Nay, but the devil take mocking; speak sad brow, and true maid. Cel. I'faith, coz, 'tis he. Cel. Orlando. Ros. Alas the day what shall I do with my doublet and hose?-What did he, when thou saw'st him? What said he? How look'd he? Wherein went he? What makes he here? Did he ask for 20me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? And when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word. 25 Cel. You must borrow me Garagantua's' mouth first: 'tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size: To say, ay, and no, to these particulars, is more than to answer in a catechism." Ros. But doth he know that I am in this forest, in man's apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled? Ros. I was seven of the nine days out of wonder, before you came; for look here what I found on 30 a palm-tree: I was never so be-rhimed since Pythe thagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat', which I can hardly remember. Cel. Trow you, who hath done this? Ros. Is it a man? Cel. It is as easy to count atomies, as to resolve propositions of a lover:--but take a taste of my finding him, and relish it with good observance. I found him under a tree, like a dropp'd acorn. Ros. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it 35 drops forth such fruit. Cel. O lord, lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet; but mountains may be remov'd with 40 earthquakes, and so encounter. Ros. Nay, but who is it? Cel. Is it possible? Ros. Nay, I pr'ythee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is. Cel. O wonderful,wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful, and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all whooping! 45 Ros. Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am caparison'd like a man, I have a dou-50 blet and hose in my disposition? One inch of delay more is a South-sea off discovery. I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it? quickly, and speak apace: would thou couldst stammer, that thou might'st pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine 55 comes out of a narrow-mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at all. I pr'ythee take the cork out of thy mouth,that I may drink thy tidings. I I Cel. Give me audience, good madam, Ros. Proceed. Cl. There lay he, stretch'd along, like a wound- ' ed knight. Ros. Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well becomes the ground. Cel. Cry, holloa! to thy tongue, I pr'ythee; it curvets unseasonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter. Ros. Oh ominous! he comes to kill my heart. Cel. I would sing my soug without a burden: thou bring'st me out of tune. Ros. Do you not know I am a woman? when think, I must speak. Sweet, say on. Enter Orlando and Jaques. Cel. You bring me out:-Soft! comes he not here? Ros. 'Tis he; Slink by, and note him. [Čelia and Rosalind retire. Jaq. I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone. Orla. And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, thank you too for your society. [we can. Jaq. God be with you; let's meet as little as 1i. e. features. 2 Rosalind here alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that souls transmigrate from one animal to another, and says, that in his time she was an Irish rat, and by some metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes is mentioned by Donne in his Satires. 3 Warburton conjectures the meaning to be, hold good my complexion, i. e. let me "That is, a discovery as far off as the South-sea. Garagantua is the giant of Rabelais, and said to have swallowed five pilgrims, their staves and all, in a sallad. not blush. Orla. |