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 weasel 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 disputable 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, [All together here. Seeking the food he eats, And pleased with what he gets, Come hither, come hither, come hither; Here shall he see No enemy, But winter and rough weather. 1 Ragged and rugged had formerly the same meaning. Jaq. I'll give you a verse to this note, that I made yesterday in despite of my invention. Ami. And I'll sing it. Jaq. Thus it goes: If it do come to pass, Gross fools as he, An if he will come to me. 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 prepared. [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. 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 1 Sir Thomas Hanmer reads duc ad me, i. e. bring him to me, which reading Johnson highly approves. 2 The first-born of Egypt," a proverbial expression for high-born persons; it is derived from Exodus xii. 29. 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 labor. 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. Cheerily, good Adam! [Exeunt. SCENE VII. The same. A Table set out. Enter Duke senior, AMIENS, Lords, and others. Duke S. I think he be transformed 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, Enter JAQUES. 1 Lord. He saves my labor 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 basked him in the sun, In good set terms, and yet a motley fool. And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, 1 i. e. made up of discords. In the Comedy of Errors we have "compact of credit," for made up of credulity. wags: Says, very wisely, It is ten o'clock. An hour by his dial.-O noble fool! A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.1 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- After a voyage-he hath strange places crammed In mangled forms.-O that I were a fool! I am ambitious for a motley coat. Duke S. Thou shalt have one. Jaq. To blow on whom I please; for so fools have: They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so? He that a fool doth very wisely hit, 1 The fool was anciently dressed in a party-colored coat. 2 "My only suit," a quibble between petition and dress is here intended. 3 The old copies read only, seem senseless, &c. not to were supplied by Theobald. E'en by the squandering glances of the fool. 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 2 itself; And all the embossed sores, and headed evils, That says, his bravery is not on my cost, 4 There then; how then, what then? Let me see wherein My tongue hath wronged him; if it do him right, 1 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, and in the Winter's Tale. 2 So in Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. i. ĉ. xii. :— "A herd of bulls whom kindly rage doth sting." 3 The old copies read— "Till that the weary very means do ebb," &c. The emendation is by Pope. 4 Malone thinks we should read, Where then? in this redundant line. |