Ami. And I'll sing it.

Jaq. Thus it goes:

If it do come to pass,
That any man turn ass
Leaving his wealth and ease,
A stubborn will to please,
Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame":

Here shall he see, 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.

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

7 Ducdame,] Sir Thomas Hanmer altered "Ducdame " to Duc ad me, which is probably right; but duc ad me being harsh, when sung to the same notes as its translation "Come hither," it was corrupted to duc-da-me, a trisyllable which ran more easily. Farmer observes, that "if duc ad me were right, Amiens would not have asked its meaning." Why not? if Amiens be supposed not to understand Latin. When Jaques declares it to be "a Greek invocation," he seems to intend to jeer Amiens upon his ignorance.

end. I will here be with thee presently, and if I bring thee not something to eat, I will 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.

A Table set out.

SCENE VII.

The Same3.

[Exeunt.

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.

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,

8 Well SAID!] In authors of the time, "Well said" was often used for "Well done."

The Same.] i. e. The same part of the forest, where Amiens had sung to Jaques, and where Amiens had said, "the duke will drink under this tree."

And rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms,

In good set terms,—and yet a motley fool.

66

Good-morrow, fool," quoth I: "No, sir," quoth he, "Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune."

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:
"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 cour

tier,

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

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.

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,
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 bob1; if not,
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd,

Even by the squandering glances of the fool.
Invest me in my motley: give me leave

To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th' 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 itself;

And all th' embossed sores, and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot hast caught,
Would'st 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 weary very means do ebb*?
What woman in the city do I name,
When that I say, the city-woman bears

1 NOT TO seem senseless of the bob:] The old copies read, seem senseless of the bob ;" which appears wrong, not merely as regards the meaning, but the measure: both are completed by the insertion of "Not to," supplied by Theobald; though they may not be the very words accidentally omitted by the compositor, or which had dropped out in the press.

2 Till that the WEARY very means do ebb?] The old copies give this line literatim as follows:

"Till that the wearie verie meanes do ebbe ?"

which Pope altered thus, Malone and other modern editors following him :-"Till that the very very means do ebb?"

A clear sense can be made out of the passage as it stands in the old text, and we therefore reprint it; but the compositor may have misread wearie for "wearing," and transposed very; and if we consider Jaques to be railing against pride and excess of apparel, the meaning may be, that "the very wearing means," or means of wearing fine clothes, "do ebb." To read "very, very," with Pope and others, is poor, and unlike Shakespeare.

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,

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?

There then; how then? 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?

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 dis

tress,

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

Of smooth civility; yet am I inland bred3,
And know some nurture. 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.

3

yet am I INLAND bred,] The word occurs again in Act. iii. sc. 2, "who was in his youth an inland man." "Inland" was generally used in our old writers in opposition to upland, which meant rustic and unpolished.