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. Jay. And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too dispútables 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, Arid pleas'd with what he gets, Here shall he see No enemy, But winter and rough weather. Jag. I'll give you a verse to this note, that I made yesterday in despite of my invention. Ami. And I 'll sing it. If it do come to pass, A stubborn will to filiase, Here shall he see, Gross fools as he, 8 dispútable-) For disputatious. Malone. to live i' the sun,] Modern editions, to lie. Johnson. To live ï' the sun, is to labour and “sweat in the eye of Phæbus," or, vitam agere sub dio; for by lying in the sun, how could they get the food they eat? Tollet. ducılame;] For ducdame, Sir Thomas Hanmer, very acutely and judiciously, reads duc ad me, that is, bring him to me. Fohnson. If duc ad me were right, Amiens would not have asked its meaning, and been put off with “a Greek invocation.” It is evi. dently a word coined for the nonce. We have here, as Butler says, “One for sense, and one for rhyme.” Indeed we must have 1 Ami. What's that ducdàme? Jag. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a cir. cle. 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. 2 a double rhyme; or this stanza cannot well be sung to the same tune with the former. I read thus: “ Ducdame, Ducdame, Ducdàme, “ Here shall he see “ 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 illusion 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 : “ Damè, what makes your ducks to die? “ duck, duck, duck.- “chuck, chuck, chuck.". I have placed Dr. Farmer's emendation in the text. Ducdamo is a trisvllable. Stecvens. If it do come to pass, • Audire atque togam jubeo componere, quisquis the first-born of Egypt.] A proverbial expression for highborn persons. Fohnson. The phrase is scriptural, as well as proverbial. So, in Exodus, xii, 29: « And the Lord smote all the first-born in Egypt." Steevens 2 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 grave. Farewel, 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 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 cheerly: 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 The same. A table set out. 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. i 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, 4 grow musical, Fuliet: 66 3 Here lie I down, and measure out my grave.] So, in Romeo and fall upon the ground, as I do now, “Taking the measure of an unmade grave.” Steevens. - compact of jars,] i e. made up of discords. In The Comely 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. 66 We shall have shortly discord in the spheres:- Enter JAQUES. 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, ܪ 5 A motley fool;-a miserable world!] What! because he met a motle, 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. Fohnson. 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.” Sog. Why, who am I, sir? 'Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine ; Duke S. What fool is this? Jaq. O worthy fool!-One that hath been a courtier; Duke S. Thou shalt have one. It is my only suit;8 9 7 a Motlev's the only wear. r.] It would have been unneces. sary 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 bis comment on the 53d Epigram: where (out of motiey) 's he 6 Could save that line to dedicate to thee?" Motley, i, says Mr. Whalley, is the man who out of any odd mix. ture, 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. Fohnson The poet meant a quibble. So, Act V: “Not out of your apparel, but out of your suit.” Steevens. 8 |
