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, 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 labor by his own approach. Duke S. Why, how now, monsieur! What a life is this, That your poor friends must woo your company? Jaq. A fool, a fool!-I met a fool i' the forest, 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. Says, very wisely, It is ten o'clock. Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags: 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! 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 If they will patiently receive my medicine. wouldst do. can tell what thou 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 the embossed sores, and headed evils, That says, his bravery is not on my cost, There then; how then, what then? wherein Let me see 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. c. 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. Why, then, my taxing like a wild goose flies, 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 served. Jaq. Of what kind should this cock come of? Duke S. Art thou thus boldened, man, by thy distress; Or else a rude despiser of good manners, That in civility thou seem'st so empty? Orl. You touched my vein at first. The thorny point Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show Of smooth civility; yet I am inland bred,1 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. I thought, that all things had been savage here; And therefore put I on the countenance Of stern commandment. But, whate'er you are, Under the shade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; If ever you have looked on better days; If ever been where bells have knolled to church; If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear, 1 Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is opposite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say that he had not been bred among clowns. VOL. II. 37 |