Ami. And I'll sing it. Jaq. Thus it goes: If it do come to pass, 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. SCENE VII. The Sames. [Exeunt. 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. 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. "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, Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags: And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; 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 In mangled forms.-O, that I were a fool! Duke S. Thou shalt have one. They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so? Even by the squandering glances of the fool. To speak my mind, and I will through and through If they will patiently receive my medicine. Duke S. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do. And all th' embossed sores, and headed evils, That can therein tax any private party? 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? 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, 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, 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. |