SCENE changes to a desart Part of the

Foreft.

Faq. More, more, I pr’ythce, more.
Ami. Įt will make you melancholy, Monsieur

Jaques. Jaq. I thank it; more, I pr’ythực, more; I can fuck melancholy out of a Song, as a weazel sucks eggs; more, I prythee, more.

Ami. My voice is rugged; I know, I cannot please you.

Jaq. I do not desire you to please me, I do desire you to sing; come, come, another stanzo; call you 'em stanzo's?

Ami. What you will, Monsieur Jaques,

Faq. Nay, I care not for their names, they owe me nothing. Will you sing ? Ami. More at your request, than to please my

felf. Jaq. Well then, if ever I thank any man, I'll thank you; but That, they call Compliments, 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, ling; and you that will not, hold your tongues

Ami. Well, I'll end the song. Sirs, cover the while ; the Duke will dine 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 heav'n thanks, and maké no boast of them. Come, warble, come.

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather, Faq. I'll give you a verse to this note, that I made yesterday in despight of my invention.

Ami. And I'll ling it.
Faq. Thus it goes.

If it do come to pass,
That any man turn ass;
Leaving bis wealth and ease

A ftubborn will to please,
Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame;

Here fall be fee

Grofs fools as be,

And if be will come to me, Ami. What's that ducdame?

Faq. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call' fools into a circle. I'll go fleep if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail 2gainft all the first-born of Egypt.

Ami. And I'll go seek the Duke: his banquet is prepar'd,

[Exeunt, severally.

Enter Orlando and Adam.

Adam. Dear master, I can go no further ; O, I die for food! here lye I down, and measure out my grave. Farewel, kind master.

Orla. Why, how ' now, Adam! no greater heart in thee? live a little ; comfort a little; cheer thy self 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 fake be comfortable, hold death a while at the arm's end : I will be here 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 Desart. Cheerly, good

[Exeunt.

Adam. 1

Enter. Duke Sen. and Lords. [Atable set out. Duke Sen. I think, he is 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 Sen. 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. i Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach. Duke Sen. 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' th' forest, A motley fool; a miserable world!

As

As I do live by food, I met a fool,
Who laid him down and bask'd him in the fun,
And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms,
In good ser 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 poak,
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, it is ten a 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 'cwill 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 fhould 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 Sen. What fool is this?

Faq. O worthy fool! one that hath been a Courtier,
And says, if ladies be bur young and fair,
They have the gift to know it: and in his brain,
Which is as dry as the remainder bisket
After a voyage, he hath strange places cram'd
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. O that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Duke Sen. 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 moit gauled with my folly,
They most must laugh: and why, Sir, mult they so?
The why is plain, as way to parish church ;

(12) He

2

(12) He, whom a fool doth very wisely hit,
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to feem senseless of the bob. If not,
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd
Even by the squandring glances of a 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 mcdicine.
Duke Sen. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldīt

do.
Jaq. What, for a counter, would I do but good ?

Duke Sen. Moft mischievous foul fin, in chiding fin:
For thou thy self haft been a libertine,
As sensual as the brutish fting it felf,
And all th' embossed sores and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot haft 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 very very means do ebb?
What woman in the city do I name,
When that I say, the city-woman bears
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 baseft function,
That says, his bravery is not on my coft ;
Thinking, that I mean him; but therein futes
His folly to the metal of my speech?
There then; how then? what then? let me fee wherein

(12) He, whom a Fool doth very wisely bit,

Doth very foolishl, although he smart,

Seem fenfeless of the bob. If not, c. Besides that the third Verse is defective one whole Foot in Measure, the Tenour of what Jaques continues to say, and the Reasoning of the Passage, shew it is no lefs de fective in the Sense. There is no Doubt, but the two little Monofyllables, which I have fupply'd, were either by Accident wanting in the Manufcript Copy, or by Inadvertence were left out at Presi.

My