of a dinner, if there live any thing in this desert. Cheerly, good Adam! [Exeunt. SCENE VII. A table set out. The same. 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. 5 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? 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, In good set terms,—and yet a motley fool. 5 compact of jars,] i. e. made up of discords. Call me not fool, till heaven hath sent me fortune:] Fortuna favet fatuis, is, as Mr. Upton observes, the saying here alluded to; or, as in Publius Syrus: "Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit." And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, 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, After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd In mangled forms:-O, that I were a fool! Duke S. Thou shalt have one. Jaq. It is my only suit;7 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, 7 only suit;] Suit means petition, not dress. Doth very foolishly, although he smart, Even by the squandring glances of the fool. To speak my mind, and I will through and through If they will patiently receive my medicine. Duke S. Fye on thee! I can tell what thou Jaq. What, for a counter,' would I do, but good? sin: For thou thyself hast been a libertine, And all the embossed sores, and headed evils, That says, his bravery' is not on my cost, 8 if not, &c.] Unless men have the prudence not to appear touched with the sarcasms of a jester, they subject themselves to his power; and the wise man will have his folly anatomised, that is, dissected and laid open, by the squandring glances or random shots of a fool. JOHNSON. 9 -for a counter,] 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. his bravery-] i. e. his fine clothes. (Thinking that I mean him,) but therein suits His folly to the mettle of my speech? There then; How, what then? Let me see wherein Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn. 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 distress; 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 2 Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred, 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. table. Orl. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you: I thought, that all things had been savage here; 2 inland bred,] Inland here, and elsewhere in this play, is the opposite to outland, or upland. Orlando means to say, that he had not been bred among clowns. 3 And know some nurture:] Nurture is education, breeding. And therefore put I on the countenance Under the shade of melancholy boughs, If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church; If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear, Orl. Then, but forbear your food a little while, Limp'd in pure love; till he be first suffic'd,— Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger,I will not touch a bit. Duke S. Go find him out, And we will nothing waste till you return. Orl. I thank ye; and be bless'd for your good comfort! [Exit. Duke S. Thou seest, we are not all alone un happy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene ↑ And take upon command-] At your own command. |