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SCENE VI.

Enter Orlando and Adam.

Adam. Dear mafter, I can go no further. O, I die for food! here lie I down, and measure out my grave, --Farewel, kind mafter.

:

Orla. Why, how now, Adam! no greater heart in thee? live a little; comfort a little; cheer thyfelf a little. If this uncouth Foreft yield any thing favage, 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 prefently, and if I bring thee not fomething to eat, I'll give thee leave to die; but if thou dieft before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour.-Well faid-thou look'ft cheerly; and I'll be with you quickly. Yet thou lieft in the bleak air; come, I will bear thee to some fhelter, and thou fhalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this Defert. Cheerly, good Adam.

SCENE VII.

Another part of the FOREST.

Enter Duke Sen. and Lords.

[Exeunt.

[A Table Set out.

Duke Sen. I think, he is 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 Sen. If he, compact of jars, grow mufical,
We shall have fhortly difcord in the fpheres.
Go, feek him. Tell him, I would fpeak with him.

Enter Jaques.

1 Lord. He faves my labour by his own approach.

Duke

Duke Sen. Why, how now, Monfieur, what a life
is this,

That your poor friends muft woo your company?
What! you look merrily..
Jaq. A fool, a fool;

——

-I met a fool i'th' foreft,

A motley fool-a miferable world-
As I do live by food, I met a fool,

2

Who laid him down and bafk'd him in the fun,
And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms,

In good fet terms - and yet a motley fool.
Good morrow, fool, quoth I-No, Sir, quoth he,
Call me not fool, 'till heaven hath fent me fortune;
And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And looking on it with lack-luftre eye,
Says, very wifely, it is ten a-clock:

Thus may we fee, quoth he, how the world wags;
'Tis but an hour ago fince it was nine,
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;
And fo 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 fo deep contemplative :
And I did laugh, fans intermiffion,
An hour by his dial. O noble fool,

A motley fool; a miferable WORLD!] What! because he met a motley fool, was it therefore a miferable world? This is fadly blundered; we fhould read,

a miferable VARLET.

His head is altogether running on this fool, both before and after these words, and here he calls him a miferable varlet, notwithftanding he railed on lady fortune in good terms, &c. Nor is the

change we make fo great as appears at first fight.

WARBURTON.

I fee no need of changing world to varlet, nor, if a change were neceffary, can I guess how it fhould be certainly known that varlet is the true word. A miferable world is a parenthetical exclamation, frequent among melancholy men, and natural to Jaques at the fight of a fool, or at the hearing of reflections on the fragility of life.

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 fays, 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 bisket
After a voyage, he hath ftrange places cramm'd
With obfervation, 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.
Jac. It is my only 'fuit ';

Provided, that you weed your better judgments
Of all opinion, that grows rank in them,
That I am wife. I must have liberty
Withal; as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I pleafe; for fo fools have;
And they that are moft gauled with my folly,
They most muft laugh: and why, Sir, must they fo?
The why is plain, as way to parish church;
He 4, whom a fool doth very wifely hit,
Doth very foolishly, although he fmart;
Not to feem fenfelefs of the bob. If not *,
The wife man's folly is anatomiz'd
Even by the fquandring glances of a fool.

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Invest me in my motley, give me leave
To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanfe the foul body of th' infected world,

If they will patiently receive my medicine.

Duke Sen. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do.

Jaq. What, for a counter, would I do but good? Duke Sen. Moft mifchievous foul fin, in chiding

fin:

For thou thyself haft been a libertine,
As fenfual as the brutish fting itfelf";
And all the emboffed fores and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot haft caught,
Wouldst thou difgorge 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 fay the city-woman bears
The cost of Princes on unworthy shoulders?
Who can come in, and fay, that I mean her;
When fuch a one as fhe, fuch is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function,"

That fays, his bravery is not on my coft;
Thinking, that I mean him; but therein futes
His folly to the metal of my fpeech?

There then; how then? what then? let me fee wherein

My tongue hath wrong'd him; if it do him right,
Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free,
Why, then my taxing, like a wild goofe, flies
Unclaim'd of any man-But who comes here?

As fenfual as the brutish fling.] though the brutish fting is capable of a fenfe not inconvenient

in this paffage, yet as it is a harfh and unufual mode of fpeech, i thould read the brutish fly.

SCENE

S BENE VIII.

Enter Orlando, with Sword drawn.

Orla. Forbear, and eat no more.

Jaq. Why, I have eat none yet.

Orla. Nor fhalt thou, 'till neceffity be ferv'd.
Jaq. What kind fhould this Cock, come of?
Duke Sen. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy
diftrefs;

Or elfe a rude defpifer of good manners,

That in civility thou feem'ft fo empty ?

Orla. You touch'd my vein at firft. The thorny

point

6

Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the fhew

Of fmooth civility; yet am I inland bred,
And know fome nurture. But forbear, I fay:
He dies, that touches any of this fruit,
'Till I and my affairs are anfwered.

Jaq. If you will not

Be answered with reafon, I muft die.

Duke Sen. What would you have? Your gentleness fhall force,

More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orla. I almost die for food, and let me have it. Duke Sen. Sit down and feed; and welcome to our table.

Orla. Speak you fo gently?-Pardon me, I pray

you;

I thought, that all things had been favage here;
And therefore put I on the countenance

Of ftern commandment. But whate'er you are,

The thorny point

Of fharp diftress has taken from me the fhew Of Smooth civility.] We might

read torn with more elegance, but elegance alone will not juftify alteration,

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