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Clo. And mine; but it grows fomething ftale with me. Cel. I pray you, one of you question yond man,

If he for gold will give us any food;

I faint almoft to death.

Clo. Holla; you, Clown!

Rof. Peace, fool; he's not thy kinsman.
Cor. Who calls?

Clo. Your Betters, Sir.

Cor. Elfe they are very wretched.

Rof. Peace, I fay; good even to you, friend.
Cor. And to you, gentle Sir, and to you all.
Rof. I pr'ythee, thepherd, if that love or gold
Can in this defert place buy entertainment,
Bring us where we may reft ourselves, and feed;
Here's a young maid with travel much opprefs'd,
And faints for fuccour.

Cor. Fair Sir, I pity her,

And wish for her fake, more than for mine own,
My fortunes were more able to relieve her:
But I am a Shepherd to another man,
And do not sheer the fleeces that I graze;
My mafter is of churlish difpofition,

And little wreaks to find the way to heav'n

By doing deeds of hofpitality:

Befides, his Coate, his flocks, and bounds of feed
Are now on fale, and at our fheep-coate now,
By reafon of his abfence, there is nothing
That you will feed on; but what is, come fee:
And in my voice moft welcome shall you be.

Rof. What is he, that fhall buy his flock and pasture? Cor. That young swain, that you saw here but ere while, That little cares for burying any thing.

Rof. I pray thee, if it ftand with honesty,
Buy thou the cottage, pasture and the flock,
And thou fhalt have to pay for it of us.
Cel. And we will mend thy wages.

I like this place, and willingly could wafte
My time in it.

Cor. Affuredly the thing is to be fold;
VOL. II.

N

Ga

Go with me; if you like, upon report,
The foil, the profit, and this kind of life,
I will your very faithful feeder be;

And buy it with your gold right fuddenly.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a defert Part of the FOREST.

Enter Amiens, Jaques, and others.

[blocks in formation]

Faq. More, more, I pr'ythee, more.

Ami. It will make you melancholy, Monfieur Jaques Faq. I thank it; more, I pr'ythee, more; I can fuck melancholy out of a Song, as a weazel fucks eggs: more, I pr'ythee, more.

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

Jaq. I do not defire you to please me, I do defire you to fing; come, come, another stanzo; call you 'em

ftanzo's?

Ami. What you will, Monfieur Jaques.

Jaq. Nay, I care not for their names, they owe me nothing Will you fing?

Ami. More at your request, than to please myself.

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, fing; and you that will not, hold your tongues..

Ami. Well, I'll end the fong, 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 difputable for my company: I think of as many matters as he, but I give heav'n thanks, and make no boast of them. Come, warble, come.

SONG.

Who doth ambition foun,
And loves to lie i'th' Sun,
Seeking the food be eats,

And pleas'd with what he gets;

Come hither, come hither, come hither;

Here fhall be fee

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

Faq. I'll give you a verfe to this note, that I made yesterday in defpight of my invention.

Ami. And I'll fing it.

Jaq. Thus it goes.

If it do come to pass,
That any man turn afs;
Leaving his wealth and eafe
A ftubborn will to please,
Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame;
Here fhall be fee

Grofs fools as be,

An' if he will come to me.

Ami. What's that ducdame?

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

Ami. And I'll go feek the Duke: his banquet is pre[Exeuni, Jeverally.

par'd.

Enter Orlando and Adam.

Adam. Dear master, I can go no further; O, I die

N 2

for

for food! here lie 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 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 thee quickly; yet thou lieft in the bleak air. Come, I will bear thee to fome fhelter, and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this defert. Cheerly, good Adam.

Enter Duke Sen. and Lords.

[Exeunt.

[A Table fet out.

Duke Sen. I think, he is transform'd into a beaft, 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 fong.

Duke Sen. If he, compact of jars, grow mufical,
We shall have fhortly difcord in the fpheres:
Go, feek him; tell him, I would speak with him.

Enter Jaques.

1. Lord. He faves my labour by his own approach. Duke Sen. Why, how now, Monfieur, 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 miferable world!

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 fet terms, and yet a motley fool.
Good-morrow, fool, quoth I: No, Sif, quoth he,

Call

Call me not fool, 'till heaven hath fent me fortune;
And then he drew a dial from his poak,
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 intermiflion,
An hour by his dial. O noble fool,
A worthy fool! motley's the only wear.
Duke Sen. What fool is this?

Jaq. 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 cram'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.

Jaq. 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 most galled with my folly,

They moft muft laugh: and why, Sir, muft they fo
The why is plain, as way to parish church;
(6) He, whom a fool doth very wifely hit,

Doth

(6) He whom a Fool doth very wifely bit, Deth very foolishly, although he smart, N 3

Seem

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