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 presently; 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 'it cheerly. And I'll be with thee quickly; yet thou lieft in the bleak air. Come, I will bear thee to fome shelter, and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this defart. Cheerly, good Adam. [Exeunt.

SCENE

Enter Duke fen. and Lords.

VII.

[A table fet out.

Duke fen. 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 fong.

Duke fen. If he, compact of jars, grow mufical,
We fhall have shortly difcord in the spheres:
Go, feek him; tell him, I would speak with him.
Enter Jaques.

I Lord. He faves my labour by his own approach.
Duke fen. 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' foreft, A motley fool; a miferable varlet !

As I do live by food, I met a fool,

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

vi

In good fet terms, and yet a motley fool.

⚫ 'Good morrow, fool, quoth I: No, Sir, quoth he, Call n Ime not fool, till Heaven hath fent me fortune;

• And then he drew a dial from his poak, And looking on it with lack-lustre eye, Says, very wifely, It is ten o'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 fen. 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 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 fen. 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; "He whom a fool doth very wifely hit, "Doth very foolishly, although he smart, "Not to feem fenfelefs of the bob. If not,

"The wife man's folly is anatomiz'd

"Ev'n by the fquand'ring glances of a fool.

Inveft me in my motley, give me leave

To fpeak my mind, and I will through and through Cleanfe the foul body of th' infected world,

If they will patiently receive my medicine.

Duke fen. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldf

do.

Jaq. What, for a counter, would I do but good? Duke fen. Moft mifchievous foul fin, in chiding fin: For thou thyself haft been a libertine,

As fenfual as the brutish fting itself;

And all th' emboffed fores and headed evils,
That thou with licence of free foot haft caught,
Wouldst thou difgorge into the general world.
Faq. "Why, who cries out on pride,
"That can therein tax any private party?
"Doth it not flow as hugely as the fea,
""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 coft of princes on unworthy fhoulders?
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 bafeft function,

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

"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?

SCENE VIII. Enter Orlando,with his fword drawn..

Orla. Forbear, and eat no more.-
Jaq. Why, I have eat none yet.

Orla. Nor fhalt thou, till neceffity be ferv'd.
Jaq. Of what kind should this cock come of?

Duke fen. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress?

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 Of bare diftrefs hath ta'en from me the fhew Of smooth civility; yet am I in-land bred, And know some 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 anfwered with reafon, I must die.

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

More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orla. I almoft die for food, and let me have it. Duke fen. 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,
"That in this defart inacceffible,

← Under the fhade of melancholy boughs,
Lofe and neglect the creeping hours of time;
If ever you have look'd on better days;

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church;
If ever fat at any good man's feast;

If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear,
And know what 'tis to pity, and be pity'd;'
Let gentleness my ftrong inforcement be,

In the which hope I blush, and hide my fword.
Duke fen. True is it that we have seen bette
days;

And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church;
And fat at good mens' feafts, and wip'd our eyes:
Of drops that facred pity had engender'd:
And therefore fit you down in gentleness,
And take upon command what help we have,
That to your wanting may be miniftred.

Orla. Then but forbear your food a little while
Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,,
And give it food.. There is an old poor man,,
Who after me hath many a weary ftep
Limp'd in pure love; till he be firft fuffic'd,.
Opprefs'd with two weak evils, age and hunger
I will not touch a bit..

Duke fen. Go find him out;.

And we will nothing wafte till you return.

Orla. I thank ye; and be blefs'd for your good com

fort!

SCENE

IX.

[Exit.

Duke fen. Thou feeft, we are not all alone unhappy ≈

This wide and universal theatre

Prefents more woful pageants, than the scene
Wherein we play in.

Jaq. All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their Exits and their entrances,
• And one man in his time plays many parts:
His acts being seven ages.
At firft the infant,.
Mewling and puking in the nurfe's arms.

་

And then the whining school-boy, with his fatchel,
And shining morning-face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful balad

< Made to his miftrefs' eye-brow. Then a foldier,
Full of ftrange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, fudden and quick in quarrel;
Seeking the bubble reputation

. Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the juftice,

In fair round belly, with good capon lin❜d,

. With eyes fevere, and beard of formal cut,

.

་

Full of wife faws and modern inftances,

And fo he plays his part. The fixth
Into the lean and flipper'd pantaloon,

age fhifts

. With fpectacles on nofe, and pouch on fide;
His youthful hofe well fav'd, a world too wide
For his fhrunk fhank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes,
And whiftles in his found. Laft fcene of all,
That ends this ftrange eventful hiftory,

<

.

Is fecond childifhnefs, and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, fans eyes, fans tafte, fans every thing. SCENE X. Enter Orlando, with Adam.

Duke fen. Welcome: fet down your venerable burAnd let him feed.

you

Orla. I thank moft for him,
Adam. So had you need,

[den,