A Table set out.

The Same as in Scene V.

Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and others.

Duke S. I think he be transform'd into a beast; For I can nowhere 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 S. If he, compact of jars,' grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.2
Go, seek him; tell him I would speak with him.
I Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach.

Enter JAQUES.

Duke S. 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' the forest,

A motley Fool; 3

a miserable world!

As I do live by food, I met a Fool;

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

In good set 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.a

1 Composed or made up of discords. See vol. iii., page 76, note 2.

2 If things are going so contrary to their natural order, the music of the

spheres will soon be untuned. See vol. iii., page 212, note 9.

8 So called because the professional Fool wore a patch-work or particoloured dress. The old sense of motley still lives in mottled. See vol. i., page 104, note 6.

4 "It will be time enough to call me fool, when I shall have got rich." So in Ray's Collection of English Proverbs: "Fortune favours fools, or fools have the best luck." And Ben Jonson in the Prologue to The Alchemist: 'Fortune, that favours fools, these two short hours we wish away."

And then he drew a dial from his poke,5

And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, It is ten o'clock:

Thus we may see, quoth he, how the world wags:
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine;

And after one hour more 'twill 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 should 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 S. What Fool is this?

Jaq. O worthy Fool! One that hath been a courtier ; And says, if ladies be but young and fair,

They have the gift to know't: and in his brain,

Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit

After a voyage,

he hath strange places cramm'd

With observation, the which he vents

In mangled forms.—O, that I were a Fool!

5 Poke is pocket or pouch. — The Poet repeatedly uses dial for what we call a watch, as here; also sometimes for clock.

6 So Ben Jonson in the Induction to Every Man out of his Humour: "And now and then breaks a dry biscuit jest, which, that it may more easily be chew'd, he steeps in his own laughter." And Batman upon Bartholome has the following, quoted by Mr. Wright: "Good disposition of the brain and evil is known by his deeds, for if the substance of the brain be soft, thin, and clear, it receiveth lightly the feeling and printing of shapes, and likenesses of things. He that hath such a brain is swift, and good of perseverance and teaching. When it is contrary, the brain is not soft: he that hath such a brain receiveth slowly the feeling and printing of things: but nevertheless, when he hath taken and received them, he keepeth them long in mind. And that is sign and token of dryness," &c.

I am ambitious for a motley coat.
Duke S. Thou shalt have one.
Jaq.
Provided that you weed your better judgments

It is my only suit ;7

Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise. I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,8

To blow on whom I please; for so Fools have :
And they that are most gallèd 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

Doth very foolishly, although he smart,

Not to seem senseless of the bob: 9 if not,

The wise man's folly is anatomized

Even by the squandering glances 10 of the 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 medicine.

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

Jaq. What, for a counter,11 would I do but good?
Duke S. Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin:

For thou thyself hast been a libertine,

As sensual as the brutish sting itself;

7 A quibble, of course, between petition and dress.

8 "The wind bloweth where it listeth." Charter was often used for liberty; perhaps from the effect of Magna Charta in guarding English freedom.

9 Bob is blow, thrust, or hit. See vol. i., page 124, note 3.

10 Squandering glances are random or scattering thrusts or shots. See vol. iii., page 128, note 4.

11 About the time when this play was written, the French counters, pieces of false money used in reckoning, were brought into use in England.

And all th' embossèd 12 sores and headed evils,
That thou with license of free foot hast caught,
Wouldst 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 wearer's 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 basest function,13

That says his bravery 14 is not on my cost

Thinking that I mean him—but therein suits

His folly to the mettle of my speech?

Where then? how then? what then? let's see 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-goose flies,
Unclaim'd of any man. - But who comes here?

Enter ORLANDO with his sword drawn.

Orl. Forbear, and eat no more!

Jaq.

Why, I have eat none yet.

Orl. Nor shalt not, till necessity be served.

Jaq. Of what kind should this cock come of? 15

12 Embossed is protuberant, or come to a head, like boils and carbuncles. So, in King Lear, ii. 4: "Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle." The protuberant part of a shield was called the boss. See vol. ii., page 141, note 9.

18 Of lowest or meanest calling or occupation; that is, a tailor, or one whose "soul is his clothes."

14 Bravery is fine showy dress or equipage. See vol. ii., page 142, note 13.

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 me from the show

Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred,

And know some nurture. 16 But forbear, I say:

He dies that touches any of this fruit

Till I and my affairs are answered.

Jaq. An you will not be answer'd with reason, I must die. Duke S. What would you have?

force,

Your gentleness shall

More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orl. I almost die for food; so let me have it.

Duke S. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table. Orl. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you :

I thought that all things had been savage here;

And therefore put I on the countenance

Of stern commandment. But whate'er you are,
That in this desert inaccessible,

Under the shade of melancholy boughs,

Lose 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;

15 This doubling of the preposition was not uncommon in the Poet's time. He has many instances of it. Thus, a little later in this play: "The scene wherein we play in." So, too, in Coriolanus, ii. 1: “In what enormity is Marcius poor in?" And in Romeo and Juliet, Act i., Chorus: "That fair for which love groan'd for."

16 Nurture is education, culture, good-breeding. So in Prospero's description of Caliban: "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick." Inland, the commentators say, is here opposed to upland, which meant rude, unbred. I am apt to think the use of the word grew from the fact, that up to the Poet's time all the main springs of culture and civility in England were literally inland, remote from the sea.