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."
And then he drew a dial from his poke,

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

O noble fool!

A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.

18. quoth I] in parentheses Ff. 31. deep contemplative] with hyphen Malone. 34, 36. A worthy... O worthy] O worthy... A worthy Anon. conj. ap. Cambridge edd.

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 it: 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!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Duke S. Thou shalt have one.

Jaq.

It is my only suit;
Provided that you weed your better judgements
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

Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
Not to seem senseless of the bob: if not,

35

40

45

50

55. Not to] Theobald; omitted Ff; But to Collier MS.

fashion (Wright). Compare All's Well that Ends Well, 1. i. 172: "Just like the brooch and toothpick, which wear not now," and 2 Henry IV. 11. i. 155: "Glasses, glasses is the only drinking."

39. dry] In the physiology of Shakespeare's time a dry brain accompanied slowness of apprehension and a retentive memory (Wright). He quotes Batman uppon Bartholome, fol. 376: "When he hath taken and received them, [the feeling and printing of things] he keepeth them long in minde. And that is signe and token of drinesse, as fluxibility & forgetting is token of moisture."

39. remainder biscuit] Boswell quotes Jonson, Every Man Out of His Humour (Induction): "And now and then breaks a dry biscuit jest." Compare also Cymbeline, v. iii. 44: "fragments in hard voyages."

40. places] topics, loci communes. Wright quotes Bacon, Advancement, II. 13, 7:"And we see the ancient

55

writers of rhetoric do give it in precept, that pleaders should have the places, whereof they have most continual use, ready handled in all the variety that may be." Compare "Wise saws and modern instances," post, and Pettie, Guazzo's Civill Conversation (ed. 1586), p. 56: "I never learned the places from whence arguments are drawen" (New Eng. Dict.).

44. only suit] A play upon the meanings "dress" and "petition." For only" compare ante, II. vii. 34: "the only wear.'

48:

48. charter] Compare Henry V. 1. i. "When he speaks,

The air, a chartered libertine, is

The wise man's folly is anatomized

Even by the squand'ring glances 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, 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;

And all th' embossed sores and headed evils,
That thou with license of free foot hast caught,
Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.

56. wise man's] Rowe; with hyphen Ff. 66. sting] sty Johnson conj.

to" has been very generally adopted,
as completing the line metrically. It
thus comes to mean,
"A wise man,
'glanced at' by a fool, acts foolishly
if he seems to take the 'bob' to heart."
55. if not] that is, if "he does take it
to heart, then his folly is exposed."
The confusion obviously arises through
the negative ideas in "foolishly" (not
wisely) and "senseless." The Folio
reading is upheld by Whiter, who
punctuates:-

"He, that a fool doth very wisely hit,
Doth, very foolishly although he
smart,

Seem senseless of the bob; and explains, "a wise man, whose failings should chance to be well rallied by a simple unmeaning jester, even though he should be weak enough really to be hurt by so foolish an attack, appears always insensible of the stroke." Ingleby (Shakespeare Hermeneutics, p. 81) also defends the old reading, by attempting to show that the fool scores whether the wise man shows his displeasure at the fool's hit or not. The passage repeats the idea of, and explains the lines, "And they . must laugh." If " they that are most galled with my folly do not laugh, then their folly is anatomised."

57. squand'ring] scattered at random. Compare Merchant of Venice, 1. iii. 22: "Other ventures he hath squandered abroad."

57. glances] glancing blows, side hits. Compare Bacon, Advancement,

60

65

1. vii. 8: "Silenus was gravelled ..
not knowing where to carp at him;
save at the last he gave a glance at his
patience towards his wife;
"and Mid
summer-Night's Dream, II. i. 75:
"Glance at my credit with Hippolita."
63. counter] a piece of metal, not
current coin, used merely in calculation.
Knight remarks that they were chiefly
coined abroad, especially at Nuremburg,
and used in keeping abbey-accounts.
Compare Troilus and Cressida, 11. ii.
28:-

"Will you with counters sum

The past proportion of his infinite?"

Hence Jaques' wager is not particularly serious.

66. brutish sting] Johnson, unnecessarily, suggests "brutish sty." It means the urging of merely animal passion. Compare Othello, I. iii. 335: "But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings."

67. embossed] A probable combination of (1) the hunting term applied to a deer foaming at the mouth when exhausted and at bay. Compare Taming of the Shrew, 1. i. 17: "The poor cur is embossed" (O.F. embosquer, to shroud in a wood), and (2) emboss, to adorn with raised bosses (O.F. bosse): see Skeat, s.v. Compare also King Lear, II. iv. 227: "A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle."

67. headed evils] sores grown to a head. Walker notes an old use of "evil," still extant in "King's evil."

Jaq. Why, who cries out on pride,

That can therein tax any private party?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea

70

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,

75

When such a one as she such is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function,

That says his bravery is not on my cost,

80

Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits

His folly to the mettle of my speech?

My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right,

There then; how then? what then? Let me see wherein

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.

Why, I have eat none yet.

Orl. Forbear, and eat no more.
Jaq.
Orl. Nor shalt not, till necessity be served.
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?

85

90

73. wearer's very means] Singer and edd.; weary very means Ff 3, 4 (meanes F 3); wearie verie meanes Ff 1, 2; very very means Pope and edd.; very wear. ing means Collier conj.; very means of wear Collier MS.; weary-very or veryweary means Staunton conj.; tributary streams Lloyd conj. ap. Cambridge edd. 83. There then; how then? what then?] Theobald; There then, how then, what then Ff; There then; How, what then? Capell. what then? Let] Let me then Hanmer. 87. Enter .] Theobald; Enter Orlando Ff. 89. not] 90. Of what] What Johnson. come of] come Rowe.

thou Johnson.

71. tax] Compare post, line 86, and ante, 1. ii. 78.

73. wearer's very means] Perhaps the least unsatisfactory reading. Whiter explains the original as "Till the very means being weary do ebb." Other suggestions are mains," i.e. main flood, or spring tide (Notes and Queries, V. v. 143), and "mears," i.e. boundaries or limits (ib. 345).

66

85. free] innocent, as in Hamlet, 11. ii. 590: "Make mad the guilty and

appal the free." In this sense the word is obsolete, the last example in New Eng. Dict. being from Dryden and Lee's Oedipus, 1678.

93. civility] in a higher sense than the modern; more than mere "politeness," rather the body of observances, the code of good manners, used by well-nurtured people. Compare (title) "Civil Conversation (Conversazione civile) of Stephano Guazzo," and Spenser, Faerie Queene, vi. Int. iv.:

Orl. You touch'd my vein at first; the thorny point
Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the shew
Of smooth civility: yet am I inland bred
And know some nurture. But forbear, I say:
He dies that touches any of this fruit

Till I and my affairs are answered.

95

Jaq. An you will not be answer'd with reason, I must die. 100 Duke S. What would you have? Your gentleness shall force More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orl. I almost die for food; and 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

105

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

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church,

If ever sat at any good man's feast,

If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear

115

And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied,
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be:

In the which hope I blush and hide my sword.

Duke S. True is it that we have seen better days,

And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church

120

95. hath] that hath Ff 2-4. 100. An... die] As Capell; Ff divide at reason, die. An] Capell; And Ff, Rowe; If Pope. IOI, 102. What . . . gentleness] As Pope; Ff divide at have? your force, gentleness. 108. commandment] commandment Ff. 116. know] known Hanmer. 118. blush] F 1; bush Ff 2-4.

Wright notes that the apostrophe (command'ment) in Ff readings is a relic of the quadrisyllabic form of the word which exists in The Passionate Pilgrim, 418:

"If to women he be bent

They have at commandement." 120. knoll'd] Compare Macbeth, v. viii. 50: "His knell is knoll'd." Cotgrave gives "Carillonner: to chyme, or knowle, bells," but "Carillon: A chyming of bells, a knell," showing the forms interchangeable. Compare also Two Noble Kinsmen, I. i. 133: "Remember that your fame knolls in th' ear o' the world."