Clo. Your betters, fir.

Cor. Elfe they are very wretched."

Rof. Peace, I fay :-Good even to you, friend. Cor. And to you, gentle fir, and to you all. Rof. I pr'ythee, fhepherd, 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 oppress'd, And faints for fuccour.

Cor. Fair fir, I pity her;

And with for her fake, more than for mine own,
My fortunes were more able to relieve her:
But I am fhepherd to another man,

And do not sheer the fleeces that I graze;
My master is of churlish difpofition,
And little recks to find the way to heaven
By doing deeds of hofpitality:

Befides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed
Are now on fale; and at our fheep-cote now,
By reason of his abfence, there is nothing

That ye will feed on; but what is, come fee;
And in my voice moft welcome shall

ye be. Rof. What is he, that fhall buy his flock and pafture?

Cor. That young fwain, that ye faw here but ere

while,

That little cares for buying any thing.

Rof. I pray thee, if it ftand with honefty,

Buy thou the cottage, pafture, 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;
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.

SONG.

Under the green wood tree,

Who loves to lie with me,

And tune bis merry note,

Unto the fweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall be fee

No enemy,

But winter and rough weather.

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

Ami. It will make you melancholy, monfieur Jaques. Jaq. I thank it. More, I pr'ythee, more.-I can fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a weazel fucks more, I pr'ythee, more.

eggs;

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 ftanza; call you 'em ftanzas?

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 compliment, 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 drink 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 heaven thanks, and make no boast of them.-Come, warble, come.

SONG.

Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to lie1 i' the fun,
Seeking the food he 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.

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

Ami. And I'll fing it.

Jaq. Thus it goes:

An' if he will come to me.

to lie-] Old edition, to live.

JOHNSON.

2

? Duc ad me,-] For ducdame fir T. Hanmer, very acutely ard judiciously, reads duc ad me, That is, bring him to me. JOHNSON,

Ami. What's that, duc ad me?

Jaq. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle.- -I'll go to fleep if I can: if I cannot; I'll rail against all the firft-born of Egypt. 3

Ami. And I'll go feek the Duke: his banquet is prepar'd, [Exeunt feverally.

Adam. Dear mafter, I can go no further. O, I die for food! here lie I down, and meafure 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 arta mocker of my labour. -Well faid!—thou look'st cheerly and I'll be with you quickly. Yet thou lieft in the bleak air; come, I will bear thee to fome fhelter, and thou fhalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this defert. Cheerly, good Adam ! [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

Another part of the forest.

Enter Duke Senior and lords. [A table fet out. Duke Sen. I think he is transform'd into a beast,

For I can can no where find him like a man.

3

-the first-born of Egypt.] A proverbial expreffion for high-born perfons. JOHNSON. I Lord.

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 shortly difcord in the spheres. Go, feek him. Tell him, I would fpeak 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' the foreft, A motley fool!-a miferable world!—✦

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,
In good fet terms,-and yet a motley fool.
Good-mcrrow, fool, quoth I:-No, fir, quoth he.
Call me not fool, till Heaven bath 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 may fee, quoth he, how the world
'Tis but an hour ago fince it was nine;

wags.

A motley fool!-a miferable WORLD!] What! because he met a motley fool, was it therefore a miferable world? This is fadly blundered; we should 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 fool to varlet, nor, if a change were neceffary, can I guess how it should certainly be known that warlet 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. JOHNSON.

And