As You Like It- Act 2, scene 7
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As You Like It - Act 2, scene 7Act 2, scene 7
Scene 7
Synopsis:
As Duke Senior and his companions sit down to eat, Orlando enters, demanding food. Welcomed by the duke, he brings Adam to join them.
Enter Duke Senior and ⌜Lords,⌝ like outlaws.DUKE SENIOR
I think he be transformed into a beast,
For I can nowhere find him like a man.
FIRST LORD
My lord, he is but even now gone hence.
Here was he merry, hearing of a song.
DUKE SENIOR
5 If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
Go seek him. Tell him I would speak with him.
Enter Jaques.
FIRST LORD
He saves my labor by his own approach.
DUKE SENIOR, ⌜to Jaques⌝
Why, how now, monsieur? What a life is this
10 That your poor friends must woo your company?
What, you look merrily.
JAQUES
A fool, a fool, I met a fool i’ th’ forest,
A motley fool. A miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool,
15 Who laid him down and basked him in the sun
And railed on Lady Fortune in good terms,
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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
20 fortune.”
And then he drew a dial from his poke
And, looking on it with lack-luster eye,
Says very wisely “It is ten o’clock.
Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.
25 ’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
30 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!
35 A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.
DUKE SENIOR What fool is this?
JAQUES
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,
40 Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places crammed
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. O, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.
DUKE SENIOR
45 Thou shalt have one.
JAQUES It is my only suit,
Provided that you weed your better judgments
Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise. I must have liberty
50 Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
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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:
55 He that a fool doth very wisely hit
Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
⌜Not to⌝ seem senseless of the bob. If not,
The wise man’s folly is anatomized
Even by the squand’ring glances of the fool.
60 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 SENIOR
Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do.
JAQUES
65 What, for a counter, would I do but good?
DUKE SENIOR
Most mischievous foul sin in chiding ⌜sin;⌝
For thou thyself hast been a libertine,
As sensual as the brutish sting itself,
And all th’ embossèd sores and headed evils
70 That thou with license of free foot hast caught
Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.
JAQUES Why, who cries out on pride
That can therein tax any private party?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea
75 Till that the weary 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,
80 When such a one as she such is her neighbor?
Or what is he of basest function
That says his bravery is not on my cost,
Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits
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His folly to the mettle of my speech?85 There then. How then, what then? Let me see
wherein
My tongue hath wronged him. If it do him right,
Then he hath wronged himself. If he be free,
Why then my taxing like a wild goose flies
90 Unclaimed of any man.
Enter Orlando, ⌜brandishing a sword.⌝
But who ⌜comes⌝ here?
ORLANDO Forbear, and eat no more.
JAQUES Why, I have eat none yet.
ORLANDO
Nor shalt not till necessity be served.
JAQUES 95Of what kind should this cock come of?
DUKE SENIOR, ⌜to Orlando⌝
Art thou thus boldened, man, by thy distress,
Or else a rude despiser of good manners,
That in civility thou seem’st so empty?
ORLANDO
You touched my vein at first. The thorny point
100 Of bare distress hath ta’en from me the show
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 answerèd.
JAQUES 105An you will not be answered with reason, I
must die.
DUKE SENIOR, ⌜to Orlando⌝
What would you have? Your gentleness shall force
More than your force move us to gentleness.
ORLANDO
I almost die for food, and let me have it.
DUKE SENIOR
110 Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.
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ORLANDO 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
115 That in this desert inaccessible,
Under the shade of melancholy boughs,
Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time,
If ever you have looked on better days,
If ever been where bells have knolled to church,
120 If ever sat at any good man’s feast,
If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear
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.
⌜He sheathes his sword.⌝
DUKE SENIOR
125 True is it that we have seen better days,
And have with holy bell been knolled to church,
And sat at good men’s feasts and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engendered.
And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
130 And take upon command what help we have
That to your wanting may be ministered.
ORLANDO
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
135 Who after me hath many a weary step
Limped in pure love. Till he be first sufficed,
Oppressed with two weak evils, age and hunger,
I will not touch a bit.
DUKE SENIOR Go find him out,
140 And we will nothing waste till you return.
ORLANDO
I thank you; and be blessed for your good comfort.
⌜He exits.⌝
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DUKE SENIOR Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theater
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
145 Wherein we play in.
JAQUES 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,
150 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
155 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
160 Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
165 Into the lean and slippered pantaloon
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
170 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Enter Orlando, ⌜carrying⌝ Adam.
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DUKE SENIOR Welcome. Set down your venerable burden,
175 And let him feed.
ORLANDO I thank you most for him.
ADAM So had you need.—
I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome. Fall to. I will not trouble you
180 As yet to question you about your fortunes.—
Give us some music, and, good cousin, sing.
⌜The Duke and Orlando continue their conversation,
apart.⌝
Song.
⌜AMIENS sings⌝
Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
185 Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
190 ⌜Then⌝ heigh-ho, the holly.
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot.
195 Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
200 ⌜Then⌝ heigh-ho, the holly.
This life is most jolly.
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DUKE SENIOR, ⌜to Orlando⌝ If that you were the good Sir Rowland’s son,
As you have whispered faithfully you were,
And as mine eye doth his effigies witness
205 Most truly limned and living in your face,
Be truly welcome hither. I am the duke
That loved your father. The residue of your fortune
Go to my cave and tell me.—Good old man,
Thou art right welcome as thy ⌜master⌝ is.
210 ⌜To Lords.⌝ Support him by the arm. ⌜To Orlando.⌝
Give me your hand,
And let me all your fortunes understand.
They exit.
