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As You Like It: Act II, Scene 7

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As You Like It
Act II, Scene 7

Another part of the Forest of Arden.

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man

William Mulready, circa 1837

  1. A table set out. Enter Duke Senior, Amiens, and Lords, like
  2. outlaws.

Duke Senior

1 - 2
  1. I think he be transform’d into a beast,
  2. For I can no where find him like a man.

First Lord in Arden

3 - 4
  1. My lord, he is but even now gone hence;
  2. Here was he merry, hearing of a song.

Duke Senior

5 - 7
  1. If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
  2. We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
  3. Go seek him, tell him I would speak with him.
  1. Enter Jaques.

First Lord in Arden

8
  1. He saves my labor by his own approach.

Duke Senior

9 - 11
  1. Why, how now, monsieur, what a life is this,
  2. That your poor friends must woo your company?
  3. What, you look merrily!

Jaques

12 - 34
  1. A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ th’ forest,
  2. A motley fool. A miserable world!
  3. As I do live by food, I met a fool,
  4. Who laid him down, and bask’d him in the sun,
  5. And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
  6. In good set terms, and yet a motley fool.
  7. “Good morrow, fool,” quoth I. “No, sir,” quoth he,
  8. “Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.”
  9. And then he drew a dial from his poke,
  10. And looking on it, with lack-lustre eye,
  11. Says very wisely, “It is ten a’ clock.
  12. Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.
  13. ’Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
  14. And after one hour more ’twill be eleven,
  15. And so from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
  16. And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
  17. And thereby hangs a tale.” When I did hear
  18. The motley fool thus moral on the time,
  19. My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
  20. That fools should be so deep contemplative;
  21. And I did laugh sans intermission
  22. An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
  23. A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.

Duke Senior

35
  1. What fool is this?

Jaques

36 - 43
  1. O worthy fool! One that hath been a courtier,
  2. And says, if ladies be but young and fair,
  3. They have the gift to know it; and in his brain,
  4. Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
  5. After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm’d
  6. With observation, the which he vents
  7. In mangled forms. O that I were a fool!
  8. I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Duke Senior

44
  1. Thou shalt have one.

Jaques

45 - 62
  1.                      It is my only suit—
  2. Provided that you weed your better judgments
  3. Of all opinion that grows rank in them
  4. That I am wise. I must have liberty
  5. Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
  6. To blow on whom I please, for so fools have;
  7. And they that are most galled with my folly,
  8. They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so?
  9. The why is plain as way to parish church:
  10. He that a fool doth very wisely hit
  11. Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
  12. Not to seem senseless of the bob; if not,
  13. The wise man’s folly is anatomiz’d
  14. Even by the squand’ring glances of the fool.
  15. Invest me in my motley; give me leave
  16. To speak my mind, and I will through and through
  17. Cleanse the foul body of th’ infected world,
  18. If they will patiently receive my medicine.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Hugh Thomson, 1910

Duke Senior

63
  1. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do.

Jaques

64
  1. What, for a counter, would I do but good?

Duke Senior

65 - 70
  1. Most mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin:
  2. For thou thyself hast been a libertine,
  3. As sensual as the brutish sting itself,
  4. And all th’ embossed sores, and headed evils,
  5. That thou with license of free foot hast caught,
  6. Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world.

Jaques

71 - 88
  1. Why, who cries out on pride
  2. That can therein tax any private party?
  3. Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea,
  4. Till that the weary very means do ebb?
  5. What woman in the city do I name,
  6. When that I say the city-woman bears
  7. The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders?
  8. Who can come in and say that I mean her,
  9. When such a one as she, such is her neighbor?
  10. Or what is he of basest function,
  11. That says his bravery is not on my cost,
  12. Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits
  13. His folly to the mettle of my speech?
  14. There then! How then? What then? Let me see wherein
  15. My tongue hath wrong’d him; if it do him right,
  16. Then he hath wrong’d himself. If he be free,
  17. Why then my taxing like a wild goose flies,
  18. Unclaim’d of any man. But who comes here?
  1. Enter Orlando with his sword drawn.

Orlando

89
  1. Forbear, and eat no more.

Jaques

90
  1.                           Why, I have eat none yet.

Orlando

91
  1. Nor shalt not, till necessity be serv’d.

Jaques

92
  1. Of what kind should this cock come of?

Duke Senior

93 - 95
  1. Art thou thus bolden’d, man, by thy distress?
  2. Or else a rude despiser of good manners,
  3. That in civility thou seem’st so empty?

Orlando

96 - 101
  1. You touch’d my vein at first. The thorny point
  2. Of bare distress hath ta’en from me the show
  3. Of smooth civility; yet am I inland bred,
  4. And know some nurture. But forbear, I say,
  5. He dies that touches any of this fruit
  6. Till I and my affairs are answered.

Jaques

102 - 103
  1. And you will not be answer’d with reason,
  2. I must die.

Duke Senior

104 - 105
  1. What would you have? Your gentleness shall force,
  2. More than your force move us to gentleness.

Orlando

106
  1. I almost die for food, and let me have it.
Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden

From: Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden

Walter Crane, circa 1906

Duke Senior

107
  1. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.

Orlando

108 - 121
  1. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you.
  2. I thought that all things had been savage here,
  3. And therefore put I on the countenance
  4. Of stern command’ment. Bur what e’er you are
  5. That in this desert inaccessible,
  6. Under the shade of melancholy boughs,
  7. Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;
  8. If ever you have look’d on better days,
  9. If ever been where bells have knoll’d to church,
  10. If ever sate at any good man’s feast,
  11. If ever from your eyelids wip’d a tear,
  12. And know what ’tis to pity, and be pitied,
  13. Let gentleness my strong enforcement be,
  14. In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword.

Duke Senior

122 - 128
  1. True is it that we have seen better days,
  2. And have with holy bell been knoll’d to church,
  3. And sat at good men’s feasts, and wip’d our eyes
  4. Of drops that sacred pity hath engend’red;
  5. And therefore sit you down in gentleness,
  6. And take upon command what help we have
  7. That to your wanting may be minist’red.

Orlando

129 - 135
  1. Then but forbear your food a little while,
  2. Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,
  3. And give it food. There is an old poor man,
  4. Who after me hath many a weary step
  5. Limp’d in pure love; till he be first suffic’d,
  6. Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger,
  7. I will not touch a bit.

Duke Senior

136 - 137
  1.                         Go find him out,
  2. And we will nothing waste till you return.

Orlando

138
  1. I thank ye, and be blest for your good comfort!
  1. Exit.

Duke Senior

139 - 142
  1. Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
  2. This wide and universal theatre
  3. Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
  4. Wherein we play in.

Jaques

143 - 170
  1.                     All the world’s a stage,
  2. And all the men and women merely players;
  3. They have their exits and their entrances,
  4. And one man in his time plays many parts,
  5. His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
  6. Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
  7. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
  8. And shining morning face, creeping like snail
  9. Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
  10. Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
  11. Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
  12. Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
  13. Jealous in honor, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
  14. Seeking the bubble reputation
  15. Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
  16. In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
  17. With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
  18. Full of wise saws and modern instances;
  19. And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
  20. Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
  21. With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
  22. His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
  23. For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
  24. Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
  25. And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
  26. That ends this strange eventful history,
  27. Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,
  28. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
  1. Enter Orlando with Adam.

"Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags."

Hugh Thomson, 1910

Duke Senior

171 - 172
  1. Welcome. Set down your venerable burden,
  2. And let him feed.

Orlando

173
  1. I thank you most for him.

Adam

174 - 175
  1.                           So had you need,
  2. I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.

Duke Senior

176 - 178
  1. Welcome, fall to. I will not trouble you
  2. As yet to question you about your fortunes.
  3. Give us some music, and, good cousin, sing.
  1. Song.

Amiens

179 - 195
  1. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
  2. Thou art not so unkind
  3. As man’s ingratitude;
  4. Thy tooth is not so keen,
  5. Because thou art not seen,
  6. Although thy breath be rude.
  7. Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho! Unto the green holly,
  8. Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
  9. Then heigh-ho, the holly!
  10. This life is most jolly.
  11. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
  12. That dost not bite so nigh
  13. As benefits forgot;
  14. Though thou the waters warp,
  15. Thy sting is not so sharp
  16. As friend rememb’red not.
  17. Heigh-ho, sing, etc.

Duke Senior

196 - 205
  1. If that you were the good Sir Rowland’s son,
  2. As you have whisper’d faithfully you were,
  3. And as mine eye doth his effigies witness
  4. Most truly limn’d and living in your face,
  5. Be truly welcome hither. I am the Duke
  6. That lov’d your father. The residue of your fortune,
  7. Go to my cave and tell me. Good old man,
  8. Thou art right welcome as thy master is.
  9. Support him by the arm. Give me your hand,
  10. And let me all your fortunes understand.
  1. Exeunt.
Dobbins' Electric Soap - The Seven Ages of Man

Dobbins' Electric Soap - The Seven Ages of Man

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