AS YOU LIKE IT.

For my sake be comfortable

P... de Louther boug del?

London Printed for J.Bell British Library Strand Nov 19 1785.

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:
And then he drew a dial from his poke;
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, It is ten a-clock :

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

e;

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;

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And I did laugh, sans intermission,

An hour by his dial.-O noble fool!

A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.
Duke Sen. 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 bisket

After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd
With observation, the which he vents

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In mangled forms :-O, that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Duke

Duke Sen. Thou shalt have one.

Jaq. 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
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 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,
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd

Even by the squandring glances of the fool.

Invest me in my motley; give me leave

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To speak my mind, and I will through and through Cleanse the foul body of the infected world,

If they will patiently receive my medicine.

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

do.

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

sin:

For thou thyself hast been a libertine,
As sensual as the brutish sting itself;

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

Eij

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Jaq.