AMI. My voice is ragged;' I know, I cannot please you. F42. I do not defire you to please me, I do defire you to fing: Come, more; another ftanza; Call you them ftanzas? AMI. What you will, monfieur Jaques. J42. Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing: Will you fing? AMI. More at your request, than to please myfelf. F42. 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. 742. And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too difpútable 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. 5 ragged;] Our modern editors (Mr. Malone excepted) read rugged; but ragged had anciently the fame meaning. So, in Nath's Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, 4to. 1593: "I would not trot a falfe gallop through the reft of his ragged verfes," &c. difputable—] for difputatious. MALONE. STEEVENS, SONG. Who doth ambition fhun, [All together here] 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. J42. I'll give you a verse to this note, that I made yesterday in despite of my invention. AMI. And I'll fing it. J42. Thus it goes: If it do come to pass, Grofs fools as he, An if he will come to Ami. to live i'the fun,] Modern editions, to lie. JOHNSON. To live i' the fun, is to labour and "fweat in the eye of Phoebus," or, vitam agere fub dio; for by lying in the fun, how could they get the food they eat? TOLLET. 8 ducdame;] For ducdame, Sir Thomas Hanmer, very acutely and judiciously, reads duc ad me, that is, bring him to me. JOHNSON. If duc ad me were right, Amiens would not have asked its meaning, and been put off with " a Greek invocation." It is evidently a word coined for the nonce. We have here, as Butler fays, "One for fenfe, and one for rhyme."-Indeed we must have a double rhyme ; or this stanza cannot well be fung to the fame tune with the former. I read thus: AMI. What's that ducdame? F42. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle. I'll go fleep if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the first-born of Egypt.' "Ducdame, Ducdame, Ducdame, "An' if he will come to Ami." That is, to Amiens. Jaques did not mean to ridicule himself. FARMER. Duc ad me has hitherto been received as an allufion to the burthen of Amiens's fong, Come hither, come hither, come hither. That Amiens, who is a courtier, fhould not understand Latin, or be perfuaded it was Greek, is no great matter for wonder. An anonymous correfpondent propofes to read-Huc ad me. In confirmation of the old reading, however, Dr. Farmer obferves to me, that, being at a house not far from Cambridge, when news was brought that the hen-rooft was robbed, a facetious old fquire who was prefent, immediately fung the following ftanza, which has an odd coincidence with the ditty of Jaques : "Damè, what makes your ducks to die? duck, duck, duck. I have placed Dr. Farmer's emendation in the text. triffyllable. STEEVENS. If it do come to pass, That any man turn afs, Leaving his wealth and eafe, A ftubborn will to please, Duc ad me, duc ad me, duc ad me; Here fall he fee Ducdàme is a Grofs fools as he, &c.] See HoR. Serm. L. II. fat. iii: "Aut alio mentis morbo calet: Huc proprius me, the first-born of Egypt.] A proverbial expreffion for highborn perfons. JOHNSON. The phrafe is fcriptural, as well as proverbial. So, in Exodus, xii. 29: " And the Lord fmote all the firft-born in Egypt." STEEVENS. AMI. And I'll go seek the duke; his banquet is [Exeunt feverally. prepar❜d. SCENE VI. The fame. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM. ADAM. Dear mafter, I can go no further: O, I die for food! Here lie I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell, kind master. ORL. 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 awhile at the arm's end: I will here be with thee presently; and if I bring thee not something to eat, I'll give thee leave to die: but if thou diest before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour. Well faid! thou look'ft cheerly: and I'll be with thee quickly.-Yet thou lieft in the bleak air: Come, I will bear thee to fome shelter; and thou fhalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live any thing in this defert. Cheerly, good Adam! [Exeunt. 2 Here lie I down, and measure out my grave.] So, in Romeo and A table fet out. Enter Duke Senior, AMIENS, Lords, and Others. DUKE S. I think he be transform'd into a beaft; For I can no where find him like a man. I LORD. My lord, he is but even now gone hence; Here was he merry, hearing of a song. DUKE S. If he, compact of jars,' grow musical, Enter JAQUES. I LORD. He faves my labour by his own ap proach. DUKE S. Why, how now, monfieur! what a life is this, That your poor friends must woo your company? F42. A fool, a fool !—I met a fool i' the foreft, 2 compact of jars,] i. e. made up of difcords. In The Comedy of Errors we have " compact of credit," for made up of credulity. Again, in Woman is a Weathercock, 1612: like gilded tombs "Compacted of jet pillars." The fame expreffion occurs alfo in Tamburlane, 1590: 66 Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil." STEEVENS. 3 A motley fool;-a miferable world!] What! because he met at |