Page 1933 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

And then he drew a dial from his poke, [20]
And looking on it, with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, ‘It is ten o’clock.
Thus we may see’, quoth he, ‘how the world wags:

’Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more ’twill be eleven; [25]
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, [30]
That fools should be so deep-contemplative;

And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.

DUKE SENIOR
What fool is this? [35]

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,
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm’d [40]

With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. O that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

DUKE SENIOR
Thou shalt have one.

JAQUES
It is my only suit,

Provided that you weed your better judgements [45]
Of all opinion that grows rank in them
That I am wise. I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,