Page 1935 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Or what is he of basest function,
That says his bravery is not on my cost, [80]
Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits
His folly to the mettle of my speech?

There then! How then? What then? Let me see wherein
My tongue hath wrong’d him: if it do him right,
Then he hath wrong’d himself; if he be free [85]
Why then my taxing like a wild-goose flies

Unclaim’d of any man. But who comes here?

Enter Orlando (with sword drawn).

ORLANDO
Forbear, and eat no more.

JAQUES
Why, I have eat none yet.

ORLANDO
Nor shalt not till necessity be served. [90]

JAQUES
Of what kind should this cock come of?

DUKE SENIOR
Art thou thus bolden’d man by thy distress?

Or else a rude despiser of good manners,
That in civility thou seem’st so empty?

ORLANDO
You touch’d my vein at first: the thorny point [95]
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 answered. [100]