Page 1937 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

ORLANDO

Then but forbear your food a little while,
Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,
And give it food. There is an old poor man, [130]

Who after me hath many a weary step
Limp’d in pure love; till he be first suffic’d,
Oppress’d with two weak evils, age and hunger,
I will not touch a bit.

DUKE SENIOR
Go find him out,

And we will nothing waste till you return. [135]

ORLANDO

I thank ye, and be blest for your good comfort.
(Exit.)

DUKE SENIOR
Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.

JAQUES
All the world’s a stage, [140]
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. [145]

Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier, [150]

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation