As You Like It: Act 2, Scene 5

    comedy

    The Forest.

    Scene Summary

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    Amiens sings for Jaques and others in the forest. Jaques adds his own cynical verse. Duke Senior is sending for Jaques.

    Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others
    SONG.
    AMIENS
    Under the greenwood tree
    Who loves to lie with me,
    And turn his merry note
    Unto the sweet bird's throat,
    Come hither, come hither, come hither:
    Here shall he see No enemy
    But winter and rough weather.
    JAQUES
    More, more, I prithee, more.
    AMIENS
    It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
    JAQUES
    I thank it. More, I prithee, more. I can suck
    melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs.
    More, I prithee, more.
    AMIENS
    My voice is ragged: I know I cannot please you.
    JAQUES
    I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to
    sing. Come, more; another stanzo: call you 'em stanzos?
    AMIENS
    What you will, Monsieur Jaques.
    JAQUES
    Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me
    nothing. Will you sing?
    AMIENS
    More at your request than to please myself.
    JAQUES
    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, sing; and you that will
    not, hold your tongues.
    AMIENS
    Well, I'll end the song. Sirs, cover the while; the
    duke will drink under this tree. He hath been all
    this day to look you.
    JAQUES
    And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is
    too disputable 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.
    SONG.
    Who doth ambition shun
    All together here
    And loves to live i' the sun,
    Seeking the food he eats
    And pleased with what he gets,
    Come hither, come hither, come hither:
    Here shall he see No enemy
    But winter and rough weather.
    JAQUES
    I'll give you a verse to this note that I made
    yesterday in despite of my invention.
    AMIENS
    And I'll sing it.
    JAQUES
    Thus it goes:--
    If it do come to pass
    That any man turn ass,
    Leaving his wealth and ease,
    A stubborn will to please,
    Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame:
    Here shall he see
    Gross fools as he,
    An if he will come to me.
    AMIENS
    What's that 'ducdame'?
    JAQUES
    'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a
    circle. I'll go sleep, if I can; if I cannot, I'll
    rail against all the first-born of Egypt.
    AMIENS
    And I'll go seek the duke: his banquet is prepared.
    Exeunt severally