57 IN PRAISE OF JESTERS AQUES, the melancholy philosopher of As You the fool Touchstone. A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest, A motley fool; a miserable world! As I do live by food, I met a fool; Who laid him down and basked him in the sun, In good set terms and yet a motley fool. "Good morrow, fool," quoth I. "No, sir," quoth he, "Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune": And then he drew a dial from his poke, And, looking on it with lack-luster eye, Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock: Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags: And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; An hour by his dial. O noble fool! William Shakespeare oral: moralize 58 PROS THE STUFF OF DREAMS1 ROSPERO, having dismissed a company of spirits which by his magic art he had raised up and caused to enact a pastoral scene, comments upon the vanished spectacle, and muses upon human life. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. William Shakespeare 59 THE PURITAN AND THE MAN PHILINTE. Come, why so hot, Alceste? Alceste. Leave me, I say! Ph. But why this groundless anger, tell me, pray? 1 From The Tempest. Listen! Is it right 2 Le Misanthrope, Act I. From a forthcoming translation by William F. Giese. Copyright, 1926. Inherit: possess, inhabit Rack: cloud Al. I will be angry, and won't listen! Zounds! Ph. Be calm, Alceste, and do not chafe your wounds. I tell you outright you and I must part: Ph. What are these ugly blots on my fair fame? Straightway, you grasp him, clasp him, press him, bless him; And swear you're his forever, heart and soul; I'd go and hang myself to hide my shame. Ph. Come, come! This is no hangable offense; read the statutes in a different sense; And, spite the violence of your decrees, do not mean to hang yet, if you please. Al. Who cannot reason answers with a gibe. Ph. What! if some friend embraces me with passion, hall I not pay him in the self-same fashion, Treat his advances as transcendent matters, Al. No! I denounce this mercenary code O'erwhelm alike the wise man and the fool. What does it profit me to find a friend Who swears faith, zeal, esteem, love without end, And lauds my virtue with a tender touch, If the first rogue may hear him say as much? No honest soul, legitimately proud, Will care for plaudits lavished on the crowd, A common love offends my common sense; The friend of all mankind is not my friend. Ph. But in a world by forms and fashions swayed Fair words received are with fair words repaid. Al. No-I repeat-my choler overflows At this vile trafficking in hollow shows. Let men lay bare their thoughts, and in all places Ph. But there are some occasions when pure truth And now and then-rail as you will-we ought Ph. What! And would you dare, full jump, To tell old Emily that she's a frump- Ph. Or tell proud Dorilas it is not wise To blazon his great blood, lest the whole court Upon this point to spare no mortal man. |