As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

Act II, Scene V: Another Part of the Forest

[Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and others.]

AMIENS [SONG]

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 pr'ythee, more.

AMIENS It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.

JAQUES I thank it. More, I pr'ythee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. More, I pr'ythee, 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 stanza. Call you them stanzas?

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 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. All together here.]

        Who doth ambition shun,
        And loves to live i' the sun,
        Seeking the food he eats,
        And pleas'd 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.]