AS YOU LIKE IT - Contextual Question 3
Read the following passage and answer the questions below it:
SCENE VII [A meal set out.]
[Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS and lords, like outlaws.]
Duke Senior. I think he be transform’d into a beast,
For I can nowhere find him like a man.
First Lord. My lord, he is but even now gone hence.
Here was he merry, hearing of a song.
Duke Senior. If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
Go seek him, tell him I would speak with him.
First Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach.
[Enter JAQUES.]
Duke Senior. Why how now monsieur? What a life is this,
That your poor friends must woo your company?
What, you look merrily?
Jacques. A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ th’ forest,
A motley fool: a miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool,
Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun,
And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
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-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, ‘It is ten o’clock.
Thus we may see’, quoth he, ‘how the world wags:
‘Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more ’twill be eleven;
And so from hour to hour, we ripe, and ripe,
And then from hour to hour, we rot, and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.’ When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep-contemplative;
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.
A. Explain the meaning of the following:
1. If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
2. Motley’s the only wear.
B. I can nowhere find him like a man”. What does this statement reveal about the characters of Duke Senior and Jaques, and to what extent do you think it is a just comment on Jaques’ character?
C. What does Jaques find so interesting about Touchstone’s folly? Comment on this scene and one other encounter between these two characters in the play.