William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.
Act II. Scene V.As You Like It
Ami.
Ami.It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
Jaq.I thank it. More! I prithee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs. More! I prithee, more.
Ami.My voice is ragged; I know I cannot please you.
Jaq.I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to sing. Come, more; another stanzo: call you them stanzos?
Ami.What you will, Monsieur Jaques.
Jaq.Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing. Will you sing?
Ami.More at your request than to please myself.
Jaq.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.
Ami.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.
Jaq.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.
Ami.
Ami.And I’ll sing it.
Jaq.Thus it goes:
Ami.What’s that ‘ducdame?’
Jaq.’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.
Ami.And I’ll go seek the duke: his banquet is prepared.[Exeunt severally.