AMIENS    [sings]
        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.

    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.