Comedy plays; Exiles -- Drama; Fathers and daughters -- Drama; Pastoral drama
JAQUES. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples
are
coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very strange beasts
which
in all tongues are call'd fools.
TOUCHSTONE. Salutation and greeting to you all!
JAQUES. Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the
motley-minded
gentleman that I have so often met in the forest. He hath
been a
courtier, he swears.
TOUCHSTONE. If any man doubt that, let him put me to my
purgation.
I have trod a measure; I have flatt'red a lady; I have been
politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy; I have undone
three tailors; I have had four quarrels, and like to have
fought
one.
JAQUES. And how was that ta'en up?
TOUCHSTONE. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the
seventh cause.
JAQUES. How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this fellow.
DUKE SENIOR. I like him very well.
TOUCHSTONE. God 'ild you, sir; I desire you of the like. I
press in
here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, to
swear
and to forswear, according as marriage binds and blood
breaks. A
poor virgin, sir, an ill-favour'd thing, sir, but mine own; a
poor humour of mine, sir, to take that that man else will.
Rich
honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your
pearl
in your foul oyster.
DUKE SENIOR. By my faith, he is very swift and sententious.
TOUCHSTONE. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet
diseases.
JAQUES. But, for the seventh cause: how did you find the
quarrel on
the seventh cause?
TOUCHSTONE. Upon a lie seven times removed- bear your body more
seeming, Audrey- as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a
certain
courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was
not
cut well, he was in the mind it was. This is call'd the
Retort
Courteous. If I sent him word again it was not well cut, he
would
send me word he cut it to please himself. This is call'd the
Quip
Modest. If again it was not well cut, he disabled my
judgment.
This is call'd the Reply Churlish. If again it was not well
cut,
he would answer I spake not true. This is call'd the Reproof
Valiant. If again it was not well cut, he would say I lie.
This
is call'd the Countercheck Quarrelsome. And so to the Lie
Circumstantial and the Lie Direct.
JAQUES. And how oft did you say his beard was not well cut?
TOUCHSTONE. I durst go no further than the Lie Circumstantial,
nor
he durst not give me the Lie Direct; and so we measur'd
swords
and parted.
JAQUES. Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie?
TOUCHSTONE. O, sir, we quarrel in print by the book, as you
have
books for good manners. I will name you the degrees. The
first,
the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third,
the
Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth,
the
Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with
Circumstance;
the seventh, the Lie Direct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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