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Hath not old custom made this life more sweet |
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods |
More free from peril than the envious court? |
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, |
The seasons' difference; as the icy fang |
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, |
Which when it bites and blows upon my body, |
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say |
'This is no flattery; these are counsellors |
That feelingly persuade me what I am.' |
Sweet are the uses of adversity, |
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, |
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; |
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, |
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, |
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. |
I would not change it. |
AMIENS. Happy is your Grace, |
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune |
Into so quiet and so sweet a style. |
DUKE SENIOR. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? |
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, |
Being native burghers of this desert city, |
Should, in their own confines, with forked heads |
Have their round haunches gor'd. |
FIRST LORD. Indeed, my lord, |
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; |
And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp |
Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. |
To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself |
Did steal behind him as he lay along |
Under an oak whose antique root peeps out |
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood! |
To the which place a poor sequest'red stag, |
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, |
Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, |
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans |
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat |
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears |
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose |
In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool, |
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, |
Stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook, |
Augmenting it with tears. |
DUKE SENIOR. But what said Jaques? |
Did he not moralize this spectacle? |
FIRST LORD. O, yes, into a thousand similes. |
First, for his weeping into the needless stream: |
'Poor deer,' quoth he 'thou mak'st a testament |
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more |
To that which had too much.' Then, being there alone, |
Left and abandoned of his velvet friends: |
''Tis right'; quoth he 'thus misery doth part |
The flux of company.' Anon, a careless herd, |
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him |
And never stays to greet him. 'Ay,' quoth Jaques |
'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; |
'Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look |
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?' |
Thus most invectively he pierceth through |
The body of the country, city, court, |
Yea, and of this our life; swearing that we |
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse, |
To fright the animals, and to kill them up |
In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. |
DUKE SENIOR. And did you leave him in this contemplation? |
SECOND LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and commenting |
Upon the sobbing deer. |
DUKE SENIOR. Show me the place; |
I love to cope him in these sullen fits, |
For then he's full of matter. |
FIRST LORD. I'll bring you to him straight. Exeunt |
SCENE II. |
The DUKE'S palace |
Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with LORDS |
FREDERICK. Can it be possible that no man saw them? |
It cannot be; some villains of my court |
Are of consent and sufferance in this. |
FIRST LORD. I cannot hear of any that did see her. |
The ladies, her attendants of her chamber, |
Saw her abed, and in the morning early |
They found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress. |
SECOND LORD. My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft |
Your Grace was wont to laugh, is also missing. |
Hisperia, the Princess' gentlewoman, |
Confesses that she secretly o'erheard |
Your daughter and her cousin much commend |
The parts and graces of the wrestler |
That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles; |
And she believes, wherever they are gone, |
That youth is surely in their company. |
FREDERICK. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither. |
If he be absent, bring his brother to me; |
I'll make him find him. Do this suddenly; |
And let not search and inquisition quail |
To bring again these foolish runaways. Exeunt |
SCENE III. |
Before OLIVER'S house |
Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting |
ORLANDO. Who's there? |
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