As You Like It Iiv

< ===Act II. Scene I.===
< [[As You Like It Iiii|<<]]
< [[As You Like It -- by William Shakespeare|As You Like It]]
< [[As You Like It Iv|>>]]
< :::
< Act II. Scene I—The Forest of Arden.
< Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other Lords,
< like Foresters.
< Duke S. Now, my co-mates and brothers in
< exile,
< 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 but 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 every thing.
< I would not change it
< Ami. Happy is your Grace,
< That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
< Into so quiet and so sweet a style.
< Duke S. 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 sequestered stag,
< That from the hunters' 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 the extremest verge of the swift brook,
< Augmenting it with tears.
< Duke S. 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 abandon'd 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 S. And did you leave him in this con-
< templation?
< Sec. Lord. We did, my lord, weeping and
< commenting
< Upon the sobbing deer.
< Duke S. Show me the place.
< I love to cope him in these sullen fits,
< For then he's full of matter.
< Sec. Lord. I'll bring you to him straight.
< [Exeunt.
< :::
< [[As You Like It Iiii|<<]]
< [[As You Like It -- by William Shakespeare|As You Like It]]
< [[As You Like It Iv|>>]]