| ACT IISCENE I | The Forest of Arden. | |
| | Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and two or three Lords,like foresters | |
| DUKE SENIOR | 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? | 5 |
| | 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 | 10 |
| | '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; | 15 |
| | 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. | |
| AMIENS | Happy is your grace, | 20 |
| | 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, | 25 |
| | Should in their own confines with forked heads | |
| | Have their round haunches gored. | |
| First Lord | Indeed, my lord, | |
| | The melancholy Jaques grieves at that, | |
| | And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp | 30 |
| | 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: | 35 |
| | To the which place a poor sequester'd stag, | |
| | That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, | |
| | Did come to languish, and indeed, my lord, | |
| | The wretched animal heaved forth such groans | |
| | That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat | 40 |
| | Almost to bursting, and the big round tears | |
| | Coursed 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, | 45 |
| | 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; | 50 |
| | 'Poor deer,' quoth he, 'thou makest 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 | 55 |
| | 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 | 60 |
| | 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, | 65 |
| | 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. | 70 |
| 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 | |
