607Duk.Sen. Now my Coe-mates, and brothers in exile:

608Hath not old custome made this life more sweete

609Then that of painted pompe? Are not these woods

610More free from perill then the enuious Court?

611Heere feele we not the penaltie of Adam,

612The seasons difference, as the Icie phange

613And churlish chiding of the winters winde,

614Which when it bites and blowes vpon my body

615Euen till I shrinke with cold, I smile, and say

616This is no flattery: these are counsellors

617That feelingly perswade me what I am:

618Sweet are the vses of aduersitie

619Which like the toad, ougly and venemous,

620Weares yet a precious Iewell in his head:

621And this our life exempt from publike haunt,

622Findes tongues in trees, bookes in the running brookes,

623Sermons in stones, and good in euery thing.

624Amien. I would not change it, happy is your Grace

625That can translate the stubbornnesse of fortune

626Into so quiet and so sweet a stile.

627 Du.Sen. Come, shall we goe and kill vs venison?

628And yet it irkes me the poore dapled fooles

629Being natiue Burgers of this desert City,

630Should in their owne confines with forked heads

631Haue their round hanches goard.

6321. Lord. Indeed my Lord

633The melancholy Iaques grieues at that,

634And in that kinde sweares you doe more vsurpe

635Then doth your brother that hath banish'd you:

636To day my Lord of Amiens, and my selfe,

637Did steale behinde him as he lay along

638Vnder an oake, whose anticke roote peepes out

639Vpon the brooke that brawles along this wood,

640To the which place a poore sequestred Stag

641That from the Hunters aime had tane a hurt,

642Did come to languish; and indeed my Lord

643The wretched annimall heau'd forth such groanes

644That their discharge did stretch his leatherne coat

645Almost to bursting, and the big round teares

646Cours'd one another downe his innocent nose

647In pitteous chase: and thus the hairie foole,

648Much marked of the melancholie Iaques,

649Stood on th'extremest verge of the swift brooke,

650Augmenting it with teares.

651Du.Sen. But what said Iaques?

652Did he not moralize this spectacle?

6531. Lord. O yes, into a thousand similies.

654First, for his weeping into the needlesse streame;

655Poore Deere quoth he, thou mak'st a testament

656As worldlings doe, giuing thy sum of more

657To that which had too must: then being there alone,

658Left and abandoned of his veluet friend;

659'Tis right quoth he, thus miserie doth part

660The Fluxe of companie: anon a carelesse Heard

661Full of the pasture, iumps along by him

662And neuer staies to greet him: I quoth Iaques,

663Sweepe on you fat and greazie Citizens,

664'Tis iust the fashion; wherefore doe you looke

665Vpon that poore and broken bankrupt there?

666Thus most inuectiuely he pierceth through

667The body of Countrie, Citie, Court,

668Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we

669Are meere vsurpers, tyrants, and whats worse

670To fright the Annimals, and to kill them vp

671In their assign'd and natiue dwelling place.

672D.Sen. And did you leaue him in this contemplation?

6732.Lord. We did my Lord, weeping and commenting

674Vpon the sobbing Deere.

675Du.Sen. Show me the place,

676I loue to cope him in these sullen fits,

677For then he's full of matter.