And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, 8
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, 12
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, 16
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
Ami. I would not change it. Happy is your Grace,
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style. 20
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 24
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. 28
To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him as he lay along
Under an oak whose antic root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood; 32
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
7 churlish: rough, violent
chiding: angry noise
13 toad; cf. n.
15 haunt: resort
18 I . . . it; cf. n.
20 style: manner of life
22 fools: here a term of pity
23 desert; cf. n.
24 confines: regions
forked heads: i.e., the heads of barbed arrows
27 in that kind: in that way
30 along: at full length
31 antic: fantastic, grotesque, or antique
32 brawls: i.e., the noise made by a brook flowing over stones
33 sequester'd: separated, i.e., from the herd
