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?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, 5
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 counselors 10
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, 15
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. AMIENS
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 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 forkèd heads
Have their round haunches gored. | Back at the forest Duke Senior and his band of merry men are getting ready to hunt for some dinner. Duke Senior strikes us as a "glass is half-full" kind of guy—he says he loves the forest (even though it's harsh and cold) because the people in it aren't a bunch of backstabbing phonies like those at court. In fact, says the Duke, despite the lousy weather, the forest is like paradise on earth to him. Being a philosopher has made Duke Senior hungry and he's craving venison (deer) for dinner. Still, he says he feels a little bad about invading the deer's turf and killing them. |
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 banished you.
Today my Lord of Amiens and myself 30
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 hunter’s aim had ta’en a hurt 35
Did come to languish. And indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose 40
In piteous chase. And thus the hairy fool,
Much markèd of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on th’ extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears. DUKE SENIOR But what said Jaques? 45
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 50
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, 55
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?” 60
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of 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 65
In their assigned 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. 70
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. They exit. | One of the Lords hanging out with the Duke mentions that a guy named Jaques hates deer hunting too. The Lord says that he and another lord observed Jaques crying over a deer that had been injured but not killed by a hunter. They listened as Jaques lamented that the forest belongs to the animals, which were there first, and that to kill them is to be no better than the usurping Duke Frederick who stole Duke Senior's kingdom. (Check out "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" for more on this deer business.) The Duke, hearing of Jaques's lamentations, says he'd like to go and see the guy, because it's fun to talk with him when he's in this profound melancholy state (which, it turns out, is always). |