Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

IN THE FOREST

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, one of the greatest dramatic poets that ever lived, was born at Stratford, England, in 1564. He was an actor as well as a writer of plays. Many of his stories were frankly taken from other writers, but the beauty and power of his plays are all his own. A great German critic said of him, "Never was there such a wide talent for the 5 drawing of character as Shakespeare's." This king of poets died in 1616. Among his greatest plays are "Hamlet," " Macbeth," "King Lear," "Julius Cæsar," and Romeo and Juliet."

66

66

NOTE. This selection is taken from one of the most charming of Shakespeare's plays, "As You Like It." The scene is laid in France in 10 the forest of Arden (Ardennes), but undoubtedly Shakespeare describes the English forest of Arden, which was near his own home.

A duke whose rights have been usurped by his brother, is living in exile in the forest of Arden. With him are two lords, Amiens and Jaques, and a few other noblemen.

[Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and other LORDS, in the
dress of 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 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

15

20

"This is no flattery: these are counselors That feelingly persuade me what I am." Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

5 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.

Amiens.

Happy is your grace,

10 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,

15 Should in their own confines with forkèd 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
Than doth your brother that hath banished you.

20 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,
25 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
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,
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;

[blocks in formation]

"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 abandoned of his velvet friends,

15

""Tis right," quoth he; "thus misery doth part The flux of company:" anon a careless herd, Full of the pasture, jumps along by him

look

And never stays to greet him; "Ay," quoth Jaques,
"Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;
'Tis just the fashion: wherefore do you
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

[blocks in formation]

5

Are mere usurpers, tyrants and what's worse,
To fright the animals and to kill them up,

In their assigned and native dwelling-place.

Duke S. And did you leave him in this contemplation? Second 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.

First Lord. I'll bring you to him straight.

Jaques (jac ́wes): two syllables are demanded by the meter. - a precious jewel: it was believed for a long time that the toad carried in his head a stone possessed of magical power.- kill us venison: kill venison for ourselves.-irks: vexes. - burghers: citizens. Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out notice how Shakespeare in a single line describes an oak of many centuries' growth. - th' needless stream: the stream which needed no more. - testament: will. left and abandoned of: in Shakespeare's time of was sometimes used for by. velvet delicate. Velvet is the name given to the outer covering of the horns of a stag in the early stages of their growth. cope him: encounter him. — matter: good sense. straight straightway, immediately. See Act III, Scene V, line 142, of this same play, "I'll write it straight"; and also Hamlet," Act V, Scene I, line 4, "therefore make her grave straight."

66

THE FIRST FOURTH-OF-JULY CELEBRATION1

JOHN BACH MCMASTER

JOHN BACH MCMASTER (1852- ) is an American historian.

Philadelphia was the first large city to receive the news [of the adoption of the Constitution], and there the popular rejoicings put on a more impressive form. It was instantly determined that the coming 4th of July should be made the occasion for a great display of Federal spirit.

Not a moment was wasted, and by the night of the 3d all was ready. The pavements had been swept, the trees had been lopped. Ten ships had been procured, 10 dressed in bunting and anchored in the Delaware, one at the foot of every street from North Liberties to South Street. They were typical of the ten ratifying states.

As the first rays of the morning sun came over the eastern bank of the Delaware, the ship Rising Sun, which 15 lay at the foot of Market Street, fired a national salute, the bells of Christ Church rang out, and each of the ten vessels on the river ran up to her masthead a broad white flag which, spread by a stiff breeze from the south, displayed the name of the commonwealth for which she stood.

1 From "A History of the People of the United States." Copyright, 1883, by D. Appleton & Co.

20

« AnteriorContinuar »