This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene

Wherein we play in.

JAQUES

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big, manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange, eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Enter Orlando bearing Adam

DUKE SENIOR

Welcome. Set down your venerable burden

And let him feed.

ORLANDO I thank you most for him.

ADAM So had you need;

I scarce can speak to thank you for myself.

DUKE SENIOR

Welcome. Fall to. I will not trouble you

As yet to question you about your fortunes.

Give us some music, and, good cousin, sing.

[amiens] (sings)

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude.

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Hey-ho, sing hey-ho, unto the green holly.

Most friendship is feigning, most loving, mere folly.

Then hey-ho, the holly;

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot.

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not.

Hey-ho, sing hey-ho, unto the green holly.

Most friendship is feigning, most loving, mere folly.

Then hey-ho, the holly;

This life is most jolly.

DUKE SENIOR (to Orlando)

If that you were the good Sir Rowland’s son,

As you have whispered faithfully you were,

And as mine eye doth his effigies witness

Most truly limned and living in your face,

Be truly welcome hither. I am the Duke

That loved your father. The residue of your fortune,

Go to my cave and tell me. (To Adam) Good old man,

Thou art right welcome, as thy master is.—

(To Lords) Support him by the arm. (To Orlando) Give

me your hand,

And let me all your fortunes understand. Exeunt

3.1 Enter Duke Frederick, Lords, and Oliver

DUKE FREDERICK

Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be.

But were I not the better part made mercy,

I should not seek an absent argument

Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it:

Find out thy brother wheresoe’er he is.

Seek him with candle. Bring him, dead or living,

Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more

To seek a living in our territory.

Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine

Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands

Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother’s mouth

Of what we think against thee.

OLIVER

O that your highness knew my heart in this.

I never loved my brother in my life.

DUKE FREDERICK

More villain thou. (To Lords) Well, push him out of

doors,

And let my officers of such a nature

Make an extent upon his house and lands.

Do this expediently, and turn him going.

Exeunt severally

3.2 Enter Orlando with a paper

ORLANDO

Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love;

And thou thrice-crowned queen of night, survey

With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,

Thy huntress’ name that my full life doth sway.

O Rosalind, these trees shall be my books,

And in their barks my thoughts I’ll character

That every eye which in this forest looks

Shall see thy virtue witnessed everywhere.

Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree

The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. Exit

Enter Corin and Touchstone the clown

CORIN And how like you this shepherd’s life, Master Touchstone?

TOUCHSTONE Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd’s life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?