The Forest of Arden

Well, I come home to find a hammer stuck in the cedar tree in the door--workmen have installed two bunkbeds, four beds!, in the room across the alcove, and came into mine clearing a few things off the empty bed. (New roommate soon, and the room across the alcove is now a "bunkhouse" room. )

I found this frog I was looking for...see Fauna Flora post. And got to googling jeweled frogs from an old recollection in my readings. Some Shakespeare....

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

'This is no flattery: these are counsellors

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

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones and good in every thing.

I would not change it.

As You Like It
Act 2 Scene 1


In The Forest of Arden John Collier 1892

DavidDavid

Tree in the Door

June 9, 2007