Quote 1
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,
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 everything.
(II.i.1–17)
These lines, spoken by Duke Senior upon
his introduction in Act II, scene i, establish the pastoral mode
of the play. With great economy, Shakespeare draws a dividing line
between the “painted pomp” of court—with perils great enough to
drive the duke and his followers into exile—and the safe and restorative
Forest of Ardenne (II.i.3). The woods are
romanticized, as they typically are in pastoral literature, and
the mood is set for the remainder of the play. Although perils may
present themselves, they remain distant, and, in the end, there
truly is “good in everything” (II.i.17).
This passage, more than any other in the play, presents the conceits
of the pastoral mode. Here, the corruptions of life at court are
left behind in order to learn the simple and valuable lessons of
the country. Shakespeare highlights the educational, edifying, and
enlightening nature of this foray into the woods by employing language
that invokes the classroom, the library, and the church: in the
trees, brooks, and stones surrounding him, the duke finds tongues,
books, and sermons. As is his wont, Shakespeare goes on to complicate
the literary conventions upon which he depends. His shepherds and
shepherdesses, for instance, ultimately prove too lovesick or dim-witted
to dole out the kind of wisdom the pastoral form demands of them,
but for now Shakespeare merely sets up the opposition between city
and country that provides the necessary tension to drive his story
forward.
