Page 1984 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Within an hour; and pacing through the forest, [100]
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo what befell! He threw his eye aside,
And mark what object did present itself.

Under an old oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age
And high top bald with dry antiquity, [105]
A wretched ragged man, o’ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck

A green and gilded snake had wreath’d itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approach’d
The opening of his mouth. But suddenly [110]
Seeing Orlando, it unlink’d itself,

And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush, under which bush’s shade
A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,
Lay couching head on ground, with catlike watch [115]

When that the sleeping man should stir; for ’tis
The royal disposition of that beast
To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.
This seen, Orlando did approach the man,

And found it was his brother, his elder brother. [120]

CELIA
O I have heard him speak of that same brother,
And he did render him the most unnatural
That liv’d amongst men.

OLIVER
And well he might so do,

For well I know he was unnatural.

ROSALIND
But to Orlando. Did he leave him there, [125]
Food to the suck’d and hungry lioness?

OLIVER
Twice did he turn his back, and purpos’d so.
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,