ukedoms as
they were called), there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper,
who, had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke.

The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few
faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke
lived with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary
exile for his sake, while their lands and revenues enriched the false
usurper; and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here
more sweet to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's
life. Here they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this
forest many noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet
the time carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the
summer they lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees,
marking the playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of
these poor dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of
the forest, that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply
themselves with venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter
made the duke feel the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure
it patiently, and say, "These chilling winds which blow upon my body,
are true counsellors, they do not flatter, but represent truly to me
my condition; and though they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing
like so keen as that of unkindness and ingratitude. I find that,
howsoever men speak against adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be
extracted from it; like the jewel, precious for medicine, which is
taken from the head of the venomous and despised toad." In this manner
did the patient duke draw an useful moral from everything that he saw;
and by the help of this moralising turn, in that life of his, remote
from public haunts, he could find tongues in trees, books in the
running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the
usurper, duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained
in his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia. A strict
friendship subsisted between these ladies, which the disagreement
between their fathers did not in the least interrupt, Celia striving
by every kindness in her power to make amends to Rosalind for the
injustice of her own father in deposing the father of Rosalind;
and whenever the thoughts of her father's banishment, and her