Page:As You Like It (1919) Yale.djvu/97

As You Like It, IV. iii

Within an hour; and, pacing through the forest,

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,

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,

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,

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.

Cel. O! I have heard him speak of that same brother;

And he did render him the most unnatural

That liv'd 'mongst men.

Oli.And well he might so do,

For well I know he was unnatural.

Ros. But, to Orlando: did he leave him there,

Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?

Oli. Twice did he turn his back and purpos'd so;

 104 threw aside: directed his eye to one side

110 gilded: i.e., of a golden color

113 unlink'd: uncoiled

114 indented glides: i.e., gliding in a zigzag line

117 couching: crouched for a spring

119 royal; cf. n.

124 render: describe 