One more Shakespeare quote today, this one from As You Like It. I have a surprising number of quotes in my commonplace book from this play, some humorous and some contemplative. I love how the exiled Duke expresses contentment with his lot in this passage:
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 pubilc haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in everything.
I would not change it.
So delightful!