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- Act 2 Scene 1
-
- Duke Senior and the lords who share his exile take
- pleasure in their country life. The duke comments
- on the lessons he learns from nature, and one of the
- lords tells how Jaques, too, finds moral teaching in
- the death of a stag.
- 1 co-mates: companions.
- 2 old custom: familiarity.
- 3 painted pomp: artificial splendour.
- 6 as: such as.
- 11 feelingly persuade me: teach me through
- my senses.
- 13 toad. The Elizabethans believed that toads
- were poisonous, but that they had a stone in their
- heads which could act as an antidote to the poison.
- 15 exempt from public haunt: free from
- interruption by all sorts of people.
- 20 style: i.e. of living.
- 22 irks me: distresses me.
- fools: simple creatures.
- 23 burghers: citizens.
- 24 confines: territories.
- forked heads: arrows.
- 27 in that kind: on that subject.
- 30 along: alongside.
- 31 antic: ancient.
- 32 brawls: chatters (imitating the sound of
- the stream).
- 33 the which: this.
- sequestered: separated from the herd.
- 40 piteous: pitiful.
- 41 Much marked of: closely observed by.
- 43 Augmenting: adding to.
- 45 similes: comparisons.
- 46 needless: i.e. not needing more water.
- 47 testament: will.
- 48 worldlings: worldly creatures ù i.e. men.
- 48 Giving more to the people who already
- have too much.
- 50 of: by.
- velvet friend: velvet-coated family (it is the stag
- that has been abandoned).
- 51 The sight of unhappiness turns away the
- stream (ôfluxö) of fellowship.
- 52 anon: presently.
- careless: carefree.
- 53 Full of the pasture: well-fed.
- 56 ÆTis just the fashion: thatÆs exactly how it
- is.
- 61 mere: no more than.
- and whatÆs worse: and things that are still worse.
- 62 kill them up: kill them all off.
- 63 assigned: appointed (by God).
- 65 commenting: moralizing.
- 67 cope: debate with.
- 68 matter: ideas.
- straight: immediately.
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