OLIVER.  When last the young Orlando parted from you,  He left a promise to return again  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 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.

When Last the Young Orlando Parted From You

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1381
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As You Like It
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