The Birds of Shakespeare 
named it after his own “ Forest of Arden’ 
in Warwickshire. He transports us to a 
> 
green woodland, interspersed with copses 
of hawthorns and brambles, revealing 
grassy glades among venerable trees, where 
flocks of sheep and goats are pasturing, 
while here and there we catch sight of a 
quiet herd of deer. We meet, too, with 
shepherds and foresters, and come upon a 
cottage near the rank osiers by a murmur- 
ing stream. Now and then our attention 
is drawn to some specially picturesque 
feature in the timber of the forest, such as 
“an oak whose antique root peeps out 
upon the brook that brawls along the 
wood.” Or we are halted 
Under an oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age, 
And high top bald with dry antiquity.” 
And there are smooth-stemmed beech- 
trees, on the massive trunks of which a 
love-sick swain may carve the name of 
his beloved. 
ee ae 2 AIHA. TOs. 
14 
