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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 cat-like 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 amongst 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.