Shakespeare Quotes

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Amiens:
"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;"

The good Duke Senior and his men have been banished to the woods, and revel in the delights of nature as opposed to the treachery of life in the court. While nature may be difficult and harsh, it is never evil or deliberately cruel. Amiens sings this song, which comes at the end of the same scene in which Jaques has delivered his infamous "All The World's A Stage" soliloquy. Here, Amiens compares Nature to Man, the latter unkind: "most friendship is feigning, most loving is folly." Nature may produce freezing weather, Amiens sings, but "that dost not bite so nigh as benefits forgot: Though thou waters warp, they sting is not so sharp as friend remember'd not."

Themes: friendship, nature

Speakers: Amiens