The first scene of Act II is set at the Forest of Ardenne, where the banished Duke Senior is living with several of his lords. Duke Senior comments to his lords that life in the uncivilized woods is actually better (“more sweet” at line 2) than life in the dukedom. He then begins to contrast the two types of living. In several of his plays Shakespeare contrasts country and city life, and he usually portrays country life as having several distinct advantages over life in the city. Essentially, country life is natural where city life is artificial. Duke Senior uses the expression “painted pomp” to describe the artificiality of the city (at line 3). In the city the residents look at artificial beauty that copies the beauty of nature, but in the country the residents see the true splendor and beauty of nature itself.
The artificiality of the city affects the residents there: “the envious court” (4). In the city people struggle and contend with one another and become envious and devious as they attempt to outmaneuver and defeat their competitors. Of course, Shakespeare has already shown examples of such behavior with the mean-spirited characters of Duke Frederick and Oliver de Bois. Such struggle and conflict and such envious behavior, the Duke is implying, is absent in the woods. The forest (nature)