<P> Under the Greenwood Tree : A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy , published anonymously in 1872 . It was Hardy 's second published novel , the last to be printed without his name , and the first of his great series of Wessex novels . Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire , he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare 's As You Like It ( Act II , Scene V ) . </P>
<P> Under the Greenwood Tree : A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy , published anonymously in 1872 . It was Hardy 's second published novel , the last to be printed without his name , and the first of his great series of Wessex novels . Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire , he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare 's As You Like It ( Act II , Scene V ) . </P>
from which play is the song under the green wood tree extracted
from which play is the song under the green wood tree extracted
Shakespeare 's As You Like It
Shakespeare 's As You Like It