All 3 Uses of
brief
in
As You Like It
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- No; Tongues I'll hang on every tree That shall civil sayings show: Some, how brief the life of man Runs his erring pilgrimage, That the streching of a span Buckles in his sum of age.†
Scene 3.2
- When from the first to last, betwixt us two, Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd, As, how I came into that desert place;— In brief, he led me to the gentle duke, Who gave me fresh array and entertainment, Committing me unto my brother's love, Who led me instantly unto his cave, There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm The lioness had torn some flesh away, Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted, And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.†
Scene 4.3 *
- Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound, And, after some small space, being strong at heart, He sent me hither, stranger as I am, To tell this story, that you might excuse His broken promise, and to give this napkin, Dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd-youth That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.†
Scene 4.3
Definition:
-
(meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) Brief is most commonly encountered as an adjective meaning "of short duration." Other meanings derive from the idea of short--as when making a long story short by summarizing it, or when wearing briefs (underwear).