<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
Shakespeare 's As You Like It