“Under the Green Tree, or the Mellstock Choir” is an essay by Thomas Hardy from the collection “Novels of Ingenuity and Experiment”. The first part of the title is a line from William Shakespeare’s comedy “As You Like It.” This rural idyll is a family memoir, Hardy's impressions, written with humor and very poetic. The heroes of the novel are “copied from life”: the church orchestra was founded by the writer’s grandfather, who played in it until the last day of his life. “If you look closely at the farce, you will see tragedy; and, conversely, if you close your eyes to the deep problems of tragedy, you will see a farce.” T. Hardy