As you like it

Act 1 Scene 1 pages 3-4 lines 1-27

ORLANDO ORLANDO
As I remember, Adam, it was upon this I remember, Adam, that’s exactly why
fashion bequeathed me by will but poor my father only left me a thousand
a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, crowns in his will. And as you know, my
charged my brother on his blessing to father commanded my brother, Oliver, to
breed me well. And there begins my make sure that I was brought up well—
sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps and that’s where my sadness begins.
at school, and report speaks goldenly of Oliver keeps my brother Jaques away at
his profit. For my part, he keeps me school, and everyone says he’s doing
rustically at home or, to speak more extremely well there. But he keeps me at
properly, stays me here at home unkept; home in the country—to be precise, he
for call you that “keeping” for a keeps me stuck at home but doesn’t
gentleman of my birth that differs not support me. I ask you, is this any way to
from the stalling of an ox? His horses treat a gentleman as nobly born as I am,
are bred better, for, besides that they to pen me in like an ox? His horses get
are fair with their feeding, they are treated better than I do—at least he
taught their manage and, to that end, feeds them and trains them properly,
riders dearly hired. But I, his brother, and spends a lot of money on trainers for
gain nothing under him but growth, for them. All I’ve gained from his care is
the which his animals on his dunghills weight, which makes me as indebted to
are as much bound to him as I. Besides him as his animals on the manure pile
this nothing that he so plentifully gives are. He gives me plenty of nothing, and
me, the something that nature gave me takes away everything else, letting me
his countenance seems to take from eat with his servants, refusing me what’s
me. He lets me feed with his hinds, bars owed me as his brother, and ruining my
me the place of a brother, and, as much good birth with a poor education. This is
as in him lies, mines my gentility with my what angers me, Adam. My father’s
education. This is it, Adam, that grieves temper and spirit, which I think I share,
me, and the spirit of my father, which I makes me want to mutiny against my
think is within me, begins to mutiny brother’s tyranny. I won’t stand for it any
against this servitude. I will no longer longer, though I haven’t yet figured out
endure it, though yet I know no wise how to revolt.
remedy how to avoid it.
Enter OLIVER OLIVER enters.
ADAM ADAM
Yonder comes my master, your brother. Here comes my master, your brother.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear Go hide, Adam, and you’ll hear how he
how he will shake me up. abuses me.
OLIVER OLIVER
2 Now, sir, what make you here? Hey, you! What are you making here?
5
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Nothing. I am not taught to make Nothing. I’ve never been taught how to
anything. make anything.
 OLIVER OLIVER
What mar you then, sir? Well, then, what are you messing up?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that I’m helping you mess up one of God’s
which God made, a poor unworthy creations—your poor, unworthy brother
brother of yours, with idleness. —by having him do nothing.
OLIVER OLIVER
3 Marry, sir, be better employed, and be Indeed, sir, find something better to do
0 naught awhile. and get lost for a while.
Orlando, the youngest son of the recently deceased Sir Rowland de Bois, describes
his unfortunate state of affairs to Adam, Sir Rowland’s loyal former servant. Upon his
father’s death, Orlando was bequeathed a mere 1,000crowns, a paltry sum for a
young man of his social background. His only hope for advancement is if his brother,
Oliver, honors their father’s wish and provides him with a decent education. Oliver,
as the eldest son, inherited virtually everything in his father’s estate, yet he not only
neglects this charge but actively disobeys it. Although he arranges for his other
brother, Jaques, to attend school, Oliver refuses to allow Orlando any education
whatsoever, leaving the young man to lament that his upbringing is little different
from the treatment of a piece of livestock. Orlando has long borne this ill treatment,
but he admits to Adam that he feels rising within himself a great resentment against
his servile condition and vows that he will no longer endure it.
Oliver enters, and the hostility between the brothers soon boils over into violence.
Orlando claims that the system that allows the eldest son to inherit the bulk of a
father’s estate does not reduce the ancestral blood in the other sons. Oliver,
offended by his brother’s insolence, assails Orlando, while Orlando seizes Oliver by
the throat
Shakespeare begins his play with a pair of dueling brothers, an amendment of his
source material—Thomas Lodge’s popular prose romance, Rosalynde—that allows
him to establish, with great economy, the corrupt nature of so-called civilized life.
Oliver’s mistreatment of his brother spurs Orlando to journey into the curative Forest
of Ardenne as surely as Frederick’s actions did his own brother Duke Senior, which
immediately locates the play in the pastoral tradition: those wounded by life at court
seek the restorative powers of the country. But fraternal hostilities are also deeply
biblical and resonate with the story of Cain’s murder of Abel, an act that confirmed
mankind’s delivery from paradise into a world of malignity and harm. The injustice of
Oliver’s refusal to educate or otherwise share his fortune with Orlando seems all the
more outrageous because it is perfectly legal. The practice of primogeniture
stipulated that the eldest son inherits the whole of his father’s estate so that estates
would not fragment into smaller parcels. Primogeniture was not mandated by law in
Shakespeare’s England, but it was a firmly entrenched part of traditional English
custom. With such a system governing society, inequality, greed, and animosity
become unfortunate inevitabilities, and many younger sons in Shakespeare’s time
would have shared Orlando’s resentment.
In this opening scene, Shakespeare begins to muse on another theme common in
pastoral literature: the origins of gentleness. As scholar Jean E. Howard makes clear
in her introduction to the play, “gentleness” refers to both nobility and a virtuous
nature (p. 1591). Elizabethans were supremely interested in whether this quality
could be achieved or whether one had to be born with it, and Orlando shows himself
to be a man of the times. Though Oliver has denied him all forms of education and
noble living, Orlando nonetheless has a desire for gentleness. As he assails Oliver,
he claims that his “gentleman-like qualities” have been obscured, but feels confident
that he could develop them still (I.i.59). Of course, Oliver’s behavior suggests that
gentleness has little to do with being born into nobility. Though he has the vast
majority of his father’s estate at his fingertips, he proves lacking in the generosity
and grace that would make him a true gentleman. The audience, then, looks
optimistically to Orlando, who vows to go find his fortune on his own.
Act 2 Scene 1 pages 35-37 lines 1-43

Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and two or

two or threeLORDS, like foresters threeLORDS enter, dressed like foresters.
DUKE SENIOR DUKE SENIOR
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Now, my companions and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more hasn’t experience made this simple life
sweet sweeter than a life of glittery pomp and
Than that of painted pomp? Are not circumstance? Aren’t these woods less
these woods perilous than the court, with all its
More free from peril than the envious jealousies and intrigues? Out here we feel
court? the changing of the seasons, but we’re not
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, bothered by it. When the icy fangs of the
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang brutal, scolding wind bite and blow on my
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind, body, even though I’m shivering with cold, I
Which, when it bites and blows upon my can appreciate the weather’s honesty. I
body, smile and think, “Thank goodness the wind
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and doesn’t flatter me: it’s like a councilor who
say, makes me feel what I’m really made of.”
“This is no flattery. These are counselors Adversity can have its benefits—like the
That feelingly persuade me what I am.” ugly, poisonoustoad that wears a precious
Sweet are the uses of adversity, jewel in its forehead. In this life, far away
Which, like the toad, ugly and from the civilized world, we can hear the
venomous, language of the trees, read the books of
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. the running streams, hear sermons in the
And this our life, exempt from public stones, and discover the good in every
haunt, single thing.
Finds tongues in trees, books in the
running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in
everything.
AMIENS AMIENS
I would not change it. Happy is your I wouldn’t change my situation for anything.
Grace, You’re lucky, my lord, to be able to see the
That can translate the stubbornness of peace and sweetness even in what bad
fortune luck has brought you.
Into so quiet and so sweet a style.
DUKE SENIOR DUKE SENIOR
Come, shall we go and kill us venison? Come, shall we hunt some deer for dinner?
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, It bothers me, though, that these poor
Being native burghers of this desert city, spotted innocents, who, after all, are this
Should in their own confines with forkèd deserted city’s native citizens, should be
heads gouged with arrows.
Have their round haunches gored.

FIRST LORD FIRST LORD

Indeed, my lord, Indeed, my lord, the gloomy Jaques
The melancholy Jaques grieves at that, grieves over these deaths. He swears
 And in that kind swears you do more usurp that when you kill the deer, you’re a
Than doth your brother that hath banished worse usurper than your brother was for
you. banishing you. Today, Lord Amiens and
Today my Lord of Amiens and myself I followed Jaques. We saw him lie down
Did steal behind him as he lay along along a brook under an oak tree whose
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out ancient roots peeked out from the earth.
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood, A poor, lonely stag who had been hurt
To the which place a poor sequestered stag by a hunter’s arrow came to rest there,
That from the hunter’s aim had ta'en a hurt where he heaved such heavy groans
Did come to languish. And indeed, my lord, that the effort seemed to stretch his hide
The wretched animal heaved forth such to bursting. Big, round tears ran
groans piteously down the animal’s innocent
That their discharge did stretch his leathern nose. The hairy fool, watched closely by
coat sad Jaques, stood on the very edge of
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears the brook, adding his own tears to the
Coursed one another down his innocent streaming water.
nose
In piteous chase. And thus the hairy fool,
Much markèd of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on th' extremest verge of the swift
brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

Why Jaques (Antonio, Hamlet) is a melancholic character?

Commentary from class
He is world weary and does not like this world; he is in the middle of love stories and he is a
misfit; with his famous speech `all the world is a stage` he shows his pessimistic view of
human nature; For example, in the above scene we can see that Jaques is lamenting the
animal and he is very touched by this sight; Jaques is the only one to see that all people
from the court are destroying the life in the Forest of Arden. This speech is the most famous
example of the character type of Jaques.

Sparknotes- analyses of the speech introducing the first sight of Forest of Arden
These lines, spoken by Duke Senior upon his introduction in Act II, scene i, establish
the pastoral mode of the play. With great economy, Shakespeare draws a dividing
line between the “painted pomp” of court—with perils great enough to drive the duke
and his followers into exile—and the safe and restorative Forest of Ardenne (II.i.3).
The woods are romanticized, as they typically are in pastoral literature, and the
mood is set for the remainder of the play. Although perils may present themselves,
they remain distant, and, in the end, there truly is “good in everything” (II.i.17). This
passage, more than any other in the play, presents the conceits of the pastoral
mode. Here, the corruptions of life at court are left behind in order to learn the simple
and valuable lessons of the country. Shakespeare highlights the educational,
edifying, and enlightening nature of this foray into the woods by employing language
that invokes the classroom, the library, and the church: in the trees, brooks, and
stones surrounding him, the duke finds tongues, books, and sermons. As is his wont,
Shakespeare goes on to complicate the literary conventions upon which he depends.
His shepherds and shepherdesses, for instance, ultimately prove too lovesick or dim-
witted to dole out the kind of wisdom the pastoral form demands of them, but for now
Shakespeare merely sets up the opposition between city and country that provides
the necessary tension to drive his story forward.

Pastoral literature makes a clear distinction between the quality of life and benefits of
living in the city versus the country. The stresses of the former, this genre
romantically suggests, may be healed by the charms of the latter; thus Act II
introduces us to the Forest of Ardenne after we witness characters undergo
banishment from courtly life. Although supposedly situated in France, Shakespeare’s
forest bears closer resemblance to the fantastical getaway of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream than to any identifiable geography. It may not be overrun with mischievous
fairies and sprites, but it serves the function of correcting what has gone wrong with
the everyday world. However, even with that purpose in mind, Ardenne is no Eden.
Though Duke Frederick praises the forest as preferable to the artificial ceremony of
the court, he takes care to describe its hardships. With its wild animals and erratic
weather, Ardenne can hardly be called a paradise, and at the same time the duke
celebrates Ardenne, he also draws attention to the difference between that forest
and Eden or the Golden Age.

Summary and analyses of the speech on Jack lamenting the animal

Jaques, a stock character who represents the melancholy brooder, suggests a more
troubling reason for the temporary nature of the forest’s pristine state and restorative
powers. Man, he suggests, will sooner or later mar the forest’s beauty. Grieved by
the killing of the deer, Jaques claims that Duke Senior is guiltier of usurpation than
his crown-robbing brother, Duke Frederick. According to Jaques, wherever men go,
they bring with them the possibility of the very perils that make life in the “envious
court” so unbearable
Act 2 Scene 7 page 63 lines 139-166

JAQUES JAQUES
All the world’s a stage, The whole world is a stage, and all the
And all the men and women merely players. men and women merely actors. They
They have their exits and their entrances, have their exits and their entrances, and
And one man in his time plays many parts, in his lifetime a man will play many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, his life separated into seven acts. In the
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. first act he is an infant, whimpering and
Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel puking in his nurse’s arms. Then he’s
And shining morning face, creeping like snail the whining schoolboy, with a book bag
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, and a bright, young face, creeping like a
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad snail unwillingly to school. Then he
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a becomes a lover, huffing and puffing like
soldier, a furnace as he writes sad poems about
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the his mistress’s eyebrows. In the fourth
pard, act, he’s a soldier, full of foreign curses,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in with a beard like a panther, eager to
quarrel, defend his honor and quick to fight.
Seeking the bubble reputation On the battlefield, he puts himself in
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the front of the cannon’s mouth, risking his
justice, life to seek fame that is as fleeting as a
In fair round belly with good capon lined, soap bubble. In the fifth act, he is a
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, judge, with a nice fat belly from all the
Full of wise saws and modern instances; bribes he’s taken. His eyes are stern,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts and he’s given his beard a respectable
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon cut. He’s full of wise sayings and up-to-
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, the-minute anecdotes: that’s the way he
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too plays his part. In the sixth act, the curtain
wide rises on a skinny old man in slippers,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly glasses on his nose and a money bag at
voice, his side. The stockings he wore in his
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes youth hang loosely on his shriveled legs
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, now, and his bellowing voice has shrunk
That ends this strange eventful history, back down to a childish squeak. In the
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, last scene of our play—the end of this
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans strange, eventful history—our hero, full
everything. of forgetfulness, enters his second
childhood: without teeth, without eyes,
without taste, without everything.

The favorite metaphor of the Elizabethan is presented in this speech and that is: ALL THE
WORLD IS A STAGE. According to Jaques pessimistic view of human nature each person goes
through seven stages in his human life:
1. The stage of an infant- mewling and puking (липајќи и повраќајки)
2. Schoolboy- unwilling to go to school, he is creeping like a snail (се влечка)
 3. Lover- he writes and sings songs to his mistress`s eyebrow- (mocked the style of
Petrarch who was in fashion of describing women in great details – from hair,
eyebrows, lips, chin and would stop at breast this techniques is known as
ITEMIZING (feminists respond to this that itemizing is a term used in heraldry –
heralds published codes of arms and described them in great details and feminists
believed that the features of woman`s face are ridiculed by itemizing. Jaques
ridicules this poetic tradition and he says that when we are in love we fall for
eyebrows .
4. Soldier- they seek for fame but fail to see that reputation is short-lived like a bubble
5. The justice- a judge- a local magistrate who enjoyed respect from the society; full of
wit- clever and always says some anecdotes; they are usually fat because they are
bribed
6. Old man- size changes- he has a weakened eyesight- spectacles; he becomes stingy-
leather bag kept next to him; and wears a well saved pantaloons; because he grows
thinner he looks like a slippered pantaloons; his voice also changes- he becomes
childlike
7. Skull- without anything

The speech tells two things about Jaques:

1. He is isolated and things that there is nothing to life- just exists and entrances
2. He is a misfit- a lonely man

His most impressive speech in the play begins with a familiar set piece in
Elizabethan drama: “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely
players” (II.vii.138–139). He goes on to describe the seven stages of a man’s life,
from infancy to death, through his roles as lover and soldier, but Jaques’s
observations may strike us as untrue or banal. His estimation that lovers sigh “like
furnace, with a woeful ballad / Made to his mistress’ eyebrow” is humorous, and it
certainly describes the kind of intemperate, undiscriminating affection that Silvius
shows to Phoebe, or Phoebe to Ganymede (II.vii.147–148). But the criticism seems
ill-suited to a play as aware and forgiving of love’s silliness as As You Like It. As a
philosopher, Jaques falls short of accurately describing the complexity of Rosalind’s
feelings for Orlando; his musings bear the narrow and pinched shortcomings of the
habitually sullen.
Jaques’s sullenness blinds him to his own foolishness regarding life. Jaques goes on
to describe man’s later years, the decline into second childhood and obliviousness,
without teeth, eyesight, taste, or anything else. Countering Jaques’s unflattering
picture of old age, Orlando carries Adam to the duke’s banquet table, the old man
entering his final years with his loyalty, generosity of spirit, and appetite intact.
Although the thought of serving as Duke Frederick’s fool appeals to him, Jaques
ultimately lacks the wit, wisdom, and heart to perform the task. When he meets
Touchstone in the forest, he sings the clown’s praises, quoting with glee
Touchstone’s nihilistic musings on the passage of time: “And so from hour to hour
we ripe and ripe, / And then from hour to hour we rot and rot” (II.vii.26–27). Jaques
does not realize that Touchstone’s “deep--contemplative” speech is a bawdy
mockery of his own brooding behavior (II.vii.31). Indeed, throughout the play, Jaques
remains so mired in his own moodiness that he sees very little of the world he so
desperately wants to criticize. Knowing that Jaques’s eyes are trained on men’s
baser instincts, the duke doubts Jaques’s ability to serve as a proper and
entertaining fool. Jaques, he feels, would be a boor, berating the courtiers for sins
that Jaques himself has committed. This exchange points to an important difference
between Jaques and the duke: the former is committed to being unhappy in the
world and will suffer in it, while the latter is happy to make the best of the world he is
given and will thrive, as the title of 
Act 3 Scene 3 pages 89-91 lines 311-320 336-348

ROSALIND ROSALIND
A lean cheek, which you have not; a blue eye A thin face, which you don’t have; a
and sunken, which you have not; an sleepless, sunken eye, which you don’t
unquestionable spirit, which you have not; a have; an irritable temper, which you
beard neglected, which you have not—but I don’t have; a neglected beard, which
pardon you for that, for simply your having in you don’t have—but that might not be so
beard is a younger brother’s revenue. Then telling, since you don’t have much beard
your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet anyway. Your stockings should be falling
unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your down around your ankles, your hat flying
shoe untied, and everything about you off your head, your sleeves unbuttoned,
demonstrating a careless desolation. But you your shoes untied, and everything about
are no such man. You are rather point-device you demonstrating carelessness and
in your accouterments, as loving yourself misery. But you’re no such man. You’re
than seeming the lover of any other. so neat and well put-together that you
look like you love yourself more than
anyone else.

Rosalind disguised as Ganymede enumerates the characteristics of a person in love. He

should be neglected, messy and even today some of these characteristics are applicable.
1. Thin face
2. Dark clouds under the eyes from sleeplessness
3. Irritable spirit
4. Neglected beard
5. Stockings falling down
6. Bonnet flying
7. Unbuttoned shirt
8. Dirty shoes
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to Yes, one, and this is how I did it. He had
imagine me his love, his mistress, and I set to imagine that I was the girl he was in
him every day to woo me; at which time love with. I made him woo me every day.
would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, When he did, being the changeable boy
be effeminate, changeable, longing and I am, I’d mope, act effeminate, switch
liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, moods, long for him, like him, be proud
inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for and standoffish, be dreamy, full of
every passion something, and for no passion mannerisms, unpredictable, full of tears
truly anything, as boys and women are, for and then smiles; be passionate about
the most part, cattle of this color; would now everything, then nothing. Most boys and
like him, now loathe him; then entertain him, women act just like this. I’d like him one
then forswear him; now weep for him, then minute and despise him the next; cry for
spit at him, that I drave my suitor from his him, then spit at him—until finally I drove
mad humor of love to a living humor of love out and anger in. He abandoned the
madness, which was to forswear the full world, and hid himself away in a
stream of the world and to live in a nook monastery. So I cured him, and I’ll cure
 merely monastic. And thus I cured him, and you just the same, leaving you as clean
this way will I take upon me to wash your as a sheep’s heart, without one spot of
liver as clean as a sound sheep’s heart, that love in you.
there shall not be one spot of love in ’t.
It is interesting that in this speech we have a man pretending to be a woman pretending to
be a man pretending to be a woman . Ganymede describes what women are like to
Orlando- inconstant, fickle, changeable. She gives a repulsive picture of women so that she
can heal him. She gives an example of a man she cured who went mad and end up in
monastery.

Liver- organ of passions. Rosalind in fact puts Orlando to a test.- typical renaissance comedy.
Act 3 Scene 6 pages 101-103 lines 1-62

SILVIUS SILVIUS
Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me. Do not, Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me. Do
Phoebe. not, Phoebe. Go ahead and say you
Say that you love me not, but say not so don’t love me, but not so bitterly. The
In bitterness. The common executioner, executioner, who’s seen death so
Whose heart th' accustomed sight of much his heart has grown hard, still
death makes hard, says, “forgive me” before he drops the
Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck axe on the criminal’s neck. Are you
But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be going to be crueler than the man who
Than he that dies and lives by bloody makes his living by killing?
drops?
Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, ROSALIND, CELIA,
behind and CORIN enter at the back of the
stage, unseen.
PHOEBE PHOEBE
I would not be thy executioner. I don’t want to be your executioner: I’m
I fly thee, for I would not injure thee. trying to avoid you so that I won’t hurt
Thou tell’st me there is murder in mine you. You tell me my eyes are
eye. murderous—that’s a very pretty
'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable sentiment, and oh-so-probable, that
That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest my frail, soft eyes (which are so
things, cowardly that they close their gates
Who shut their coward gates on atomies, against dust) are tyrants, butchers,
Should be called tyrants, butchers, and murderers. I’m frowning at you
murderers. with all my might right now. If my eyes
Now I do frown on thee with all my heart, can injure, let them kill you now. Go
And if mine eyes can wound, now let ahead. Faint, fall down—if you don’t,
them kill thee. then you’re lying about my eyes being
Now counterfeit to swoon, why, now fall murderers. Come on, show me the
down; wound that my eyes have caused. If
Or if thou canst not, Oh, for shame, for you get scratched with a pin, it leaves
shame, a scar; even if you lean on a rush, it
Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers. leaves an impression on your palm.
Now show the wound mine eye hath But my eyes, which I’ve darted at you,
made in thee. haven’t even left a mark. Now I am
Scratch thee but with a pin, and there sure that eyes can`t hurt a person.
remains
Some scar of it. Lean upon a rush,
The cicatrice and capable impressure
Thy palm some moment keeps. But now
mine eyes,
Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee
not.
Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes
That can do hurt.
SILVIUS SILVIUS
O dear Phoebe, Oh, darling Phoebe, if you ever fall in
If ever—as that ever may be near— love with some fresh face, then you’ll
You meet in some fresh cheek the power know about the invisible wounds that
of fancy, love’s sharp arrows can make.
Then shall you know the wounds invisible
That love’s keen arrows make.
PHOEBE PHOEBE
But till that time Well, until that time, don’t come near
Come not thou near me. And when that me. And when that time comes, then
time comes, you can mock me, but please don’t pity
Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not, me, because I won’t pity you.
As till that time I shall not pity thee.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
(advancing, as Ganymede) And why, I (coming forward, speaking as
pray you? Who might be your mother, Ganymede) And why, please tell me?
That you insult, exult, and all at once, Is your mother a goddess that you
Over the wretched? What though you would insult a wretched man, and exult
have no beauty— over the injury you’ve caused him, all
As, by my faith, I see no more in you at the same time? You’re not beautiful
Than without candle may go dark to bed —really, you’re not so pretty that you
— could go to bed with the lights on—so
Must you be therefore proud and why must you act so proud and
pitiless? pitiless? Wait a minute, what’s going
Why, what means this? Why do you look on? Why are you looking at me like
on me? that? I don’t see anything in you but
I see no more in you than in the ordinary nature’s usual handiwork.—Oh, for
Of nature’s sale-work.—'Od’s my little God’s sake, I think she also wants me
life, to fall in love with her. No, proud
I think she means to tangle my eyes, too. woman, don’t hope for that. Not even
—No, faith, proud mistress, hope not your black eyebrows, your silky black
after it. hair, your beady black eyeballs, or
'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk your yellowish-white complexion can
hair, make me worship you. You foolish
Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of shepherd: why are you following her,
cream raining tears and puffing hot air like a
That can entame my spirits to your foggy south wind? You are a thousand
worship. times better than she. It’s fools like you
—You foolish shepherd, wherefore do who, marrying badly, fill the world with
you follow her, ugly children. It’s not her mirror but you
Like foggy south puffing with wind and who insists she’s beautiful. The image
rain? of herself that she gets from you is
You are a thousand times a properer better than her actual features.
man
Than she a woman. 'Tis such fools as
you
That makes the world full of ill-favored
children.
'Tis not her glass but you that flatters her,
And out of you she sees herself more
 proper
Than any of her lineaments can show
her.
—But, mistress, know yourself. Down on
your knees
And thank heaven, fasting, for a good
man’s love,
For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
Sell when you can; you are not for all
markets.
Cry the man mercy, love him, take his
offer.
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a
scoffer.
—So take her to thee, shepherd. Fare
you well.
Silvius has confessed his love to Phoebe, but his words fall on hostile ears. As the
scene opens, he pleads with her not to reject him so bitterly, lest she prove worse
than the “common executioner,” who has enough decency to ask forgiveness of
those he kills (III.v.3). Rosalind and Celia, both still disguised, enter along with Corin
to watch Phoebe’s cruel response. Phoebe mocks Silvius’s hyperbolic language,
asking why he fails to fall down if her eyes are the murderers he claims them to be.
Silvius assures her that the wounds of love are invisible, but Phoebe insists that the
shepherd not approach her again until she too can feel these invisible wounds.
Rosalind steps out from her hiding place and begins to berate Phoebe, proclaiming
that the shepherdess is no great beauty and should consider herself lucky to win
Silvius’s love. Confronted by what appears to be a handsome young man who treats
her as harshly as she treats Silvius, Phoebe instantly falls in love with Ganymede.
Rosalind, realizing this infatuation, mocks Phoebe further. 

Although Silvius and Phoebe’s and Touchstone and Audrey’s are two very different
kinds of love relationships, taken together they form a complete satire of the two
major influences on the play—-pastoralism and courtly love. In pastoral literature,
city dwellers take to the country in order to commune with and learn valuable lessons
from its inhabitants. Audrey represents a truly rural individual, uncorrupted by the
politics of court life, but she is, in all respects, far from ideal. In her supreme want of
intelligence, Audrey shows the absurd unreality of the pastoral ideal of eloquent
shepherds and shepherdesses. Silvius aspires to such eloquence and nearly
achieves it, and his poetic plea for Phoebe’s mercy conforms to the conventions of
the distraught but always lyrically precise lover. But Phoebe exposes the absurdity of
Silvius’s lines by dragging romance into the harsh, unforgiving light of reality. When
taken literally, his insistence that his lover’s eyes are his “executioner” (III.v.3) seems
hopelessly lame when Phoebe demands, “Now show the wound mine eye hath
made in thee” (III.v.20).
Additional speech discussed on class page 107

PHOEBE PHOEBE
Think not I love him, though I ask for him. Don’t think I’m in love with him just
'Tis but a peevish boy—yet he talks well— because I’m asking about him. He’s an
But what care I for words? Yet words do well irritable boy, though he speaks well. But
When he that speaks them pleases those what do I care about words? And yet,
that hear. words are a good thing when the man
It is a pretty youth—not very pretty— speaking them is pleasant to listen to.
But sure he’s proud—and yet his pride He’s good-looking, but not too good-
becomes him. looking. He’s awfully proud, but his pride
He’ll make a proper man. The best thing in suits him. He’ll grow up to be a proper
him man. The best thing about him is his
Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue complexion: as fast as he offends me
Did make offense, his eye did heal it up. with words, his pretty face heals the
He is not very tall—yet for his years he’s tall. wound. He’s not very tall, but he’s tall
His leg is but so-so—and yet ’tis well. enough for his age. His legs aren’t great,
There was a pretty redness in his lip, but they’re alright. His lips were nice and
A little riper and more lusty red red, a little more lively and passionate
Than that mixed in his cheek: ’twas just the than the red that was in his cheeks—one
difference was pure red and the other more pink.
Betwixt the constant red and mingled There are women out there, Silvius, who
damask. would have nearly fallen in love with him
There be some women, Silvius, had they after inspecting him as closely as I have.
marked him But I don’t love him or hate him—though
In parcels as I did, would have gone near I suppose I have more reason to hate
To fall in love with him; but for my part him than love him. What right did he
I love him not nor hate him not; and yet have to scold me like that? He said my
I have more cause to hate him than to love eyes and my hair were black and, now
him. that I think of it, he scorned me. I’m
For what had he to do to chide at me? surprised I didn’t bite back. But no
He said mine eyes were black and my hair matter—I’ll get back at him soon
black enough. I’ll write him a taunting letter,
And, now I am remembered, scorned at me. and you can deliver it. Will you do that
I marvel why I answered not again. for me, Silvius?
But that’s all one: omittance is no quittance.
I’ll write to him a very taunting letter,
And thou shalt bear it. Wilt thou, Silvius?

Phebe`s description of Ganymede who is in fact Rosalind. She describes a man in such
details. The issue of gender is raised.

The ideal of beauty was fair complexion, light hair.

We learn much about the character of Phebe, Rosalind and Silvius.

Phebe describes the color of the cheeks of Ganymede who is Rosalind as white mixed with
red- why? The actor acting Rosalind was a young boy.
Act 4 Scene 1 page 115 lines 94-107 + discussed in class

ROSALIND ROSALIND
No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is No, you won’t die yourself, but only by
almost six thousand years old, and in all this proxy. This world is almost six thousand
time there was not any man died in his own years old, and in all this time not one
person, videlicet, in a love cause. Troilus had man has ever actually died from
his brains dashed out with a Grecian club, love. Troilus may have wanted to die
yet he did what he could to die before, and from love, and he’s now considered one
he is one of the patterns of love. Leander, he of the great, tragic love heroes, but, in
would have lived many a fair year though fact, a Greek with a club beat his brains
Hero had turned nun if it had not been for a out. It had nothing to do with love.
hot midsummer night, for, good youth, he Leander would have lived many more
went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont years if it hadn’t been for a particularly
and, being taken with the cramp, was hot summer night, when he went
drowned; and the foolish chroniclers of that swimming in the Hellespont, got a
age found it was Hero of Sestos. But these cramp, and drowned. The foolish poets
are all lies. Men have died from time to time, of the time insisted he died for love, but
and worms have eaten them, but not for love. they’re lying. All the love stories are lies.
Men have died from time to time, and
worms have eaten them, but not
because of love.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
I would not have my right Rosalind of this I hope Rosalind doesn’t feel as you do.
mind, for I protest her frown might kill me. Her frown alone would kill me.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come; No, her frown wouldn’t kill a fly. But
now I will be your Rosalind in a more come on, now I’ll play your Rosalind,
coming-on disposition, and ask me what you and in a more friendly state of mind.
will, I will grant it. Whatever you ask for, I’ll give.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Then love me, Rosalind. Then love me, Rosalind.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays and Okay, I will—on Fridays and Saturdays,
all. and the rest.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
And wilt thou have me? And will you have me?
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Ay, and twenty such. Sure, and twenty others just like you.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
What sayest thou? What’s that?
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Are you not good? Well, aren’t you a good man?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
I hope so. I hope so.
 ROSALIND ROSALIND
Why then, can one desire too much of a And can a person ever have too much of
good thing?— Come, sister, you shall be the a good thing?—Come on, sister, you can
priest and marry us.—Give me your hand, be the priest and marry us.—Give me
Orlando.—What do you say, sister? your hand, Orlando.—What do you say,
sister?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Pray thee, marry us. Please, marry us.
CELIA CELIA
I cannot say the words. I can’t say the words.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
You must begin “Will you, Orlando—” You just have to say, “Do you, Orlando
—”
CELIA CELIA
Go to.—Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Oh, stop it.—Do you, Orlando, take
Rosalind? Rosalind to be your lawfully wedded
wife?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
I will. I do.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Ay, but when? Okay, but when?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Why, now, as fast as she can marry us. Right now; as fast as she can say the
vows.

Rosalind responds to Orlando`s statement that he will die from love. She pretends that she
doesn`t believe in true love. She says that love is just words and nobody has died from love.
She mentions 2 famous love stories as a support to her statement:
1. Troilus and Cressida
2. Leander and Hero
Hellespont: ancient name of the narrow passage between the Aegean Sea and the
Sea of Marmara. Today, it is known as Dardanelles.
These are so popular love stories that even Marlow mentions the love story of
Leander and Hero.
Internal evidence- as you like it must have been written before 1598 because Marlow
mentions a quote in 1598.
Rosalind says that Leander did not die in his attempt to swim the Hellespont to reach
Hero but he drowned because he got a cramp (грч)- a very down to earth
description- part of her test for Orlando.
Act 4 Scene 1 pages 117-119 lines 143-156 plus discussed during class

ROSALIND ROSALIND
Now tell me how long you would Now tell me how long you intend to keep
have her after you have her.
possessed her.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Forever and a day. Forever and a day.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Say “a day” without the “ever.” You might as well just say for “a day,”
No, no, Orlando, men are April and forget the “ever” part. No,
when they woo, December Orlando, men are like April when
when they wed. Maids are May they’re wooing a girl—young, and
when they are maids, but the passionate—but like December once
sky changes when they are they’re married and their passions
wives. I will be more jealous of have cooled. Women are as sweet and
thee than a Barbary cock- temperate as springtime when they’re
pigeon over his hen, more single, but the climate changes once
clamorous than a parrot they’re married. I’ll be more jealous of
against rain, more newfangled you than a wild rooster over his hen;
than an ape, more giddy in my more noisy than a parrot chattering
desires than a monkey. I will about the rain; more fond of new
weep for nothing, like Diana in things than an ape; more giddy about
the fountain, and I will do that getting what I want than a monkey. I’ll
when you are disposed to be cry at nothing, and I’ll always do it
merry. I will laugh like a hyena, when you’re in a good mood. And
and that when thou art inclined when you want to go to sleep, I’ll be
to sleep. up laughing like a hyena.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
But will my Rosalind do so? But will my Rosalind do this, too?
ROSALIND ROSALIND
By my life, she will do as I do. Indeed, she’ll act just like me.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Oh, but she is wise. But she is wise.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Or else she could not have the wit to do this. Right. If she weren’t wise, she wouldn’t
The wiser, the waywarder. Make the doors be smart enough to behave badly. The
upon a woman’s wit, and it will out at the wiser the woman, the wilder. If you close
casement. Shut that, and ’twill out at the the doors on a woman’s wit, it’ll fly out
keyhole. Stop that, ’twill fly with the smoke the window. If you shut the windows, it
out at the chimney. will pour out the keyhole. If you stop up
the keyhole, it will escape from the
chimney along with the smoke.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
A man that had a wife with such a wit, he A man with a wife like that might ask,
might say “Wit, whither wilt?” “Hey, wandering wit, where are you off
 to?”
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you Nah, better save the questions for when
met your wife’s wit going to your neighbor’s you find her in your neighbor’s bed.
bed.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
And what wit could wit have to excuse that? And what wit could excuse that?
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Marry, to say she came to seek you there. She’ll say she was at the neighbor’s
You shall never take her without her answer looking for you. You’ll never find her
unless you take her without her tongue. Oh, without an answer unless you find her
that woman that cannot make her fault her without a tongue. A woman who doesn’t
husband’s occasion, let her never nurse her know how to make her own indiscretions
child herself, for she will breed it like a fool. look like her husband’s fault is hardly a
woman. And she’s hardly fit to be a
mother—her child will turn out to be a
fool.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave Rosalind, I have to leave you for two
thee. hours.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two Oh, no! Darling, I can’t live without
hours. you for two hours.
ORLANDO ORLANDO
I must attend the duke at dinner. By two I must join the duke for lunch. I’ll be back
o'clock I will be with thee again. here with you by two o'clock.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
Ay, go your ways, go your ways. I knew what Oh, go, leave me. I knew you’d turn out
you would prove. My friends told me as this way. My friends told me as much,
much, and I thought no less. That flattering and I knew it, too. But I was won over by
tongue of yours won me. 'Tis but one cast your flattering words. I’m just another girl
away, and so, come, death. Two o'clock is whom you’ve cast aside. So, take me,
your hour? death! You’ll be back at two o'clock?
ORLANDO ORLANDO
Ay, sweet Rosalind. Yes, sweet Rosalind.
ROSALIND ROSALIND
By my troth, and in good earnest, and so Honestly, truly, in God’s name, and by
God mend me, and by all pretty oaths that all those little girly oaths that don’t
are not dangerous, if you break one jot of actually have any power, if you break
your promise or come one minute behind even a little bit of your promise, or if you
your hour, I will think you the most pathetical come even a minute after two o'clock, I’ll
break-promise and the most hollow lover and think you the most pathetic promise
the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind breaker, the most lying lover, and the
that may be chosen out of the gross band of most unworthy partner for Rosalind that
the unfaithful. Therefore beware my censure, could be found anywhere. So beware of
 and keep your promise. my contempt, and keep your promise.

Again Rosalind gives a realistic description of marriage after Orlando says that he will have
her forever and a day. Men are April when woo- they are very nice, polite but December
when they are married- they change to worse as they are married. The same goes for
women. Maids are great and sweet like May but they change when they are wives.-
character type of nagging wife (Gill- second shepherd`s play)

 People from the Orient were very jealous

 Diana`s (Goddess of moon and hunting) statue was in fountains; looks as if she is
crying all the time
 I will laugh like hyena when my husband sleeps – She tortures him since it is obvious
that nobody wants that kind of wife; the respond is dramatic irony
Epilogue

ROSALIND ROSALIND
It is not the fashion to see the lady the You don’t usually see a woman deliver
epilogue, but it is no more unhandsome than an epilogue, but it’s no worse than
to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that seeing a man deliver the prologue. If it’s
good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a true that you don’t needivy to sell good
good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine, then it should also be true that a
wine they do use good bushes, and good good play doesn’t need an epilogue. But
plays prove the better by the help of good they use good-quality ivy to sell good
epilogues. What a case am I in, then, that am wine, and a good play is improved by a
neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate good epilogue. But then I’m in a strange
with you in the behalf of a good play. I am position, as I not only do not have a
not furnished like a beggar; therefore to beg good epilogue, I’m not sure this was a
will not become me. My way is to conjure good play. I’m not dressed like a beggar,
you, and I’ll begin with the women. I charge so it wouldn’t be becoming for me to
you, O women, for the love you bear to men, beg. No, instead I’ll bewitch you, and I’ll
to like as much of this play as please you. start with the women. Women, in the
And I charge you, O men, for the love you name of the love you have for men, I
bear to women— as I perceive by your demand that you like as much of this
simpering, none of you hates them— that play as you feel like. Men, in the name of
between you and the women the play may the women you love—and I can guess
please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as by your goofy smiles that none of you
many of you as had beards that pleased me, exactly hates them—the play will act as
complexions that liked me, and breaths that I a nice toy for you and the ladies to
defied not. And I am sure as many as have share. If I actually were a woman, I’d
good beards, or good faces, or sweet kiss all of you that have beards that
breaths will, for my kind offer, when I make pleased me, complexions that I liked,
curtsy, bid me farewell. and breath that wasn’t foul. And I’m sure
that all of you with nice beards, good
faces, and sweet breath will, when I
curtsy good night, give me a nice round
of applause.

Epilogues are never given by women, however in the case of As you like it the epilogue is
given by Rosalind. In the epilogue the illusion is over or we have a break of the dramatic
illusion and Rosalind by using subjunctive `if I were` clearly states that she in fact is a young
boy playing Rosalind. We are witnesses of changes in the conventions since a woman is
giving the epilogue.

Rosalind makes a comparison between the play and a good wine. According to her a good
wine does not need an advertisement and thus a good play does not need an epilogue. Why
does she equal them? They have the same formula- offer an apology if not liked. She is not
begging the people to like the play but summons them to like it. Women should like it as
they love men, and men should like it as they like women (implies that women love men
more).
Breaks the dramatic illusion- reveals her identity- a boy playing Rosalind. She says that if she
were a woman she would kiss all those who had nice beards or sweet breaths or good
complexions. Elizabethans suffered from bad breath and to have a sweet breath was
considered good quality. Bows and says farewell.