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Part II Roman 20 As You Like It

As you like it seems to have been written about 1599, a little after Much Ado About Nothing, and is therefore the second of the cluster of Shakespeare's three joyous comedies

In this second comedy, much of the action takes place in an idealized pastoral setting, so very popular in the period The plot Shakespeare obtained frolish poet Thoe, and unproved it beyond measure

eat husks with them

The story opens with Orlando and the old servant, Adaest of three sons His dead father has left hi up in charge of the oldest brother, Oliver

Though Oliver supports the middle brother in school, he is (for some reason Shakespeare does not bother to explain) a jealous tyrant to his youngest brother, keeping him deliberately in idleness and penury When Oliver co Orlando says to him bitterly:

Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them?

What prodi gal portion have I spent that

I should come to such penury?

- Act I, scene i, lines 36-38

This is a reference to the faal son in the Gospel of St Luke (see page II-368)

the old Duke

The two brothers nearly co to hirace, but it is in hishim any money either

Charles, a wrestler at the court of the Duke, is there to speak to Oliver, and it is this wrestler who is to be the means whereby Oliver will carry out his plan Charles, asked after court news, says:

There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news

That is, the old Duke is banished by his younger brother,

the new Duke

- Act I, scene i, lines 96-98

Who these dukes ht rule, Shakespeare does not say and, certainly, does not care In Lodge's pastoral ro hero was called Sir John of Bordeaux That would make the scene the southwestern section of France And indeed, the wrestler (here called Charles) is, in the source ro of France There was once a Toris-oths in 451, and that tribe did, indeed, control at that time southwestern France

In Shakespeare's version, the father of Oliver and Orlando is Rowland de Boys "Rowland" is a form of "Roland" and that name is best known as that of a Frankish warrior who died at the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778, which was fought in the Pyrenees about 130 miles south of Bordeaux This is reminiscent of the time and place of Torismund

That, however, is as far as it goes The King of France is changed by Shakespeare into a Duke who is not further characterized or even na younger brother is named Frederick

the Forest of Arden

Charles goes on to say of the exiled Duke:

They say he is already in the Forest of Arden,

and a many merry men with hiland

They say entlemen flock to him every day,

and fleet the tiolden world

- Act I, scene i, lines 111-15

If we i, the Forest of Arden would be the wooded region of Ardennes, straddling the ium There is, however, an actual Forest of Arden just north of Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon, and the dramatist must surely have had this at least partly in mind

In the Forest of Arden, Duke Senior and histhe life of happy outlaws, in thea care in the world This is the bucolic bliss that is conventional in pastorals, for it is common for people trapped in the hurly-burly of the crowded haunts of ht in a siood old days"

This vain iies The early Greek poet Hesiod pictured the hues, each worse than the one before The first period was the "golden age," in whichacorns, honey, and er and pain; to theseasleep It is to this that Charles refers as "the golden world"

To the English audience, the best-known example of happy outlaws in the forest was that of Robin Hood and his band of ainst the Norman overlords, but with time he was polished up and made more acceptable to the aristocracy By Shakespeare's time he had been transdon, as unjustly dispossessed and outlawed The resemblance between this version of Robin Hood and the case of Duke Senior makes Charles's reference a natural one

the little wit

Charles has coest brother, Orlando, will try to wrestle hi that he will be forced to hurt Orlando Oliver, however, callously urges Charles to kill Orlando rather than merely hurt him

The scene then shifts to the court, where we find the two charhter of the exiled Duke, and Celia the daughter of the usurping one Rosalind is kept at court, despite her father's exile, because Celia loves her so

Celia endeavors to keep her cousin cheerful and in this is helped by the court fool, who is nanificant name, for a touchstone is a hard, flinty rock upon which a soft old will leave a rubbed-off old alloyed with varying amounts of copper can be used to e, and red If an unknown gold alloy is then rubbed across the touchstone, the mark it leaves, when compared with the standards, will reveal the amount of the copper content As a result, "touchstone" has coainst which the qualities of so may be tested

To have a fool named Touchstone, then, is to indicate that it is by the encounter with the wit of a fool that the wisdoed

Thus, when cautioned about the too great freedoirls:

The more pity that fools may not speak

wisely ise men do foolishly

- Act I, scene ii, lines 83-84

To this, Celia responds:

By my troth, thou sayest true, for since the little wit

that fools have was silenced, the little foolery

that wise reat show

- Act I, scene ii, lines 85-87

This re in the play and it would see the opportunity toreference to so of Elizabethan tirown ed to push the govern such satires on June 1, 1599 Censorship, nevertheless, is alreater evil than those it tries to cure, and Shakespeare expresses his disapproval of it here

is humorous

The young ladies learn of the wrestling matches and of the apparent invincibility of Charles Orlando is now there to take his turn at the wrestling, and both girls, but especially Rosalind, are greatly taken with his youth and good looks

All try to persuade Orlando not to wrestle, but he insists, and to everyone's surprise throws Charles and badly hurts hi victor's name and is put out to find he is a son of Sir Rowland de Boys, an old enemy of his

Later a courtier comes back to warn Orlando to leave quickly:

such is now the Duke's condition

That he misconsters [misconstrues] all that you have done

The Duke is humorous

- Act I, scene ii, lines 254-56

The word "humorous" refers to the hue I-582), which were supposed to control the temperament To say the Duke is "humorous" is to say that he is a creature of erous one

call me Ganymede

The Duke iskept her at court ever since her father was exiled, he now bids her leave at once on pain of death, and insists on it despite Celia's wild protests

After the Duke stalks offstage, Celia insists that she will flee with Rosalind and that together they will seek Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden Rosalind is disturbed at the thought of two girls wandering through the wilderness and she suggests that she, at least, dress as a man (Shakespeare's favorite device in his romances)

Rosalind even takes a na to Celia:

7'J/ have no worse a nae,

And therefore look you call me Ganymede

- Act I, scene iii, lines 122-23

Ganymede, in the Greek e I-67) hom Jupiter (Zeus) fell in love Since Ganymede was the object of holady, is bound to look and behave like an effeminate

Celia also chooses a new na to Rosalind that it will be

So that hath a reference to my state:

No longer Celia, but Aliena

- Act I, scene iii, lines 125-26

"Aliena" is Lathi and is a feer" Celia has become alienated from her father

The two girls decide to take Touchstone with them, and leave

the penalty of Adam

In the second act the scene shifts to the Forest of Arden, where Duke Senior is contentedly lecturing his followers on the advantages of the simple life:

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam;

- Act II, scene i, line 5

For his sin in eating the forbidden fruit, Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden, where food was always at hand, and was condemned to work for his bread: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis 3:19) Here in the Forest of Arden, however, Duke Senior and hison the bounty of the earth and the Garden of Eden (another version of Charles the wrestler's "golden world") is returned

like the toad

Duke Senior finds that the cruel fate of exile has turned to good, and says:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

- Act II, scene i, lines 12-14

Toads are ugly indeed, though beneficial (rather than venomous) insofar as they eat insects and help keep the nuend, however, that there were stony concretions in toads' heads that could be used to warn against the presence of poison if set in a ring They did so by changing color Such a "toad-stone" was also thought to reduce the pain and decrease the swelling that followed the bite or sting of a poisonous animal Needless to say, despite Shakespeare, there is no such thing as a toadstone

caters for the sparrow

But if Duke Senior is contented, poor Orlando certainly is not Having been warned away from court, he arrives back home only to discover that his oldest brother, Oliver, plans to kill hiht to Orlando by old Adas of five hundred crowns Adae by Shakespeare himself) says:

Take that, and he that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,

Be coe

- Act II, scene iii, lines 43-45

This is a reference to Jesus' states, and not one of theotten before God?" (Luke 12:6) and "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them" (Luke 12:24)

But Orlando will not abandon old Adaether they leave home and wander off toward the forest, as earlier Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone had done

the first-born of Egypt

Not everyone in Arden is enae is Jaques, whose affectation it is to beHe sneers at a beautiful song sung by his fellow courtier Amiens, then says:

I'll go sleep, if I can; if I cannot,

I'll rail against all the first born of Egypt