words in the play in which the accentuation is different from that of the present day are :— antique, aspect, allies, compact, exile. A few lines are incomplete, e.g. Thou hast not loved. Sure it is hers. But heav(e)n | ly Ró | salind ! Rhyme. In his earlier plays Shakespeare used a great deal of rhyme, but as his technical skill increased he came to employ it less and less. In Love's Labour's Lost there are three rhymed lines for every two of blank verse, while in As You Like It-apart from the interspersed songs and "letters "-rhyme is confined almost entirely to the ends of scenes, where it often takes the form of a single couplet (I. ii. 266-267; I. iii. 133-134, etc.), although sometimes the passage is longer (II. iii. 67-76). 66 Those of Amiens, 66 The songs are all in iambic measures. "Under the greenwood tree and "Blow, blow, thou winter wind," and of the pages, It was a lover and his lass," and the Forester, "What shall he have that killed the deer," are varied in form; Phebe's letter, Art thou god to shepherd turn'd," some of Orlando's verses, "Why should this a desert be" and "From the east to western Ind," and Touchstone's parody of the latter, "If a hart do lack a hind," consist for the most part of regular seven-syllable trochaic lines rhyming in couplets or alternately, with the occasional introduction of an iambic tetrameter. Hymen's songs also are chiefly of the latter type. Prose. A little over half of As You Like It is written in prose. This form is much more common in early than in late plays, in comedies than in tragedies. In As You Like It blank verse is reserved chiefly for the two Dukes, for Jaques, Oliver, and Orlando when conversing with either of the Dukes, and for the pastoral lovers, Phebe and Silvius. Touchstone and Audrey, Corin and Charles the Wrestler talk prose, as is commonly the case with "low life" characters; Rosalind and Orlando and Celia talk prose for the most part, because the scenes between them are as a rule pure comedy; but in I. iii., where the interest is serious, the Princesses use blank verse, and so they do in the interview with Oliver (IV. iii.) when he brings Rosalind the handkerchief. Jaques uses prose when he is talking to Touchstone. Adam uses prose chiefly, but in the more pathetic and dramatic scenes he falls into blank verse, as in II. iii. Similarly Le Beau, after using prose for his jesting talk with the Princesses in the earlier part of I. ii., turns to blank verse at the end, when he comes to deliver a serious warning to Orlando. In general it may be said that prose is used (a) for inferior characters and (b) in scenes of pure comedy; while blank verse is reserved for (a) persons of high rank and stately bearing and (b) episodes of pathetic or dramatic intensity. SCENE: Oliver's house; Duke Frederick's court; and the Forest of Arden. Experation ACT I. SCENE I. Orchard of Oliver's house. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM. Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for A. Y. L. I. 1 the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it. Adam. Yonder comes my master, your brother. 22 Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up. Enter OLIVER. here? Oli. Now, sir! what make you Orl. Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing. 25 Orl. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. 30 Oli. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile. Orl. Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury? Oli. Know you where you are, sir? Orl. O, sir, very well; here in your orchard. Oli. Know you before whom, sir? 35 the gentle conThe courtesy of Orl. Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are my eldest brother; and, in dition of blood, you should so know me. nations allows you my better, in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me as you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence. 45 Oli. What, boy! Orl. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. Oli. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? Orl. I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy tongue for saying so: thou hast railed on thyself. 54 Adam. Sweet masters, be patient: for your father's remembrance, be at accord. Oli. Let me go, I say. Orl. I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My father charged you in his will to give me good education: you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentlemanlike qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes. 65 Oli. And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent? Well, sir, get you in: I will not long be troubled with you; you shall have some part of your will: I pray you, leave me. Orl. I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good. Oli. Get you with him, you old dog. Adam. Is "6 old dog" my lost my teeth in your service. he would not have spoke such a word. 71 reward? Most true, I have God be with my old master! 75 [Exeunt Orlando and Adam. Oli. Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla, Dennis! |