As You Like It

Shakespeare puts his protagonists in a pastoral area. (Green Space)

Act 1 Scene 1

Orlando the leading protagonist doesn’t like that his brother has everything and not giving him what rightfully deserves. (Primogeniture)

mines my gentility  - Not only that but feels as though this will harm his character. Wonders if he will be taught what society deems moral. 

His brother makes him sleep in the barns and feeds him horribly. Feels as though it will affect his soul.

Prodigal - A bible story. A man gives his two sons money and one of them wastes it completely but the other doesn’t. The son comes back and his father forgives him. “He was lost and now he’s found”

you are too young in this - Cannot fight

golden world - Once a paradise where everything was perfect on Earth

Robin Hood - Shakespeare is pointing out that something is wrong in the hierarchy of where the protagonists are. Through this allusion, throwing a criticism to those higher up on the social hierarchy. 

Charles doesn’t want to fight Orlando but will for his honor. Oliver wants Charles to kill Orlando. Painting Orlando as if he’s a villain and will be traitorous. 

Oliver gives a soliloquy at the end. He’s speaking to the audience so saying his true thoughts. Feels jealous that everyone loves Orlando and not him. 

Act 1 Scene 2

Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal; but love no man

in good earnest, nor no further in sport neither than with safety

of a pure blush thou mayst in honour come off again. - Love like it’s a game and don’t let your whole heart be committed. Be careful to keep your virginity and honor. 

Fortune- A goddess and an unbiased one.

Enter TOUCHSTONE - He is meant to mock the people who have money. The different colors are also to mock them including the hat. Comedians can say what most people can’t. 

[Giving him a chain from her neck] - A token that a lady would give a knight when he won a tournament. Like giving her heart and hand in marriage. 

My father lov'd Sir Rowland as his soul, - Their fathers are super close so likely would have been set up to be married later.

Rosalind - went from princess to basically nobody

Orlando is the same as Rosalind. Both should have great lives but don’t. Both in a state of needing more.

Can I not say 'I thank you'? My better parts

Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up

Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block. - An aside

Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown - Basically saying she’s in love with him

Love at first sight for both of them. But their affections for each other is informed by their background.

Juno's swans - Cannot be separated because they are tied together. Make a heart.

I did not then entreat to have her stay;

It was your pleasure, and your own remorse;

I was too young that time to value her,

But now I know her. If she be a traitor,

Why so am I: we still have slept together,

Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;

And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,

Still we went coupled and inseparable.

Alas, what danger will it be to us,

Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. - Will travel to the forest of Arden to find Rosalind’s father. Rosalind will dress as a man. She believes being a man is just a show of confidence. They will take Touchstone.

Jove's own page,

And therefore look you call me Ganymede. - Slang for an older man that is in love with a young man. Mythology. During Shakespeare’s time, women were not allowed to be on stage so a young man had to play Rosalind’s part. 

Act 2 Scene 1

free from peril than the envious court? - Everyone is envious. His brother took everything including his child. People in the court sin. In the forest, they are free of sin. 

his is no flattery; these are counsellors

That feelingly persuade me what I am - The elements of nature are not trying to flatter him and don’t want to betray him. 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

Happy is your Grace,

That can translate the stubbornness of fortune

Into so quiet and so sweet a style. - Can’t control what happens but can control how you deal with it. 

Being native burghers

Should, in their own confines, - Acknowledges that it’s their own home

Where the people of the court are is dangerous. The question becomes, can the green area cleanse us of sin or do we corrupt it?

melancholy Jaques - He’s crying over the dead deer. Point of comedy. Going into a place where the deer are from and then killing the deer. 

Act 2 Scene 2

Can it be possible that no man saw them? - Someone did see and it was a villain. Saying that it was probably one of his servants. 

It cannot be; some villains of my court - In this context, villain is someone of low class

Are of consent and sufferance in this. - Someone saw and agreed to it

And she believes, wherever they are gone,
That youth is surely in their company.

Frederick. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither. - Bring Orlando or his brother since Rosalind likes him so wherever he is then she’s likely there. 

Act 2 Scene 3

I'll do the service of a younger man

In all your business and necessities. - He gave Orlando his life savings and also offers his service even after. 

Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, - The idea is if God cares so much about a bird then imagine how much he loves you. Basically saying that God will take care of him so Orlando should take all his life savings. 

The dedication of a servant to his master is something that should be praised or should it not? He should be praised out because he follows him out of a sense of loyalty according to Orlando. However, Orlando is simply like good job for being a servant since he feels like he deserves something. 

Act 2 Scene 4

Silvius - A caricature of a petrarchan lover. The idea that the person you love is perfect and out of reach. Making fun of that. 

We that are true lovers run into strange capers;

but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal

in folly. - Human nature is shown through our foolishness. So, its natural

They bought a house

Act 2 Scene 5

Starts with a song. As you like it is the musical that has the most songs. The songs do matter. 

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither.

Here shall he see

No enemy (People were the enemies before but nature has none of that)

But winter and rough weather.

I'll rail against all the

first-born of Egypt.

This is about passover and the angel of death. 

Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame;

Act 2 Scene 7

Jaques met a clown with motley on. 

Sans- Without

Chanticleer - A rooster

Roosters are cocky

A fool that thinks deeply

I must have liberty - Saying that he wants to be a fool to say what he wants

He wants to be able to mock everyone

And why, sir, must they so?

The why is plain as way to parish church:

He that a fool doth very wisely hit

He’s saying that they have to brush it off when he makes jokes. Because if they don’t laugh then it’s probably true. 

Jaques thinks the world is rotten but he also thinks that if he can make fun of other people then it will be cleansed.

Gentleness - To be gentle is to be born into a rich family

The Duke welcomes him to their table.

I almost die for food, and let me have it.

Duke. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table.

Orlando was the one who brought the corruption to that interaction.

The 7 Ages of Man

1. Infant

2. Schoolboy

3. Lover

4. Soldier

5. Justice

6. Pantaloon

7. Second childishness 

In fair round belly with good capon lin'd, 

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

Right after he finishes his speech. Orlando comes in with Adam, who’s at the end of his life and dependent on Orlando. 

Love at the end

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Depicts old age. Seeing Orlando carry Adam in. Adam at the end of his life. 

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

They way people treat each other in the play so far has been cruel, betrayal until they get into the forest. In nature, that treacherous tendency of humanity almost melted away. The greed and selfishness goes away. More willing to trust. 

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

Most friends are fake. Love is a joke. 

Holly is a symbol of everlasting life. Stays green and full of life even when everything around it is dead. 

Celebrate winter because it gives us hope for spring. Spring - Resurrection, life again, We look for life that is to come. We went from a bleak description of our lives then get symbols of hope (the song.) Lords look towards song to feel hope. Even when things seem worse, there is hope. 

If that you were the good Sir Rowland's son,

At first, the lords thought he was a stranger (still welcomed him) but realized that he’s the song of Sir Rowland who he loves very much. 

Act 3 Scene 1

Frederick told Oliver that he was going to seize his lands if Oliver didn’t bring him his brother. 

Act 3 Scene 2

Orlando is starting the scene by hanging up love poems on the trees. 

thrice-crowned Queen of Night

With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,

Goddess of the Moon is Artemis, Diana, and Luna. All associated with chastity as a virtue. More important to note that Orlando is comparing her to a goddess. The crazy lover stereotype. 

When Corin says I earn that I eat, get that I

wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other

men's good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is

to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck.

Touchstone basically calls him a pimp. Rams have horns, a cuckoldly is when a husband’s wife has cheated on him. A “saying” is that if that happens then you’ll grow horns. Horns mean infidelity. 

Touchstone makes a bunch of sexual innuendos. 

Helen's cheek, but not her heart,

Helen of Troy. She’s the most beautiful woman to have ever lived. Cause of Trojan war. Depending on who you ask, Helen’s role in the war is unknown. Shakespeare tells the version of the story where Helen left willingly. 

Cleopatra's majesty,

Her power. 

Atalanta's better part

She’s super fast. Raised by rabbits and squirrels. She gets caught because of her greed. Golden apples. Her better part is not the greed. It’s her good traits of wanting to protect her chastity. 

Sad Lucretia's modesty.

She was so protective of her virginity and killed herself after being raped. Touches a vein that Shakespeare had already been touching. There is an undercurrent of Shakespeare making jokes but social comments about women and their chastity. What is Shakespeare saying about how society views women’s chastity?

Orlando is basically saying that Rosalind is like these legendary women and she has their best parts and not their bad parts. The best of the best. 

She’s basically saying to Orlando for him to “shut up.” By idolizing her, he is not falling in love with her. She doesn’t want to be turned into a symbol of his idolization. Basically saying he’s unoriginal and boring and cliche. 

for some of them

had in them more feet than the verses would bear.

She’s saying he’s bad at writing. 

You are rather point-device in your accoutrements

She’s basically saying that he looks very well put together. He’s not a person in love because he should have been too in love to care for himself. 

Fair youth

He’s saying such things because Ganymede is feminine looking. 

Yes, one; and in this manner. He was to imagine me his

love, his mistress;

 Her plan is to teach Orlando how to love. Rosalind has a strong sense of agency when it comes to her love life. She’s going to be able to morph him into the type of lover she wants. At the court, she would likely have an arranged marriage that was set up by her father. If they were in their traditional roles then such a thing should not have happened. She’s going to be inconsistent in her attitude towards him. That passionate nature and Rosalind is going to wash his liver to get him out of that. 

Cheating happens to everyone according to Touchstone. Layer of social commentary again. Great concern about women’s chastity. Monogamy is an unnatural concept. The notion that a woman only has to be with one man her whole life. 

Act 3 Scene 3

Jaques (lord). And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married

under a bush, like a beggar?

He is giving his wife away. A handing away of the woman as property from her father to her husband. Shakespeare is making fun of the notion of this. Touchstone calls him What-ye-call't because it doesn’t matter who the man is just as long as it is a man. Touchstone wants to marry her but only to have sex with her because she is chaste. The whole idea of monogamy and the concept of marriage is all a joke to Touchstone. 

Is this how Shakespeare thinks or is he just using the fool?

Act 3 Scene 4

Something browner than Judas's.

Marry, his kisses are Judas's own children.

Judas kisses Jesus and that is how the soldiers know to take Jesus. (Bible)

Rosalind shows great agency in her ability to shape Orlando. 

He writes brave verses, speaks brave

words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite

traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that

spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble

goose. But all's brave that youth mounts and folly guides. Who

comes here?

A very sarcastic tone because of her beliefs in love. 

I told him, of as good as

he; so he laugh'd and let me go.

Rosalind’s ability to do things can no longer be. Her disguise gives her power. 

Act 3 Scene 5

Silvius’s love for Phebe is unrequited. 

She wants nothing to do with Silvius. 

Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?

When Phebe looks at Ganymede (Rosalind), she instantly falls for him.  

I see no more in you

Than without candle may go dark to bed-

Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?

She’s so ugly that she would not light up a room. Also, no one would go to bed with her if they could see. 

That I shall think it a most plenteous crop

To glean the broken ears after the man

That the main harvest reaps

Silvius is saying that Phebe can love someone else as long as he gets the scraps. 

Act 4 Scene 1

 Cupid hath clapp'd him o' th' shoulder

Allusion. If he was really in love then Cupid would have have hit him in the heart and not the shoulder.

Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he carries

his house on his head- a better jointure, I think, than you make

a woman; besides, he brings his destiny with him.

Why, horns; which such as you are fain to be beholding to

your wives for; but he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents

the slander of his wife.

She is saying that the woman (Rosalind) will cheat on him but he cannot blame her if she does cheat. 

It pleases him to call you so; but he hath a Rosalind of a

better leer than you.

Celia is saying that she knows that Rosalind can be better and the Rosalind that Orlando is in love with. 

Troilus had

his brains dash'd out with a Grecian club

Dies in battle

Leander, he would have liv'd many a fair year, though Hero had

turn'd nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night

Tries to swim to get to his lover and drowns. 

By blaming love, we are in turn blaming the woman for the cause of the man's death. 

Based on Shakespear’s sonnets, he speaks of love in many ways including in the play. In fact, he contradicts what he says. Hard to know what he really thinks. 

Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out

at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop

that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.

A woman’s wit could not be stopped. 

You have simply misus'd our sex in your love-prate.

Rosalind is betraying women by what she said. 

that same wicked bastard of Venus, that was begot of

thought, conceiv'd of spleen, and born of madness; that blind

rascally boy, that abuses every one's eyes,

Rosalind is talking of cupid. Love is indiscriminate because “love is blind”

Act 4 Scene 2

Thy father's father wore it;

And thy father bore it.

Every man has been cheated on. So, no need to be ashamed because it is natural. 

To tell you what I was, since my conversion

So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.

Changed and is no longer the Oliver he was. 

Oliver first gets attacked by a snake. (Garden of Eden) Orlando scares off the snake and the snake wakes the lioness up. Orlando saves Oliver from the lioness. 

A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,

Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd

The opening of his mouth

Shakespeare goes out of his way to make the snake and the lioness female. 

Allusion: Eve ate the apple and tempted Adam into eating it. 

Marriage is to be desired and feared as Femininity is attractive and dangerous. This idea in society that femininity that men are attracted to women but they are dangerous. 

Act 5 Scene 4

coming to the ark - Referring to Noah’s ark and how all the couples are pairing up like animals in Noah’s ark.

Hymen - Goddess of marriage.