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As You Like It: Act I, Scene 1

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As You Like It
Act I, Scene 1

Scene 1

An orchard of Oliver’s house.

  1. Enter Orlando and Adam.

Orlando

1 - 21
  1. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeath’d me
  2. by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say’st,
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    coins worth about five shillings each
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    only a thousand crowns
  3. charg’d my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well; and
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    given my brother the responsibility
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    Oliver had to agree to these conditions in order to get their father's blessing.
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    bring me up well
  4. there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at
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    Jaques de Bois, who will appear briefly near the end of the play. His name is pronounced either “Jakes” or, when the meter of a line requires it, “Jay-kweez”.
  5. school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit. For my
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    university
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    progress or proficiency
  6. part, he keeps me rustically at home, or (to speak more
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    Uneducated, like a country bumpkin. Orlando's complaint here is just the first of many talks about the difference between court life and country life.
  7. properly) stays me here at home unkept; for call you that
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    detains
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    uncared for
  8. keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from
  9. the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better, for
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    keeping them in stalls
  10. besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are
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    handsome because they are well fed
  11. taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hir’d;
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    The paces and routines of a trained horse. The First Folio spells it “mannage”. Modern editions variously spell it “manage” or “manège”.
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    horse trainers
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    hired at great expense
  12. but I (his brother) gain nothing under him but growth, for
  13. the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to
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    indebted
  14. him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives
  15. me, the something that nature gave me his countenance seems
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    Support or patronage. Orlando uses the word sarcastically.
  16. to take from me. He lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the
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    farm workers
  17. place of a brother, and as much as in him lies, mines my
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    as much as he is able
  18. gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves
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    undermines my high social status by keeping education from me
  19. me, and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me,
  20. begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer
  21. endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.
  1. Enter Oliver.

Adam

22
  1. Yonder comes my master, your brother.

Orlando

23
  1. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up.
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    stand aside
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    berate, talk to in an insulting manner

Oliver

24
  1. Now, sir, what make you here?
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    What are you doing? In the next line, Orlando makes a pun by taking it to mean “what are you making”?

Orlando

25
  1. Nothing. I am not taught to make any thing.

Oliver

26
  1. What mar you then, sir?
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    What are you destroying? Oliver plays on the proverbial phrase “to make or mar”.

Orlando

27 - 28
  1. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a
  2. poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

Oliver

29
  1. Marry, sir, be better employ’d, and be naught a while.
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    go away; be quiet

Orlando

30 - 32
  1. Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What
  2. prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such
  3. penury?
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    poverty
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    Orlando alludes to the biblical story of the prodigal son. In that story, the son of a wealthy man squanders his inheritance. He then gets a job on a farm, and is so hungry that he wants to eat the food he feeds the pigs.

Oliver

33
  1. Know you where you are, sir?
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    Do you know whose presence you are in?

Orlando

34
  1. O, sir, very well; here in your orchard.

Oliver

35
  1. Know you before whom, sir?
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    Oliver again asks “do you know whose presence you are in?”

Orlando

36 - 43
  1. Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are my
  2. eldest brother, and in the gentle condition of blood you
  3. should so know me. The courtesy of nations allows you my
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    Because of our common noble heritage, you should treat me as your brother.
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    Generally accepted customs. More specifically, Orlando refers to the laws of primogeniture, in which the eldest son inherits the estate.
  4. better, in that you are the first born, but the same
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    says that you are socially superior to me
  5. tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty
  6. brothers betwixt us. I have as much of my father in me as
  7. you, albeit I confess your coming before me is nearer to his
  8. reverence.
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    Because you were born first, you have more claim to his nobility.

Oliver

44
  1. What, boy!
  1. Strikes him.

Orlando

45
  1. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.
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    inexperienced at fighting

Oliver

46
  1. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?
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    a person of low birth

Orlando

47 - 52
  1. I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de
  2. Boys. He was my father, and he is thrice a villain that says
  3. such a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I
  4. would not take this hand from thy throat till this other had
  5. pull’d out thy tongue for saying so. Thou hast rail’d on
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    abused or insulted
  6. thyself.
Orlando

Orlando

John Miller, George Scharf, 1824

Adam

53 - 54
  1. Sweet masters, be patient, for your father’s remembrance, be
  2. at accord.
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    be at peace

Oliver

55
  1. Let me go, I say.

Orlando

56 - 63
  1. I will not till I please. You shall hear me. My father
  2. charg’d you in his will to give me good education. You have
  3. train’d me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all
  4. gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows
  5. strong in me, and I will no longer endure it; therefore
  6. allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give
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    pursuits or training
  7. me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with
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    Allotment. Shakespeare may have invented this word because this is the first recorded usage of it.
  8. that I will go buy my fortunes.

Oliver

64 - 66
  1. And what wilt thou do? Beg, when that is spent? Well, sir,
  2. get you in. I will not long be troubled with you; you shall
  3. have some part of your will. I pray you leave me.

Orlando

67
  1. I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.

Oliver

68
  1. Get you with him, you old dog.

Adam

69 - 71
  1. Is “old dog” my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in
  2. your service. God be with my old master, he would not have
    May 15, 2019 Miko
    Adam's comment might be a reference to a story from Aesop's Fables. In the story, an old dog catches a rabbit, but, being toothless, is unable to hold on to it. The dog's master is angry, but the dog tells the master to remember when the dog was able to hunt better.
  3. spoke such a word.
  1. Exeunt Orlando, Adam.

Oliver

72 - 74
  1. Is it even so? Begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your
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    get so big that you crowd me
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    treat with medicine
  2. rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla,
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    overgrowth
  3. Dennis!
  1. Enter Dennis.

Dennis

75
  1. Calls your worship?

Oliver

76
  1. Was not Charles, the Duke’s wrestler, here to speak with me?

Dennis

77 - 78
  1. So please you, he is here at the door, and importunes access
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    requests
  2. to you.

Oliver

79 - 80
  1. Call him in.
  2. Exit Dennis.
  3. ’Twill be a good way; and tomorrow the wrestling is.
  1. Enter Charles.

Charles

81
  1. Good morrow to your worship.
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    Good morning

Oliver

82
  1. Good Monsieur Charles, what’s the new news at the new court?

Charles

83 - 88
  1. There’s no news at the court, sir, but the old news: that
  2. is, the old Duke is banish’d by his younger brother the new
  3. Duke, and three or four loving lords have put themselves
  4. into voluntary exile with him, whose lands and revenues
  5. enrich the new Duke; therefore he gives them good leave to
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    Three or four lords have followed the old duke into exile. The money those lords would have made goes to the new duke.
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    permission
  6. wander.

Oliver

89 - 90
  1. Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke’s daughter, be banish’d
  2. with her father?

Charles

91 - 95
  1. O no; for the Duke’s daughter, her cousin, so loves her,
  2. being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would
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    they were raised together
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    The First Folio has the word “hee” here. Modern editions change it to “she”.
  3. have follow’d her exile, or have died to stay behind her.
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    if made to stay
  4. She is at the court, and no less belov’d of her uncle than
  5. his own daughter, and never two ladies lov’d as they do.

Oliver

96
  1. Where will the old Duke live?

Charles

97 - 101
  1. They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many
  2. merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin
  3. Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him
  4. every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the
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    pass the time
  5. golden world.
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    a mythical time long ago when humans lived in ease and peace

Oliver

102
  1. What, you wrestle tomorrow before the new Duke?

Charles

103 - 114
  1. Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a matter.
  2. I am given, sir, secretly to understand that your younger
  3. brother, Orlando, hath a disposition to come in disguis’d
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    plans
  4. against me to try a fall. Tomorrow, sir, I wrestle for my
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    bout
  5. credit, and he that escapes me without some broken limb
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    reputation
  6. shall acquit him well. Your brother is but young and tender,
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    acquit himself well; i.e. do a good job
  7. and for your love I would be loath to foil him, as I must
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    defeat
  8. for my own honor if he come in; therefore out of my love to
  9. you, I came hither to acquaint you withal, that either you
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    with all of this
  10. might stay him from his intendment, or brook such disgrace
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    endure
  11. well as he shall run into, in that it is a thing of his own
  12. search, and altogether against my will.
Oliver

Oliver

John Miller, George Scharf, 1824

Oliver

115 - 132
  1. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt
  2. find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my
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    repay
  3. brother’s purpose herein, and have by underhand means
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    unobtrusive
  4. labor’d to dissuade him from it; but he is resolute. I’ll
  5. tell thee, Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of
  6. France, full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man’s
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    mean spirited rival; someone who disparages his opponents
  7. good parts, a secret and villainous contriver against me his
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    qualities or abilities
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    schemer
  8. natural brother; therefore use thy discretion— I had as lief
  9. thou didst break his neck as his finger. And thou wert best
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    I would be as willing for you to break his neck as his finger. Oliver is telling Charles to break Orlando's neck (and presumably kill him).
  10. look to’t; for if thou dost him any slight disgrace, or if
  11. he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practice
  12. against thee by poison, entrap thee by some treacherous
  13. device, and never leave thee till he hath ta’en thy life by
  14. some indirect means or other; for I assure thee (and almost
  15. with tears I speak it) there is not one so young and so
  16. villainous this day living. I speak but brotherly of him,
  17. but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush
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    Analyse. In this sense, Elizabethans used “anatomize” to mean a detailed examination of someone's faults.
  18. and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

Charles

133 - 136
  1. I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come
  2. tomorrow, I’ll give him his payment. If ever he go alone
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    walk unaided
  3. again, I’ll never wrestle for prize more. And so God keep
  4. your worship!
  1. Exit.

Oliver

137 - 145
  1. Farewell, good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester. I
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    urge
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    athlete
  2. hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul (yet I know not
  3. why) hates nothing more than he. Yet he’s gentle, never
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    of gentlemanly character
  4. school’d and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts
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    purposes, intentions
  5. enchantingly belov’d, and indeed so much in the heart of the
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    beloved by people of all ranks, as if by enchantment
  6. world, and especially of my own people, who best know him,
  7. that I am altogether mispris’d. But it shall not be so long,
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    despised
  8. this wrestler shall clear all. Nothing remains but that I
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    settle everything
  9. kindle the boy thither, which now I’ll go about.
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    incite
  1. Exit.
Frontpiece to 1900 edition of "As You Like It"

Frontpiece to 1900 edition of "As You Like It"

Will H. Low, 1900

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