As You Like It by William Shakespeare

As You Like It
by
William Shakespeare

Plot Summary

Before
Sir Rowland de Boys died, he made Oliver, his eldest son, promise to
rear and educate Orlando, his youngest son. But after Sir Rowland’s
death, Oliver virtually imprisons Orlando in their home. The younger
brother receives no schooling, no guidance, and almost no money–unlike a
third brother, Jaques, who lives away at school, prospering. In the
orchard of Oliver’s house, Orlando complains to Adam, an old servant,
that Oliver even pays more attention to his horses. When Oliver enters
the orchard, Orlando tells him:
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 gentleman-like 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.

Meanwhile,
two other men–Duke Frederick and his younger brother Duke Senior–also
live at odds. Frederick had unjustly seized the dukedom of Senior and
banished him to the Forest of Arden. There, Senior and his loyal
followers learn to live like Robin Hood and his merry men, enjoying all
the simple pleasures of a rustic existence. As Senior says,
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

Senior’s
daughter, Rosalind, remains behind at the court of Frederick. Rosalind
is the central character in the play, the hub around whom the wheel of
fortune revolves. At Duke Frederick’s behest, Rosalind is to serve as a
companion for his daughter, Celia. It so happens that Rosalind has a
sympathizer in Celia, for the two of them have been best friends since
childhood. Whenever Rosalind pines for her missing father, Celia is
there to comfort her. She says, “I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be
merry” . Rosalind soon will have good cause to be merry, for she is
destined to fall in love with Orlando, the young man maltreated by his
brother Oliver. Here is what happens:
Orlando somehow flourishes on
his own, like an unattended flower, displaying the spirit and courtly
bearing of his father, Rowland de Boys. However, restricted as he is by
his brother, Orlando lapses into melancholy. When he learns that Duke
Frederick’s champion wrestler, Charles, will take on challengers,
Orlando bids to compete. After all, he has nothing to lose but his
miserable life. Oliver, jealous of the fine young man that his brother
is becoming, urges Charles to break Orlando’s neck during the match.
Rosalind
and Celia, present to witness the competition, try to dissuade Orlando
from competing. Rosalind even attempts to have the match canceled
But
the match goes on and Orlando, heartened by the kindness shown by Celia
and Rosalind, defeats Charles! Duke Frederick admires the young man for
his courage and skill. But when Frederick learns Orlando is the son of
Sir Rowland, who was a friend of the banished Duke Senior, he leaves the
scene in a huff. Rosalind, however, rewards Orlando with a chain from
her neck. Later, when Rosalind and Celia are discussing Orlando,
Frederick bursts in and banishes Rosalind, for she reminds him too much
of her father, Duke Senior, and his late friend, Sir Rowland. Frederick
declares:
Within these ten days if that thou be’st [be] found
So near our public court as twenty miles,
Thou diest for it.
Disguised
as a man and calling herself Ganymede, Rosalind leaves to seek out her
father in the forest of Arden. Celia accompanies Rosalind, wearing the
clothes of a country maid and posing as Ganymede’s sister, Aliena.
Tagging along is Duke Frederick’s saucy-tongued court jester,
Touchstone. In the forest, they first encounter an old man, Corin,
talking with a young shepherd, Silvius. Silvius is deep in the throes of
melancholy because the woman he loves, a shepherdess named Phebe, does
not return his love. Rosalind empathizes with Silvius, for she now knows
what it is like to be in love but not be united with the beloved.
Rosalind contracts with Corin to buy a cottage for her, and she and
Celia move in.
Orlando, too, must leave. Oliver’s elderly servant,
Adam, has warned Orlando that the evil Oliver vows to burn Orlando’s
chamber that very night as Orlando sleeps. Orlando flees with Adam to
the safety of the forest. Rosalind and Celia buy a flock of sheep and
become shepherds. When old Adam complains of hunger, Orlando, sword in
hand, demands food from Duke Senior’s followers; but they generously
share their food. When Senior learns Orlando is the son of his old
friend, Sir Rowland, he takes Orlando under his protection.
Meanwhile,
Duke Frederick, believing that Celia and Rosalind have run off with
Orlando, orders Oliver to find his brother and bring him back dead or
alive. If he fails in this task, he will lose all of his possessions.
In
the forest, Orlando thinks often of Rosalind and carves her name on
trees and attaches love poems. At the same time, Touchstone tests the
worth of every character he meets in the forest with his quick-witted
rejoinders–the kind he delivered at court as a fool–spicing his language
with puns and paradoxes to lay bare the marrow of his interlocutors.
After Touchstone teases Rosalind about how her name is appearing on
trees everywhere in the forest, Rosalind (still disguised as Ganymede)
crosses paths one day with Orlando and playfully chides him about
abusing the trees by carving his poems into them. Then she asks whether
his rhymes truly reflect the love that he feels. Orlando replies,
“Neither rime nor reason can express how much” .
Rosalind says
Orlando can cure himself of his foolish love if he will come to her
cottage each day and woo her as if she were Rosalind. In this way, he
will learn of the ways of whimsical ladies and gradually fall out of
love. Intrigued by this proposal, Orlando does as she asks. However,
Orlando only falls more deeply in love with the memory of Rosalind as he
takes part in the mock courtship. Rosalind’s love also deepens.
While
searching for Orlando, Oliver falls asleep under a tree. A green snake
entwines his neck, preparing to kill him. Nearby a lioness awaits her
turn at Oliver. Orlando happens upon the scene on his way to woo
Ganymede. He scares off the snake and, as Oliver awakens, draws his
sword and kills the lion at the cost of a deep wound to an arm.
Suddenly, Oliver repents and becomes a loving brother. Because Orlando’s
wound has made him too weak to continue to Ganymede’s cottage, Oliver
goes in his stead and explains what happened, displaying a bloody
handkerchief as proof of Orlando’s wound. Rosalind faints.
While at
the cottage, Oliver falls in love with Celia, and they vow to marry the
next day. Rosalind (as Ganymede) goes to Orlando and tells him she is
versed in magic and will conjure up Rosalind the following day so that
he can marry her. On the appointed day, Rosalind appears as herself
while the wedding guests, including Duke Senior and his followers look
on. By this time, Touchstone has found a love of his own–Audrey, a
country wench. In addition, Phebe, through a little trickery worked by
Rosalind, agrees to marry Silvius. Thus, on the wedding day, four
couples exchange vows: Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius
and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audry. But it so happens that there is
also another event to celebrate. Jaques de Boys, the third son of
Rowland de Boys and the brother of Orlando and Oliver, arrives to
announce that a holy man has shown Duke Frederick the error of his ways.
Consequently, Frederick has ceded his crown back to Duke Senior and
retired from the corrupt and wordly life.
Presumably everyone lives happily ever after.
______________________

Settings

The
action takes place in a palace in northern Europe and in the Arden
Forest. There is an Arden Forest in Warwickshire, England, and an
Ardennes Forest in continental Europe. The latter forest encompasses
parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Thomas Lodge, who wrote a play
that Shakespeare used as the source for As You Like It, earned a
medical degree in France and practiced medicine in Belgium, not far from
the Ardennes forest

» About William Shakespeare