AS YOU LIKE IT - William Shakespeare SUMMARY

Act1 Scene1 Orlando describes his unfortunate state of affairs to Adam. Upon his fathers death, Orlando was bequeathed a mere 1,000 crowns. But his brother Oliver dosnt honour ther fathers wish of giving him a proper education. Although he arranges for his other brother, Jaques, to attend school,he denies orlando the privilage,giving him the treatment of a piece of livestock. Orlando admits to Adam that heresents his servile condition and vows that he will no longer endure it. Oliver enters, and the hostility between the brothers soon boils over into violence. Orlando claims that just because Oliveris the oldest it dosnt . Oliver, offended by his brothers insolence, attacks him, while Orlando seizes Oliver by the throat. Orlando refuses to unhand his brother until Oliver promises to treat him like a gentleman, or else give him his due portion of their fathers will. Oliver hastily agrees and, in a rage, dismisses Orlando and Adam, whom he chastises as an old dog. Oliver summons Charles, the court wrestler, who has been waiting to speak to him. Oliver asks Charles for the news at court, and Charles reports the old news of Duke fedrick banishing duke ferdinand. When Oliver also finds out that rosalind remains at court. Charles then rells him that Orlando plans to enter a wrestling match at the royal court. He begs Oliver to intervene on his brothers behalf, but Oliver replies that Orlando is a conniving and deceitful scoundrel. He convinces Charles that Orlando will use poison or some other trick in order to bring down the wrestler. Charles threatens to repay Orlando in kind, and Oliver, pleased with Charless promise, plots a way to deliver his brother to the wrestling ring

Act1 Scene2,3 Summary: Act I, scene ii Rosalind is depressed over the banishment of her father, Duke Senior. Her cousin, Celia, attempts to cheer her up. Celia promises that as the sole heir of the usurping Duke Frederick, she will give the throne to Rosalind upon his death. In gratitude, Rosalind promises to be less melancholy, and the two women wittily discuss the roles of Fortune and Nature in determining the circumstances of ones life (I.ii.2647). They are interrupted by the court jester, Touchstone, who mockingly tells of a knight without honor who still swore by it. Le Beau, a dapper young courtier, also arrives and intrigues them with the promise of a wrestling match featuring the phenomenal strength and skill of the wrestler Charles. The matchs participants enter with many members of the court, including Duke Frederick, who cordially greets Rosalind and Celia. The duke remarks on the danger Charless young challenger faces, and he suggests that the girls attempt to dissuade the present challenger from his effort to defeat the wrestler. Rosalind and Celia agree and call to the young man, who turns out to be Orlando. Try as they might, they cannot sway him. He remains deaf to their pleas and speaks as if he has absolutely nothing to lose. Orlando and Charles wrestle, and Orlando quickly defeats his opponent. Amazed, Duke Frederick asks Orlando to reveal his identity. When Orlando responds that he is the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois, the duke laments that he wishes Orlando had been someone elses son, admitting that he and Sir Rowland were enemies. Rosalind and Celia rush in to offer their congratulations, and Rosalind admits how deeply her father admired Orlandos father. In the exchange, Orlando and Rosalind become mutually smitten, though both are too tongue-tied to confess their feelings.

Immediately after Rosalind and Celia take their leave, Le Beau warns Orlando that, though his victory and conduct deserve great praise, he will get none from Duke Frederick. In fact, La Beau says, the duke is due for a dangerous outburst. Orlando, already heartsick over Rosalind, resolves to flee from the tyrannical duke. Summary: Act I, scene iii Rosalind is overcome with her emotions for Orlando. Celia asks her cousin how she could possibl y manage to fall in love with Orlando so quickly. Just then, Duke Frederick approaches and demands that Rosalind leave the royal court. He denounces her as a traitor and threatens her with death should she be found within twenty miles of court. Rosalind does not know how she has offended the duke and pleads her innocence, but the duke remains firm. When Rosalind asks him to explain his decision to banish her, Duke Frederick replies that she is her fathers daughter, and that is enough. Celia makes an impassioned plea on Rosalinds behalf, but the duke condemns Rosalind for her smoothness and silence, and tries to convince his daughter that she will seem more beautiful and virtuous after Rosalind is gone (I.iii.7172). Celia announces that in banishing Rosalind, Duke Frederick has also banished Celia, and the two women decide to seek out Duke Senior in the Forest of Ardenne. Realizing that such a journey would be incredibly dangerous for two wealthy, attractive young women, they decide to travel in disguise: Celia as a common shepherdess and Rosalind as a young man. Celia renames herself Aliena, while Rosalind dubs her disguised self Ganymede, after the cupbearer to Jove. The two decide to convince Touchstone, a clown, to accompany them on their journey.

Act2 Scene1,2,3,4 Summary: Act II, scene i [O]ur life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

The banished Duke Senior expounds on the wonders of life in the forest. He tells his associates that he prefers forest dwelling to the painted pomp of courtly existence (II.i.3). He reminds them that their existence in Ardenne is free from danger and that their greatest worry here is nothing worse than the cold winter wind. The woods provide Duke Senior with everything he needs, from conversation to education to spiritual edification, for he finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything (II.i.1617). Lord Amiens agrees with him. The duke suggests that they hunt some venison, but he cannot help but mourn the fate of the deer, who, though natives of Ardenne, are violently slaughtered. One lord announces that the melancholy lord Jaques has seconded this observation, declaring Senior guiltier of usurpation than his loveless brother, Duke Frederick. Duke Senior, in good humor, asks one of his men to bring him to Jaques, because arguing with him is such fun. Summary: Act II, scene ii Back at court, Duke Frederick is enraged to discover the disappearances of Celia, Rosalind, and Touchstone; he cannot believe that the three could leave court without anyones notice. One attending lord reports that Celias gentlewoman overheard Celia and Rosalind complimenting Orlando, and she speculates that wherever the women are, Orlando is likely with them. Frederick seizes on this information and commands that Oliver be recruited to find his brother.

Summary: Act II, scene iii Orlando returns to his former home, where the servant Adam greets him. News of the young mans victory over Charles precedes him, and Adam worries that Orlandos strength and bravery will be the keys to his downfall. Adam begs Orlando not to enter Olivers house. Oliver, he reports, having learned of Orlandos triumph, plans to burn the place where Orlando sleeps in hopes of destroying Orlando with it. Abhor it, Adam warns, fear it, do not enter it (II.iii.29). Orlando wonders about his fate, speculating that without a home, he may be destined to eke out a living as a common highway robber. Adam suggests that the two of them take to the road with his modest lifes savings. Touched by Adams constant service, Orlando agrees. Summary: Act II, scene iv Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone arrive, safe but exhausted, in the Forest of Ardenne. The three sit down to rest, but before long they are interrupted by two shepherds: young Corin and old Silvius. The shepherds are so wrapped up in their conversation about Silviuss hopeless love and devotion to the shepherdess Phoebe that they do not notice the three travelers. Corin, who claims to have loved a thousand times, tries to advise Silvius, but the young man, maintaining that his companion could not possibly understand the depth of his feelings, wanders off. Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone approach Corin and ask where they might find a place to rest. When Corin admits that his masters modest holdings are up for sale, Rosalind and Celia decide to buy the property.

Act2 Scene5,6,7 Summary: Act II, scene v As Amiens strolls through the Forest of Ardenne with Jaques in

tow, he sings a song inviting his listeners to lie with him [u]nder the greenwood tree (II.v.1), where there are no enemies but winter and rough weather (II.v.8). Jaques begs him to continue, but Amiens hesitates, claiming that the song will only make Jaques melancholy. The warning does not deter Jaques, who proudly claims that he can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs (II.v.1112). While the other lords in attendance prepare for Duke Seniors meal, Amiens leads them in finishing the song. Jaques follows with a verse set to the same tune, which he himself wrote. In it, he chides those foolish enough to leave their wealth and leisure for life in the forest. Amiens leaves to summon the duke to dinner. Summary: Act II, scene vi Orlando and Adam enter the Forest of Ardenne. Adam is exhausted from travel and claims that he will soon die from hunger. Orlando assures his loyal servant that he will find him food. Before he sets off to hunt, Orlando fears leaving Adam lying in the bleak air and carries him off to shelter (II.vi.12). Summary: Act II, scene vii And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, And then from hour to hour we rot and rot; And thereby hangs a tale. Duke Senior returns to camp to find that Jaques has disappeared. When a lord reports that Jaques has last been seen in good spirits, the duke worries that happiness in one who is typically so miserable portends discord in the universe. Just after the duke commands the lord to find Jaques, Jaques appears. He is uncharacteristically merry and explains that while wandering through the forest, he met a fool. He repeats the fools witty observations about Lady Fortune and proclaims that he himself would like to be a fool. In this position, Jaques reasons, he would be able to speak his mind freely, thereby cleansing the foul body of thinfected world with the medicine of his criticism (II.vii.60

61). The duke laments the sin of chiding sin and reminds Jaques that he himself is guilty of many of the evils he would inevitably criticize in others (II.v.64). Their playful argument is interrupted when Orlando barges onto the scene, drawing his sword and demanding food. The duke asks whether Orlandos rudeness is a function of distress or bad breeding and, once Orlando has regained his composure, invites him to partake of the banquet. Orlando goes off to fetch Adam. Duke Senior observes that he and his men are far from alone in their unhappiness: there is much strife in the world. Jaques replies that the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players (II.vii.139). All humans pass through the stages of infancy, childhood, and adulthood; they experience love and seek honor, but all eventually succumb to the debility of old age and mere oblivion (II.vii.164). Orlando returns with Adam and all begin to eat. The duke soon realizes that Orlando is the son of Sir Rowland, the dukes old friend, and heartily welcomes the young man.

Act3 Scene1,2 Summary: Act III, scene i Oliver, who has been unable to locate Orlando, reports to Duke Frederick at court. The duke chastises him for his failure and commands him to find Orlando within a years time or else forfeit the whole of his property. Frederick turns Oliver out to search for Orlando and seizes his lands and worldly goods until Orlando is delivered to court. Summary: Act III, scene ii Orlando runs through the Forest of Ardenne, mad with love. He hangs poems that he has composed in Rosalinds honor on every

tree, hoping that passersby will see her virtue witnessed everywhere (III.ii.8). Corin and Touchstone enter, but are too engrossed in a conversation about the relative merits of court and country life to pay attention to Orlandos verses. Corin argues that polite manners at court are of no consequence in the country. Touchstone asks him to provide evidence to support this thesis and then challenges the shepherds reasoning. Rosalind enters, disguised as Ganymede. She reads one of Orlandos poems, which compares her to a priceless jewel. Touchstone mocks the verse, claiming that he could easily churn out a comparable succession of rhymes. He does so with couplets that liken Rosalind to a cat in heat, a thorny rose, and a prostitute who is transported to the pillory on a cart. Rosalind rebukes Touchstone for his meddling. Just then, Celia enters disguised as the shepherdess Aliena. She, too, has found one of Orlandos verses and reads it aloud. The women agree that the verses are terribly written, yet Rosalind is eager to learn the identity of their author. Celia teases her friend, hesitating to reveal this secret until Rosalind is nearly insane with anticipation. When Celia admits that Orlando has penned the poems, Rosalind can hardly believe it. Like a smitten schoolgirl, she asks a dozen questions about her intended lover, wanting to know everything from where he is to what he looks like. As Celia does her best to answer these questions, despite Rosalinds incessant interruptions, Orlando and Jaques enter. Hiding, the women eavesdrop on their conversation. Orlando and Jaques clearly do not care for one anothers company and exchange a series of barbed insults. Jaques dislikes Orlandos sentimental love, declaring it the worst possible fault, while Orlando scoffs at Jaquess melancholy. Eager to part, Jaques walks off into the forest, leaving Orlando alone. Rosalind decides to confront Orlando. She approaches him as the young man Ganymede, and speaks of a man that has been carving the name Rosalind on the trees. Orlando insists that he is the man so loveshaked and begs her for a remedy (III.ii.332333). She claims to recognize the symptoms of those who have fallen under the

spell of true love, and assures Orlando that he exhibits none of them. He is, she says, too neatly dressed to be madly in love. She promises to cure him if he promises to woo Ganymede as though Ganymede were Rosalind. As Ganymede, Rosalind vows to make the very idea of love unappealing to Orlando by acting the part of a fickle lover. Orlando is quite sure he is beyond cure, but Rosalind says, I would cure you if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cot, and woo me (III.ii.381382). With all his heart, Orlando agrees.

Summary: Act III, scene iii Touchstone and a goatherd named Audrey wander through the forest, while Jaques follows behind them, eavesdropping. Touchstone laments that the gods have not made Audrey poetical (III.iii.12). Were she a lover of poetry, she would appreciate the falsehoods of which all lovers are guilty and would be dishonest, a quality that Touchstone prefers she possess. His reason behind encouraging her dishonesty is that to have beauty and honesty together, as he claims he does in Audrey, is to have honey a sauce to sugar (III.iii.25). Nevertheless, Touchstone has arranged to marry Audrey in the forest with Sir Oliver Martext, a vicar from a nearby village, officiating. Touchstone determines that many wives cheat on their husbands, but claims that the horns of cuckoldry are nothing of which to be ashamed. Oliver Martext arrives to perform the wedding ceremony and insists that someone give the woman so that the ceremony is lawful (III.iii.5558). Jaques offers his services but convinces Touchstone that he should marry in a proper church. The clown counters that a nonchurch wedding will make for an ill marriage and that an ill marriage will make it easier for him to abandon his wife, but in the end he acquiesces. Jaques, Touchstone, and Audrey leave the rather bewildered vicar alone in the forest.