AS YOU LIKE IT. WAS entered in the Stationers' Registers August 4th, 1600 (see under the account of Much ado about Nothing, vol. ii. p. 72); but no edition of it is known earlier than 1623, when it appeared in the folio of that date. As Meres does not mention it in the celebrated passage of his Palladis Tamia, 1598 (see the Memoir of Shakespeare), we may perhaps infer that it was not then in existence. From the fact that Marlowe's Hero and Leander, which is quoted, act iii. sc. 5,— "Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, 'Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?"" 66 was not printed till 1598, no conclusion is to be hastily drawn; for, in those days, poems by distinguished writers were often much read in manuscript before they reached the press.-As you like it is founded on a novel by Thomas Lodge called Rosalynde. Euphues Golden Legacie, &c., which was originally published in 1590. 'Shakespeare has followed Lodge's novel more exactly than is his general custom when he is indebted to such worthless originals; and has sketched some of his principal characters, and borrowed a few expressions from it. . . . It should be observed that the characters of Jaques, the Clown, and Audrey, are entirely of the poet's own formation." STEEVENS.(Lodge's Rosalynde is reprinted in Shakespeare's Library, vol. i., by Mr. Collier, who is very angry at Steevens for having termed it "worthless:" but if Steevens somewhat undervalued it, Mr. Collier greatly over-rates it.) DRAMATIS PERSONE. DUKE, living in banishment. FREDERICK, his brother, and usurper of his dominions. AMIENS, lords attending on the banished Duke. JAQUES, SCENE-First (and in act ii. sc. 3), near Oliver's house; afterwards, partly in the usurper's court, and partly in the Forest of Arden. AS YOU LIKE IT. ACT I. SCENE I. OLIVER's orchard. Enter ORLANDO and ADAM. Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion,he bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns; and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well:(1) 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(2) 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 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. Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up. [Adam retires. |