READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scene i |
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Act I, Scene i:
An Orchard near OLIVER'S house.
An Orchard near OLIVER'S house.
| [Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.] |
| ORLANDO: |
| As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion,—bequeathed me by |
| will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, charged my |
| brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: 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 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. |
| ORLANDO: |
| Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up. |
| [ADAM retires] |
| [Enter OLIVER.] |
| OLIVER: |
| Now, sir! what make you here? |
| ORLANDO: |
| Nothing: I am not taught to make anything. |
| OLIVER: |
| What mar you then, sir? |
| ORLANDO: |
| Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a |
| poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. |
| OLIVER: |
| Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile. |
| ORLANDO: |
| Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What |
| prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury? |
| OLIVER: |
| Know you where you are, sir? |
| ORLANDO: |
| O, sir, very well: here in your orchard. |
| OLIVER: |
| Know you before whom, sir? |
| ORLANDO: |
| Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are |
| my eldest brother: and in the gentle condition of blood, you |
| should so know me. The courtesy of nations allows you my better |
| in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not |
| away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us: I have as |
| much of my father in me as you, albeit; I confess, your coming |
| before me is nearer to his reverence. |
| OLIVER: |
| What, boy! |
| ORLANDO: |
| Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. |
| OLIVER: |
| Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? |
| ORLANDO: |
| I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de |
| Bois: he was my father; and he is thrice a villain that says such |
| a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not |
| take this hand from thy throat till this other had pulled out |
| thy tongue for saying so: thou has railed on thyself. |
| ADAM: |
| [Coming forward] Sweet masters, be patient; for your |
| father's remembrance, be at accord. |
| OLIVER: |
| Let me go, I say. |
| ORLANDO: |
| I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. 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. |
| OLIVER: |
| And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent? Well, sir, |
| get you in; I will not long be troubled with you: you shall |
| have some part of your will: I pray you leave me. |
| ORLANDO: |
| I no further offend you than becomes me for my good. |
| OLIVER: |
| Get you with him, you old dog. |
| ADAM: |
| Is old dog my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in |
| your service.—God be with my old master! he would not have |
| spoke such a word. |
| [Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM.] |
| OLIVER: |
| Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic |
| your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. |
| Holla, Dennis! |
| [Enter DENNIS.] |
| DENNIS: |
| Calls your worship? |
| OLIVER: |
| Was not Charles, the duke's wrestler, here to speak with me? |
| DENNIS: |
| So please you, he is here at the door and importunes access to |
| you. |
| OLIVER: |
| Call him in. |
| [Exit DENNIS] |
| —'Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is. |
| [Enter CHARLES.] |
| CHARLES: |
| Good morrow to your worship. |
| OLIVER: |
| Good Monsieur Charles!—what's the new news at the new court? |
| CHARLES: |
| There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news; that |
| is, the old duke is banished by his younger brother the new duke; |
| and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary |
| exile with him, whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke; |
| therefore he gives them good leave to wander. |
| OLIVER: |
| Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be banished |
| with her father? |
| CHARLES: |
| O, no; for the duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her,—being |
| ever from their cradles bred together,—that she would have |
| followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at |
| the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own |
| daughter; and never two ladies loved as they do. |
| OLIVER: |
| Where will the old duke live? |
| CHARLES: |
| They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many |
| merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood |
| of England: they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, |
| and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world. |
| OLIVER: |
| What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke? |
| CHARLES: |
| Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a matter. I am |
| given, sir, secretly to understand that your younger brother, |
| Orlando, hath a disposition to come in disguis'd against me to |
| try a fall. To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; |
| and he that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him |
| well. Your brother is but young and tender; and, for your love, I |
| would be loath to foil him, as I must, for my own honour, if he |
| come in: therefore, out of my love to you, I came hither to |
| acquaint you withal; that either you might stay him from his |
| intendment, or brook such disgrace well as he shall run into; in |
| that it is thing of his own search, and altogether against my |
| will. |
| OLIVER: |
| Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt |
| find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my |
| brother's purpose herein, and have by underhand means laboured to |
| dissuade him from it; but he is resolute. I'll tell thee, |
| Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of France; full of |
| ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a secret |
| and villainous contriver against me his natural brother: |
| therefore use thy discretion: I had as lief thou didst break his |
| neck as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if thou |
| dost him any slight disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace |
| himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap |
| thee by some treacherous device, and never leave thee till he |
| hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other: for, I |
| assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one |
| so young and so villainous this day living. I speak but brotherly |
| of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must |
| blush and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder. |
| CHARLES: |
| I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come |
| to-morrow I'll give him his payment. If ever he go alone again |
| I'll never wrestle for prize more: and so, God keep your worship! |
| [Exit.] |
| OLIVER: |
| Farewell, good Charles.—Now will I stir this gamester: I |
| hope I shall see an end of him: for my soul, yet I know not |
| why, hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never schooled |
| and yet learned; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly |
| beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and |
| especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am |
| altogether misprised: but it shall not be so long; this |
| wrestler shall clear all: nothing remains but that I kindle the |
| boy thither, which now I'll go about. |
| [Exit.] |
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