As You Like It

“Marry, I prithee do, to make sport withal; but / love no man in good earnest, nor no further in / sport neither than with safety of pure blush thou / mayst in honor come off again.” 

Celia warns Rosalind to not take love too seriously. She believes it too serious a topic for joking and that they risk dishonor by discussing it. This foreshadows Rosalind’s love for Orlando, whom she will soon meet. By the end of the play, however, Celia will herself fall in love.

“The more pity that fools may not speak / wisely what men do foolishly.” 

The fool Touchstone jokes that the words of fools are never taken seriously due to their joking nature. However, their comments on the foolish actions of others might in fact be wise. This is a common theme across Shakespeare’s plays, many of which contain a stock “fool” character.

“What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue? / I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference. / O poor Orlando! Thou art overthrown.” 

Orlando addresses himself, describing the power of his newfound love for Rosalind. This love, which came at first sight, is so strong that it binds Orlando’s tongue, despite Rosalind’s desire to speak to him. When Orlando describes himself as “overthrown,” it shows how fully and quickly love in this play can change a character’s life and personality.

“Now go we in content / To liberty, and not to banishment.” 

When Rosalind and Celia prepare to go into exile together, Celia remarks on the potential freedom in their journey. As court ladies, Rosalind and Celia must adhere to strict social customs and regulations. In banishment, they have the freedom to take charge of their destinies.

“But, poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree / That cannot so much a blossom yield / In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.” 

Orlando comments pessimistically on his servant Adam’s loyalty. Given the dangers of Duke Frederick’s court and the threat of his brother Oliver killing him, Orlando decides to leave for the forest. His faithful servant Adam elects to follow him. Orlando believes that Adam’s loyalty is in vain, as Orlando represents a rotten and unproductive part of his family tree.

“No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess, / Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover / As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow. / But if thy lover were ever like to mine— / As sure I think did never man love so— / How many actions most ridiculous / Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?” 

The young shepherd Silvius, who is in love with the shepherdess Phoebe, cannot believe that the aged shepherd Corin could ever understand his feelings. Silvius believes that the elderly either do not remember or have never experienced true love, especially not the likes of what he feels for Phoebe. This expression is characteristic of the power that love holds over characters in the play, who all experience love as having an immediate hold over their lives.

“All the world’s a stage

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” 

While Duke Senior and Jaques await Orlando’s return to their table, Jaques comments on the universal human experience. He uses the stage as a metaphor for human life and the seven acts as metaphors for the seven stages of life—the infant, the boy, the lover, the soldier, the justice, the old man, and the dying man. Each stage of life represents an experience that many, if not all, men experience. These stages of life were a traditional division of human experience in Shakespeare’s time, but his innovation here is to associate the divisions of life with the divisions of a play. By figuring human beings as “merely players,” Jaques minimizes the uniqueness of life, suggesting that all follow the same patterns and characters.

“Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.”

In this line from Amiens’ song, he shows a view of love and friendship contrary to what most other characters in the play express. While many of the characters find love and friendship to be powerful and positive forces, here Amiens references the potential dangers of false friendship and the potential embarrassment of love.

“I know the more one sickens, / the worse at ease he is, and that he that wants / money, means, and content is without three good friends.”

Corin and Touchstone debate about the qualities of a shepherd’s life. Corin says that wealth and power—meaning, the benefits of a court life—are not the most important or valuable parts of life; friendship is. As a man loses his place, or his health, he does not actually need wealth or power; all he needs are three good friends.

“The worst fault you have is to be in love.” 

Jaques tells Orlando that the worst part of his personality is being in love. To Jaques, love is a negative attribute which detracts from one’s character. This is the opposite view of Orlando who, despite the suffering he experiences from his unrequited love, has no wish to avoid love altogether.

“Love is merely a madness, / and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a / whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are / not so punished and cured is that the lunacy is so / ordinary that the whippers are in love too.” 

Rosalind, in disguise as Ganymede, tells Orlando that he suffers from lovesickness. While love can be a wonderful thing, when it is unrequited—as in the case of Orlando’s love for Rosalind at this point in the play—it can cause the lover to suffer terribly. Here Rosalind describes that suffering as madness, giving it a medical connotation. She will later take advantage of this medical connotation, offering to “cure” Orlando. In this quote, Rosalind also describes love madness as a common experience, contrary to other forms of suffering that should be rarer. By painting love in this way, Rosalind shows that she believes love is a wide-reaching phenomenon, even if it has some terrible effects.

“The truest poetry is the most / feigning, and lovers are given to poetry, and what / they swear in poetry may be said as lovers they do / feign.” 

Touchstone explains to the uneducated Audrey what poetry is. His description of poetry, however, has a negative focus. He describes poetry—and particularly love poetry—as false. This is amusing for the play’s audience, since Shakespeare’s plays consist of many forms of poetry. Moreover, this specific play is essentially a type of poetry about love, and one of the primary plot points—Rosalind’s deception of Orlando—is a form of falsehood. Therefore, this quote simultaneously represents Touchstone’s beliefs about poetry and love while providing a meta-commentary or joke about the play itself.

“The oath of a lover is / no stronger than the word of a tapster.”

Celia doubts Orlando’s dedication to Rosalind, telling her that she does not believe Orlando will return to her. At this point in the play, Celia expresses a view of love contrary to Rosalind’s: that it causes lovers to be false and unfaithful. A “tapster” is an antiquated term for a bartender.

“O, that’s a brave man. He writes brave verses, / speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks / them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of / his lover, as a puny tilter that spurs his horse but on / one side breaks his staff like a noble goose; but all’s / brave that youth mounts and folly guides.” 

Celia tells Rosalind that Orlando might be brave and noble, characteristics that Rosalind admires in him, but that bravery is not an admirable quality. To Celia, Orlando betrays his bravery just as easily as he proves it. He is like a failed “tilter” (jouster) who merely pretends to be noble so that he can look good. Celia also comments that bravery frequently accompanies youth and foolishness, which are not good qualities.

“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”

When Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede, she does so at first sight. Phoebe previously did not believe in the power of love, not even when Silvius expressed his towards her. Now that she has fallen in love herself, she cannot imagine how anyone can have a different kind of experience. Love at first sight is a powerful force in this play, also capturing Rosalind and Orlando at the play’s beginning.

“No, no, Orlando, men are April when they / woo, December when they wed. Maids are May / when they are maids, but the sky changes when / they are wives.”

Rosalind-as-Ganymede tells Orlando that men and women change dramatically depending on which stage of love and life they currently inhabit. Unmarried men and women are like April and May, fresh and lovely like spring. When they marry, the men are like December, and for the women, their sky changes, indicating bad weather. Marriage, in this conception, makes people gloomy and negative.

“You have simply misused our sex in your love-/prate. We must have your doublet and hose plucked / over your head and show the world what the bird / hath done to her own nest.” 

Celia criticizes Rosalind’s deception of Orlando. She does not approve of how Rosalind has made a fool of women by pretending to be a man Ganymede pretending to be a woman Rosalind. Celia thinks that Rosalind’s fake version of Rosalind makes fun of women, and she thinks jokingly that Rosalind should be punished. When Celia says that the world should know “what the bird hath done to her own nest,” she means that the world should know what a woman has done to her own gender. Here, when Celia says “sex,” she refers to what is considered gender-identity today.

“OLIVER

You a man? You lack a man’s heart

ROSALIND (AS GANYMEDE)

I do so, I confess it. Ah,

sirrah, a body would think this was cell-counter-

feited. I pray you tell your brother how well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho.

OLIVER

This was not counterfeit. There is too great

testimony in your complexion that it was a passion

of earnest.

ROSALIND (AS GANYMEDE)

Counterfeit, I assure you.

OLIVER

Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to

be a man.

ROSALIND (AS GANYMEDE)

So I do; but i’ faith, I should

have been a woman by right.”

This scene, a conversation between Oliver and Rosalind-as-Ganymede, is heavy with dramatic irony and humor. Oliver cannot believe that this beautiful young boy, who has just fainted after hearing that Orlando is injured and calling for his Rosalind, could truly be a man. He accuses Ganymede of being a fake man, a fact which the audience knows is true. Rosalind jokes about this fact, comically insisting that she is truly a fake man. Oliver backtracks, saying that Ganymede’s passion was too great to be fake. Again, this is true, since Rosalind really loves Orlando. The irony is in the fact that Rosalind knows this and Oliver does not.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the / wise man knows himself to be a fool.” 

In Touchstone’s battle of the wits with William, his rival for Audrey’s love, Touchstone twists his court-taught knowledge both to defeat William and to entertain the audience. The knowledge that Touchstone uses in this battle is characteristic of an upper-class education in Shakespeare’s time. Here, Touchtone says that foolish people think they are wise, while wise people think they are foolish. This is itself a wise statement, which humorously comes from the fool Touchstone. In addition, the statement is funny because in his battle with William, Touchstone most certainly believes himself wise. By his own statement, this should make him the fool. In the end, however, he wins the battle against William.

“O, how bitter a / thing it is to look into happiness through another / man’s eyes.” 

Orlando does not believe that he will truly be able to marry Rosalind at the upcoming group marriage ceremony. He thinks that he still participates in a ruse with Ganymede, which has helped Orlando somewhat with his lovesickness but will never truly satisfy him. Orlando believes that at this wedding, he will see others get married for real while a ruse must suffice for him. He does not know, however, that Ganymede is actually Rosalind, and that Rosalind has a plan to resolve this conflict.

“There is sure another flood towards, and these / couples are coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of / very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called / fools.” 

Jaques refers to the four couples joining the wedding ceremony as sets of animals coming to Noah’s ark. In doing so, he makes a joke about the convenient way that these characters pair themselves up, just as the animals in Noah’s story conveniently paired themselves so that they could re-populate the earth after the great flood. Jaques also says that these beasts (the couples) are called fools, showing that he still believes love has a foolish and negative impact on the characters’ lives.

“Then is there mirth in heaven / When earthly things made even / Atone together. / Good duke, receive thy daughter. / Hymen from heaven brought her, / Yea, brought her hither, / That thou mightst join her hand with his, / Whose heart within his bosom is.” 

Hymen, the god of marriage, sings this song when he re-introduces Rosalind and Celia at the group marriage ceremony. This song begins the conclusion of the play’s many entanglements of love. Now that Rosalind and Celia are their true selves, Orlando can wed his love for real and Oliver can marry his love as a noblewoman rather than a simple shepherdess. This is therefore a joyous occasion, a fitting end for a comedy, as these earthly things come together perfectly and delight all. In addition, the introduction of Hymen, the god of marriage, gives love a divine power.

“Peace, ho! I bar confusion.

’Tis I must make conclusion

Of these most strange events.

Here’s eight that must take hands

To join in Hymen’s bands.

If truth holds true contents.

[To Rosalind and Orlando]

You and you no cross shall part.

[To Celia and Oliver]

You and you are heart in heart.

[To Phoebe]

You to his love must accord

Or have a woman to your lord.

[To Audrey and Touchstone]

You and you are sure together

As the winter to foul weather.

[To All]

While a wedlock hymn we sing,

Feed yourselves with questioning,

That reason wonder may diminish

How thus we met, and these things finish.” 

Hymen sings this comic song as part of the group wedding ceremony. In the song, he comments on the convenience of how these eight have come together, in pairs, after so much confusion. This confusion refers to the complicated conflicts and schemes of the prior four acts, including Rosalind’s deception and the love triangle between Rosalind/Ganymede, Phoebe, and Orlando. Hymen then comments individually on each pair. For Rosalind and Orlando, he simply unites the two forever. For Celia and Oliver, he also simply unites the two, showing that their love, while fresh, is just as true. For Phoebe, he makes a humorous comment about her original love for Ganymede, who she now knows is actually a woman. For Audrey and Touchstone, Hymen jokes that they are as akin as winter and bad weather, referencing the baseness and bawdiness of these two characters throughout the play. In the end, however, Hymen concludes by telling all to relish in the conclusion of the many complex plotlines from the play.