Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An Orchard near OLIVER'S House.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.

Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion: he bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns;1 and, as thou sayest, 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:2 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,3 and to that end

'Poor a thousand crowns] The article here denotes one, and therefore appropriately follows poor. We do not now place the indefinite article in this way, except with the adjectives such and many, as in the examples, Many a person, Such a man. It was formerly, however, good English to say, A many persons; the French say, Un tel homme.

Speaks goldenly, &c.] So, in Macbeth, i. 17, we have 'Golden opinions.'-Profit is proficiency.

3

• Manage] French manége, the art of training horses.

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.2 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.

Enter OLIVER.

Adam. Yonder comes my master, your brother. Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up.

Oli. Now, sir! what make you here? 3

Orl. Nothing: I am not taught to make anything.
Oli. What mar you then, sir?

Orl. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

Oli. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.4

1 His countenance, &c.] The way in which he acknowledges or entertains me, makes me seem void of.

2 Mines my gentility, &c.] Undermines, or tries to debase, my gentlemanly nature, by means of the training he subjects me to.

• What make you here] For what do you come here?—what, like the Latin quid, being used for why. The use of make for go or come is very common in Shakspeare-Make from the shaft.' K. Lear, i. 1.—' What make you from Wittenberg.' Hamlet, i. 2.

• Be naught awhile] This seems to have been a proverbial expression, signifying that it is better even to do mischief than to do nothing.

Orl. Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury?

Oli. Know you where you are, sir?
Orl. O, sir, very well here in

your orchard. Oli. Know you before whom, sir?

Orl. Ay, better than he 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; 1 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.

Oli. What, boy!

Orl. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.2

Oli. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain ?

Orl. I am no villain. I am the youngest son of Sir Roland 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 hast railed on thyself.

for

Adam. [Coming forward.] Sweet masters, be patient; father's remembrance, be at accord.

your

In that you are, &c.] The noun clause 'that you are,' &c. is here the object of the preposition in. Both for and in were formerly much used in this way.

2 You are too young in this] That is, too inexperienced or unpractised. This thought was suggested to Shakspeare by that passage in Lodge's story of Rosalynd, which says, 'Though I am eldest by birth, yet, never having attempted any deeds of arms, I am youngest to perform any martial exploits.'

Oli. Let me go, I

say.

Orl. 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.

Oli. 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.

Orl. I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.

Oli. Get with him, you old dog.

you

Adam. Is old dog 2 my reward? Most true, I have lost teeth in your service. God be with my old master! he would not have spoke such a word.

my

[Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM. Oli. Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla, Denis!

Enter DENIS.

Den. Calls your worship?

Oli. Was not Charles, the duke's wrestler, here to speak with me?

Offend you] Be an obstacle in your way.-A common meaning of the word in Scripture.

2 Old dog] This is an allusion to the fable of the old dog who could not seize the prey, and was ungratefully and unreasonably reproved by his master.

Den. So please you, he is here at the door, and impor

tunes access to you.

Oli. Call him in.

[Exit DENIS.]-T will be a good

way; and to-morrow the wrestling is.

Enter CHARLES.

Cha. Good-morrow to your worship.

Oli. Good monsieur Charles !-what's the new news at the new court?!

Cha. 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.

Oli. Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be banished with her father?

Cha. O, no; for the duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her being ever from their cradles bred togetherthat 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.

Oli. Where will the old duke live?

2

Cha. They say, he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men3 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.

The new court] The court of Frederick, the usurping duke. 2 Forest of Arden] Ardennes is a hilly region in the north-east of France; it was formerly one extensive forest.

A many merry men] A many is still in use as a provincialism; the corresponding phrase a few has kept its place in the national speech.

« ZurückWeiter »