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Play
Name: As You Like It
Period: Classical
Rating: Suitable for all ages
Copyright Status: Public domain
Men: 17
Women: 4
Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love. And thou, thrice-crowned queen of the night...
View Full Monologue TextHang there, my verse, in witness of my love.
And thou, thrice-crowned queen of the night, survey
With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above,
Thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway.
O Rosalind, these trees shall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I'll character,
That every eye which in this forest looks
Shall see thy virtue witnessed everywhere.
Run, run, Orlando, carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
Summary
Orlando, upon hearing that his brother Oliver is out to kill him, runs away to the forest of Arden with his servant Adam. Prior to his escape, he met and fell head-over-heels in love with Rosalind. In this monologue, he is writing love poems to Rosalind on the trees of the forest.
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Character
Name: Orlando
Gender: Male
Age Range: 20s - Early, 20s - Late, 30s - Early
Dialects: Standard American, Standard English
Ethnicities: Unspecified As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor...
View Full Monologue TextAs I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, 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: 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.
Summary
This monologues marks the very beginning of As You Like It. Orlando tells Adam of his discontent regarding the way his brother, Oliver, has treated him since their father's death.