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 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,
manage (n.) 1 management, handling, control [especially of a horse, as a result of training]
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.
Enter Oliver
ADAM
Yonder comes my master, your brother.
ORLANDO
Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he
will shake me up.
Adam stands aside
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 a
while.
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 your 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
(threatening him)
What, boy!
ORLANDO
(seizing him by the throat)
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 Boys; 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.
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 will 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 tomorrow 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 tomorrow 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 disguised against me to try a fall. Tomorrow,
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 a 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
part (n.) 1 quality, attribute, gift, accomplishment [of mind or body]
villanous 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 tomorrow, 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 misprized. 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