SCENE I. Orchard of Oliver's house. As You Like It  Shakespeare homepage  |  As You Like It  | Act 1, Scene 1 

 Next scene  SCENE I. Orchard of 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 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. 

 ADAM  Yonder comes my master, your brother. 

 ORLANDO  Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will 

 shake me up. 



 Enter OLIVER  OLIVER  Now, sir! what make you here? 

 ORLANDO  Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing. 

 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 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  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 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  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 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 disguised 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 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 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 villanous 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! 

 OLIVER  Farewell, good Charles. 



 Exit 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  As You Like It  | Act 1, Scene 1 

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