Notes on Mr. Shakespeare's "As You Like It"

These are reading notes I did for a Shakespeare co-op class.  I'm just putting them out here in case anyone wants to use them.  The post is incredibly long, and for that I apologize, but it was faster to post everything at once than do twelve different posts.  Also, it might be more convenient for someone wanting to print the entire thing.

Act I Scene I

Characters (in order of appearance)

Orlando de Boys, son of Sir Rowland de Boys

Adam, his faithful old servant

Oliver de Boys, Orlando’s older brother

Dennis, Oliver’s servant

Charles, Duke Frederick’s wrestler

Vocabulary

to breed me well- to make sure I was raised well

mines my gentility- ruins my good birth

be naught- get lost

you are too young in this- you don’t know anything about (fighting)

physic your rankness- cure your insolence

shall acquit him well- will do well

Act I Scene II

Characters

Celia, the daughter of Duke Frederick

Rosalind, the daughter of Duke Senior

Touchstone, a fool in Duke Frederick’s court

Le Beau, one of Sir Frederick’s courtiers (an attendant)

Duke Frederick

Orlando

Charles

Vocabulary

righteously tempered- pure or true

lineaments- features

Nature’s natural- a fool

forsworn- lying

taxation- slander

of what color? what kind?

quintain- a post or object mounted on a post and used as a target in tilting

humorous- temperamental

Act I Scene III

Characters

Celia

Rosalind

Duke Frederick

Vocabulary

working-day: wearisome

hem: cough

curtal-axe: sword

Jove: Roman king of the gods (counterpart of the Greek Zeus)

Act II Scene I

Characters

Duke Senior, the older brother of Duke Frederick (and rightful Duke)

Amiens, a lord one of Duke Senior’s attendants

First Lord

Second Lord

Vocabulary

old custom: experience

forked heads: arrows

cope: argue

Act II Scene II

Characters

Duke Frederick

First Lord

Second Lord

Vocabulary

roynish: troublesome

Act II Scene III

Characters

Orlando

Adam

Vocabulary

priser: champion

Act II Scene IV

Characters

Rosalind

Touchstone

Celia

Corin, an old shepherd

Silvius, a young shepherd

Vocabulary

batler: washing stick

dugs: udder

peascod: peapod

thou shalt have to pay for it of us: we will pay for it

mend your wages: raise your wages

Act II Scene V

Characters

Amien

Jaques, a lord, one of Duke Senior’s attendants

Vocabulary

I’ll end the song—sirs cover the while: I’ll finish the song while you set the table

in despite of my invention: although it isn’t imaginative

an if he will come to me: if he will only come to me

Characters and Vocabulary

Act II Scene VI

Characters

Orlando

Adam

Vocabulary

conceit: vanity, pride

desert: wild, uncultivated area

Act II Scene VII

Characters

Duke Senior

First Lord

Jaques

Orlando

Amiens

Vocabulary

discord in the spheres: disorder in the universe

dial: watch

wags: moves

chanticleer: a rooster from Aesop’s Fables

sans intermission: without stopping

my only suit: my only request

bob: joke

pard: panther

wise saws and modern instances: both old and new rulings (legal precedents)

effigy likeness or image of a person

limned: outlined in clear, sharp detail

Act III Scene I

Characters

Duke Frederick

Lords

Oliver

Vocabulary

I should not seek an absent argument… you present: I wouldn’t look for him with you present

Till thou canst quit thee: till you clear yourself (of charges)

Act III Scene II (Part A)

Characters

Orlando

Corin, the old shepherd

Touchstone

Rosalind (as Ganymede)

Celia (as Aliena)

Vocabulary

parlous: perilous

instance: example

fells: fleece

civet: a type of wild cat

perpend: understand

content with my harm: satisfied with my ill-fortune

the right butter-woman’s rank to market: they plod like dairymaids on their way to market

medlar: a type of fruit that was eaten rotten

half-ripe: partially wise

scrip: a small bag

more feet than verses would bear: in poetry, a foot is a certain number of syllables contained in part of a verse (For example, the word “upon” is two syllables. Its rhythm is short-LONG. It is an iambic foot.)

atomies: specks

holla! Whoa!

Act III Scene II (Part B)

Characters

Celia (as Aliena)

Rosalind (as Ganymede)

Orlando

Jaques

Vocabulary

cipher: one having no influence or value

penury: extreme poverty

cony: rabbit

quotidian: commonplace

(Begin at: “’Tis he; slink by, and note him.”)

Act III Scene III

Characters

Touchstone

Audrey, a goatherd

Jaques

Sir Oliver Martext, a country vicar

Vocabulary

Aside: a stage direction that indicates speaking privately (to oneself or the audience)

feign: pretend

a foul slut: a dirty, sloppy woman

I thank the Lord I am foul: Audrey is thanking the Lord she is unattractive?

wainscot: wooden paneling

horns: represent strength and honor; also sometimes indicate a husband’s loss of honor due to the unvirtuous behavior of his wife

bawdry: sin

Act III Scene IV

Characters

Rosalind

Celia

Corin

Vocabulary

dissembling: pretending

Judas: the apostle that betrayed Jesus with a kiss

verity: honesty, truth

concave: empty

tapster: tavern-keeper

puisny tilter: young, unskilled knight

Act III Scene V

Characters

Phebe

Silvius

Celia (as Aliena)

Rosalind (as Ganymede)

Corin

Vocabulary

cicatrice/impressure: a scar left by a leaf or seed on a plant

Thou hast my love: you have my friendship

earst: earlier

carlot: peasant

Act IV Scene I

Characters

Rosalind (as Ganymede, and eventually as Ganymede playing Rosalind!)

Celia (as Aliena)

Jaques

Orlando

Vocabulary

censure: ridicule

emulation: rivalry

politic: crafty

nice: fussy

rumination: thought

humorous: moody

blank verse: non-rhyming poetry in iambic pentameter (most of this play is written in blank verse)

I’ll warrant him heart-whole: I guarantee he is not in love

jointure: offer

leer: face

graveled:

suit: courtship

die by attorney: die by proxy

videlicet: namely

I might ask you for your commission: I might ask what right you have

casement: window

Act IV Scene II

Characters

Jaques

Lords

Act IV Scene III

Characters

Rosalind

Celia

Silvius

Oliver

Vocabulary

this is a letter of your own device: you wrote (devised) this letter

eyne: eyes

perlieus: outskirts

sheepcote: shepherd’s cottage

bottom: valley

osiers: willows

Act V Scene I

Characters

Touchstone

Audrey

William, a country boy in love with Audrey

Corin

Vocabulary

flouting: jeering, mocking

cover thy head: William has taken off his cap to salute Touchstone and Audrey; Touchstone bids him put it on again.

ipse: (Latin) he

trip: hurry

Act V Scene II

Characters

Orlando

Oliver

Rosalind (as Ganymede as Rosalind)

Phebe

Silvius

Vocabulary

thrasonical: boastful

incontinent: without control

I can live no longer by thinking: I cannot pretend anymore

Act V Scene III

Characters

Touchstone

Audrey

Two Pages

Vocabulary

woman of the world: married woman

Act V Scene IV

Characters

Duke Senior

Amiens

Jaques

Orlando

Oliver

Celia

Rosalind

Silvius

Phebe

Touchstone

Audrey

Hymen, the mythological god of marriage

Jaques de Boys, brother to Oliver and Orlando (the other Jaques)

Vocabulary

purgation: being cleansed of an accusation, esp. by a trial of fire, water or combat (ie., if you survived the trial, you were declared innocent)

copulative: that which unites or couples

sententious: abounding with sentences

bear your body more seeming: watch your posture

addressed a mighty power: gathered a great army

good wine needs no bush: in Shakespeare’s time, it was customary to drape branches of ivy in tavern windows as an advertisement for wine.