The thrifty hire I saved under your father,
……Here is the gold;
All this I give to you. Let me be your servant.
….. Let me go with you,
Although love is not directly mentioned, the loyalty and generosity Adam shows to Orlando is indicative of love.
Orlando escapes into the Forest of Arden to avoid the hatred of his brother Oliver, however sibling love soon triumphs when Orlando saves Oliver from the attack of a lioness and all past difference are overcome:
OLIVER: ….Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother’s love,
Touchstone is a more bawdy, down-to-earth character with no illusions of romantic love and tends to lust after sexual love and call it love:
TOUCHSTONE: And I mine. I remember when I was in love I broke
my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to Jane Smile, and I remember the kissing of her batler …
Touchstone allows the audience to hear the contradictory viewpoint to the romantic love, which is interwoven in As You Like It. He is an older man who plays the clown but within this he speaks with wisdom mixed within his cynicism:
TOUCHSTONE: We that are true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.
The cynical approach to love is not only displayed by Touchstone but also by a disguised Rosalind when trying to ascertain the true depths of Orlando’s feelings for her:
ROSALIND: Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife’s wit going to your neighbour’s bed.
ORLANDO: And what wit could wit have to excuse that?
ROSALIND: Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall never take her without her answer, unless you take her without her tongue.
Although Rosalind tries to mislead Orlando with her pretence of disparagement at women in love, Orlando will not be persuaded of anything other than the belief that he has a true love for Rosalind and wants her for his wife:
ROSALIND: And you say that you will have her, when I bring her?
ORLANDO: That I would, were I of all kingdoms king.
Within the theme of cynical love, Shakespeare also emphasises the folly of wives who are supposed to be in love with their husbands yet seek to deceive them by having affairs. During this period it was said that a husband whose wife had been having extra-marital affairs would wear horns to show he had been betrayed by his wife, and should be prepared to wear them as all women are sure to cheat. Rosalind explains that in nature, only one creature has learned the true character of women:
ROSALIND: …..Besides, he brings his destiny with him.
ORLANDO: What’s that?
ROSALIND: Why, horns; which such as you are fain to be beholding to your wives for. But he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents the slander of his wife.
Unrequited love is shown through Phebe’s love for Ganymede. Phebe imagines herself in love with Ganymede, although he shows no partiality toward her. Phebe is not aware of Rosalind’s disguise but Rosalind does not disclose that she is a woman but mocks Phebe as she has made a fool of Silvius. Rosalind tries to nurture the relationship between Phebe and Silvius, to enable Phebe to see that it is better to love a man who return her love than one who could not ever love her:
ROSALIND: You are a thousand times a properer man
Than she a woman. ‘Tis such fools as you
That makes the world full of ill-favoured children.
‘Tis not her glass but you that flatters her,
And out of you she sees herself more proper
Than any of her lineaments can show her.
But, mistress, know yourself; down on your knees
And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love!
Rosalind, who exploits Phebe’s love for Ganymede, by giving her hand in marriage to Silvius, resolves the triangle of unrequited love:
ROSALIND: You say you’ll marry me, if I be willing?
PHEBE: That I will, should I die the hour after.
ROSALIND: But if you do refuse to marry me,
You’ll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd?
PHEBE: So is the bargain.
Within the play, Shakespeare also explored jealousy in love, which although not an aspect of love is caused by love. Although Touchstone displays many confident, cynical and physical characteristics of love he also showed he can be touched by jealousy by assuring William that Audrey is his and no others:
TOUCHSTONE: ….. For I am he.
WILLIAM: Which he, sir?
TOUCHSTONE: He, sir, that must marry this woman.
Therefore, you clown, abandon – which is in the
vulgar ‘leave’ – the society -….I will kill thee a
hundred and fifty ways – therefore tremble and
depart.
When Orlando learns of the impending marriage of Oliver and Celia, he also displays an outburst of jealousy:
ORLANDO: ….But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness
through another man’s eyes!….
The major theme of As You Like It is the romantic love between Rosalind and Orlando and Celia and Oliver. Shakespeare gave each couple a different way to find their true love but at the close of the play each of them is married and romantically settled back in the Court.
Rosalind and Orlando have the most unusual route to true love with Rosalind making Orlando ‘court’ her when she is disguised as Ganymede:
ORLANDO: I would not be cured, youth.
ROSALIND: I would cure you, if you would but call me ‘Rosalind’,
and come everyday to my cote, and woo me.
Rosalind tries to trick Orlando by many different criticisms of women, Orlando would not allow this to happen and continued to profess his love for Rosalind although he is unaware that he is confessing his love to Rosalind. Right until the end of the play Rosalind keeps up the pretence of being Ganymede, eventually promising to bring her to be married to Orlando the next day:
ROSALIND: …. Therefore, put you in your best array, bid your
friends; for if you will be married tomorrow, you shall;
and to Rosalind, if you will.
Rosalind kept the pretence so she could be sure of Orlando’s love and once certain, she agreed to marriage.
Oliver and Celia fell in love at first sight and agreed to marry almost immediately.:
ROSALIND: … For your brother and my sister no sooner met but
they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; …. and
in these degrees they have made a pair of stairs to
marriage…
In As You Like It, Shakespeare has played a traditional romantic love story culminating in the marriages of the main characters. ‘The harmonious ending…..upholds the values of romantic love as they are to be found in Shakespeare …’ (Sowerby, 1999, p.64) . The aspects of love displayed in the play embrace almost every emotion one can be aware of when experiencing love. In the play, Shakespeare allows the listener to experience the highs and lows of love with the characters as well as being subjected to the variance of emotions love can invoke.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shakespeare, William, Edited by Oliver, H. J., 1968 As You Like It St Ives: Penguin Books
Sowerby, Robin, 1999 York Notes Advanced London: Longman Limited
