As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1

William Shakespeare

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Frederick has taken his elder brother’s dukedom and banished him; the exiled Duke now lives in the Forest of Arden. His daughter Rosalind remains with her cousin Celia at court. Orlando has defeated Charles at wrestling, and Rosalind has given Orlando a chain.

In the last scene: Act 1, Scene 3

Rosalind admits her love for Orlando. Frederick banishes her, threatening death if she remains within twenty miles of court after ten days. Celia decides to accompany her to seek her father in Arden. They plan disguises: Rosalind as Ganymede, a man, and Celia as Aliena, in poor clothes. Celia will persuade Touchstone to join them.

SCENE I. The Forest of Arden

Enter Duke Senior, Amiens and two or three Lords, dressed as foresters.

DUKE SENIOR

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,Hath not old custom made this life more sweetThan that of painted pomp? Are not these woodsMore free from peril than the envious court?Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,The seasons’ difference, as the icy fangAnd churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,Which when it bites and blows upon my bodyEven till I shrink with cold, I smile and say:“This is no flattery. These are counsellorsThat feelingly persuade me what I am.”Sweet are the uses of adversity,Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;And this our life, exempt from public haunt,Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

This metaphor makes the winter wind into honest royal advisers. So even in the forest, the Duke still thinks in the language of the court he has left.

'Brothers in exile' recasts political loss as male kinship.

The ‘toadstone’ was a supposed jewel from a toad’s head, credited with detecting or counteracting poison. Stones sold under that name were worn as protective amulets.

The Duke tells his companions that forest life now feels better and safer than court life.

The body's protest overruled by a smile staged for an audience

The Duke speaks to his companions as equals and family, showing how banishment has brought them together.

Genesis 3:17–19 sentences Adam to obtain food from the cursed ground through toil and sweat. Seasonal cold is not specified in that sentence; the Duke’s speech brings winter weather into its discussion of Adam’s punishment.

Shivering and smiling sit side by side in this phrase. So the line quietly undercuts the second phrase, the boast that the exiles do not feel winter's punishment.

The 'penalty of Adam' genders hardship through a masculine Fall.

In Genesis, Adam’s disobedience brings expulsion from Eden and a life of toil. Christian accounts of the Fall also counted exposure to harsh weather among the hardships humanity inherited through the loss of paradise.

He says the biting cold honestly reminds him he is human, unlike flattering courtiers.

The Duke’s question presents the forest as safer than the court, where jealousy and rivalry create danger.

He finds benefits in hardship and lessons in nature, despite being forced away from court.

AMIENS

I would not change it. Happy is your grace,That can translate the stubbornness of fortuneInto so quiet and so sweet a style.

DUKE SENIOR

Come, shall we go and kill us venison?And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools,Being native burghers of this desert city,Should in their own confines with forked headsHave their round haunches gored.

FIRST LORD

Indeed, my lord,The melancholy Jaques grieves at that,And in that kind swears you do more usurpThan doth your brother that hath banished you.Today my lord of Amiens and myselfDid steal behind him as he lay alongUnder an oak, whose antique root peeps outUpon the brook that brawls along this wood;To the which place a poor sequestered stag,That from the hunter’s aim had ta’en a hurt,Did come to languish; and indeed, my lord,The wretched animal heaved forth such groansThat their discharge did stretch his leathern coatAlmost to bursting, and the big round tearsCoursed one another down his innocent noseIn piteous chase. And thus the hairy fool,Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,Stood on th’ extremest verge of the swift brook,Augmenting it with tears.

DUKE SENIOR

But what said Jaques?Did he not moralize this spectacle?

FIRST LORD

O yes, into a thousand similes.First, for his weeping into the needless stream:“Poor deer,” quoth he “thou mak’st a testamentAs worldlings do, giving thy sum of moreTo that which had too much.” Then, being there alone,Left and abandoned of his velvet friends:“’Tis right”; quoth he, “thus misery doth partThe flux of company.” Anon a careless herd,Full of the pasture, jumps along by himAnd never stays to greet him. “Ay,” quoth Jaques,“Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens!’Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you lookUpon that poor and broken bankrupt there?”Thus most invectively he pierceth throughThe body of the country, city, court,Yea, and of this our life, swearing that weAre mere usurpers, tyrants, and what’s worse,To fright the animals and to kill them upIn their assigned and native dwelling-place.

DUKE SENIOR

And did you leave him in this contemplation?

SECOND LORD

We did, my lord, weeping and commentingUpon the sobbing deer.

DUKE SENIOR

Show me the place.I love to cope him in these sullen fits,For then he’s full of matter.

FIRST LORD

I’ll bring you to him straight.

Exeunt.

Characters

Speaking

5 speeches
First Lord3 speeches
1 speech
Second Lord1 speech

Mentioned

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Themes

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Questions on this scene

Reading
What does Duke Senior suggest hunting?
Reading
Reading

Locations

Forest of Arden?Scene
The principal setting, where the banished Duke Senior lives with his followers, Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede, and the lovers are eventually united. Shakespeare's forest evokes both Warwickshire's Arden and the continental Ardennes, but its dramatic geography cannot be located precisely.
Set here · 21 quotes in this scene

Also mentioned

Duke Frederick's court?1 quote in this scene