Duke Senior lives in exile in Arden with Amiens and other lords. Jaques has lamented a wounded stag and condemned their hunting. Rosalind has fled court with Celia and Touchstone; Orlando has left home with Adam.
Rosalind, disguised as Ganymede, reaches Arden with Celia as Aliena and Touchstone. They overhear Silvius speaking of his love for Phoebe. Seeking food and shelter, Rosalind and Celia offer to fund Corin’s purchase of his master’s cottage, pasture and flock.
SCENE V. Another part of the Forest
Enter Amiens, Jaques and others.
AMIENS
[Sings.]
AMIENS
Under the greenwood tree,Who loves to lie with meAnd turn his merry noteUnto the sweet bird’s throat,Come hither, come hither, come hither!Here shall he seeNo enemyBut winter and rough weather.
JAQUES
More, more, I prithee, more.
AMIENS
It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques.
JAQUES
I thank it. More, I prithee, more. I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs. More, I prithee, more.
AMIENS
My voice is ragged. I know I cannot please you.
JAQUES
I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to sing. Come, more, another stanzo. Call you ’em stanzos?
AMIENS
What you will, Monsieur Jaques.
JAQUES
Nay, I care not for their names. They owe me nothing. Will you sing?
AMIENS
More at your request than to please myself.
JAQUES
Well then, if ever I thank any man, I’ll thank you; but that they call compliment is like th’ encounter of two dog-apes.And when a man thanks me heartily, methinks I have given him a penny and he renders me the beggarly thanks.Come, sing; and you that will not, hold your tongues.
AMIENS
Well, I’ll end the song.—Sirs, cover the while. The Duke will drink under this tree; he hath been all this day to look you.
JAQUES
And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too disputable for my company. I think of as many matters as he, but I give heaven thanks and make no boast of them. Come, warble, come.
AMIENS
[Sings.]
AMIENS
Who doth ambition shunAnd loves to live i’ th’ sun,Seeking the food he eatsAnd pleased with what he gets,Come hither, come hither, come hither.Here shall he seeNo enemyBut winter and rough weather.
JAQUES
I’ll give you a verse to this note that I made yesterday in despite of my invention.
AMIENS
And I’ll sing it.
JAQUES
Thus it goes:
JAQUES
If it do come to passThat any man turn ass,Leaving his wealth and easeA stubborn will to please,Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame;Here shall he seeGross fools as he,An if he will come to me.
AMIENS
What’s that “ducdame?”
JAQUES
’Tis a Greek invocation to call fools into a circle. I’ll go sleep if I can; if I cannot, I’ll rail against all the first-born of Egypt.
AMIENS
And I’ll go seek the Duke; his banquet is prepared.
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.