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As You Like It, Act 4, Scene 2

William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

The story so far

Earlier in the play

Duke Senior lives in exile in Arden; Jaques has criticised his followers for killing deer.

In the last scene: Act 4, Scene 1

Rosalind and Orlando enact a wedding; Orlando leaves for dinner, promising to return at two o’clock.

SCENE II. Another part of the Forest

Enter Jaques and Lords, like foresters.
JAQUES
Which is he that killed the deer?
FIRST LORD
Sir, it was I.
JAQUES
Let’s present him to the Duke, like a Roman conqueror, and it would do well to set the deer’s horns upon his head for a branch of victory. Have you no song, forester, for this purpose?
SECOND LORD
Yes, sir.
JAQUES
Sing it. ’Tis no matter how it be in tune, so it make noise enough.
JAQUES
SONG
SECOND LORD
[Sings.]What shall he have that killed the deer?His leather skin and horns to wear.Then sing him home:[The rest shall bear this burden.]Take thou no scorn to wear the horn.It was a crest ere thou wast born.Thy father’s father wore itAnd thy father bore it.The horn, the horn, the lusty hornIs not a thing to laugh to scorn.
Exeunt.

Characters

Speaking

  • 4 speeches
  • Second Lord2 speeches
  • First Lord1 speech

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Themes

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Questions on this scene

  • Reading

    What does the First Lord admit killing?

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 · 4 quotes in this scene