Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

FREDERICK

in As You Like It — Shakespeare, William

Metadata

PlayAs You Like It
AuthorShakespeare, William
Year (catalogued)1623
First performance1599
Decade1620s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyLord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Speech prefix(es)Duke. | Du. | Duk.
Words533
Characters2783
Typicality0.41 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11954.10
BritDrama no.1237
ClusterCluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques

Important excerpts

Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 15 (ang, hunc, fleire, shillings, chil, sblood…). Matches are highlighted.

self; Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. Thou art thy Father's daughter, there's enough. I Celia, we stayed her for your sake, Else had she with her Father ranged along. She is too subtle for thee, and her smoothness; Her very silence, and per patience, Speak to the people, and they pity her: Thou art a fool, she robs thee

Full speech

Come on, since the youth will not be entreated His own peril on his forwardness. Do so: I'll not be by. More villain thou. Well push him out of doors And let my officers of such a nature Make and extent upon his house and Lands: Do this expediently, and turn him going. How now daughter, and Cousin: Are you crept hither to see the wrestling? You will take little delight in it, I can tell you there is such odds in the man: In pity of the challen gers youth, I would feign dissuade him, but he will not be entreated. Speak to him Ladies, see if you can move him. Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be: But were I not the better partly made mercy, I should not seek and absent argument Of my revenge, thou present: but look to it, Find out thy brother wheresoever he is, Seek him with Candle: bring him dead, or living Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more To seek a living in our Territory. Thy Lands and all things that thou dost call thine, Worth seizure, do we seize into our hands, Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth, Of what we think against thee. You shall try but one fallen. No more, no more. How dost thou Charles ? Bear him away: What is thy name young man? I would thou hadst been son to some man else, The world esteemed thy father honourable, But I did find him still mine enemy: Thou shouldst have better pleased me with this deed, Hadst thou descended from another house: But fare thee well, thou art a gallant youth, I would thou hadst told me of another Father. Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, And get you from our Court. You Cousin, Within these ten days if that thou be'st found So near our public Court as twenty miles, Thou diest sor it. Thus do all Traitors, If their purgation did consist in words, They are as innocent as grace it self; Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. Thou art thy Father's daughter, there's enough. I Celia, we stayed her for your sake, Else had she with her Father ranged along. She is too subtle for thee, and her smoothness; Her very silence, and per patience, Speak to the people, and they pity her: Thou art a fool, she robs thee of thy name, And thou wilt show more bright, & seem more virtuous When she is gone: then open not thy lips Firm, and irrevocable is my doombe, Which I have passed upon her, she is banished. You are a fool: you Niece provide your self, If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatness of my word you die. Can it be possible that no man saw them? It cannot be, some villains of my Court Are of consent and sufferance in this. Send to his brother, fetch that gallant hither, If he be absent, bring his Brother to me, I'll make him find him: do this suddenly; And let not search and inquisition quail, To bring again these foolish runaways.

Plot summary

Plot — As You Like It
Before the start of the play, Duke Senior was usurped and banished by his younger brother Frederick. Some loyal lords have gone into voluntary exile with him in the Forest of Arden, but his daughter, Rosalind, has remained at court with her beloved cousin, Celia. Upon inheriting his father’s estate, Oliver has neglected his responsibility to educate his younger brother Orlando, keeping him instead in rustic poverty. Orlando remonstrates with Oliver about it without success, then asks for his small inheritance, determined to make his own way in the world. He intends to compete against Charles the wrestler, who has challenged all comers at a forthcoming court show. Charles consults Oliver, concerned that he may injure the young man, but Oliver persuades him that Orlando is a bad lot and that the world would benefit if Charles were to kill him in the match. In the event, Orlando is victorious, but Duke Frederick’s pleasure in his success disappears on learning that he is the son of Sir Rowland, a personal enemy. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, but he is too tongue-tied to speak to her. Frederick banishes Rosalind. She and Celia flee to the forest in disguise, taking the court fool Touchstone with them; for security, Rosalind poses as a youth, Ganymede, and buys a cottage on arrival. Frederick hears rumours that Orlando may have absconded with them. Meanwhile, Oliver attempts to murder Orlando by burning down his lodging, so the young man escapes to the forest with the old servant Adam, who offers his life savings to finance their departure. Oliver is unable to produce his brother at Frederick’s command, so Frederick confiscates his property until he does so, In Arden, Adam’s strength fails him, so Orlando tries to force a meal out of the local foresters, only to find that they are Duke Senior and his entourage, and only too happy to succour the needy servant. Orlando hangs love-poems to Rosalind on the trees. He encounters ‘Ganymede’, who offers to cure him of love by role-play: ‘he’ will pose as Rosalind, and Orlando will woo ‘her’. When he fails to arrive on time for a session, ‘Ganymede’ encounters another pair of lovers: Silvius dotes on Phoebe, who rejects him. 1600 | ‘Ganymede’ intervenes, disdaining Phoebe’s self- conceit, which makes Phoebe fall in love with ‘him’. She persuades Silvius to carry what she says is a taunting letter to ‘Ganymede’, but it turns out to bea - love-poem. When Orlando finally turns up, the play-~ acting begins, and…