IV

HATRED BECOMES LOVE IN ARDEN

Are there any fresh elements or developments in Act IV.?

Sc. i. merely continues the love-making of Act III.  Sc. ii. gives another glimpse of the good Duke’s court; in sc. iii. the love of Phebe bears fruit in a letter to Ganymede, and Oliver finds his way to the forest.  The bad Duke’s intentions toward Orlando in sending Oliver after him are, however, frustrated by the sudden change of heart against a bad Duke is a good Duke.  Contrast their actions throughout the play.  Contrast also the two brothers, Orlando and Oliver.  What are the resemblances between the characters of Oliver and Duke Frederick?—­between Orlando and the banished Duke?  Is Orlando’s rebellion against his brother’s injustice or the banished Duke’s acceptance of his brother’s injustice the more to be praised?  Compare his attitude with that of Prospero under similar circumstances.  Whose repentance is the more sincere, Oliver’s or Duke Frederick’s?  Note that Oliver has lost all when he repents, while the Duke gives up everything just as he is about to realize his aim.  Is the repentance of the usurping Duke merely a ruse of Shakespeare’s to bring the play to a happy ending?  In Lodge’s story he does not repent, but is proceeded against by his brother.  Contrast Jaques and Touchstone.  Is Jaques’s melancholy affected?  What is the main difference between Rosalind and Celia?  Which is the more the friend of the other? (For valuable suggestions on these points see ’Characters in “As You Like It,"’ Poet-lore, Vol.  IV. pp. 31 and 81, Jan. and Feb., 1892.)

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Which is the better philosopher, Jaques or Touchstone, and which is more closely related to the philosophy of the play?

The characters of the two Dukes are not developed; they are merely walking gentlemen, whose office it is to keep the play in motion.

2.  The Lovers of the Play.

The Different Kinds of Love in ‘As You Like It.’  Examples of love at first sight in Shakespeare.  Note Orlando’s surprise at the suddenness of Oliver’s and Celia’s love.  Was his own less sudden?  Consider Hymen’s song and Jaques’s remarks in the last scene as descriptive of the various couples.  Does the comic element of the play, as represented by Touchstone, discredit sentiment in the play?  Notice the madrigal in Lodge’s novel (given in Poet-lore, Vol.  III., in the article on Lodge, Dec, 1891), and consider whether Shakespeare has borrowed anything from it in characterizing Rosalind’s wooing?  Contrast Lodge’s Montanus as a lover with Shakespeare’s Silvius.  Is Montanus too much of a “tame snake” to be natural?  Or does this constancy in love make him a superior figure?  Is it a sign of Silvius’s inferiority that love has its own way with him?  Can love be true that changes if it is unrequited?