In the first of these passages the impression conveyed, and meant to be conveyed, is that the usurpation is quite recent. This impression is created to account for the unsettled state of Duke Frederick's feelings, and the causeless fit of passion in which he banishes Rosalind. But once this is accomplished, Shakespeare allows the usurpation to slip back into the past, in order that, when the action shifts to Arden, the exiles may figure as habitués of the forest, fit to support the contrast between the country and the court.

(a) The novel opens at the old knight's death-bed. Shakespeare gives all that is necessary to understand the story in Orlando's opening speech.

Omissions and
Additions.
2(a) Incidents
Omitted.

(b) He also omits as not essential a tourney which precedes the wrestling.

(c) After the wrestling, Rosader returns home with a rabble of young men, breaks into Saladin's house and feasts his gay companions. After a time he is seized in his sleep and put in irons, from which he is released by Adam, and holds the house till the sheriff comes against him. This episode is closely imitated from the Tale of Gamelyn. In the play Orlando returns alone, and is simply warned by Adam.

(d) Saladin is thrown into prison by Torismond—a detail which Shakespeare omits to expedite the action.

(e) In the novel Aliena is carried off by a band of robbers, from whom she is rescued by Rosader and Saladin. In this exploit Rosader receives a wound: in the play Orlando is wounded in rescuing his brother; and the meeting of Oliver and Celia, which is the object of this episode, is simply effected by making Oliver the messenger. Robbers would be out of place in the philosophic shades of Arden.

(ƒ) At the end of the novel news comes that the twelve peers of France have revolted against the usurper: Gerismond sets out to join them with Rosader and Saladin; Torismond is defeated and slain. To end the play lightly, without breaking up the harmony of the wedding scene, Shakespeare has done poetic justice by the milder method of converting Frederick.

(M7)

Narrated.

(2 c) New
Scenes and
Characters.

Various incidents, for various dramatic reasons, are narrated instead of being represented, e.g. the wrestling (26) Incidents with the Franklin's sons, the rescue of Oliver, the wooing of Celia, and Frederick's conversion. [See notes.] The purely reflective part of Jaques, and the purely comic parts of Touchstone, Audrey, and William, are additions of Shakespeare's own. They are so contrived that, without breaking in on the main action, they lend its humour breadth and depth, and help beyond anything else to turn the pastoral into a comedy. Several minor characters are also added or named for the first time by Shakespeare, viz. Dennis, Le Beau, Amiens, the First Lord, and Sir Oliver Martext. The short lyrical scenes (ii. 5, iv. 2, v. 3) are also new, as indeed are all the songs.

Besides these new characters, and the situations in which they figure, Shakespeare has added a number of scenes or parts of scenes to which no counterpart will be found in the novel: e.g. i. I up to Oliver's entrance, i. 2 to the beginning of the wrestling, i. 3 to the entrance of the Duke, and the whole of ii. I. These scenes are added to exhibit not merely the external circumstances of the various characters, but their feelings and motives at the time when they are merged in the action.

Character.

It is naturally in the treatment of character that Shakespeare has allowed himself most liberty. He has (3) Changes of absolutely transmuted the hero and the heroine, with what a gain of dignity and manliness to Orlando and of womanliness and wit to Rosalind, only a detailed comparison, such as is partly attempted in the notes, can show. But in two cases his treatment is so characteristic, and has provoked so much criticism, that the question must be summed up here. The characters in question are Oliver and Duke Frederick.

At first sight there is little to choose between them and the Saladin and Torismond of the novel. Yet Saladin and with a minimum of change Shakespeare has Torismond. given a new interpretation of their conduct. Saladin's enmity to Rosader is due to pure greed and envy. Rosader has inherited the largest share of their father's estate, and

to deprive him of this Saladin plots his murder in cold blood, bribes the wrestler to kill him, and sends him to meet his fate on the plea that he must support the honour of the house. Torismond is a companion figure, in drawing whom Lodge seems to have had in his mind the conventional pictures of the Greek Tyrannus. He is first introduced while holding a tournament, intended to divert the people's thoughts from dwelling on their banished king. He banishes Rosalind for fear that one of the peers may fall in love with her and aspire to the throne. When his own daughter intercedes, he banishes her as well, "rather choosing", says Lodge, "to hazard the loss of his only child than anyways to put in question the state of his kingdom". Finally, when he hears of Rosader's flight, "desirous to possess such fair revenues he seizes on the pretext to confiscate Saladin's property: "by thy means", he says, "have I lost a most brave and resolute chevalier".

Oliver's hatred for Orlando has its root, not in greed-for

Oliver and Duke Fred erick.

Orlando has no wealth to covet-but in a far subtler cause, a blood diverted from the course of nature. The boy whom he has neglected as an encumbrance-this boy he sees growing up in spite of him to outshine him even in the eyes of his own dependants. He cannot deny Orlando's graces even to himself, but he will not own that he is in the wrong. His plot with Charles is concocted in the heat of resentment, and, when this redounds to Orlando's glory, his final treacherous attempt is the last effort of a baffled will.

The Duke's actions, too, are based on temperament rather than on circumstance. He is twice expressly styled the 'humorous' Duke. He is at the mercy of his own moody passions. In a fit of temper, provoked by the sight of his old enemy's son, he banishes Rosalind, alleging no special reason because he has none to allege. When he finds that Celia too has fled, he has a touch of repentance, succeeded by another access of violence in which he banishes Oliver. His final conversion is quite in keeping with his previous acts.

The meeting of the two 'tyrants', in which this part of the

plot culminates, is brought about by new means which connect it directly with the main plot. Celia is not banished; she runs away: Orlando is suspected-here the time-change noted above (16) comes in--and Oliver is sent for. With a fine poetic justice, the perverse wilfulness of Oliver is broken by a tyranny still more masterful, and all his fortunes are made to depend on his recovery of that brother whom he had driven from house and home.

If it be felt after all that Oliver hardly deserves his final good fortune, that there is little in his previous conduct to prepare us for his conversion, we can only recur to the conditions under which Shakespeare was working, and reply that he has probably done his best with his materials.

IV. CRITICAL APPRECIATION.

§10. So far we have followed the process of creation: it remains to look at the product as an artistic whole. As such it must be judged on its own merits, without regard to its origin, and in its entirety. The separate characters are nothing except as parts of the play, and have no value except in their places there. No doubt there is an interest of character as well as an interest of situation, but in drama, at least, the two cannot be dissociated. Moreover; the various characters and situations are not all on the same level of interest, and a true judgment on the whole will only emerge when they are seen in their right relations. Here criticism must reverse the method of creation, and separate the different strands which the poet has woven together.

§11. Every true plot, however short, is made up of two movements, a movement of Complication and a The Dramatic movement of Resolution. These two movements Climax. may vary in relative length, but in a well-constructed play they often fairly divide the action, and the point at which the Complication ends and the Resolution begins may be called the Dramatic Climax. In As You Like It this climax will be found in the second scene of the third act, i.e. as nearly as possible in the mathematical centre of the play.

This is the famous Forest Scene, where Rosalind in the guise of a youth meets Orlando, and proposes that he shall woo her in masquerade. This scene is the key to the whole action of the play: to this all the previous movements lead up, and from this all the subsequent movements flow. The first hint of it is found in Lodge, in the Wooing Eclogue sung by Ganymede and Rosader. But it remained for Shakespeare to see the dramatic possibilities of the situation. The Wooing Eclogue is jejune compared to the interplay of jest and earnest, of wit and tenderness which forms the texture of the Forest Scene; and even in form it is too mere a frolic to foster that real ripening of affection which Shakespeare makes us see beneath the frolic.

The Main
Theme.

§12. It is from this point that we can most profitably analyse the structure of the play. Here is the simple and essential plot. Two undeclared lovers meet: the lady in disguise challenges her lover to woo her as his mistress: their courtship is thus carried on in masquerade till she is assured of his affection, when she discloses herself, and all ends happily. This issue is predetermined almost from the first, so that our attention is directed less to what will happen than to the way in which the theme will work itself out. Hence the play is in form a Comedy of Dialogue rather than a Comedy of Incident. But the real interest lies neither in dialogue nor in incident. The incidents are contrived to bring the lovers together; the dialogue is not a mere run of repartee beginning and ending in a laugh, but is devoted to the expression of the main theme. And that theme is love. As You Like It is the comedy of happy love, as Romeo and Juliet is the tragedy of star-crossed love.

The Hero.

The hero, indeed, is little more than the ideal lover-the successful lover, that is, for he is not burdened with that weight of passion which in itself foredooms Romeo. Shakespeare has bestowed on Orlando all the solid graces of his part. He is young, manly, gentle, and unfortunate; and perhaps his misfortunes tell as much in his favour as his manliness, or gentleness or youth. When