William Shakespeare - The Complete Works/William Shakespeare - The Complete Works on CD-ROM.iso/library/text/ayl/introv.txt

Text File | 1994-08-10 | 5.4 KB | 119 lines

AS YOU LIKE IT

God bÆwiÆyou, an you talk in blank verse

JaquesÆ satiric comment on Orlando, the romantic young lover, makes
us alert to the changes, in As You Like It, from prose to verse, and
back again. It is usual, in the drama of this period, for the writers to
observe a fairly strict rule dividing characters into those who speak
verse and those who speak prose. Verse speakers are kings and
queens, lords and ladies, and lovers; prose is spoken by comic
characters, servants, and country folk. But Shakespeare does not keep
to this division in As You Like It. In this play it is, broadly speaking,
the topic being discussed that decides whether prose or verse should
be the medium of discussion: serious matters are spoken of in verse,
and prose is used for mundane affairs. For instance ù Duke
Frederick banishes Rosalind in verse (Act 1, Scene 3), but he watched
the wrestling in prose (Act 1, Scene 2). When Orlando is explaining
his birth and education in the first scene of the play, he speaks in
prose; praising AdamÆs loyalty and industry, his speeches are in
verse; comforting his exhausted servant, he returns to prose; and
when he appears as the lover of Rosalind, his words naturally fall into
the iambic pentameter that Jaques scorns:

    Nay then, God bÆwiÆyou an you talk in blank verse.
                                (4, 1, 29û30)

There is nothing artificial about the line that provokes JaquesÆ
ridicule. The words are common, in everyday use, and they are in
their normal order. Without JaquesÆ comment, we might well not
notice that here is a perfect blank verse line:

Good dßy and hßppinΘss, dear R≤salφnd.
                                (4, 1, 28)

Blank verse is ideal for English drama because its rhythms are close
to those of normal speech; it is capable of infinite variation, yet at the
same time it can impose a pattern on the shapelessness of ordinary
speech. Basically, the lines, which are unrhymed, are ten syllables
long. The syllables have alternating stresses, just like normal English
speech; and they divide into five ôfeetö.
    Shakespeare uses other verse forms in As You Like It. When
Silvius is telling Corin about the nature of true love (as he sees it) he
speaks a short poem, marked off from its context by repeating two
blank verse lines, then half a line:

If thou rememberest not the slightest folly
That ever love did make thee run into,
Thou hast not loved.
                                (2, 4, 31û3)

Whenever this happens, Shakespeare is paying special attention to the
way in which a character says something, and the reason is usually
obvious: the lines quoted here, for instance, show how poetic and
unrealistic the passion is.
    Although it is the subject matter that usually determines the
form, it is possible to make a few comments on the individual
characters, judged in terms of their preference for prose or verse.
Touchstone speaks nothing but prose, and this is appropriate for his
practical common sense and the mocking nature of his comedy: the
prose expresses these qualities, and underlines them. In the same way,
Silvius and Phoebe, who speak only verse, are defined by their mode
of expression. Jaques speaks both prose and verse. The subjects he
talks about often demand the dignity of verse, but the character is
himself not poetic, as we see from his comment on OrlandoÆs blank
verse.
    A character like Jaques is valuable to Shakespeare when he
wants to alter the tone of an episode. In Act 2, Scene 7, for instance,
Orlando breaks in on Duke SeniorÆs banquet and demands food for
Adam. His entry is highly dramatic ù almost melodramatic:

But forbear, I say.
He dies that touches any of this fruit
Till I and my affairs are answerΦd.
                                (2, 7, 97û9)

Jaques reacts to this emotional outburst with calm reason expressed in
prose ù and the change from verse to prose makes the request for
reason doubly effective:

An you will not be answered with reason, I must die.
                                (2, 7, 100û1)

The break allows Orlando to change his own tone, modulating
through the simple line ù ôI almost die for food; and let me have itö
(2, 7, 104) ù to the evocation of a ceremonious past:

If ever you have looked on better days,
If ever been where bells have knolled to church,
If ever sat at any good manÆs feast,
If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear,
And know what ôtis to pity and be pitied.
                                (2, 7, 113û17).

When Duke Senior repeats these words, they become almost
ritualistic.
    Rosalind speaks most naturally in prose, and everything she
says sounds fresh and spontaneous. Her sensible, witty prose makes a
sharp contrast to OrlandoÆs feeble verses in Act 3, Scene 2, but she
can also use prose for her most heart-felt confession of love:

O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how
many fathom deep I am in love.
                                (4, 1, 195û6)

Prose can support RosalindÆs many puns, allowing her to show
humour and intelligence; the verbal play, depending on double
meanings, reflects the appearance of Rosalind dressed as Ganymede.
It might be said that Rosalind herself is the physical manifestation of
her puns.
    The total effect of As You Like It is of people talking, not actors
declaiming. The mood is informal: dukes can speak prose, and
shepherds express themselves in verse, because the barriers that
divide the social classes in other plays are not to be found in the
Forest of Arden.