As You Like It - Orlando

When a lover is in madly in love, a lover turns to poetry to give their passions voice. There is something about poetry that draws out the romantic in many of us, and love is a fit topic for the flights and fancies of poetry. Though why do we turn to poetry? Poetry is the pinnacle of language use. It is the toughest, most compressed, most demanding form of language, and a great poem will perfectly capture our thought, emotion, and passion in a concise, precise, and graceful way. When we hear such craftsmanship, our hearts swoon, and we stop everything to hear what is being said - because it truly matters. This type of love poetry is difficult to come by, but it is truly moving when one does.

This type of expression is one of the lessons that Orlando must learn and come to terms with.  In Act I Scene II, after Orlando bests Charles the wrestler, he his approached by the Rosalind and Celia. Both women show their affections for the strapping young man, and pleasantries are exchanged. Orlando, however, is dumbfounded in this brief exchange, and when we should speak he finds he cannot:

     Can I not say 'I thank you'? My better parts
     Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up
     Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block.

Even though Orlando chastises himself here, and finds he is not as eloquent as he wishes, he is not without poetry. His language is still in pentameter (which is appropriate because he is still at court and experiencing a moment of love), and his language is a  mixture of iambs, anapests, and spondees. Moreover, he speaks in metaphor as he compares his good qualities to fallen posts and his speechlessness to a lifeless block. We see a surprised Orlando who is a novice in the manners and habits of love and courtship. Orlando experiences what many of us feel when faced with a powerful emotion we don't quite understand, nor know how to express, and that speechlessness is the first sign of someone in love. While Orlando doesn't have love language yet at his disposal, all the building blocks (pentameter, variation, metaphor, strong emotion that needs to be shared, and speechlessness) are at his (and Rosalind's) disposal.

Whether it is love or poetry, any novice is going to make mistakes before they get better. A lot of them. Orlando is no exception. In Act III, Scene II, after Orlando has experienced the beauty and otherworldliness of the forest of Arden for a time, he hangs love poems to Rosalind on trees.This is a sweet gesture by a young man who is overcome with strong emotions and is compelled to share that with the whole forest. The problem is, well, his poems are not very good:

     'From the east to western Inde,
      No jewel is like Rosalinde.
      Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
      Through all the world bears Rosalinde.
      All the pictures fairest lin'd
      Are but black to Rosalinde.
      Let no face be kept in mind
      But the fair of Rosalinde.'

The West Indies...Orlando's idea of beauty?

In disbelief, Rosalind reads this aloud to Touchstone and Corin, and clearly enunciates the awful rhyme on her name between "wind" and "lin'd". End rhyme is the most striking feature of this poem, and it feels very deliberate, as if one is trying too hard. Now, that can be ok, but here the rhymes are so obvious, ring so loudly, and place so much unnecessary weight on the words, that this rhyming becomes far too simple, tedious, and artless (which Touchstone picks up on and pokes fun at). The similes and metaphors Orlando uses too are obvious. Rosalind is as beautiful as the West Indies
, she is like a bird in the air, and pretty pictures don't compare to Rosalind's beauty in reality - not much unique to say there. This poem, too, has a "false gallop" as Touchstone says: it is written in a trochees, not iambs, a meter unsuited for such a grand topic as love.

Though, hope is not lost. While Orlando shows raw ability that requires cultivation, maybe poetry just isn't his thing, perhaps he and his love are better suited for prose:

     Rosalind. I might ask you for your commission; but- I do take thee,
     Orlando, for my husband. There's a girl goes before the priest;
     and, certainly, a woman's thought runs before her actions.
     Orlando. So do all thoughts; they are wing'd.
     Rosalind. Now tell me how long you would have her, after you have possess'd her.
     Orlando. For ever and a day.  
     Rosalind. Say 'a day' without the 'ever.'

 
At this point, one act later, Rosalind has increased her instruction, and her tutelage is working. Orlando has one reply that is witty, metaphoric, concise, and downplays gender stereotypes, and one reply that is sappy, overwrought, and cliche. His prose seems in better shape than some of his poetry, and his prose even has elements of poetry, but it is clear that his love-language isn't perfect yet. It will take work, but Orlando can refine his language, his passion, and his intellect to create some subtle, artful phrasings that will please the Rosalind he is learning to woo.

The essential question for Orlando is not whether to use poetry or prose for love language, but rather how and when to use poetry. Poetry that is too obvious can by cloying, yet poetry that is too prosy can be unsatisfying. Balance is needed between many elem
ents, and Orlando learns to be aware of his audience and the context of his speech, and, eventually, his language use becomes more mature and sophisticated. As in many things in life, timing is crucial, and if we aren't prepared to act appropriately when the time is right, we could miss out on something altogether wonderful. Thankfully for us, Orlando has had a great tutor and can take advantage of his new found eloquence. 

As You Like It - Rosalind

Since I am directing a summer production of As You Like It, Shakespeares's languagae is currently in my mind. Not only is this play wonderful, its poetry is often overlooked in favor of the tragedies or some of the "problem plays." So the next few posts will be dedicated to this astounding, joyous, and transformative play.

In the first scene of Act IV, long after Orland has agreed to be instructed by Rosalind/Ganymede, she cajoles him by offrering him numerous examples of mythological models of love that have died "for love", and concludes with: "But these are all lies: men have died from time to / time and worms have eaten them, but not for love." In an odd way Rosalind seems to be saying two things at once. On one level, we hear Rosalind's point, and her logic is sound: it is a romantic idea to die for love, and romantics wrongly hold up heroic figures as models. She advocates for a more "realistic" or "down-to-Earth" model of love, and attempts to correct Orlando's high-flown ideals. Though, on the stress-pattern level (which are in bold), we see a different message. If we read only the bold words (these all men died time and worms eat but love), we still get the stark realism that Rosalind urges, yet the difference is that love is set off by the conjunction, opening the possibility that love is more lasting than time or worms.

This split message makes sense at this point. Since Rosalind has split her identity between her feminine role and her male role as Ganymede, she is obviously struggling to contain her roles and her affections for Orlando, and Shakespeare dramatizes this conflict on the sonic level. Orlando too hears Ganymede, but is unconvinced as his response is confident and a bit coy:  "I would not have my Rosalind of this mind, / for, I protest, her frown might kill me."  Orlando is often regarding as a tad dim, but, if nothing else, he has an impeccable ear. Due to Rosalind's conflicted message, Orlando finds a moment to assert his perspective and equalize himself against the loquacious, stage-managing, Rosalind.

So for a time Rosalind is forced to concede to his idealism, as her next lines reveal:

     By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come, now
     I will be your Rosalind in a more coming-on
     disposition, and ask me what you will. I will grant
     it.

Orlando has backed Rosalind into a corner, and the only way out is to make a promise to him, and shake on it. Word and action are united in this moment, and we are brought to a hard stop with the period in the middle of the line. This stop acccentuates the flirtatiousness and intimacy through a moment of silence, and offers Rosalind an opportunity to expose her more feminine role. Rosalind's excitement here coupled with the the realization that Orlando will stick to his opinions, even if they are idealistic: Orlando is a true romantic and hopes to have that type of love in his life. This brief moment of exposure and contact energizes Rosalind, makes her feel powerful, capable, and in control of herself and the situtaion. It also speaks to her own desires to have type of love that is heroic and is worth dying for with another person.

Typically, Rosalind is seen as instructing the uncultivated Orlando. But in this moment, I think the opposite is true. Through Orlando's gentle assertivness, Rosalind learns she too is capable of being assertive (which will come in very handy in the entanglement with Phebe and Silvius). Rosalind too learns about her own thoughts and feelings regarding love, attraction, and her own limits. Her lines could be seen as a test to see what Orlando believes and how strongly he believes it. Once Rosalind discovers Orlando's desires, she discovers that she too desires the heroic love she downplayed earlier, and is willing to risk exposure (on many levels) to acheive that type of love.

The heroic "patterns of love" might be lies in some ways, but they are still remembered. Their love was so great, that these people were transformed from mere individuals into myth. So this may be a lesson for all of us: those who are willinging to risk much (life, property, money, identity, etc.)  for the sake of love, have the chance for love transform their lives into something worth being remembered.