Orlando

Play

As You Like It

Summary

Orlando de Boys is the youngest son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, kept in servitude and denied education by his villainous elder brother Oliver. A natural wrestler and poet-at-heart, he flees to the Forest of Arden after defeating the court wrestler Charles, and there expresses his love for Rosalind by pinning poems to the trees. He engages in an elaborate wooing game with the disguised Rosalind (as Ganymede) without realizing who she is, and his genuine goodness is confirmed when he risks his life to save his sleeping brother from a lioness.

Notable Quotations

"But heavenly Rosalind!" *(I.ii)*

"Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree / The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she." *(III.ii)*

Cross-references

• As You Like It — the play
• Comedies — genre
• character_rosalind — his beloved, who tutors him in love while disguised
• character_oliver — his antagonistic elder brother, later reformed
• character_duke_senior — the exiled Duke who welcomes him into Arden