"Sweet masters, be patient. For your
father's remembrance, be at accord."
Adam is a servant to the de Boys family who, despite his closer connection to Orlando, now serves Oliver, the eldest brother set to inherit their father's estate. Here, Adam entreats the brothers to get along in order to honor their father's memory. Adam's place in their feud is reminiscent of the biblical Adam's role in the conflict between his sons, Cain and Abel, which ended with Cain's murder of his brother. This exchange foreshadows the brothers' ongoing conflict and Oliver's later attempt to have his brother killed.
"Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal; but
love no man in good earnest, nor no further in
sport neither than with safety of a pure blush thou
mayst in honor come off again."
When Rosalind and Celia talk at the beginning of the play, Rosalind asks Celia what she thinks about love and marriage. Here, Celia argues that love is associated with foolishness, and that it is simply a sport they can use to entertain themselves. Of course, audiences will soon see the power of love overwhelm Rosalind and her relationship with Celia fade into the background.
"I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page,
And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
But what will you be called?"
When Rosalind assumes her identity as a boy, she chooses the name Ganymede as her alter ego. This was a particularly significant name at the time the play was performed: in early modern English vernacular, "Ganymede" was a slang term for a boy involved in a sexual relationship with another (usually older) man. Thus, Rosalind's name choice foreshadows the development of intimacy between Orlando and "Ganymede."
"We that are true lovers run into strange
capers. But as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature
in love mortal in folly."
In a moment of wisdom, Touchstone (the "fool") pauses from his typical criticism of lovers and instead offers insight into the complex nature of love and desire. Here, he suggests that love certainly inspires foolish behavior, but that that folly is part of being human. The play – and many of Shakespeare's other comedies – seems to delight in this very assertion, in which ridiculous plots reveal deeper truths about human nature.
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."
In what is likely the most famous quotation from the play, Jacques here compares life to a performance, and men and women to actors on the stage. Here, Jacques clearly makes a self-referential comment on the relationship between theater and reality, suggesting that the two depend on one another (and thereby validating the role of theater in early modern English life).
"Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theater
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in."
In another meta-theatrical comment, Duke Senior here presents a somewhat bleak outlook on life, comparing it to "woeful pageants" and thereby expressing despair about the concept of life as a performance. However, he finds some solace in the fact that suffering is universal, and that someone somewhere is experiencing their own "woeful pageant" that is likely worse than his own. Duke Senior therefore comes to represent a more pessimistic perspective about the relationship between theater and reality.
"I met the duke yesterday and had much
question with him: he asked me of what parentage
I was. I told him, of as good as he. So he laughed
and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when
there is such a man as Orlando?"
In this quotation, Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) recalls her encounter with her exiled father, whom she has not seen in quite some time. Her reaction to their reunion is markedly nonchalant, as she pushes thoughts of her family to the side once she starts thinking about Orlando. This quotation highlights the play's portrayal of love as an all-encompassing emotion that can swiftly unseat other important bonds.
"I protest her frown might kill me."
In this quotation, Orlando asserts that Rosalind's frown would be so devastating to him that he would die. Of course, this is a hyperbolic assertion and something that Touchstone would most likely satirize. Here, however, Orlando parrots the voices of Petrarchan poets who presented themselves as so dedicated to their beloveds that their physical health was at the mercy of the woman's facial expressions. Shakespeare himself often satirizes this tradition in his plays as well as his Sonnets, in which he celebrates a distinctly "ugly" woman (the mistress known as the 'dark lady') to challenge Petrarchan notions of beauty and desire.
"Come, woo me,
woo me, for now I am in a holiday humor and like
enough to consent. What would you say to me now,
an I were your very, very Rosalind?"
Disguised as Ganymede, Rosalind encourages Orlando to test out his seduction skills on her. Rosalind in disguise provides a low-stakes outlet for Orlando to express his love, and she herself is able to get closer to Orlando without the pressure of measured, courtly "wooing." Many critics have pointed out that it is Rosalind's disguise that allows her and Orlando's love to flourish, as they both perceive "Ganymede" as a means of fulfilling their desire without consequences.
"It is not the fashion to see the lady the
epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see
the lord the prologue."
At the conclusion of the play, Rosalind (no longer disguised as Ganymede) remarks that it is traditionally a male character who speaks at the end of a performance. Notably, however, the character of Rosalind would have been played by a boy, and so the play ironically comments on the nature of early modern English theater and the fact that women were excluded from acting on the stage.
