Meter in As You Like It

As Duke Frederick enters the scene and his conversation with Rosalind begins, the language subtly shifts from prose to blank iambic pentameter verse. It is common for Shakespeare to pen the dialogue of aristocratic characters in the more formal blank verse and to give the more common characters passages of prose. It figures that Rosalind would craft her plea to the Duke by matching his blank verse, as she does in this line. Note how, even after the Duke leaves, the rest of the scene unfolds in blank verse dialogue.

Shakespeare carefully uses rhyme and alliteration to convey Duke Senior’s point about country living. The Duke identifies the natural world as a tremendous source of wisdom, drawing up fanciful images of “tongues,” “books,” and “sermons” for illustration.

The metaphor of being “cut… off” works on several levels here. Oliver means to cut Orlando off from the du Boys family, and thus from his inheritance and title. Oliver also means to literally and violently cut Orlando off, reiterated in the metaphor of “this house [as] but a butchery.”

Celia and Rosalind banter about the weakness of Orlando’s verse. The central pun is on “feet,” which refers to the metrical unit in poetry in addition to the body part. A foot is a beat within a line of poetry: usually a pair of syllables, one of which is stressed. In lines such as “Heaven would that she these gifts should have,” Orlando loads the line with an extra foot, resulting in “more feet than the verses would bear.” Rosalind adds that the “feet were lame” and thus, like human feet, cannot hold up the poem.

Just before exiting the scene, Jaques offers a few words of advice to Orlando. Understanding that Orlando has arrived to court Rosalind, Jaques suggests that Orlando “talk in blank verse.” Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, a formal style which Shakespeare employs in dialogue between upper-class characters. Jaques knows that Orlando’s courting will be more effective if he raises his level of speech. The irony is that Orlando ignores the advice; the rest of the scene unfolds in prose.

Touchstone assures William on the point of his lack of education with another philosophical remark. In essence, Touchstone says that if you have something—in this case, Audrey—you have it. In metaphorical terms, though a drink poured from cup to cup may leave the first cup empty, the second one is full nonetheless. In a word, William should not stress his areas of lack.