Speeches (Lines) for Oliver
in "As You Like It"
Total: 37

1

I,1,27

(stage directions). [ADAM retires]

Oliver. Now, sir! what make you here?

2

I,1,29

Orlando. Nothing; I am not taught to make any thing.

Oliver. What mar you then, sir?

3

I,1,32

Orlando. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a
poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

Oliver. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be nought awhile.

4

I,1,35

Orlando. Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What
prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury?

Oliver. Know you where you are, sir?

5

I,1,37

Orlando. O, sir, very well; here in your orchard.

Oliver. Know you before whom, sir?

6

I,1,45

Orlando. Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are
my eldest brother; and in the gentle condition of blood, you
should so know me. The courtesy of nations allows you my better
in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not
away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us. I have as
much of my father in me as you, albeit I confess your coming
before me is nearer to his reverence.

Oliver. What, boy! [Strikes him]

7

I,1,47

Orlando. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.

Oliver. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?

8

I,1,55

Adam. [Coming forward] Sweet masters, be patient; for your father's
remembrance, be at accord.

Oliver. Let me go, I say.

9

I,1,64

Orlando. I will not, till I please; you shall hear me. My father
charg'd you in his will to give me good education: you have
train'd me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all
gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in
me, and I will no longer endure it; therefore allow me such
exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor
allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy
my fortunes.

Oliver. And what wilt thou do? Beg, when that is spent? Well, sir,
get you in. I will not long be troubled with you; you shall have
some part of your will. I pray you leave me.

10

I,1,68

Orlando. I no further offend you than becomes me for my good.

Oliver. Get you with him, you old dog.

11

I,1,73

Adam. Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in
your service. God be with my old master! He would not have spoke
such a word.
Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM

Oliver. Is it even so? Begin you to grow upon me? I will physic
your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla,
Dennis!

12

I,1,78

Dennis. Calls your worship?

Oliver. Was not Charles, the Duke's wrestler, here to speak with me?

13

I,1,81

Dennis. So please you, he is here at the door and importunes access
to you.

Oliver. Call him in. [Exit DENNIS] 'Twill be a good way; and
to-morrow the wrestling is.

14

I,1,85

Charles. Good morrow to your worship.

Oliver. Good Monsieur Charles! What's the new news at the new
court?

15

I,1,92

Charles. There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news; that
is, the old Duke is banished by his younger brother the new Duke;
and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary
exile with him, whose lands and revenues enrich the new Duke;
therefore he gives them good leave to wander.

Oliver. Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, be banished
with her father?

16

I,1,99

Charles. O, no; for the Duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her,
being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have
followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at
the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own
daughter; and never two ladies loved as they do.

Oliver. Where will the old Duke live?

17

I,1,104

Charles. They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many
merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood
of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day,
and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

Oliver. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new Duke?

18

I,1,116

Charles. Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a
matter. I am given, sir, secretly to understand that your younger
brother, Orlando, hath a disposition to come in disguis'd against
me to try a fall. To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he
that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him well.
Your brother is but young and tender; and, for your love, I would
be loath to foil him, as I must, for my own honour, if he come
in; therefore, out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint
you withal, that either you might stay him from his intendment,
or brook such disgrace well as he shall run into, in that it is
thing of his own search and altogether against my will.

Oliver. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt
find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my
brother's purpose herein, and have by underhand means laboured to
dissuade him from it; but he is resolute. I'll tell thee,
Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of France; full of
ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a secret
and villainous contriver against me his natural brother.
Therefore use thy discretion: I had as lief thou didst break his
neck as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if thou
dost him any slight disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace
himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap
thee by some treacherous device, and never leave thee till he
hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other; for, I
assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one
so young and so villainous this day living. I speak but brotherly
of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush
and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

19

I,1,136

Charles. I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come
to-morrow I'll give him his payment. If ever he go alone again,
I'll never wrestle for prize more. And so, God keep your worship! Exit

Oliver. Farewell, good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester. I
hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why,
hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never school'd and
yet learned; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly
beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and
especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am
altogether misprised. But it shall not be so long; this wrestler
shall clear all. Nothing remains but that I kindle the boy
thither, which now I'll go about. Exit

20

III,1,1115

Frederick. Not see him since! Sir, sir, that cannot be.
But were I not the better part made mercy,
I should not seek an absent argument
Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it:
Find out thy brother wheresoe'er he is;
Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living
Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more
To seek a living in our territory.
Thy lands and all things that thou dost call thine
Worth seizure do we seize into our hands,
Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth
Of what we think against thee.

Oliver. O that your Highness knew my heart in this!
I never lov'd my brother in my life.

21

IV,3,2077

(stage directions). [Enter OLIVER]

Oliver. Good morrow, fair ones; pray you, if you know,
Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
A sheep-cote fenc'd about with olive trees?

22

IV,3,2085

Celia. West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom.
The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand brings you to the place.
But at this hour the house doth keep itself;
There's none within.

Oliver. If that an eye may profit by a tongue,
Then should I know you by description-
Such garments, and such years: 'The boy is fair,
Of female favour, and bestows himself
Like a ripe sister; the woman low,
And browner than her brother.' Are not you
The owner of the house I did inquire for?

23

IV,3,2093

Celia. It is no boast, being ask'd, to say we are.

Oliver. Orlando doth commend him to you both;
And to that youth he calls his Rosalind
He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he?

24

IV,3,2097

Rosalind. I am. What must we understand by this?

Oliver. Some of my shame; if you will know of me
What man I am, and how, and why, and where,
This handkercher was stain'd.

25

IV,3,2101

Celia. I pray you, tell it.

Oliver. When last the young Orlando parted from you,
He left a promise to return again
Within an hour; and, pacing through the forest,
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befell! He threw his eye aside,
And mark what object did present itself.
Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,
A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck
A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but suddenly,
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush; under which bush's shade
A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,
Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch,
When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis
The royal disposition of that beast
To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.
This seen, Orlando did approach the man,
And found it was his brother, his elder brother.

26

IV,3,2127

Celia. O, I have heard him speak of that same brother;
And he did render him the most unnatural
That liv'd amongst men.

Oliver. And well he might so do,
For well I know he was unnatural.

27

IV,3,2131

Rosalind. But, to Orlando: did he leave him there,
Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?

Oliver. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd so;
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,
Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling
From miserable slumber I awak'd.

28

IV,3,2140

Celia. Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?

Oliver. 'Twas I; but 'tis not I. I do not shame
To tell you what I was, since my conversion
So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.

29

IV,3,2144

Rosalind. But for the bloody napkin?

Oliver. By and by.
When from the first to last, betwixt us two,
Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd,
As how I came into that desert place-
In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.
Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound,
And, after some small space, being strong at heart,
He sent me hither, stranger as I am,
To tell this story, that you might excuse
His broken promise, and to give this napkin,
Dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd youth
That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.

30

IV,3,2165

Celia. Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede!

Oliver. Many will swoon when they do look on blood.

31

IV,3,2167

Celia. There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede!

Oliver. Look, he recovers.

32

IV,3,2171

Celia. We'll lead you thither.
I pray you, will you take him by the arm?

Oliver. Be of good cheer, youth. You a man!
You lack a man's heart.

33

IV,3,2176

Rosalind. I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would think
this was well counterfeited. I pray you tell your brother how
well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho!

Oliver. This was not counterfeit; there is too great testimony in
your complexion that it was a passion of earnest.

34

IV,3,2179

Rosalind. Counterfeit, I assure you.

Oliver. Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man.

35

IV,3,2184

Celia. Come, you look paler and paler; pray you draw homewards.
Good sir, go with us.

Oliver. That will I, for I must bear answer back
How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.

36

V,2,2253

Orlando. Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you should
like her? that but seeing you should love her? and loving woo?
and, wooing, she should grant? and will you persever to enjoy
her?

Oliver. Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty
of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her sudden
consenting; but say with me, I love Aliena; say with her that she
loves me; consent with both that we may enjoy each other. It
shall be to your good; for my father's house and all the revenue
that was old Sir Rowland's will I estate upon you, and here live
and die a shepherd.

37

V,2,2265

Rosalind. God save you, brother.

Oliver. And you, fair sister. Exit