As You Like It
ACT FIRST
Scene One
[An Orchard near Oliver's House]
Enter Orlando and Adam.
Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this
fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thou-
sand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my
brother on his blessing, to breed me well: and
there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques
he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly
of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically
at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me 8
here at home unkept; for call you that keeping
for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from
the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better;
for, besides that they are fair with their feeding,
they are taught their manage, and to that end
riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain
nothing under him but growth, for the which
his animals on his dunghills are as much bound 16
to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so
plentifully gives me, the something that nature
gave me his countenance seems to take from
2 Cf. n.
poor a: i.e., a beggarly
5 Jaques; cf. n.
6 at school: at college
7 rustically: i.e., without opportunity to see the world
8 stays: detains
13 manage: action and paces to which a horse is trained. Cf. French manège
19 countenance: favor, patronage
