As You Like It · Chapter
Scene III explained
Orlando meets Adam outside Oliver's house, and Adam warns him that Oliver plans to kill him by burning his lodging.
What happens
Orlando meets Adam outside Oliver's house, and Adam warns him that Oliver plans to kill him by burning his lodging. Adam offers Orlando his life savings of five hundred crowns and pledges to serve him faithfully. Orlando accepts, and they decide to flee together into the Forest of Arden.
Themes in this chapter
Brotherly Conflict and Reconciliation
Oliver's plot to murder Orlando highlights the extreme brotherly conflict that drives Orlando to flee.
Fortune and Nature
Adam's offer of his savings and the decision to seek a 'settled low content' in the forest reflect a turn from courtly fortune to a simpler life in nature.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“O, what a world is this, when what is comely Envenoms him that bears it!”
What a world we live in, where a person's good qualities can become poison to them.
Adam laments that Orlando's virtues make him a target for his brother's envy.
“I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I saved under your father, Which I did store to be my foster-nurse When service should in my old limbs lie lame And unregarded age in corners thrown: Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age!”
I have saved five hundred crowns from my wages serving your father, meant for my old age. Take it, and may God who feeds the ravens and cares for the sparrows comfort me in my old age.
Adam offers Orlando his life savings, trusting in divine providence for his own care.
“O good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed!”
Good old man, you show the loyal service of ancient times, when people worked out of duty, not for reward.
Orlando praises Adam's selfless loyalty, contrasting it with the selfishness of the present age.