THOMAS LODGE’S Rosalynde, published in 1590, is his masterpiece, and one of the most attractive tales of the period. Sir Walter Greg was probably right in thinking that if it had not provided Shakespeare with a plot there would have been more chance of its receiving a genuinely critical appreciation. It is not, of course, great literature, ‘but in its own particular style and within the limits of its kind the romance of Arden falls not far short of complete success’.1
Lodge’s own source was presumably The Tale of Gamelyn in which he would have found the story of Sir John of Bordeaux and his three sons, the wrestling match, and the hero’s flight to join a band of outlaws; but the events in the forest and even Rosalynde herself were Lodge’s own additions. To his source he added the ‘basic ingredients of Elizabethan romance’; and Dr J. D. Hurrell is right in thinking that there is no need to suppose that Lodge was drawing on an Italian novel.2 He adhered to the ordinary conventions of the genre, and the merits of Rosalynde are due to his skill in the manipulation of conventional material, to the charming pastoral atmosphere, and to the quality of some of the interspersed poems. The prose, though it sometimes reminds us that the sub-title of the book is ‘Euphues’ Golden Legacie’, is less mannered and artificial than Lyly’s.
The story begins with Sir John’s legacy to his three sons, the largest share going to the youngest, Rosader. The eldest, Saladyne, ill-treats Rosader, making him his foot-boy for two or three years, and then bribes a Norman wrestler to put him permanently out of action in a tournament held at Torismond’s court. Rosader, however, defeats the champion in a match watched by Alinda, Torismond’s daughter, and Rosalynde, daughter of the banished Gerismond, the rightful king. Rosader and Rosalynde fall in love. Rosader quarrels with Saladyne and soon afterwards is chained up as a madman; but he escapes by the help of Adam Spencer. After nearly dying of starvation they join Gerismond’s band of outlaws in the forest of Arden. Meanwhile Rosalynde is banished and Alinda, who speaks in her defence, is banished too. They make their way to the forest, Rosalynde taking the name of Ganymede and posing as Aliena’s (Alinda’s) page. They find poems carved on the barks of trees written by Montanus to Phoebe; they overhear an eclogue between Montanus and Coridon, and they buy Coridon’s farm from his landlord. Torismond, coveting Saladyne’s estates, has him thrown into prison. There he repents of his misdeeds and, on being released and banished, he sets out in quest of his brother. Meanwhile Rosader meets Ganymede and Aliena, and Rosader plays at wooing Ganymede. Saladyne arrives in the forest and falls asleep, watched by a lion who waits to attack him. Rosader kills the lion but is not recognized by his brother. Saladyne reveals his change of heart and Rosader makes himself known. A few days later Rosader and Saladyne save the girls from a gang of ruffians, and Aliena and Saladyne fall in love. When Rosalynde tries to assist Montanus with his suit, Phoebe falls in love with her and gets Montanus to deliver a letter to her; but Rosalynde visits her in her sickness and makes her promise to marry Montanus when her passion for Ganymede has been quenched by reason. At the marriage of Saladyne and Aliena, Rosalynde reveals her identity to her father; she marries Rosader, and Phoebe marries Montanus. Then Fernadine, Sir John’s second son, arrives on the scene to announce that the twelve peers of France are up in arms in support of Gerismond, and that Torismond has arrived at the edge of the forest, ready to give battle. The three brothers distinguish themselves in the battle; Torismond is slain; Gerismond is restored to the throne; Saladyne recovers his father’s lands; Rosader is made heir-apparent; Montanus is made lord of the forest of Arden; Adam Spencer is made captain of the King’s guard; and Coridon is made master of Alinda’s flocks.
It will be seen that Shakespeare retained the main outlines of the story, but he made a number of significant changes. Some are of no importance. He altered many of the names. The three brothers become Oliver, Jaques, and Orlando; Alinda becomes Celia, a name less likely to be confused with Aliena; King Torismond becomes Duke Frederick; Montanus becomes Silvius, and Coridon, Corin. More significant are the additional characters – Le Beau, who adds a nice satirical touch to the usurper’s court; Touchstone,3 who provides a companion to the ladies on their arduous journey and a satirical commentator on the other characters; Amiens and Jaques (unfortunately given the same name as the second son of Sir Rowland de Boys), who lend variety to the outlaws; Audrey and William, whose function is discussed below; and Sir Martin Martext. Another change is of considerable importance: Shakespeare makes the usurper brother to the rightful Duke, so that Rosalind and Celia are cousins. This provides a parallelism in the two plots, since Orlando, too, is cheated of his rights by a villainous brother. Both villains repent in Shakespeare’s play: in Rosalynde only one.
Shakespeare constructed his play with practised skill. In a crowded first act he introduces us to all the main characters, except the outlaws; and before the end of the act he has shown us the wrestling match, the mutual attraction of Rosalind and Orlando, and the decision of Rosalind and Celia to seek the outlaws. But, as many critics have complained, the exposition is outrageously clumsy, for at the beginning of the play Orlando tells Adam a number of facts with which he must be perfectly acquainted. Perhaps Shakespeare regarded this speech as a kind of prologue in which he was solely concerned, in a non-naturalistic way, with acquainting the audience with the situation; but it seems much more likely that he was laughing at the theatrical conventions he was using, and alerting the audience to the numerous improbabilities they would be asked to swallow.
Rosader is persuaded by his brother to challenge the wrestler: Oliver in the play has heard that Orlando is intending to challenge him. Shakespeare adds a conversation between Rosalind and Celia, which exhibits their mutual affection and Rosalind’s grief for her father. Then Touchstone and Le Beau are introduced in turn. The killing of the Franklin’s three sons by the wrestler is distanced in a way proper for comedy by having it described by Le Beau; and the reactions of Rosalind and Celia to the ‘good sport’ show them to be humane and sensitive. Shakespeare then inserts the incident where the ladies, at the Duke’s suggestion, try to dissuade Orlando from the match. The Norman is slain by Rosader; Charles is merely put out of action by Orlando. When Lodge’s monarch hears of Rosader’s parentage, he embraces him; when Frederick hears of Orlando’s, he is displeased. This reminds us that Frederick is a usurper and that the rightful Duke is an outlaw; it prepares the way for Orlando’s decision to go to the forest of Arden; and it provides Rosalind and Celia with an excuse for speaking kindly to Orlando. Rosalynde takes a jewel from her neck and sends it to Rosader by a page; Shakespeare’s Rosalind takes a chain from her neck and gives it directly to Orlando. Rosader sends Rosalynde a ‘sonnet’; Orlando is allowed a single exclamation at the end of the scene, ‘But heavenly Rosalind!’ The direct expression of love is severely curtailed; but Shakespeare is able to convince us that, if his lovers talk less about their passion, they feel more.
Shakespeare omits Lodge’s account of Rosader’s return with his friends to his brother’s house, only to find the door barred against him, of his breaking into the house to give a party, and of Adam Spencer’s temporary reconciliation of the two brothers. Oliver makes no pretence of reconciliation.
Lodge gives a long soliloquy to Rosalynde on the banishment of her father and on her love for Rosader; she sings ‘Love in my bosom like a bee’, the best of Lodge’s lyrics; Torismond enters and banishes her; Alinda makes a euphuistic oration in defence of her friend, and she too is banished; Alinda comforts Rosalynde and they decide to disguise themselves and seek out the banished King. Shakespeare condenses all this material into the third scene of the play. In place of Rosalynde’s soliloquy and song, there is a short dialogue with Celia; in place of Alinda’s oration, Celia is given a speech of only eight lines; and as the Duke does not banish her, her decision to accompany Rosalind appears as a positive act of affection.
For Act II Shakespeare rearranges his source-material. Lodge, after describing the arrival of Ganymede and Aliena in the forest and their discovery of Montanus’ verses on the bark of a pine-tree, gives us the Montanus-Coridon eclogue, and goes on to describe the purchase of the farm. This, much condensed, is the substance of Shakespeare’s fourth scene in which, however, Rosalind and Celia actually overhear Silvius complaining to Corin of Phebe’s cruelty. Lodge then describes how Rosader is chained as a madman, his escape with Adam’s assistance, his killing of some of his brother’s guests, and his departure with Adam. For this Shakespeare substitutes the simpler version of his third scene. Lodge continues with the collapse of Adam – there is a long moralizing speech on fortune, which may have suggested Touchstone’s remarks in II. vii – and Rosader’s succour by the outlaws. The banished King asks for tidings of Rosalynde. This material, except for the last item, Shakespeare utilized in the last two scenes of the act, in which, too, Jaques discourses on the world as a stage, and Amiens sings his two songs. The first scene of this act introduces us to the outlaws; and in the second scene the usurper hears of his daughter’s flight and is told of the rumour that she and Rosalind have gone off in Orlando’s company. This provides a link with Frederick’s wrath with Oliver in the next act. In Lodge’s story there is no connection between Rosader’s flight and Torismond’s seizure of Saladyne’s estates; in the play the Duke seizes Oliver’s property in revenge for Orlando’s disappearance. In the source Saladyne is banished ostensibly for the wrongs he has done his brother: Shakespeare makes use of this motive, incidentally but delightfully, when Frederick replies to Oliver’s declaration that he had never loved his brother, ‘More villain thou!’
In the novel Orlando carves his poems on the barks of trees; in the play, for obvious reasons, he hangs his poems on the trees. Aliena and Ganymede see Rosader at the same time; in the play the two girls discover two of Orlando’s poems, and Celia reveals that she has seen him in the forest. Orlando enters with Jaques, and after the latter’s departure, Rosalind addresses Orlando as ‘forester’. (In the novel Rosader has been appointed as forester by Gerismond.) Before the end of the scene, ‘Ganymede’ offers to play the part of Rosalind, ostensibly to cure Orlando of his love, though she hopes not to succeed. In the novel the eclogue between Rosalynde and Rosader takes place at their second meeting, and there is no suggestion that it will cure him of his love. The love-making is carried on in a pastoral vein, so that there is no contrast between the Montanus-Phoebe scenes and the Rosader-Rosalynde ones; but both Rosalind and Orlando retain their wit and humour – though they are fathoms deep in love they are able to joke about it. Rosalind not merely satirizes the behaviour of her own sex, but she is also witty at Orlando’s expense.
The third scene of Act III is devoted to Touchstone’s wooing of Audrey, not in the source. In the fourth scene Rosalind mentions a meeting with her father, in which he had failed to recognize her; and in the fifth she intervenes on Silvius’ behalf, and Phebe falls in love with her. This complication occurs much later in the novel: Shakespeare wished to have the maximum complication by the end of his third act – Silvius loving Phebe, who loves Ganymede, who loves Orlando, who loves Rosalind. (In Twelfth Night the complications come even earlier in the play: Cesario loving Orsino, who loves Olivia, who loves Cesario.)
In IV. i we have the mock wooing and the mock marriage, suggested by Rosalind and not, as in Lodge’s tale, by Aliena. After the second scene, which is an excuse for another song, Silvius delivers Phebe’s poem to Rosalind, whose pretence that the latter is full of chiding is a Shakespearian addition. Oliver enters to recount his rescue by Orlando from a snake, impishly added by Shakespeare, and a lioness. Orlando’s hesitation before saving his brother is mercifully condensed from a tedious soliloquy in the novel. Shakespeare omits Saladyne’s failure to recognize his brother, which has little point, and his long confession. In the novel Rosader takes his brother to Gerismond; in the play, more dramatically, Oliver is sent with the bloody napkin to excuse his broken promise to Ganymede. The scene ends with Rosalind nearly betraying herself by her swoon.
Shakespeare omits the attack by ruffians on Ganymede and Aliena and makes Celia fall in love with Oliver without such an occasion for gratitude. He omits, too, the tedious love-making of Saladyne and Aliena, Phoebe’s sickness, and Ganymede’s visit to her. He complicates Touchstone’s wooing by the introduction of his easily intimidated rival, William. He adds the quartet of lovers – Silvius, Phebe, Orlando, and Rosalind – and has Rosalind boast that she is a magician, not that she has a friend who is one. He inserts another scene for the sake of ‘It was a lover and his lass’. In place of the wedding in Church, he has the masque of Hymen; and the play concludes with the arrival of Jaques de Boys to announce the conversion and abdication of Duke Frederick. There is no mention of the twelve peers of France and no battle.
The name of Orlando Shakespeare probably took from Ariosto’s poem, though Rosalind’s lover is never exactly furioso. Coridon was possibly changed to Corin under the influence of Syr Clyomon and Clamydes in which a princess in man’s dress takes service with a shepherd of that name.4 Although there was a forest of Arden near Stratford, which some think Shakespeare conflated with the Ardennes, the pastoral world of the play owes more to literary tradition than it does to the Warwickshire countryside. In a sense the play can be regarded as a critique on pastoralism and, as the pastoral was, amongst other things, a mode of love-poetry, a critique on love. There are, as critics have noted,5 several levels of conventionality. There is, first, the noble outlaw convention, satirizing both Court life and the exiles who profess to disdain it. Then there is the pastoral convention, going back to Theocritus, and, as Bullough remarks,6 ‘stereotyped in the Renaissance’. The love-sick swain enamoured of the hard-hearted shepherdess is satirized by Rosalind when she attacks Phebe. Thirdly we have Rosalind and Celia, great ladies rôle-playing as shepherd and shepherdess, a convention which found its culmination in the Trianon. Fourthly we have country bumpkins such as Audrey and William as imagined by the town; and these are taken off by Touchstone. Lastly we have a portrait of a shepherd seen without prejudice, Corin being untouched by Touchstone’s gibes. There is, in fact, an extraordinary complexity of cross-satire in the play. Jaques satirizes the Duke, Orlando, and Touchstone; Touchstone, as his name indicates, satirizes everyone; Rosalind satirizes not merely Jaques and Phebe, but also the whole convention of romantic love and the waywardness of her own sex. It need hardly be said that, to mock the illusions and conventions of love, as Shakespeare does in nearly all his comedies, to believe that most loving is mere folly, is not a denial of love. Shakespeare is rescuing the reality of love from the fashionable counterfeits and distortions of his age. ‘True love’, it has been said, ‘undergoes the refining process of satire, and survives in a less questionable and ambiguous form’.