In His Perfect Mind (As You Like It, 2.1)

A week late, but say there were a Shakespeare Bowl and the two teams were Pure Evil and Pure Good.  No doubt Team Pure Evil would be co-captained by Aaron and Saturninus from Titus Andronicus.  I can just imagine Iago jumping up and down, saying “Pick me, pick me!” but I don’t see him a captain.

It’s been a while since I’ve read and taught As You Like It, but one thing I remember always pointing out is just how great Duke Senior is.  The man is a champ.  And so, if voting for the Shakespeare Bowl MVP were being held today, then I think that the trophy and new Camaro would go to the captain of Team Pure Good: Duke Senior.

Duke Senior makes his first appearance in Act 2.1 when he is entering the Forest of Arden after being driven out of his dukedom by his brother Frederick.  Like Lear, Senior is not alone when he goes out into exile.  The energy that Lear creates on the heath is magnificent, but Duke Senior truly handles his circumstances with aplomb.  He is accompanied by Amiens and two or three other lords and his wondering about the location of Jaques, perhaps his most important attendant.  Here is how Senior reacts to entering the forest:

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
'This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.'
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in everything.
I would not change it.

Here, Senior uses the word “pomp” that Lear uses in his prayer to the poor naked wretches in 3.4.  Here, Senior already knows what it takes Lear a little while to discover: that, out here, pomp is of no circumstance.  And that is a good thing.  Out here, life can truly be lived.  Duke Senior is feeling heartache, no doubt, for three reasons: his brother has betrayed him; he’s been separated from his daughter Rosalind (and, if he does know that she is residing with her uncle Frederick and cousin Celia, then he may not be too comfortable with that); and, of course, he’s lost dukedom.  This speaks to the tug-of-war between Nature and Fortune (Shakespeare Bowl II?) that runs throughout the course of this play.  Fortune breeds too many cares that get in the way of pure living.  Despite the heartache, this is something that Senior is man and leader enough to recognize when out of doors.  The elements are on his side, too, and he can see the beauty that Nature has to offer.  The true ornaments of life.

Renown may be dead, but his grace is not.  Duke Senior cares about the morale of his attendants and puts it before his own cares.  He is still their leader and it is his job to keep their spirits up.  It is incumbent upon him to express the beauty that they are now able to enjoy away from the court.  Senior continues to come out a champion in his reaction to how Jaques has been ranting (“moralizing”) about deer hunting and even later still when he invites a crazed Orlando to retrieve the elder Adam and join him in breaking bread. 

“Here feel we but the penalty of Adam.”  In doing so, Duke Senior feeds Adam.  Something also needs to be said to that….