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9 2 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 2Orlando, and the heroine, Rosalind, are both forced to flee to the Forest ofArden, where they encounter Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior, who has alsobeen exiled. All three are followed into exile by loyal friends: Rosalind byher cousin Celia and Touchstone, her fool; Orlando by Adam, the faithfulfamily retainer; and Duke Senior by a number of lords, including Jaques,a quirky melancholic. Once in the forest, Rosalind tests out Orlando as apotential lover under the cover of her male disguise, and various pastoralcharacters are encountered, one of whom Touchstone marries. I will arguethat Shakespeare uses these apparently trivial events to smuggle in a carefullydeveloped and logically ordered argument. 5The play opens with the hero, Orlando, bitterly complaining about thetyrannical behavior of his elder brother Oliver since his father’s death. Headmits that mere “growth” is a “gain” and that he is given enough to eat, butcomplains bitterly that his brother “mines his gentility with his education”(1.1.10–14, 1.1.21). 6 The intensity of Orlando’s rage suggests that his hunger toadvance himself is as deep-seated as his need to eat, even though he recognizesdimly even at this point that social status, or “the courtesy of nations”as he calls it, is insubstantial compared to his innate “blood” (1.1.44–48). It isa similar desire for honor that seems to underlie his brother’s jealous convictionthat Orlando is more “enchantingly belov’d” by the people than himself(1.1.163–71). Both here and elsewhere in the play such ambitions are presentedas either fruitless or actively painful—in that they lead us to compare ourselvescontinually with others, while diverting us from what is intrinsicallysatisfying—but at the same time as deeply embedded in our nature. It shouldbe noted, however, that Orlando’s bold assault on his elder brother seems tobe provoked primarily by his attachment to his father’s memory, althoughhere, as is typical of his character in the early part of the play, pride and lovemerge in a rather confused way: “he is thrice a villain that says such a fatherbegot villains” (1.1.57–59).Shakespeare chooses this moment to emphasize his key theme throughinsistent references to the power of loyal devotion. We see Adam’s brave anddefiant devotion to his dead master’s memory, even though he is now officiallyattached to the tyrannical Oliver, and we learn the latest news from5For precedents see the work of Leo Strauss, especially Persecution and the Art of Writing (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1980); but see also Michael Murrin, The Veil of Allegory: Some Notestoward a Theory of Allegorical Rhetoric in the English Renaissance (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1969).6All references to the acts, scenes, and lines of the play and to other plays by Shakespeare are to TheRiverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997).