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Fulfillment in As You Like It1 1 1than purely in contemplation, so it is more important to ask whether a poetis honest in his life than whether his poetry is beautiful or profound. Conversely,when Jaques wishes to absent himself from the party at the end of theplay in order to enter a monastery, where he hopes that “there is much matterto be heard and learned,” he may remind us of the fictional lover whomRosalind tells Orlando she “cured” by inducing in him “a living humor ofmadness, which was, to forswear the full stream of the world, and to live in anook merely monastic” (5.4.184–85; 3.2.418–21). Rosalind’s covertly scornfulimplication is that to follow a purely contemplative life is to enter a backwaterwhich cuts us off from the current of our deepest desires.Orlando, having made his way to Arden with the faithful Adam, has takento pinning love poems to Rosalind on trees, unaware that she too is living inthe forest. Touchstone mocks the way in which he equates Rosalind’s “worth”with her beauty in his first poem, implying through his scornful references toharts, hinds, cats, and pricks that it is merely an expression of animal attraction(3.2.88–114). He is silent, however, about the second one, which contrastsRosalind’s chastity and Orlando’s own constancy with the brevity of life andthe tragedy of “violated vows,” thus implicitly agreeing with the high valuethat Orlando sets on a thoroughly enduring love (3.2.125–54). The suggestionis that, although it may be beyond human nature to focus exclusivelyon the immutable realm of ideas, we nevertheless still find our fulfillmentthrough resisting the mutability of our own passions as far as is possible. Aswith the earlier contrast between Silvius and Corin, the implied progressionof Orlando’s love shows that the intense physical desire which characterizesromantic love in its early stages can in some cases trigger a more enduringloyalty. In the second poem Orlando praises Rosalind for havingHelen’s cheek, but not her heart,Cleopatra’s majesty,Atalanta’s better part,Sad Lucretia’s modesty.Thus Rosalind of many partsBy heavenly synod was devis’d.(3.2.145–50)Here again Shakespeare employs a tripartite division of the soul, but oncemore he adds a fourth ingredient: Orlando’s list implies that beauty, aCleopatra-like power or spiritedness, and wit (“Atalanta’s better part”) canall play their part in romantic love, but by ending with “sad Lucretia’s modesty”he shows a new understanding that Rosalind’s most important qualityis her chastity; the crucial requisite for a lasting marriage.