As You Like It: Act I: Scene I

Context Questions
1. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the
    something that nature gave me, his countenance seems to
    take from me: he lets me feed me with his hinds, bars me the
    place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my
gentility
    with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves
    me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me,
    begins to mutiny against this servitude. I will no longer
    endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

(i) Who speaks these lines? Where does the scene take place? Who else
is present at the scene? 

Orlando, the brave and chivalrous hero of the drama and the victim of
the tyranny of his elder brother, speaks these lines.
The opening scene takes place in an orchard near Oliver’s house.
Adam, an old servant of Sir Rowland, Oliver, the malicious, eldest son
of Sir Rowland de Boys, Dennis, Oliver’s servant, and Charles, Duke
Frederick’s wrestler, are present in the scene. 

(ii) Who is ‘he’ referred to in the extract? What injustice has he
done to the speaker as far his inheritance and education is concerned? 

In the extract, ‘he’ refers to Oliver, the unnatural brother of
Orlando who hates him (Orlando) for his outstanding qualities.
Oliver has not only deprived Orlando of a gentleman’s upbringing as he
(Oliver) should have done as his father’s will dictated him but has
also purposely desisted from sending him to school. 

(iii) What is said about the speaker’s father? How is the younger
brother of the speaker better off than him? 

It is said that Orlando’s father Sir Rowland de Boys is dead and that
he entrusted Oliver, his eldest son to bring up all his children
including Orlando as befitting to the members of the nobility.
The younger brother of Orlando, Jaques is better off than the former
in the sense that arrangements have been made by Oliver for his
education whereas Orlando is languishing unattended at home. 

(iv) Give the meaning of the following: 

(a) mines my gentility: undermines my noble birth
(b) to mutiny against this servitude: to rebel against the slavery
(Orlando’s) to Oliver
(v) Give the comparison between the treatment of the speaker and the
treatment of animals.
Orlando complains that the manner in which Oliver treats him is no
better than an ox being kept by its owner at a stall in the stable.
Even Oliver’s horses are fed with excellent fodder besides being
trained by expert riders whereas Orlando is neither given good food
nor provided with education or any kind of training befitting a noble
man’s son. 

(vi.) Summarise the grievances of the speaker as given in the extract. 

Orlando is grieved at not having been given a gentleman’s upbringing
and the rightful place of a sibling by his elder brother Oliver. He is
also sorrowful that this is robbing him of his natural abilities. His
father’s spirit within him has begun to rebel against the slavery he
is being subjected to, although he does not know how to remedy the
situation. 

(vii) What does the extract show about the character of Orlando? 

Orlando emerges as an unschooled yet well behaved, ill-bred yet
learned young man in the extract. The extract also clearly shows him
as an aggressive young man who will not be cowed down by his wretched
condition.