As You Like It: Act 2, Scene 3 Summary & Analysis

Orlando, about to enter his home, is met with a long soliloquy by his servant, Adam, who seems to both praise and regret his master’s virtuousness: “Why are you virtuous?... And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant?” The servant elaborates that Orlando’s virtues serve him not as graces but as enemies, as “sanctified and holy traitors.”

Orlando asks what’s the matter, and Adam responds that Orlando cannot enter his own home, because his brother is inside. Oliver, it seems, has heard of Orlando’s success in the wrestling match and intends to burn down Orlando’s house, with the intent of killing him. Adam insists that Orlando leave, but Orlando does not know where to go, despairingly claiming that he would rather face his brother than lead a beggar’s life.

Adam offers to give his master his own savings of five hundred crowns, and to remain his servant in exile. He swears that, because he never drank too much in his youth, he is stronger than his old age might suggest. He promises to do all the jobs that a younger man would.

Orlando praises Adam’s ethic of servitude—prizing duty over reward. He adds that this attribute was more common in ancient times than it is in modern times, in which, Orlando describes, it is more common that a person work hard only for public recognition and promotion. While praising Adam’s work ethic, however, Orlando also pities him, for pruning “a rotten tree that cannot so much as a blossom yield in lieu of all they pains and husbandry.” Nevertheless, he agrees to take Adam along with him in his banishment.

Adam promises to follow Orlando forevermore, and reflects on his departure from the court, where he has served since he was seventeen years old. He recognizes that it is too late for him to embark on a new ambition and that he would be happy to die in the service of his master.