Stuff That Happens

Stuff that Happens before the Play

• Duke Frederick overthrows his brother, Duke Senior, who flees to the Forest of Arden with a group of followers, including a courtier named Jaques.

Stuff that happens in the play

• Orlando complains to his old servant, Adam, that his older brother, Oliver, is depriving him of his rightful education and inheritance.
• Oliver hears that Orlando plans to wrestle Charles, Duke Frederick’s champion, and asks Charles to kill Orlando.
• At the wrestling match, Orlando meets Rosalind, the banished Duke Senior’s daughter.
• Orlando wins the wrestling match, but Duke Frederick hears that he is the son of Sir Rowland — a friend of the banished Duke. Duke Frederick snubs Orlando instead of rewarding him. Rosalind, however, gives Orlando a token of hers to wear.
• Duke Frederick banishes his niece Rosalind from court.
• Duke Frederick’s daughter, Celia, insists on accompanying Rosalind. They hatch a plan to escape to the Forest of Arden, taking “the clownish fool” Touchstone to seek the banished Duke Senior.
• Adam warns Orlando of Oliver’s murderous plans, and the two of them flee into the Forest of Arden.
• Rosalind (disguised as a boy, Ganymede), Celia (disguised as Ganymede’s sister, Aliena), Touchstone, Orlando, and Adam reach the Forest of Arden, where the banished Duke Senior, Jaques, and other lords (as well as the Arden natives Corin, Silvius, Phebe, and Audrey) are pursuing their pastoral interests.
• Orlando hangs love poems to Rosalind throughout the forest.
• Ganymede (a.k.a. the lovestruck Rosalind) offers to give love lessons to the overeager Orlando.
• Lions, a love triangle, mock weddings, and real weddings ensue.