Rosalind đź”’ Members
Shakespeare. From As You Like It, William Shakespeare (died 1616). The banished Duke's daughter who disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede to escape her uncle's court and ultimately wins Orlando's heart.
Age and build
More than common tall
“Because that I am more than common tall, That I did suit me all points like a man” (As You Like It, part 4)
Face and hair
The book is silent here, so we keep this plain and neutral.
Dress
Wears man's apparel as Ganymede: doublet and hose
“I could find in my heart to disgrace my man’s apparel, and to cry like a woman, but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat” (As You Like It, part 8)
Carries a curtal-axe and boar-spear when disguised
“A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh, A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will” (As You Like It, part 4)
Returns to woman's clothes for the final wedding
“Enter Hymen, Rosalind in woman’s clothes, and Celia” (As You Like It, part 22)
Voice and speech
Speaks with wit, wordplay, and philosophical observation
“Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do” (As You Like It, part 13)
Uses classical and mythological references
“O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits” (As You Like It, part 8)
Employs elaborate metaphors and extended conceits
“Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal” (As You Like It, part 13)
Signature words
Frequently invokes Jupiter or Jove
“O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits” (As You Like It, part 8)
Uses 'coz' (cousin) as familiar address
“O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how many fathom deep I am in love” (As You Like It, part 17)
Employs 'marry' as an exclamation
“Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom” (As You Like It, part 3)
Uses 'faith' in oaths and assertions
“I’ faith, his hair is of a good colour” (As You Like It, part 15)
Addresses others as 'fool' with affection or exasperation
“Peace, fool, he’s not thy kinsman” (As You Like It, part 8)
Uses 'prithee' in requests
“I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold Can in this desert place buy entertainment” (As You Like It, part 8)
Gait and mannerisms
Adopts masculine bearing and speech when disguised
“I will speak to him like a saucy lackey, and under that habit play the knave with him” (As You Like It, part 13)
Shows physical weariness from travel
“O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits” (As You Like It, part 8)
Strengths
Quick wit and clever wordplay
“I’ll graft it with you, and then I shall graft it with a medlar. Then it will be the earliest fruit i’ th’ country, for you’ll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that’s the right virtue of the medlar” (As You Like It, part 13)
Ability to counsel others on love and cure lovesickness
“Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress, and I set him every day to woo me; at which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles” (As You Like It, part 13)
Courage and resourcefulness in adversity
“Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, That I did suit me all points like a man” (As You Like It, part 4)
Ability to command and orchestrate others
“I have promised to make all this matter even. Keep you your word, O Duke, to give your daughter, You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter” (As You Like It, part 22)
Flaws
Struggles to hide her true feelings for Orlando
“I cannot be out of the sight of Orlando. I’ll go find a shadow and sigh till he come” (As You Like It, part 17)
Faints when confronted with evidence of Orlando's danger
“I would I were at home” (As You Like It, part 18)
Initially overwhelmed by grief over her father's banishment
“Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure” (As You Like It, part 3)
Traits
Deeply devoted to her cousin Celia
“I have more cause” (As You Like It, part 4)
Intelligent and philosophical
“Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of Nature” (As You Like It, part 3)
Compassionate toward others' suffering
“Alas, poor shepherd, searching of thy wound, I have by hard adventure found mine own” (As You Like It, part 8)
Playful and teasing, especially with Orlando
“Come, woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday humour, and like enough to consent” (As You Like It, part 17)
Lines in their own words
On love as madness
“Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do” (As You Like It, part 13)
Teasing Orlando about his lateness
“Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had as lief be wooed of a snail” (As You Like It, part 17)
Declaring her love to Orlando
“Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays and all” (As You Like It, part 17)
On men dying for love
“Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love” (As You Like It, part 17)
Final epilogue address to the audience
“If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not” (As You Like It, part 22)
Reference sheet
Film looks we will not copy
- Any named film or stage production look
Always book accurate. Every quote above was checked word for word against our stored copy of the text. Pictures are made with AI from the book's own description and checked by hand for film looks.
