y from the romance, as befits
a comedy, the usurping duke being converted instead of being killed in
battle.
It was, however, in the characterization that Shakespeare departed
most widely from the romance. The most obvious change was in the names
of the characters. Rosader appears as Orlando, Saladyne as Oliver,
Torismond as Duke Frederick, Gerismond as the banished Duke, Alinda as
Celia, Montanus as Silvius, and Corydon is shortened to Corin. Of much
greater significance than the changes in the names of the characters
are the additions and changes in the list of _dramatis personae_. Nine
characters are added outright--Dennis, Le Beau, Amiens, the First
Lord, Sir Oliver Martext, William, Audrey, Touchstone, and Jaques. The
latter is most noteworthy. Hazlitt calls him the only purely
contemplative character Shakespeare ever drew. From the beginning to
the end of the play he does absolutely nothing except to think and
moralize. Another critic has said, "Shakespeare designed Jaques to be
a maker of fine sentiments, a dresser forth in sweet language of the
ordinary commonplaces...." It has been suggested,[1] not without some
show of reason, that Shakespeare in adapting Lodge's romance for the
stage purposely included in the list of _dramatis personae_ a
character bearing a strong resemblance to Euphues, the pretended
author of the romance. "Like Euphues, Jaques has made false steps in
youth, which have somewhat darkened his views of life; like Euphues,
he conceals under a veil of sententious satire a real goodness of
heart, shown in his action toward Audrey and Touchstone. A traveler,
like Euphues, he has a melancholy of his own, compounded of many
simples, extracted from many objects, and is prepared, like his
prototype, to lecture his contemporaries on every theme."
[Footnote 1: Seccombe and Allen, "The Age of Shakespeare," Vol. I, p.
119.]
Scarcely less significant are the changes that Shakespeare made in the
characteristics of the _dramatis personae_. The motive of the elder
brother in mistreating the younger he makes envy, not avarice as in
the romance, a substitution due to his desire to unify the action by
drawing a parallel between the brothers and the dukes. The superiority
of Shakespeare's Rosalind to Lodge's delineation of the character has,
perhaps, been slightly overestimated. To describe Lodge's Rosalynde as
"a colorless being, incapable of entering into the spirit of her
part"[1] is really too severe a
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