Let me
go, I say.
-Oliver
As You Like It Act I,
scene i Line 66
So two days in a row with As You Like it. Perhaps this is a
sign that we should spend time talking about this play? Okay, why not.
This is the first play that I ever read while listening to
the Arkangel Shakespeare CD, and mostly I listened to it in the car commuting
to work. It’s a pleasant little play, a comedy and it’s got the basic
Shakespeare comedy elements; romance, clowns, girls masquerading as guys, etc.
All that stuff. The five word line that is today’s Totally Random Daily
Shakespeare is from Oliver who is fighting with his brother Orlando. But it’s
not a real serious fight where someone gets hurt or killed. It’s just two brothers
wrestling around. And Orlando does let him go. Orlando is apparently a good
fighter because a little later on he wrestles a professional wrestler and wins.
But as I recall, that’s about all the fighting there is in this play.
This play also contains the famous line ‘All the worlds a
stage…’ but since we didn’t end up with that line through our random choice
we’re not going to talk about it. Besides, there are plenty of people who have
analyzed the bejeesus out of that line. That line goes on into a pretty long
quote, taking up many lines, so perhaps we’ll strike upon it sometime in the
future.
‘Let me go, I say.’
It’s got that quintessential phrase ‘I say’ in it. So totally British. ‘I say,
old chap, what the devil have you been up to?’ It’s one of those completely
meaningless phrases. Why on earth do you need to tell me that you’re saying it,
when it’s quite clear that you’re the one who’s saying it because you just said
it! ‘I Say!’ And don’t even get me going on ‘I’m just saying’!
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