Note to As You Like It, 4.1.81-82: "Who could be out, being before his beloved / mistress?"


Return
to
As You Like It,
Act 4, Scene 1, lines 81-82.
Who could be out, being before his beloved / mistress?: Who could run out of things to say, being in the presence of his beloved mistress? —This statement is a little ironic, although Orlando is not being intentionally ironic. When Orlando was in the presence of his beloved mistress, Rosalind, and she gave him a golden chain to wear, he was "out," totally mute, unable to say a word.




Rosalind and Orlando

Rosalind as Ganymede with Orlando
Katherine Hepburn and William Prince, 1950