more closely related to the philosophy of the play?

The characters of the two Dukes are not developed; they are merely
walking gentlemen, whose office it is to keep the play in motion.

2. The Lovers of the Play.

The Different Kinds of Love in 'As You Like It.' Examples of love at
first sight in Shakespeare. Note Orlando's surprise at the suddenness
of Oliver's and Celia's love. Was his own less sudden? Consider
Hymen's song and Jaques's remarks in the last scene as descriptive of
the various couples. Does the comic element of the play, as
represented by Touchstone, discredit sentiment in the play? Notice the
madrigal in Lodge's novel (given in _Poet-lore_, Vol. III., in the
article on Lodge, Dec, 1891), and consider whether Shakespeare has
borrowed anything from it in characterizing Rosalind's wooing?
Contrast Lodge's Montanus as a lover with Shakespeare's Silvius. Is
Montanus too much of a "tame snake" to be natural? Or does this
constancy in love make him a superior figure? Is it a sign of
Silvius's inferiority that love has its own way with him? Can love be
true that changes if it is unrequited?

Are those actors right, do you think, who play Oliver as guessing who
Ganymede is when she swoons? Is Rosalind's conduct unwomanly? Is her
disguise unlikely?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

It is best for the man to love the most; and therefore has Silvius and
Phebe's unequal love-match a better chance for happiness than