Orlando (As You Like It) forest of Arden. At the start of the play Orlando complains about the harsh treatment given to him by his brother, Oliver, and says that Oliver will not even give him the paltry sum of 1000 crowns left to him in their father's will. He is portrayed as exceptionally strong in both body and in his devotion to love. It is these qualities that make Rosalind fall for him as well. After angering Oliver's crony Duke Frederick, Orlando flees his familiar surroundings to live in exile in the Forest of Arden. There, he is accepted into the circle of the
As You Like It since the two Orlando epics, Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, have other connections with the play. In the Orlando mythos, Arden Wood is the location of Merlin's Fountain, a magic fountain causing anyone who drinks from it to fall out of love. The Oxford Shakespeare edition rationalises the confusion between the two Ardens by assuming that "Arden" is an anglicisation of the forested Ardennes region of France, where Lodge set his tale) and alters the spelling to reflect this. Other editions keep Shakespeare's "Arden" spelling, since it can be argued that the pastoral mode depicts a fantastical world in which