English Language & Usage Asked by grammerian on December 16, 2020
In Shakespeare’s’ As You Like It I have came across a challenging sentence. Without further ado, I am directly quoting the text:
for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth that differs not
from the stalling of an ox?
Unfortunately, I understand nothing from this. Why there is "you" after "call"? Where is "that" in "that differs not from" linked to?
Please help me to understand it. I mean I want to understand it in terms of structure. Putting the words in their normal places and without changing them how this sentence would say?
For those who want to see the context, here is the much more connected version:
He (my big brother Oliver) keeps my brother Jaques at school, and report speaks goldenly of
his profit. For my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak
more properly, stays me here at home unkept; for call you that
"keeping" for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the
stalling of an ox?
Moreover, to make helping easier for those who willing to help I am putting the vocabulary notes here:
report speaks…. propit: Rumor has it that Jaques is flourishing as a student.
profit: proficiency
stays: detains
unkept: uncared for, neglected
gentleman of my birth: i.e., the son of a knight
stalling: lodging in a stall; rendering unable to proceed
It's simply a question. Call you that "keeping?" means Do you call that "keeping?"
This form of question appears throughout Shakespeare's works and those of his contemporaries.
Later in the play Corin asks Touchstone, And how like you this shepherd's life, Master Touchstone?
Jaques asks Duke Senior, Good my lord, like you this fellow?
And when Jaques wants Antonio to sing another verse of "Under The Greenwood Tree", he says, Come, more; another stanzo: call you 'em stanzos?
He is complaining that his brother looks after him no better than he would look after an ox. An ox is kept only to work, and so is he. Perhaps we would say, "Do you call it "keeping" which is no better than the way an ox is kept?"
It's something like, Do you call that "music" that is a man playing the spoons?
Oliver doesn't actually keep him in a stall, but Orlando feels he's treated no better than the ox, as he's about to explain.
This page might be helpful.
Correct answer by Old Brixtonian on December 16, 2020
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