# As You Like It: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> William Shakespeare. 27 speaking roles, 21,135 words, about 151 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Rosalind** has the most to say in As You Like It: about 682 lines and 5,693 words, 26.9% of the play. Shakespeare’s comedy follows Rosalind, who flees to the Forest of Arden disguised as a young man. Rosalind holds more than a quarter of the words, more than twice anyone else, and she speaks the Epilogue. Orlando and Touchstone are almost exactly tied for second, with Celia just behind.

- Speaking roles: 27
- Scenes: 23
- Words: 21,135
- Speech time: 151 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Rosalind](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/rosalind) | 682 | 5,693 | 26.9% | 40.7 | 11 |
| Orlando | 303 | 2,375 | 11.2% | 17.0 | 9 |
| [Touchstone](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/touchstone) | 270 | 2,374 | 11.2% | 17.0 | 7 |
| [Celia](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/celia) | 263 | 2,105 | 10% | 15.0 | 7 |
| [Jaques](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/jaques) | 215 | 1,730 | 8.2% | 12.4 | 7 |
| Oliver | 146 | 1,162 | 5.5% | 8.3 | 4 |
| Duke Senior | 109 | 816 | 3.9% | 5.8 | 3 |
| Phebe | 87 | 696 | 3.3% | 5.0 | 3 |
| Corin | 69 | 550 | 2.6% | 3.9 | 4 |
| Silvius | 76 | 539 | 2.6% | 3.9 | 5 |
| Duke Frederick | 69 | 529 | 2.5% | 3.8 | 4 |
| Adam | 65 | 513 | 2.4% | 3.7 | 4 |
| Charles | 41 | 375 | 1.8% | 2.7 | 2 |
| Le Beau | 46 | 371 | 1.8% | 2.7 | 1 |
| First Lord | 46 | 348 | 1.6% | 2.5 | 3 |
| Amiens | 46 | 252 | 1.2% | 1.8 | 3 |
| Audrey | 21 | 149 | 0.7% | 1.1 | 3 |
| Hymen | 24 | 133 | 0.6% | 1.0 | 1 |
| Jaques de Boys | 17 | 128 | 0.6% | 0.9 | 1 |
| Second Lord | 11 | 74 | 0.4% | 0.5 | 2 |
| Forester | 10 | 62 | 0.3% | 0.4 | 1 |
| William | 11 | 44 | 0.2% | 0.3 | 1 |
| First Page | 6 | 39 | 0.2% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Sir Oliver Martext | 5 | 36 | 0.2% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Second Page | 3 | 21 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Dennis | 3 | 17 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| A Lord | 1 | 4 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; 1.3 = Act 1, Scene 3; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 2.4 = Act 2, Scene 4; 2.5 = Act 2, Scene 5; 2.6 = Act 2, Scene 6; 2.7 = Act 2, Scene 7; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 3.4 = Act 3, Scene 4; 3.5 = Act 3, Scene 5; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; 5.3 = Act 5, Scene 3; 5.4 = Act 5, Scene 4; Epi = Epilogue.

- **Rosalind**: 1.2 (406), 1.3 (399), 2.4 (191), 3.2 (1,440), 3.4 (152), 3.5 (369), 4.1 (1,217), 4.3 (541), 5.2 (573), 5.4 (178), Epi (227)
- **Orlando**: 1.1 (553), 1.2 (327), 2.3 (180), 2.6 (145), 2.7 (255), 3.2 (406), 4.1 (225), 5.2 (192), 5.4 (92)
- **Touchstone**: 1.2 (203), 2.4 (206), 3.2 (493), 3.3 (579), 5.1 (375), 5.3 (67), 5.4 (451)
- **Celia**: 1.2 (650), 1.3 (506), 2.4 (52), 3.2 (427), 3.4 (226), 4.1 (83), 4.3 (161)
- **Jaques**: 2.5 (244), 2.7 (800), 3.2 (149), 3.3 (97), 4.1 (130), 4.2 (58), 5.4 (252)
- **Oliver**: 1.1 (468), 3.1 (17), 4.3 (597), 5.2 (80)
- **Duke Senior**: 2.1 (213), 2.7 (385), 5.4 (218)
- **Phebe**: 3.5 (602), 5.2 (52), 5.4 (42)
- **Corin**: 2.4 (201), 3.2 (270), 3.4 (70), 5.1 (9)
- **Silvius**: 2.4 (137), 3.5 (208), 4.3 (95), 5.2 (89), 5.4 (10)
- **Duke Frederick**: 1.2 (159), 1.3 (178), 2.2 (62), 3.1 (130)
- **Adam**: 1.1 (46), 2.3 (430), 2.6 (24), 2.7 (13)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rosalind: “And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,” | Act 3, Scene 5 | 252 | 29 |
| Phebe: “Think not I love him, though I ask for him:” | Act 3, Scene 5 | 244 | 27 |
| Orlando: “As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps 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? His horses are bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.” | Act 1, Scene 1 | 234 | 24 |
| Rosalind: “It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is to conjure you; and I’ll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them—that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me and breaths that I defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.” | Epilogue | 227 | 23 |
| Jaques: “All the world’s a stage,” | Act 2, Scene 7 | 212 | 28 |
| Oliver: “Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my brother’s purpose herein and have by underhand means laboured to dissuade him from it, but he is resolute. I’ll tell thee, Charles: it is the stubbornest young fellow of France, full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man’s good parts, a secret and villainous contriver against me his natural brother: therefore use thy discretion; I had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger. And thou wert best look to’t; for if thou dost him any slight disgrace or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap thee by some treacherous device and never leave thee till he hath ta’en thy life by some indirect means or other; for, I assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one so young and so villainous this day living. I speak but brotherly of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush and weep and thou must look pale and wonder.” | Act 1, Scene 1 | 195 | 20 |
| Jaques: “A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest,” | Act 2, Scene 7 | 194 | 23 |
| Touchstone: “Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no assembly but horn-beasts. But what though? Courage! As horns are odious, they are necessary. It is said, “many a man knows no end of his goods:” right; many a man has good horns, and knows no end of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife; ’tis none of his own getting. Horns? Even so. Poor men alone? No, no; the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal. Is the single man therefore blessed? No: as a walled town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence is better than no skill, by so much is a horn more precious than to want. Here comes Sir Oliver.” | Act 3, Scene 3 | 179 | 18 |
| Rosalind: “I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know of me then, for now I speak to some purpose, that I know you are a gentleman of good conceit: I speak not this that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourself good and not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange things: I have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician, most profound in his art and yet not damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries it out, when your brother marries Aliena, shall you marry her: I know into what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is not impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set her before your eyes tomorrow human as she is and without any danger.” | Act 5, Scene 2 | 175 | 18 |
| Oliver: “When last the young Orlando parted from you” | Act 4, Scene 3 | 174 | 23 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Duke Senior and Corin
- Duke Senior and Duke Frederick
- Duke Senior and Charles
- Duke Senior and Le Beau
- Duke Senior and Audrey
- Duke Senior and Forester
- Duke Senior and William
- Duke Senior and First Page
- Duke Senior and Sir Oliver Martext
- Duke Senior and Second Page
- Duke Senior and Dennis
- Duke Senior and A Lord

## Roles and monologues in depth

- [How many lines does Rosalind have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/rosalind)
- [How many lines does Touchstone have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/touchstone)
- [How many lines does Celia have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/celia)
- [How many lines does Jaques have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/as-you-like-it/jaques)

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in As You Like It?

Rosalind, with about 682 lines and 5,693 words, 26.9% of everything spoken in the play. Orlando is next, with about 303 lines (11.2%).

### How long is As You Like It?

The full text has 21,135 spoken words, about 151 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in As You Like It?

27 named roles speak in this edition, across 23 scenes. 15 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/as-you-like-it) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).