Yes, he is probably referring to the conversation that he
had previous with Orlando in Act III, scene ii, in which Jaques puts Orlando down for
being in love. Jaques is a bitter sort of chap, who doesn't see much value in any of
life and always has a witty and deprecating remark for someone. He considers Orlando to
be completely off his rocker, a fool, for falling in love. In essence, for Jaques,
falling in love is for chumps.
So, though the whole of
Jaques' conversation with Rosalind in Act IV, scene i has been in prose
and not verse (prose
is just regular sentences, while verse is
written in iambic pentameter as poetry), he alludes to the fact that, once Orlando
enters, the two will commence speaking in blank verse. It
is called blank verse simply because it does not depend upon any sort of rhyme scheme.
The lines are iambic pentameter, but not necessarily with a rhyme scheme at the end of
the lines.
Verse was a common choice for Shakespeare
between high-born characters in love. He used verse for important, dignified or
heightened moments in a play. His lovers often use a lot of imagery (like Romeo) and
these poetic phrases were written in verse. Here, however, Jaques is wrong. Orlando
and Rosalind do continue their "fake" courtship, but they speak in prose not blank
verse. Shakespeare shows that they are speaking honestly and simply together, just
being themselves rather than "lovers" by choosing to have them speak in prose rather
than verse.
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