ore free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we not the penalty of Adam... and our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything (25).
             Criticism of the Duke's speech ranges from him "invoking the pastoral vision and the idea of a new society in extraordinary specific terms" (McFarland 101) to the Duke providing a "norm of wisdom" (Peterson 28) upon which all other characters wisdom can be measured. Duke Senior does set an example, however he is by no means free from "the penalty of Adam." Such an overstatement is not justified but it does exemplify the fact that the forest of Arden is a place where people can get what they want out of it. The forest is "a place halfway between reality and paradise" (McFarland 102) and a place of "testing and education" (Leggatt 190) and has no single purpose universal to all.
             For some of the characters in Arden it turns out to be a place where one can escape reality and try to reach paradise. This is especially true for Or
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