• As You Like It is a pastoral

comedy by William Shakespeare

believed to have been written in

1599 or early 1600 and first

published in the First Folio, 1623.

• The play features one of

Shakespeare's most famous and

oft-quoted speeches, "All the

world's a stage", and is the origin

of the phrase "too much of a good

thing".

• The play remains a favorite

among audiences and has been

adapted for radio, film, and

musical theatre.

• Shakespeare hardly ever invented

the stories of his plays. Like other

writers at that time, he borrowed

them from old stories or poems, but

rewrote them in his own words.

• The direct and immediate source of

"As You Like It" is Thomas Lodge's

"Rosalind, Euphues' Golden Legacy,”

first published in 1590.

• Lodge's story is based upon "The

Tale of Gamelyn," wrongly attributed

to Chaucer and printed among

Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

• The play is set in a duchy (which is a

territory ruled by a duke or duchess) in

the northern country of France.

• Most of the action takes place in a

location called the “Forest of Arden,”

which may be intended for the

Ardennes in France.

• Probably Shakespeare had Arden,

Warwickshire, near his own hometown

in mind when he wrote the play.

The Court of Duke Frederick:

• Duke Frederick, Duke Senior's younger brother and his

usurper, also Celia's father

• Rosalind, Duke Senior's daughter

• Celia, Duke Frederick's daughter and Rosalind's cousin

• Touchstone, a court fool

The Exiled Court of Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden:

• Duke Senior, Duke Frederick's older brother and

Rosalind's father

• Jaques, a discontented, melancholy lord

• Amiens, an attending lord and musician

The Household of the deceased Sir Rowland de Bois:

• Oliver de Bois, the eldest son and heir

• Jacques de Bois, the second youngest son.

• Orlando de Bois, youngest son.

• Adam, a faithful old servant who follows Orlando into

exile

• Phebe, a proud shepherdess

• Silvius, a shepherd

• Audrey, a lusty country girl

• Corin, an elderly shepherd

• William, a country man

• Sir Oliver Martext, a curate

FrederickDuke Senior

Rosalind Celia

• Frederick has usurped the Duchy and exiled his older brother, Duke

Senior – who flees with his court into the Forest of Arden.

• The Duke's daughter Rosalind has been permitted to remain at

court because she is the closest friend and cousin of Frederick's

only child, Celia.

• Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom who has who has just

won a wrestling match against Frederick’s Champion, falls in love

with Rosalind, but is forced to flee his home after being threatened

by his older brother, Oliver.

Orlando

Oliver

Frederick

Rosalind Celia

• Frederick becomes suspicious of Rosalind’s loyalty and

banishes her from his court.

• Celia and Rosalind decide to flee together accompanied by

the jester Touchstone, with Rosalind disguised as a young

man named Ganymede, and Celia disguised as a poor

lady.

• When Frederick discovers his daughter has run off with

Rosalind and Touchstone, he orders Orlando’s brother

Oliver to fetch them back.

Rosalind/Ganymede CeliaOliver

Celia

• In The forest, Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede), Celia, and

Touchstone, meet up with Orlando and the deposed Duke.

• Orlando is busy composing soppy love poems to Rosalind, and hanging

them on trees.

• Meanwhile, The shepherdess Phebe, with whom Silvius is in love, has

fallen in love with Ganymede (actually Rosalind),

• Touchstone, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the dull-witted

shepherdess Audrey, and tries to woo her.

• William, another shepherd, attempts to marry Audrey as well, but is

stopped by Touchstone, who threatens to kill him "a hundred and fifty

ways".

Rosalind/GanymedeOrlando

Duke Senior

Phebe

Silvius

AudreyWilliam

• Rosalind, also in love with Orlando, meets him as Ganymede

and pretends to counsel him to cure him of being in love.

• Rosalind asks Orlando to pretend that Ganymede is Rosalind,

and to act out how he’s going to court her, and that “he” will

tell Orlando if he’s doing it properly.

• Rosalind is hoping that, as “Ganymede”, she can teach

Orlando how to properly love and respect her as a woman.

Rosalind/GanymedeOrlando

• Throughout the play, Shakespeare

makes fun of (or spoofs) many of the

conventions of poetry and literature

dealing with love, such as the idea that

love is a disease that brings suffering

and torment to the lover.

• He also spoofs the idea that time and

experience changes people, with many

of his characters changing attitudes

instantaneously!

• He also spoofs the idea that country folk

are more pure and unspoiled than city

folk, with several of the shepherds dim-

witted, shallow, and bawdy.

• "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern

comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually

involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that

is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. Shakespearean comedies

tend to also include:

• A greater emphasis on situations than characters (this numbs the audience's

connection to the characters, so that when characters experience misfortune,

the audience still finds it laughable)

• A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders

• Separation and re-unification

• Deception among characters (especially mistaken identity)

• A clever servant

• Fights between characters, often within a family

• Multiple, intertwining plots

• Use of all styles of comedy (slapstick, puns, dry humour, earthy humour, witty

banter, practical jokes)

• A Happy Ending, though this is a given, since by definition, anything without a

happy ending can't be a comedy.

• Fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden

world. (1.1.127)

• Always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of

the wits. (1.2.59)

• Well said: that was laid on with a trowel. (1.2.113)

• My pride fell with my fortunes. (1.2.269)

• O, how full of briers is this working-day world! (1.3.13)

• Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. (1.3.110)

• Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything. (2.1.13)

• All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: (2.7.139)

• Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude:

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.(2.7.175)

• O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful

wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after

that, out of all whooping! (3.2.205)

• I do desire we may be better strangers. (3.2.277)

• "So so" is good, very good, very excellent

good: and yet it is not; it is but so so. (5.1.25)

• Oh! how bitter a thing it is to look into

happiness through another man's eyes. (5.2.49)

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

At first, the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

• The first film version of “As You Like

It” was made in 1908, since then,

over fifteen film and television

adaptations have been made!

Notable versions include:

• 1936 with Lawrence Olivier

• 1978 BBC with Helen Mirren

• 1982 Stratford Festival

• 2007 with Kenneth Branaugh

• 2010 Globe Theatre Production

A Nutsy the Squirrel Production

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