AS YOU LIKE IT

1. AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare(1599-1600)

2. Opening suggests a dark world, not a comedy • Begins at a corrupt and suspicious court • Two warring brothers, one is lovable (Orlando) and the other “altogether misprised” (Oliver) • Their enmnity is mirrored by the usurpation of Duke Senior by his brother Duke Frederick • The “good” brothers are banished to the forest

3. Shakespeare’s comedies often begin this way • Ultimately, we are guided to the play’s heroine ROSALIND • The play’s action concerns itself with ‘coupling’ (four couples are wed at the end of the play) • One of the happiest of comedies • Brothers are reconciled • Legitimacy and prosperity is restored • The evil convert • Each lover is appropriately matched

4. Significance of setting • Play’s action is set in the Forest of Arden in Warwichshire • Shakespeare’s mother’s name was Arden • The play suggests both French and English characters and places…seemingly nowhere and everywhere • A magical place where anything can happen

5. Your If is the only peacemaker… • Rosalind invites Orlando to imagine his life IF he had not met “your very very Rosalind” • She poses and solves a complex set of riddles at the climax • IF • IF I CAN • IF I COULD • IF EVER I MARRY WOMAN • IF EVER I SATISFIED MAN • IF WHAT PLEASES YOU CONTENTS YOU

6. Villains are miraculously changed • Oliver tells Celia “Twas I. But ‘tis not I.” • Like Eden, Arden is not wholly safe • Arden is cold and people must hunt for food • Lions and snakes threaten sudden death • It is threatened with invasion from the usurping Duke

7. Setting is pastoral • Except for Corin, nobody seems to work • All can find plenty of time to sing, philosophize and fall in love • It is not, however, an alternative to civilization. It is “nature” as opposed to “culture” • Perhaps Shakespeare is parodying the pastoral excesses of writers like Philip Sidney in works such as ARCADIA (1590) • It is not simply a play, it is a play about how people write about love Act One, The Wresling MatchA 19th century painting

8. Sources for the play • Thomas Lodge wrote ROSALYNDE, EUPHUES’ GOLDEN LEGACIE in 1590 and Shakespeare borrows freely from its characters and plot • He excises a bloody battle between the feuding dukes and replaces it with Frederick’s conversion and retirement • He invents the characters of Jacques, Touchstone and Audrey • John Lyly wrote EUPHUES, THE ANATOMY OF WIT (1579) • The previously mentioned ARCADIA (1590)

9. A musical world • Play contains more songs than any other Shakespeare play • Most famous is “It was a lover and his lass” (V.3) • The song was arranged and published by Thomas Morley in 1600

10. Lovers grow up • Rosalind and Orlando escape the gloom, confinement and danger of court by escaping to the forest…and growing up • This requires Rosalind and Orlando; Celia and Oliver to move from the family they were born into to the family one starts and presides over “from one’s father to one’s child’s father” (1.3) • As with Ophelia (Hamlet), Cordelia (King Lear) and Desdemona (Othello), Rosalind’s relationship with her father is changed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Production, 2010

11. Celia and Rosalind • As both separate from their father’s; they also outgrow their friendship • The threat to marriage is not only Rosalind’s attachment to Celia, but also Orlando’s attachment to Ganymede (the homo-erotic theme described by some) • Further expressed by Rosalind taking on the identity of Ganymede (Jove’s cupbearer and “lover”)

13. Disguises • Rosalind as Ganymede • Celia “darkens” her face to be seen as less “fair” • Ganymede seems to relish being a man…as a woman, she could not buy property, but as a man she buys a “cottage, pasture and flock” • Rosalind’s disguise seems to enhance her confidence while doing the opposite to Celia • Still Rosalind does woo Orlando, not girl to boy, but man to man • Perhaps these disguises are simply pragmatic since boys played the female roles in Elizabethan theatre

15. Four couplesRosalind and Orlando Marriage offers a different kind of ending, as well as a different kind of beginning for four couples

16. Four couplesCelia and Oliver

17. Four couplesAudrey and Touchstone

18. Four couplesPhebe and Silvius Marriage offers a different kind of ending, as well as a different kind of beginning, for each of the four couples

19. All the world’s a stage… • Jacques speech from Act Two, scene 7 is rightly one of the most famous in all of Shakespeare • Of the SEVEN AGES, only one really relates to the action of the play… And then the lover Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow Jacques (and Adam) help to put the marriages into perspective

21. First printed edition • Folio edition, 1623 • Production was entered into the Stationers Register by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as one of four plays “to be staied” (withheld from publication)

22. On Film As You Like It (2006) Directed by Kenneth Branagh Brian Blessed Duke Senior / Duke Frederick Bryce Dallas Howard Rosalind Patrick Doyle Amiens Romola Garai Celia Adrian Lester Oliver De Boys Alfred Molina Touchstone Kevin Kline Jaques Janet McTeer Audrey

23. 1936 Film Director:Paul Czinner Writers:William Shakespeare (play)J.M. Barrie (treatment)Robert Cullen (scenario)Carl Mayer (adaptation) Cast:Henry Ainley Exiled Duke Elisabeth Bergner Rosalind Felix Aylmer Duke Frederick Laurence Olivier Orlando Leon Quartermaine Jacques

24. BBC Complete Works As You Like It(1987) (BBC production of The Complete Works) Director: Basil Coleman Writer: William Shakespeare (play) Cast: Helen Mirren Rosalind Brian Stirner Orlando Richard Pasco JaquesAngharad Rees Celia James BolamTouchstone Clive Francis Oliver Richard Easton Duke Frederick Tony Church Duke Senior