AS YOU LIKE IT As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play’s first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 (the house having been a focus for literary activity under Mary Sidney for much of the later 16th century) has been suggested as a possibility.
As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle’s court, accompanied by her cousin Celia to find safety and, eventually, love, in the Forest of Arden. In the forest, they encounter a variety of memorable characters, notably the melancholy traveller Jaques, who speaks one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches (“All the world’s a stage“) and provides a sharp contrast to the other characters in the play, always observing and disputing the hardships of life in the country.
Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the play a work of great merit and some finding it to be of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works.
The play has been adapted for radio, film, and musical theatre.
Locations
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The play is set in a duchy in France, beginning in a courtly environment; but most of the action takes place in a location called the ‘Forest of Arden’.
This location is conjuring more than one place and identity. Firstly, in an Early Modern English mind the Forest of Arden roughly corresponds to the West Midlands to modern ears.[1] It represents an area including Warwickshire and parts of Shropshire,[2][3] Staffordshire and Worcestershire.[4]
The Arden area is effectively bounded by Roman roads as follows: in the West by the Icknield Street, in the South by the Salt Road (the modern Alcester to Stratford Road), in the East by the Fosse Way, and in the North by the Watling Street. It includes Arden, Warwickshire, near Shakespeare’s home town, which was the ancestral origin of his mother’s family—whose surname was Arden.[5] That area was once heavily wooded, giving rise to the name.
Secondly the name evokes the Ardennes, a forested region covering an area located in southeast Belgium, western Luxemb
the stortof as you it by william shakespear is about a number of character who find themselves in the forest of arden, including :
. rosalind and celia: the daughter of duke senior and duke frederick , respectively . roslimd is the real princess but duke frederick doesn like her because she s’ the heir to the kingdom.
. orlando: the youngest son of siotr rowland de bois, who is kept in poverty by his older brother oliver . orlando flees to the fporest after oliver. orland0 flees to the forest after oliver plots his death.
. touchstone : the fool to the peincessess.
. jaques: a courtier who is forced to live in the forest with duke senior.
. oilive : arlando ,s cruel older brother .
the story includes a numberof polt points , including :
rosalind and
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