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A Study Guide . Revised in 2010 © .......As You Like It is a stage play in the form of a comedy. Its rural locale and subject matter also qualify it as a pastoral romance. Pastoral means having to do with shepherds and rural life. Key Dates .......Shakespeare based As You Like It on Rosalynde: Euphues Golden Legacie (1590), a prose romance by Thomas Lodge (1557-1625). Lodge based his romance, in turn, on The Tale of Gamelyn, an anonymous poem of 900 lines written in the middle of the 14th Century. This poem tells the story of Gamelyn de Boundys, a young man whose brother confiscates his inheritance. Gamelyn is forced to live as a forest outlaw but eventually recovers what is rightfully his. .......In explaining the title of the play, Shakespeare scholar G.B. Harrison wrote, "[As You Like It] is a lighthearted comedy which appeals to readers at all stages and in all lighter moods. It pleases some by its idyllic romance, others by its optimistic philosophy of simple goodness, and yet others by its cynical irony. Indeed, you can take this play just as you like it."—G.B. Harrison, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952 (Page 776).. Settings Characters  Plot Summary Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in every thing. I would not change it. (2. 1. 17-20) .......Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, remains behind at the court of Frederick. Rosalind is the central character in the play, the hub around whom the wheel of fortune revolves. At Duke Frederick’s behest, Rosalind is to serve as a companion for his daughter, Celia. It so  happens that Rosalind has a sympathizer in Celia, for the two of them have been best friends since childhood. Whenever Rosalind pines for her missing father, Celia is there to comfort her. She says, “I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry” (1. 2. 3). Rosalind soon will have good cause to be merry,
for she is destined to fall in love with Orlando, the young man maltreated by his brother Oliver. Here is what happens: .......Orlando somehow flourishes on his own, like an unattended flower, displaying the spirit and courtly bearing of his father, Rowland de Boys. However, restricted as he is by his brother, Orlando lapses into melancholy. When he learns that Duke Frederick’s champion wrestler, Charles, will take on challengers, Orlando bids to compete. After all, he has nothing to lose but his miserable life. Oliver, jealous of the fine young man that his brother is becoming, urges Charles to break Orlando’s neck during the match. .......Rosalind and Celia, present to witness the competition, try to dissuade Orlando from competing. Rosalind even attempts to have the match canceled. .......But the match goes on and Orlando, heartened by the kindness shown by Celia and Rosalind, defeats Charles! Duke Frederick admires the young man for his courage and skill. But when Frederick learns Orlando is the son of Sir Rowland, who was a friend of the banished Duke Senior, he leaves the scene in a huff. Rosalind, however, rewards Orlando with a chain from her neck. Later, when Rosalind and Celia are discussing Orlando, Frederick bursts in and banishes Rosalind, for she reminds him too much of her father, Duke Senior, and his late friend, Sir Rowland. Frederick declares: Within these ten days if that thou be’st [be] found So near our public court as twenty miles, Thou diest for it. (1. 3. 27-29) .......Disguised as a man and calling herself Ganymede, Rosalind leaves to seek out her father in the forest of Arden. Celia accompanies Rosalind, wearing the clothes of a country maid and posing as Ganymede’s sister, Aliena. Tagging along is Duke Frederick’s saucy-tongued court jester, Touchstone. In the forest, they first encounter an old man, Corin, talking with a young shepherd, Silvius. Silvius is deep in the throes of melancholy because the woman he loves, a shepherdess named Phebe, does not return his love. Rosalind empathizes with Silvius, for she now knows what it is like to be in love but not be united with the beloved. Rosalind contracts with Corin to buy a cottage for her, and she and Celia move in. .......Orlando, too, must leave. Oliver’s elderly servant, Adam, has warned Orlando that the evil Oliver vows to burn Orlando’s chamber that very night as Orlando sleeps. Orlando flees with Adam to the safety of the forest. Rosalind and Celia buy a flock of sheep and become shepherds. When old Adam complains of hunger, Orlando, sword in hand, demands food from Duke Senior’s followers; but they generously share their food. When Senior learns Orlando is the son of his old friend, Sir Rowland, he takes Orlando under his protection. .......Meanwhile, Duke Frederick, believing that Celia and Rosalind have run off with Orlando, orders Oliver to find his brother and bring him back dead or alive. If he fails in this task, he will lose all of his possessions. .......In the forest, Orlando thinks often of Rosalind and carves her name on trees and attaches love poems. At the same time, Touchstone tests the worth of every character he meets in the forest with his quick-witted rejoinders—the kind he delivered at court as a fool—spicing his language with puns and paradoxes to lay bare the marrow of his interlocutors. After Touchstone teases Rosalind about how her name is appearing on trees everywhere in the forest, Rosalind (still disguised as Ganymede) crosses paths one day with Orlando and playfully chides him about abusing the trees by carving his poems into them. Then she asks whether his rhymes truly reflect the love that he feels. Orlando replies, “Neither rime nor reason can express how much” (3. 2. 152). .......Rosalind says Orlando can cure himself of his foolish love if he will come to her cottage each day and woo her as if she were Rosalind. In this way, he will learn of the ways of whimsical ladies and gradually fall out of love. Intrigued by this proposal, Orlando does as she asks. However, Orlando only falls more deeply in love with the memory of Rosalind as he takes part in the mock courtship. Rosalind’s love also deepens. .......While searching for Orlando, Oliver falls asleep under a tree. A green snake entwines his neck, preparing to kill him. Nearby a lioness awaits her turn at Oliver. Orlando happens upon the scene on his way to woo Ganymede. He scares off the snake and, as Oliver awakens, draws his sword and kills the lion at the cost of a deep wound to an arm. Suddenly, Oliver repents and becomes a loving brother. Because Orlando’s wound has made him too weak to continue to Ganymede’s cottage, Oliver goes in his stead and explains what happened, displaying a bloody handkerchief as proof of Orlando’s wound. Rosalind faints. .......While at the cottage, Oliver falls in love with Celia, and they vow to marry the next day. Rosalind (as Ganymede) goes to Orlando and tells him she is versed in magic and will conjure up Rosalind the following day so that he can marry her. On the appointed day, Rosalind appears as herself while the wedding guests, including Duke Senior and his followers look on. By this time, Touchstone has found a love of his own—Audrey, a country wench. In addition, Phebe, through a little trickery worked by Rosalind, agrees to marry Silvius. Thus, on the wedding day, four couples exchange vows: Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audry. But it so happens that there is also another event to celebrate. Jaques de Boys, the third son of Rowland de Boys and the brother of Orlando and Oliver, arrives to announce that a holy man has shown Duke Frederick the error of his ways. Consequently, Frederick has ceded his crown back to Duke Senior and retired from the corrupt and wordly life. .......Presumably everyone lives happily ever after. Structure .......The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of As You Like It
occurs, according to the first definition, when Rosalind faints after learning that a lion has wounded Orlando, then decides to reveal her true identity to bring about a resolution to the plot complications. According to the second definition, the climax occurs when a person representing Hymen, the god of marriage in Greek mythology, enters in Act V, Scene IV, with Rosalind no longer wearing her
disguise as the male Ganymede. Hymen then unites Rosalind with her father, Duke Senior, and her beloved, Orlando, by reciting these lines: ..............ROSALIND.....[To Duke Senior] To you I give myself, for I am yours. Imagery: Extended Metaphors Extended Metaphor: Act I .......In extended metaphors in Act I, Shakespeare personifies Fortune and Nature in order to convey a central theme of the play: that Fortune and Nature often work at odds. For example, Fortune may bestow such gifts as wealth, position, and power on a person simply because he was born into the right family. However, if he lacks certain gifts of Nature—such as nobility, foresight, courage, and wisdom—he will not have the wherewithal to manage his material gifts properly. On the other hand, Nature may bestow a bounty of gifts on a person whom Fortune has ignored. This person will have the faculties to make his way in the world but not the material gifts to succeed without a struggle. The extended metaphors, in the form of personifications, occur in Scene II in a discussion of Fortune and Nature between Celia and Rosalind: ..............CELIA..Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from ..............her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. ..............ROSALIND..I would we could do so, for her benefits are ..............mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman ..............doth most mistake in her gifts to women. ..............CELIA...'Tis true; for those that she makes fair she scarce ..............makes honest, and those that she makes honest she ..............makes very ill-favouredly. ..............ROSALIND..Nay, now thou goest from Fortune's office to ..............Nature's: Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, ..............not in the lineaments of Nature. Extended Metaphor: Act II .......In Act II, in another extended metaphor, Shakespeare philosophizes through Jaques (spelled without c before the q), a lord in the service of Duke Senior. The metaphorical passage—focusing on "The Seven Ages of Man"—is one of the most famous passages in all of Shakespeare. The passage is stunning poetry—in fact, it is often included in anthologies as a separate poem demonstrating the remarkable power and beauty of Shakespeare's words. .......However, the passage is cynical and pessimistic in its metaphorical message, making the world a stage and human beings actors in the gloomy drama of life. Each man, it says, goes through life playing various parts and ends up old and toothless, without being the better for his experience, wondering, What was life all about, anyway? However, although this passage seems out of place in this mostly uplifting play, it does serve a purpose: to illuminate, by comparison and contrast, the enthusiasm and optimism of other characters in the play as they pursue their heart's desires. Following is the passage: Lines 139-166, Act II, Scene VII All the world's a stage,1 .......Following are examples of other figures of speech in the play. Alliteration That is another simple sin in you, to bring the ewes and the rams together, and to offer to get your living by the copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a bell-wether, and to betray a she-lamb (Touchstone, 3.2.35) AnaphoraRepetition of a word, phrase, or clause in successive groups of wordsBy my troth, thou sayest true; for since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show. (Celia, 1.2.33) I have trod a measure; I have flattered a lady; I have been politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy; I have undone three tailors; I have had four quarrels, and like to have fought one. (Touchstone, 5.4.42) MetaphorComparison a thing to an unlike thing without using like, as, or thanMy better parts Are all thrown down, and that which here stands up Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block. (Orlando, 1.2.129-131) Comparison of a man to a quintain, a practice target for knights wielding lances I shall ne’er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it. (Touchstone, 2.4.37) O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, Contradiction that reveals a truthO, what a world is this, when what is comely 16 Envenoms him that bears it! (Adam, 2.3.16-17) That which is comely (attractive, beautiful) is poisonous. Sweetest nut hath sourest rind (Touchstone, 3.2.41) A metaphor that compares a thing to a person .......In the following prose passage, beginning with line 123, Rosalind and Orlando speak of time as a person. ROSALIND. I pray you, what is’t o’clock?ORLANDO. You should ask me, what time o’ day; there’s no clock in the forest. ROSALIND. Then there is no true lover in the forest; else sighing every minute and groaning every hour would detect the lazy foot of Time as well as a clock. ORLANDO. And why not the swift foot of Time? had not that been as proper? ROSALIND. By no means, sir. Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal. ORLANDO. I prithee, who doth he trot withal? ROSALIND. Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized; if the interim be but a se’nnight, Time’s pace is so hard that it seems the length of seven year. ORLANDO. Who ambles Time withal? ROSALIND. With a priest that lacks Latin, and a rich man that hath not the gout; for the one sleeps easily because he cannot study, and the other lives merrily because he feels no pain; the one lacking the burden of lean and wasteful learning, the other knowing no burden of heavy tedious penury. These Time ambles withal. ORLANDO. Who doth he gallop withal? ROSALIND. With a thief to the gallows; for though he go as softly as foot can fall he thinks himself too soon there. (3.2.121-131)Biblical Allusions and Symbolism .......It is possible that Shakespeare intended the rifts between the two sets of brothers in the play—(1) Duke Frederick and Duke Senior and (2) Oliver and Orlando—to symbolize the deadly rift between Cain and Abel as described in Chapter 4 of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. Cain and Abel were sons of Adam. .......In Shakespeare’s play, Adam is an elderly servant who attempts to pacify Orlando and Oliver—as if the biblical Adam had come alive to temper the anger between his sons. Shakespeare’s Adam is described as very old, like the biblical Adam, who lived to an extremely old age. There is also a direct reference to the biblical Adam in Act II, Scene I, when Duke Senior extols the carefree life of the forest: Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom12made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp?13Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,14 The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind. (3-9).......It also appears that the Forest of Arden is the Garden of Eden—a new Eden, sans serpent—that brings only happiness to those who enter it. Orlando does not eat of forbidden fruit on a tree. Rather, he carves on trees poems to lovely Rosalind. When Rosalind shows his poems to Touchstone, the latter says—in an apparent biblical allusion (and a play on words)—“Truly, the tree yields bad fruit” (3. 2. 44). However, although the poems are less than sterling, they do bear good fruit: Rosalind. After discovering the identity of the author, Orlando, her love for him intensifies. .......Time and again, Shakespeare disguises women as men to further a plot. For example, In All's Well That Ends Well, Helena wears the attire of a pilgrim to get close to Bertram. In Cymbeline, Imogen becomes a page boy to win back Posthumous. Julia also becomes a page boy in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as does Viola in Twelfth Night. In The Merchant of Venice, Portia disguises herself as a male judge to save the friend of her lover in a court of law. Rosalind, in As You Like It, dons the garb of a man to become a shepherd as she seeks out her love, Orlando. In each of these plays, the women disguised as men eventually reveal their true female identities All of this could have been quite confusing to playgoers in Shakespeare's day, for only men played women's roles. Thus, in the above-mentioned plays, men played women disguised as men who at some point doffed their male identities to reveal themselves as females. Study Questions and Essay Topics 1. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando upon first seeing him. Likewise, Oliver falls in love with Celia when they first meet. In an informative essay, define “love at first sight” and explain whether it can really be true love or is simply infatuation. Plays on DVD (or VHS) Play
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