As You Like It is a five-act comedy by the English dramatist William Shakespeare. It is one of his great comedies, belonging to the second period of his career as a playwright. It was probably first performed in 1599, but many scholars consider that it was written a few years earlier. It was first published in 1623.
As You Like It is mostly based on Rosalynde (1590), a pastoral tale by the English author Thomas Lodge. Frederick has falsely taken over the lands of his brother the duke, who has taken refuge in the Forest of Arden with his followers. The duke’s daughter Rosalind is still living at court, however, along with Frederick’s daughter Celia. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, the son of Rowland de Boys, a recently deceased friend of the exiled duke. Orlando has run away from his cruel elder brother Oliver, into whose care he was placed when his father died. When Frederick finds out that Orlando is the son of his brother’s friend, his anger against the duke is revived. He unjustly banishes Rosalind from court, and Rosalind flees with Celia and the court jester Touchstone into exile in the Forest of Arden.
Loading the player...Shakespeare's As You Like It: Jaques
In the forest, Orlando has joined the banished duke and his men. Also in the forest are Jaques, a melancholy philosopher; Audrey, a country girl; Silvius, a shepherd; and Phebe, a shepherdess. Rosalind, disguised as a young shepherd named Ganymede, and Celia, disguised as Aliena, Ganymede’s sister, meet Orlando. Not recognizing the disguised girls, Orlando agrees to pretend that Ganymede is Rosalind so he can practice his declarations of love. Oliver comes to the forest intending to kill Orlando but is in fact saved by him from a lion and is full of remorse for his earlier cruelty. He falls in love with Aliena (Celia) and arranges to marry her the next day. At the wedding, Rosalind finally reveals her identity to Orlando and marries him. Touchstone marries Audrey, and Silvius marries Phebe. The news that Frederick has undergone a miraculous religious conversion and has restored Rosalind’s father to his dukedom completes the comedy’s happy ending.
Like many other Elizabethan romantic comedies, As You Like It concerns young lovers who pursue their happy destiny in a world seemingly far removed from reality. Although evil threatens, it never harms. Shakespeare enriched the play not only with beautiful poetry but also with several charming songs, such as “Under the greenwood tree,” “Blow, blow, thou winter wind,” and “It was a lover and his lass.” But he also consistently balanced the merry laughter of As You Like It with notes of seriousness and even sadness. Touchstone’s wit and Jaques’s remarks question the nature of love and the values of society. The play discusses the advantages and disadvantages of city and country life. Jaques adds a strong note of melancholy to the play with his famous description of the seven ages of man. At the end of the description, he claims that man’s final fate is “second childishness and mere oblivion, / Sans [without] teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
