As You Like ItReaders and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too. Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns crossdressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.” At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl. The authoritative edition of As You Like It from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, is now available as an eBook. Features include: · The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference · Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation · Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play · Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play · Scene-by-scene plot summaries · A key to famous lines and phrases · An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language · Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books · An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play |
Contents
Editors Preface | ix |
Shakespeares As You Like It | xiii |
As You Like It | xv |
Shakespeares Life | xxviii |
Shakespeares Theater | xxxix |
The Publication of Shakespeares Plays | xlviii |
An Introduction to This Text | lii |
Text of the Play with Commentary | 1 |
ACT 3 Scene 1 | 91 |
ACT 3 Scene 2 | 93 |
ACT 3 Scene 3 | 117 |
ACT 3 Scene 4 | 125 |
ACT 3 Scene 5 | 129 |
ACT 4 Scene 1 | 141 |
ACT 4 Scene 2 | 155 |
ACT 5 Scene 1 | 173 |
ACT 1 Scene 1 | 7 |
ACT 1 Scene 2 | 17 |
ACT 1 Scene 3 | 35 |
ACT 2 Scene 1 | 49 |
ACT 2 Scene 2 | 53 |
ACT 2 Scene 3 | 55 |
ACT 2 Scene 4 | 61 |
ACT 2 Scene 5 | 67 |
ACT 2 Scene 6 | 71 |
ACT 2 Scene 7 | 73 |
ACT 5 Scene 2 | 177 |
ACT 5 Scene 3 | 185 |
ACT 5 Scene 4 | 189 |
Longer Notes | 207 |
Textual Notes | 223 |
A Modern Perspective | 231 |
Further Reading | 243 |
Key to Famous Lines and Phrases | 261 |
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Common terms and phrases
acting action actor Adam appearance Arden Audrey bear become beginning better bring brother called CELIA Charles comes CORIN court daughter desire direction doth DUKE FREDERICK DUKE SENIOR early edition editors English Enter example exit eyes fair faith father find first Folger Folio fool forest Fortune Ganymede give hand hath heart honor Jaques kind lack language learned leave live London longer look lord lover male marriage marry matter means nature never Oliver ORLANDO performed perhaps person Phoebe plays poor present Press printed readers reference Robin Hood ROSALIND Scene Shake Shakespeare shepherd Silvius song speak speech stage sweet tell theater thee things thou tion TOUCHSTONE tree true turn University verse woman young youth