As You Like It
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.
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Reviews for As You Like It
1,125 ratings25 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Given as part of the course-work for BADA Summer 1999 in Oxford. The (very useful and well-researched) introduction is almost as long as the play itself! Loads of footnotes to help comprehension for the lay-reader.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So great! Absolutely love it!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I haven't either read or seen this play.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've been made aware that modernists like to write fiction that is basically plot-free, where the point is to entertain with beautiful, glorious language, not to excite or inform. One modernist, John Barth, has argued that what he is doing is more reactionary than modern, that he was merely returning to what masters like Cervantes and Rabelais did. Or, in this case, Shakespeare. He had already written one nearly meta-fictional play, Love's Labour Lost, where witty people did nothing but talk wittily about life. He revised and improved the idea for this play, where a group of people hide in the Forest of Arden and do little but discourse of love and life. I loved it all, but especially the typically plucky heroine and the two polar opposite clowns.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5More of Shakespear's drag king fetish; to hetero audiences, light entertainment only notable as the source of the "all the world's a stage" quote.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fabulous language. "All the world's a stage" is just one of many quotable quotes. Very much a fairy tale, but the wonderful Rosalind and the beautiful words of Shakespeare has made it one of my favorite of his comedies thus far.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Folger Library editions of Shakespeare's works are my favorites. With ample introductory material, long notes at the end, and short language notes on the lefthand pages to match the text on the right, they are easy to read whether you need to check the notes or not.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I struggled with the language
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I recently ordered this L.A. Theater Works audio production for work and couldn't resist the temptation of having James Marsters reading Shakespeare in my ears. The production is excellent and while the physical comedy that comes with cross-dressing is obviously missing, the actors do an excellent job of conveying the comedy using just their voices. An excellent way to revisit the Bard.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a great collection, worthy of a place in the library of any Shakespeare-phile. Rather than just being a glorified book of excerpts, or one of those tacky dimestore books that collect some basic "love" quotes from the Sonnets, 'Shakespeare As You'd Like It' is more like a compendium of phrases and speeches from the Bard's work. The breadth of the collection should be evidenced by the fact that Kennedy has picked 3000 quotes from 15 plays - that's 200 per play on average. Quotes range from entire speeches to phrases and clever retorts, and includes many that are at first elusive or opaque, which means that even the most pretentious intellectual will find some new material to add to their repertoire. Whether you're using this to sound intelligent in conversation or just to have a laugh, this is the way to go.
I'm not sure whether the promised Volume II (to cover the remaining majority of Shakespeare's canon) was ever released, but I hope so. There are a couple of issues here - I sometimes take argument with Kennedy's footnotes, which I don't think are always accurate in their translation - but for the most part this is a collection far more worthy than you might think at face value. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I liked this play, which I had thought was something else when I first started it! I found the comedy to be of the milder type of making me smile rather than laugh but still fun. There are several famous speeches, most memorable being the one about the seven stages of life.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I fear I'm really not a Shakespeare fan: I can never 'get into' his plays. I certainly didn't 'get into' As You Like It. Studying it, so perhaps I'll come to appreciate it more.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked "As You Like It" quite a bit. It has similarities to other works by Shakespeare -- characters in disguise and falling in love at the first glance. But it's also very charming and a nice little story, making for a fun read. Lots of familiar quotes in this one too!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“As you Like It” is a beloved Shakespeare play. it is easier to follow and understand as some his other works. There is the reintroduction of Rosalind and Orlando, who are deeply in love, but Orland does not recognize her because she is a boy. The story tells of a series of marriages and infidelities and mixed with love. In the story Rosalinda is so realistic when dressed as a boy because of he exile, that a young shepherdess is a bit taken with him/her). As usual, this volume is filled with quotes we will recognize and more than a bit of tongue and cheek humor. It is a light play for Shakespeare, and very enjoyable. This is a good piece for young people to read if they are not familiar with Shakespeare. There are also fairly good video productions of the play.I have the Pelican library of Shakespeare books and find them extremely easy to follow. With the introductions and foot notes well developed, it makes the reading more enjoyable and understandable for me personally.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A strange play, but a very lovable one.Why strange, you ask? Let me catalog its oddities. Both of the villains undergo sudden changes of heart ... offstage. Both leading couples fall in love ... on their first meeting. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s other comedy set primarily in a forest, such happenings are explained as the results of magic, the maneuverings of mischievous fairies. The only supernatural figure in As You Like It is Hymen, who, in one of the play’s oddest turns, appears at the end to explain everything and bless the four marriages. It’s unclear exactly why he is needed; Rosalind seems to have orchestrated everything perfectly up until then.And why lovable? In a word: its heroine. Rosalind is the true gem of the piece, and is probably the closest Shakespeare came to writing a female role comparable Hamlet, although of course this is in a completely different genre.* She has more lines than any other woman in the canon, but it’s not sheer quantity that makes her material so winning. She’s charming in a quicksilver fashion, and it’s clear from her scenes with Orlando that she enjoys make-believe playacting. But lest you think she is a mere trickster, I must stress has wonderful moments of vulnerability, too.As far as Shakespeare’s young swains go, Orlando comes off pretty well. He doesn’t threaten to rape the woman who loves him (a la Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), he isn’t an opportunistic adventurer (as Bassanio is in The Merchant of Venice), and he doesn’t listen to slurs against his lady (unlike Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing). He writes awful poetry, it’s true, but in prose he is almost as witty as his beloved Rosalind, and I picture him as having an easy smile and laugh. Of the other characters, Jacques is the standout—a melancholic personality who cannot find a place in the play’s the happy ending.I’ve watched two video versions of this play, each very different from the other. The 1978 BBC adaptation looks as if an enterprising child filmed it in his backyard using a camcorder, somehow enlisting the aid of some of Britain’s finest actors. Richard Pasco steals the show as an unkempt and bleary-eyed Jacques—I really didn’t understand the character until I watched his performance—while Helen Mirren makes a statuesque Rosalind and roguish Ganymede. I didn’t care for the more recent Kenneth Branagh film when I first saw it on account of its Japanese setting, but now that I’ve studied the play in an academic environment and noticed just how strongly the theme of usurpation figures in the plot, I understand what he was going for. And I like how he tries to smooth out the creases of this admittedly problematic play; for instance, he actually stages the lion attack, making Oliver’s reformation a bit more believable.Read As You Like It and go on a holiday in a verdant wonderland. Ignore some of the oddities and focus on your guide, one of Shakespeare’s greatest heroines.* Looking at Wikipedia’s chronology, I see that As You Like It and Hamlet may have been written back-to-back, so perhaps the similarity is not coincidental. Shakespeare must have had fabulous at his disposal during this period, considering the virtuosic parts he wrote for them!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As You Like It follows Rosalind, the daughter of a Duke, as she escapes persecution in her Uncle’s court with her cousin Celia. They take refuge in the forest, waiting for a time when Rosalind’s father gains power. Before leaving however, she has just enough time to fall in love with Orlando, who fortunately ends up in the same forest. I loved this one; it reminded me so much of The Tempest. There are two brothers who, just like in The Tempest, are both Dukes. Their daughters are central to the plot, falling in love for the first time, just as Miranda does in The Tempest. The play includes so many of Shakespeare’s finest elements. There are women pretending to be men, women falling in love with those “men” and men confiding their love to those “men” without knowing who they really are. Confused? Don’t be, it’s all good fun. In one section a young man goes on and on about how he’s in love. He tells the older man who is his companion that there’s no way he could possibly understand, because he’s so old. I love how Shakespeare often pokes fun at the naïveté of the young. They believe no one has ever gone through what I’m going through right now. The play also includes the famous “All the world’s a stage” passage. I love reading one of his plays for the first time and stumbling upon one of those wonderful lines. It’s always a treat. I read this just after finishing Othello and it complemented the tragedy so well. It provided the comedic balance, cross dressing, falling in love, and mistaken identities that I craved after reading such a downer. “Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.”
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I think I read this at University...but the fact I can't remember it speaks volumes. I'm currently teaching this and found it quick and easy to read. But Shakespeare was never meant to be read was he? I'd like to see this of course. It would be hilarious. Hopefully soon somewhere in Sydney there will be a production and I look forward to it.I was particurly interested in The Forest of Arden representing how primal and animal selves, the natural world where still a heirachy exists. Shakespeare obviously writing in a Christian country steeped in Pagan lore and practice. A man so far ahead of his time with gender awareness and commentary on social status and abuse of power. Got to love the big William.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orlando's older brother, Oliver, has been trying to kill him, and his newest idea is to have a wrestler take him out. But then Orlando not only wins but catches the eye of the daughter of the banished Duke, with consequences Oliver could never have foreseen.Though I have all of Shakespeare's plays on my "life list" of books I would like to read, I only moved this one in particular up the list because I saw it performed when I was in London a couple of weeks ago. It's a very interesting experience reading a play that I have once seen performed, and it really brings home the fact that plays are meant to be seen rather than read. Overall, while I enjoyed reading the original and imagining the possibilities of alternative interpretations of lines, they're certainly lacking in the personality that the actor/actress brings to the role. Some of the lines that seem confusing reading just make more sense with actions to go with them. It was also interesting to note that while the production really showed me how bawdy some of the lines were, the notes in the play that I read were generally unhelpful in this area (which, depending on your point of view, could be a good thing). I probably wouldn't read the play again, but I would watch another performance
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nice little comedy with lots of mistaken/disguised identities and love interests, which we later saw played in King’s Park. Not 'great' literature, but a good romp. Contains the "all the world's a stage" line. Read January 2008.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm not going to go into the complicated plot on this one, but it's the one with Rosalind and Orlando, where Rosalind, for her own mysterious reasons, pretends to be a boy and flirts with Orlando, who is extremely dense, and never figures out that she is a girl.Forget about whether this is believable or not. (It's not.) In fact, the whole plot is pretty darn farfetched. It is, however, funny in some places and thoughtful in other places. Like all Shakespeare, it's much better on stage than on paper, but it was still a fun read.What I really enjoyed about the edition I read is that it had photos from the Royal Shakespeare Academy and others of the play, including a very young Alan Rickman as Jaques and a ludicrously costumed Kenneth Branagh as Touchstone. Very funny!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This has some really cute lines, especially from Touchstone, but it is not one of Shakespear's best works in my opinion. Although it probably would be much better to see on stage rather than to read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a comedy with many different characters such asOrlando, Rosalind, Toushstone, Jaques, Phoebe, and Silvius. This play is composed of many clever personalities, including a boy named Oliver who will not share his father’s recently inherited wealth with his brother Orlando. Other characters include Duke Senior, usurped of his throne, Rosalind, Touchstone, and Jaques.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Folger Library editions of Shakespeare's works are my favorites. With ample introductory material, long notes at the end, and short language notes on the lefthand pages to match the text on the right, they are easy to read whether you need to check the notes or not.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fun. Rosalind plays the romantics well and Shakespeare made a happy ending even beyond what was necessary. Jaques, Act II: "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players, They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My favorite Shakespeare play of all--for the humor and for Shakespeare's heroine, Rosalind
Book preview
As You Like It - William Shakespeare
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Title: As You Like It
Author: William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
Release Date: November, 1998 [EBook #1523]
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Edition: 10
Language: English
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AS YOU LIKE IT
by William Shakespeare
Contents
ACT I
Scene I. An Orchard near OLIVER'S house
Scene II. A Lawn before the DUKE'S Palace
Scene III. A Room in the Palace
ACT II
Scene I. The Forest of Arden
Scene II. A Room in the Palace
Scene III. Before OLIVER'S House
Scene IV. The Forest of Arden
Scene V. Another part of the Forest
Scene VI. Another part of the Forest
Scene VII. Another part of the Forest
ACT III
Scene I. A Room in the Palace
Scene II. The Forest of Arden
Scene III. Another part of the Forest
Scene IV. Another part of the Forest. Before a Cottage
Scene V. Another part of the Forest
ACT IV
Scene I. The Forest of Arden
Scene II. Another part of the Forest
Scene III. Another part of the Forest
ACT V
Scene I. The Forest of Arden
Scene II. Another part of the Forest
Scene III. Another part of the Forest
Scene IV. Another part of the Forest
EPILOGUE
Persons Represented
DUKE, living in exile
FREDERICK, Brother to the Duke, and Usurper of his Dominions
AMIENS, Lord attending on the Duke in his Banishment
JAQUES, Lord attending on the Duke in his Banishment
LE BEAU, a Courtier attending upon Frederick
CHARLES, his Wrestler
OLIVER, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois
JAQUES, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois
ORLANDO, Son of Sir Rowland de Bois
ADAM, Servant to Oliver
DENNIS, Servant to Oliver
TOUCHSTONE, a Clown
SIR OLIVER MARTEXT, a Vicar
CORIN, Shepherd
SILVIUS, Shepherd
WILLIAM, a Country Fellow, in love with Audrey
A person representing HYMEN
ROSALIND, Daughter to the banished Duke
CELIA, Daughter to Frederick
PHEBE, a Shepherdess
AUDREY, a Country Wench
Lords belonging to the two Dukes; Pages, Foresters, and other Attendants.
The SCENE lies first near OLIVER'S house;
afterwards partly in the Usurper's court
and partly in the Forest of Arden.
ACT I
SCENE I. An Orchard near OLIVER'S house
[Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.]
ORLANDO
As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion,—bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept: for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired; but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me, his countenance seems to take from me: he lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude; I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.
ADAM
Yonder comes my master, your brother.
ORLANDO
Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me up.
[ADAM retires]
[Enter OLIVER.]
OLIVER
Now, sir! what make you here?
ORLANDO
Nothing: I am not taught to make anything.
OLIVER What mar you then, sir?
ORLANDO
Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.
OLIVER
Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.
ORLANDO
Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury?
OLIVER
Know you where you are, sir?
ORLANDO
O, sir, very well: here in your orchard.
OLIVER
Know you before whom, sir?
ORLANDO
Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are my eldest brother: and in the gentle condition of blood, you should so know me. The courtesy of nations allows you my better in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me as you, albeit; I confess, your coming before me is nearer to his reverence.
OLIVER
What, boy!
ORLANDO
Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.
OLIVER
Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?
ORLANDO
I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois: he was my father; and he is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy tongue for saying so: thou has railed on thyself.
ADAM
[Coming forward] Sweet masters, be patient; for your father's remembrance, be at accord.
OLIVER
Let me go, I say.
ORLANDO
I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My father charged you in his will to give me good education: you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities: the spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore, allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes.
OLIVER
And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent? Well, sir, get you in; I will not long be troubled with you: you shall have some part of your will: I pray you leave me.
ORLANDO
I no further offend you than becomes me for my good.
OLIVER
Get you with him, you old dog.
ADAM
Is old dog
my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in your service.—God be with my old master! he would not have spoke such a word.
[Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM.]
OLIVER
Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness, and yet give