As You Like It

Apparently, this is what qualifies as a pastoral comedy – one which has a countryside setting, rustic simpletons and displays a clash between the cosmopolitans and the rest. Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, AYLI is the most representative of this genre.

I understand why this is not rated as among his best. The bard’s fascination with disguises and role play is evident here too. Many critics consider Rosalind to be the most ‘complete woman’ of all of Shakespeare. She’s confident, knows what she wants, and has no qualms in taking the effort to woo Orlando.

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.

A woman who can calmly respond to a lover’s frantic pitch, with the above line, is worldly-wise and knows a thing or two about love and the futile, loaded interpretations we all ascribe to that word.

 I followed up the play with Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 adaptation. The movie was faithful to the play though it was set in Japan and the role of Orlando was essayed by Adrian Anthony Lester (a black actor).

Leaving you with the most iconic passage from the play:

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,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

The Shakespeare Project so far: Macbeth | The Tempest | The Merchant of Venice | Twelfth Night