As You Like It (19 page)

Lines 82–143:
Denying any love for Ganymede to Silvius, Phoebe pretends that she wishes she had “answered” his criticisms. She decides to write a letter, which she gets Silvius to deliver.

Lines 1–28:
Jaques approaches Ganymede in order to become “better acquainted.” He expounds his melancholy philosophy. Rosalind is unimpressed and observes that she would “rather have a fool” to make her laugh. Orlando arrives, and Jaques leaves.

Lines 29–174:
Orlando plays along with the pretense that Ganymede is Rosalind, creating dramatic irony, and blurring the boundaries of gender and sexuality as he woos a woman disguised as a man pretending to be a woman. Rosalind chides him for being late, claiming that a true lover would never “Break an hour’s promise.” She invites Orlando to “woo” her as he would Rosalind, then proceeds to counter all of his arguments. She then changes tack, and suggests that she be “Rosalind in a more coming-on disposition.” She sets up a mock wedding between them, with Aliena playing the part of the priest, before arguing that Orlando would soon tire of Rosalind: “Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.” She describes the changeable and jealous nature of wives and, although her arguments generate humor, they also demonstrate a realistic attitude to love and relationships that counters the play’s overtly poetic romanticism. Orlando announces he has to leave to dine with Duke Senior, but promises to return in two hours.

Lines 175–190:
Celia complains that Rosalind has “misused” the female sex, but Rosalind merely responds by saying that she is “deep … in love” with Orlando, and is going to “find a shadow and sigh” until he returns.

Jaques and the lords have killed a deer, which they plan to present to Duke Senior. They sing a humorous song to celebrate the occasion.

Lines 1–74:
Rosalind and Celia are discussing the fact that Orlando is late again when they are interrupted by Silvius with a letter from Phoebe (for Ganymede). He warns them that the letter “bears an angry tenor.” Rosalind accuses Silvius of writing the letter and reads it aloud. Silvius is confused: the letter does not seem chiding but romantic. Rosalind encourages Silvius to be more forceful and sends
a message to Phoebe that Ganymede will not love her unless she loves Silvius.

Lines 75–185:
Oliver arrives seeking Ganymede and Aliena, and Celia tells him that that is who they are. Her increased participation in the dialogue hints at her interest in Oliver, who hands Rosalind a bloody handkerchief. He says it was sent by Orlando. When questioned, Oliver admits that the story will reveal his “shame.” He describes how Orlando was heading back to the cottage when he saw a “wretched ragged man” asleep under a tree. Orlando saved the man’s life from a snake, before realizing that it was “his elder brother.” Seeing a lioness also preparing to attack, Orlando, with “kindness, nobler ever than revenge,” fought the lion and saved his brother again. The ladies realize that the man they are speaking to is Oliver, who did “oft contrive to kill” Orlando. Oliver shamefully confesses and then describes the brothers’ reconciliation, which culminated in Orlando taking Oliver to Duke Frederick’s cave. Once there, Orlando’s wounds were revealed, and he fainted, calling out “Rosalind.” When he had recovered, he sent Oliver to find Ganymede, “that he in sport doth call his Rosalind,” to excuse his broken promise, with the handkerchief as proof. Rosalind faints, and, ironically, Oliver observes that she “lack[s] a man’s heart.” Despite Rosalind’s explanation that she is “counterfeiting,” Oliver seems unconvinced, but accompanies them back to the cottage.

Touchstone and Audrey meet William, another suitor of Audrey’s. Touchstone tells him to give up Audrey or he will kill him. William agrees.

Oliver admits he is in love with the shepherdess Aliena, and Orlando questions that he should be so “on so little acquaintance,” echoing Celia’s comments to Rosalind in Act 1 Scene 3. Oliver declares his
intention to renounce his inheritance in favor of Orlando, marry Aliena, and “live and die a shepherd” in the forest. Orlando agrees. Rosalind arrives, still dressed as Ganymede, and Oliver greets her as “fair ‘sister,’ ” although it is uncertain whether he is joining in the pretense or has seen through her disguise. He goes to find Aliena. Ironically, Rosalind and Orlando discuss the suddenness of Oliver and Aliena’s love, and Orlando announces that the wedding will be the next day. Ganymede then promises to produce Rosalind, so that Orlando can be married at the same time. Phoebe and Silvius arrive, and Phoebe berates Ganymede for showing her letter to Silvius. After a comic, circular dialogue, “like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon,” emphasizing the confusions between the four characters, Rosalind promises to make Ganymede marry Phoebe the next day if he should ever “marry woman.”

Touchstone and Audrey are also to be married the next day. As they talk, they are interrupted by two pages, who sing a romantic song that Touchstone describes as “foolish.”

Lines 1–99:
Duke Senior and Orlando discuss whether Ganymede can do all that “he hath promisèd.” They are joined by Rosalind (still as Ganymede), Silvius, and Phoebe. Having ensured that everyone will keep their promises, she leaves with Celia, vowing to “make these doubts all even.” As the duke and Orlando innocently discuss Ganymede’s resemblance to Rosalind, Touchstone and Audrey arrive. While they wait for the others to return, Touchstone philosophizes on the nature of quarrels, a reminder of the tensions that existed at the beginning of the play and which are moving toward resolution, and expounds the virtue of “if” (thereby allowing time for Rosalind’s costume change).

Lines 100–191:
Rosalind and Celia return as themselves, accompanied by Hymen, god of marriage, whose presence reinforces the
play’s unrealistic qualities. Hymen announces that he will “bar confusion,” and joins all of the lovers: Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Touchstone and Audrey, and Silvius and Phoebe. As the duke welcomes his daughter and niece to the forest, Oliver and Orlando’s other brother, also called Jaques, appears with important news. He explains that Duke Frederick has undergone a spiritual conversion and has relinquished his lands to the rightful ruler, Duke Senior. This, with the revelation of everyone’s true identities, restores the social order, and ends the courtiers’ stay in the forest pastoral. Jaques questions Jaques de Bois, and resolves to join Duke Frederick, who has become a hermit, and remain in the forest. He leaves, and all the rest join in a dance.

Lines 192–210:
The epilogue is spoken by Rosalind, who acknowledges that it is unusual for “the lady” to do this, before urging the audience to be as pleased with the play as they are with the opposite sex.

The best way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or ideally to participate in it. By examining a range of productions, we may gain a sense of the extraordinary variety of approaches and interpretations that are possible—a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made “our contemporary” four centuries after his death.

We begin with a brief overview of the play’s theatrical and cinematic life, offering historical perspectives on how it has been performed. We then analyze in more detail a series of productions staged over the last half century by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The sense of dialogue between productions that can only occur when a company is dedicated to the revival and investigation of the Shakespeare canon over a long period, together with the uniquely comprehensive archival resource of promptbooks, program notes, reviews, and interviews held on behalf of the RSC at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, allows an “RSC stage history” to become a crucible in which the chemistry of the play can be explored.

Finally, we go to the horse’s mouth. Modern theater is dominated by the figure of the director, who must hold together the whole play, whereas the actor must concentrate on his or her part. The director’s viewpoint is therefore especially valuable. Shakespeare’s plasticity is wonderfully revealed when we hear directors of highly successful productions answering the same questions in very different ways. And in the case of
As You Like It
, which offers Shakespearean comedy’s largest female role, it is equally essential to hear the voice of an actor who has played the part: we provide that of Naomi Frederick.

The stage history of
As You Like It
has been dominated by the succession of talented actors who have played the demanding role of Rosalind. The identity of the boy actor who originated the part is not known, although the scholar T. W. Baldwin speculated on the original casting of Shakespeare’s company, the Chamberlain’s Men, suggesting Richard Burbage played Orlando, with Henry Condell as Oliver, John Heminges as Duke Senior, Richard Cowley as William, Thomas Pope as Jaques, Robert Armin as Touchstone, and Shakespeare himself possibly as Adam.
¹
This last is based on an anecdote recorded by the eighteenth-century scholar William Oldys in which an elderly Stratfordian claimed to have seen the poet playing a part in which as a “decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some company, who were eating, and one of them sung a song.”
²
Another anecdote has Lady Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (sister of Sir Philip Sidney), writing to her son, William, telling him to bring James I with him to Wilton House to see
As You Like It
, adding: “we have the man Shakespeare with us.”
³

Tantalizing as these possibilities remain, the fact is that there is no recorded performance of the play in the seventeenth century, although scholars agree that it was written in 1599 or early 1600, making it one of the first plays to be performed in the newly built Globe Theatre. In 1723 Charles Johnson staged an adaptation entitled
Love in a Forest,
⁴
which, in accordance with eighteenth-century notions of social decorum, eliminated Touchstone and other lower-class characters, had Orlando and Charles fight a duel with rapiers rather than engage in a wrestling match, borrowing lines from
Richard II
, and made Jaques fall in love with Celia using Benedick’s lines from
Much Ado About Nothing
. Touchstone’s recapitulated speech on the Degrees of the Lie, which allows for Rosalind’s costume change in the last act, was replaced by
A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s
play-within-a-play, “Pyramus and Thisbe.”

Shakespeare’s
As You Like It
was successfully revived, with minor
cuts, at Drury Lane in 1740, after which it became one of the most popular plays on the London stage. Rival productions in the following decade starred Hannah Pritchard at Covent Garden and Margaret (Peg) Woffington at Drury Lane. Theater historian Anthony Vaughan credits Pritchard’s Rosalind as a prime motive for the renewed interest in Shakespeare alongside David Garrick’s efforts to popularize his plays.
⁵
Her performance was admired for its liveliness and spirited delivery. Thomas Arne composed the music for Amiens’ “Under the Greenwood Tree” and “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind,” as well as the “Cuckoo song” (“When daisies pied”) from
Love’s Labour’s Lost
to be sung by Celia. The performance, with dancing after Acts 1, 3, and 4, was followed by a pantomime of
Robin Goodfellow
.

Hannah Pritchard, principally known as a character actress, was described by John Hill as possessing the “ductility of mind” that enabled her to play Rosalind “with finesse.”
⁶
Her rival, Peg Woffington, was famous for her beauty, “racy love-life,”
⁷
and “great sensibility”
⁸
Both played the part in a way later characterized as the “spirited hoyden.”
⁹
Sarah Siddons, the greatest tragic actress of the period, failed in the role due in part to her refusal to wear male costume as Ganymede. Her brother, John Philip Kemble, who had played Orlando in his youth, chose to play Jaques and thus established a performance tradition for subsequent actor-managers. He cut and pasted the text in line with contemporary notions of decorum as well as reducing the number of scene changes.

Ann Barry, Maria Macklin, and Mary Ann Yates scored notable triumphs, but the finest Rosalind of the late eighteenth century was Dorothy (or Dora) Jordan, who played the part regularly from 1787 to 1814 in London and the provinces, despite her frequent pregnancies.
¹⁰
Dorothy Jordan was mistress of the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) and bore him at least ten illegitimate children. Despite her scandalous lifestyle, many attested to her warmth, charm, and general high spirits:

In her account of the play’s stage history, Cynthia Marshall draws attention to differences between modern attitudes to gender fluidity and performance style and those of the eighteenth century, concluding that “performance style was presentational rather than representational; viewers came to the theater to see feminine display, not convincing gender transformation.”
¹²
Thus the so-called “breeches parts,” in which a woman played a man and wore masculine attire which revealed her figure and legs, were extremely popular.