AS YOU LIKE IT

five-act comedy by William Shakespeare, written and performed about 15991600 and first published in the First Folio of 1623. Shakespeare based the play on Rosalynde (1590), a prose romance by Thomas Lodge. The play has two principal settings: the court that Frederick has usurped from his brother, the rightful duke (known as Duke Senior), and the Forest of Arden, where the Duke and his followers (including the disgruntled Lord Jaques) are living. Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, who is still at court, falls in love with Orlando. The latter's hateful brother, Oliver, causes him to flee to Arden also. Frederick, upon learning that Orlando's father was the Duke's friend, banishes Rosalind. She flees to Arden accompanied by her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone. Rosalind assumes the guise of a young man (Ganymede) and pursues Orlando, promising him a cure for lovesickness by means of a feigned courtship. Oliver appears at the forest court intending to kill Orlando, but the latter saves his brother from a lioness and elicits his remorse. Oliver then falls in love with Celia. Revelation of the girls' true identities precipitates a mass wedding ceremony. Word arrives that Frederick has repented, and the Duke's exile ends. A group of rustics William, Audrey, Silvius, and Phoebeand the courtier Le Beau further round out the cast of characters, and an abundance of song complements the play's amorous theme and idyllic setting. The play is considered to be one of Shakespeare's great or middle comedies. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, it contains a journey to a natural environment, where the constraints of everyday life are released and the characters are free to remake themselves.