Shakespeare's As you like it

Contents

Introduction page

I. Shakespeare's Life and Works . . . . vii

II. As You Like It xii

Introduction

SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE AND WORKS

William Shakespeare was born on April 22 or 23, 1564, at Stratford-on-Avon, a charming market-town in Warwickshire, one of the loveliest of English counties. His father was a small farmer from a neighboring village, who succeeded in establishing himself in Stratford as a dealer in various kinds of agricultural produce, became an alderman, and held various municipal offices. William Shakespeare doubtless attended Stratford Grammar School, and there acquired the "small Latin and less Greek" his friend Ben Jonson later credited him with; in after life, he appears to have acquired a reading knowledge of French and perhaps of Italian. But he left school at an early age, his father being by this time involved in business difficulties, and the outlook was not improved by Shakespeare's marriage at eighteen to Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years older than himself. Two or three years later, according to tradition, he was concerned in a deerstealing adventure, which compelled him to leave Stratford, but at twenty-one Shake-

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speare found himself with a wife and three children to provide for, and his father was at the lowest ebb of his fortunes; in 1586-7 writs were issued against John Shakespeare, he was deprived of his aldermanship, and he appears to have been imprisoned for debt. It seems therefore more probable that it was the needs of Shakespeare's family that drove him about this time to seek fortune in London, as many another English boy from the country has done, before and since. The first theaters had just been built, and with one of the companies of actors Shakespeare became connected in some subordinate capacity. Writing for the public stage was regarded by a little band of university wits as their prerogative, and when Shakespeare was employed by his company, not only to act plays, but to write them, he was attacked by one of the professional dramatists as an "upstart crow" who presumed to compose blank verse without the advantages of a university education. This was in 1592 — the first certain date in Shakespeare's dramatic career — and the attack was at once followed by an apology from the person responsible for its publication, testifying to Shakespeare's excellence as an actor and a writer, his uprightness of character, and gentlemanly behavior.

In 1593-4 Shakespeare established his place in the literary world by the publication of the two poems, Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, marked by sweetness of versification and luxuriance of imagery, and modeled on the style of Ovid, a Latin writer then much admired. About the same period he probably began to compose his sonnets, though they were not published till long after, and then

Shakespeare's Life and Works ix

without his consent; they were addressed to private persons and circulated in manuscript, in accordance with the fashion of the time. The publishing trade was still in its infancy, and authors had not yet fully realized the opportunities of profit afforded by the printing press. The theatrical companies regarded the plays written for them as their own property, and did not encourage publication. Shakespeare apparently made no effort to secure the transmission of his dramatic work to posterity. No complete edition of his plays was issued until seven years after his death; and the single plays published during his life-time were printed by the enterprise of individual publishers, who bought the manuscript from needy actors, or had the lines taken down in shorthand at the theater, or induced the company to let them have a copy. The first of these quarto editions, (as they are called), which have come down to us, is Titus Andronicus, dated 1594; and at Christmas of the same year Shakespeare acted with the rest of his company before the Queen, as the royal accounts show.

Although full and precise information is lacking, we may be certain that the last decade of the sixteenth century was a period of intense dramatic activity for Shakespeare and of rapid and assured success. We have seen that as early as 1592 his achievements as a playwright were sufficient to evoke an expression of contemptuous dislike from a jealous competitor; in 1598 Francis Meres, a university man who wrote a literary guide or handbook, said that Shakespeare "among the English is the most excellent in both kinds (i. e. comedy and tragedy) for x Introduction

the stage." He gave a list of Shakespeare's plays as evidence of this statement, mentioning among the comedies now known to us the Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour s Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and A Merchant of Venice; among the histories, Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV, and King John; among the tragedies, Titus Andronicus, and Romeo and Juliet. Other indications point to Shakespeare's established position about this time as a successful and prosperous man. He returned to Stratford to restore the fallen fortunes of his family, and in 1597 bought the largest house in the town. The Herald's College certified his position as a gentleman by granting a coat of arms to his father. He was in the enjoyment of a considerable income, not merely from his acting and playwriting, but from a part-interest (one-fourteenth) in the two theaters (the Globe and the Blackfriars) controlled by the company with which he was connected. At this period Shakespeare and his associates were known as "the Lord Chamberlain's men," (an aristocratic patron being required by law), and on the accession of James I in 1603 they were taken under the immediate patronage of the King.

We know that Henry V was written in 1599; that Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It were in existence in 1600; and that Twelfth Night was acted in 1602; but the dates of many of the later plays are uncertain. It is probable that in the early years of the seventeenth century Shakespeare produced the succession of tragic masterpieces — Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Mac-

Shakespeare's Life and Works xi

beth — and that during the same period he was at work on the great series of Roman plays beginning with Julius Caesar. Cymbeline, A Winter s Tale, and The Tempest belong to a later group, sometimes called the "romances" — plays with happy endings but distinguished from the earlier comedies by extraordinary delicacy of characterization, and a suffused atmosphere of romance, which, like a sunset glow, round off the great dramatist's career.

By this time, though retaining his financial interests in the theaters, Shakespeare had retired to Stratford. One of his earliest biographers says: "The latter part of Shakespeare's life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends." Among these were Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, two of the leading poets of the time, and there is a tradition that a "merry meeting" they had at Stratford in the spring of 1616 hastened Shakespeare's end. But he appears to have been in failing health in January, for he then made his will, leaving his property to his married daughters, and memorial rings to his fellow actors. He died on April 23 — the day given to the festival of St. George, the patron saint of England — and was buried in the chancel of Stratford Church — not because he was a famous dramatist, but because he was the owner of the local tithes.

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II AS YOU LIKE IT

Copyright was secured in Elizabethan England by entering a play on the Register of the Company of Stationers or Booksellers, and As You Like It is mentioned in 1600 (August 4) among plays "to be stayed," i.e., to be withheld from publication, presumably pending inquiry as to the publisher's right to print them. Much Ado About Nothing (which was included in the same list) was actually published later in the same year, but we have no copy of As You Like It earlier than the folio or collected edition of 1623, upon which the present text is based. The general character and style of the play indicate that it was written not long before 1600; as it was not included by Meres in the list mentioned above, the presumption is that it was later than 1598. The latter half of 1599 or the earlier half of 1600 is the date generally accepted.

Shakespeare rarely took the trouble to invent the plots of his plays: he took a story already known to his audience, either on the stage or by means of books, and filled it with new life. In some cases {Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet for instance) the old play Shakespeare used has disappeared; but As You Like It was founded upon a novel which has come down to us. Thomas Lodge's Rosalind was written only a dozen years before the play which Shakespeare made out o l f it; it was printed in

As You Like It xiii

1590, again in 1592, and again in 1598, and must have been well known to many of those who came to see As You Like It. It was doubtless for this reason that Shakespeare dealt less freely with his original in this case than he often did with an old play or an Italian novel; the incidents and persons, though inspired for the first time with the breath of life by the touch of Shakespeare's hand, aire in the main the same in the comedy as in the story. Lodge's Rosalind is a pastoral romance — i.e. a tale of the adventures of knights and ladies who take refuge from the cares and restrictions of court in the simple life of shepherds and foresters, fall in love with each other, and find vent for their passions in writing poetry. At the opening of the story Sir John of Bordeaux, lying on his death bed, bequeathes his estate (with much sage advice) to his three sons, Saladyne (the Oliver of our play), Fernandyne (Jaques de Boys), and Rosader (Orlando). Saladyne through avarice deprives his younger brothers of their inheritance, the second being a student lost in his books, and the third, Rosader, kept at home in servile subjection, and employed in menial tasks. After two or three years Rosader rebels, and drives Saladyne, who orders his servants to bind him, to take refuge in a loft. Saladyne, having effected a reconciliation by the promise of redress, plots the destruction of Rosader by the champion wrestler at the court of Torismond, king of France, (Duke Frederick), who has driven the rightful occupant of the throne, his brother Gerismond (Duke Senior), into banishment, and seeks to amuse his subjects with a tournament and wrestling xiv Introduction

match. Rosalind, the daughter of Gerismond, and Alinda (Celia), the daughter of the reigning king, are present at the tournament, and Rosader, as he steps into the ring to meet the victorious wrestler, who has just slain two contestants, is entranced by the sight of Rosalind. The champion rouses him from his trance by shaking his shoulder, and Rosader, fired by an encouraging glance from Rosalind, throws his opponent to the ground, " falling upon his chest with so willing a weight, that the Norman yielded nature her due and Rosader the victory."

Rosalind, touched with the beauty and valor of Rosader, sent him a jewel from her neck as a present, and he, unable to return her the like, stepping into a tent, took ink and paper and wrote her a poem. Returning home with a troop of boon companions, he found Saladyne had barred the door against him; but he broke his way in, and feasted and frolicked with his friends. Meanwhile Rosalind consoled her newly-entertained passion by singing to her lute one of Lodge's most charming lyrics.

Rosalind had scarcely ended her madrigal when Torismond entered, and pronounced sentence of exile upon her. When his daughter Alinda protested, he banished her too. They set forth together, Rosalind dressed as a page and calling herself Ganymede, Alinda in homelike attire under the name of Aliena. Arriving in the forest of Arden, they came across two shepherds, Montanus and Corydon (Silvius and Corin), discoursing poetry to each other, and took refuge with them. Next day they bought the farm and flock, Aliena putting on the attire of a shepherdess, and Ganymede that of a young swain.

As You Like It xv

Saladyne for a long time concealed his resolution of revenge, but his base treatment and violence ultimately drove Rosader to flee for his life, in company with Adam Spencer, his father's old servant. They took their way towards the forest of Arden, where, after wandering five or six days without food, they arrived almost famished. Adam Spencer, being old, began first to faint, and Rosader left him to find food.

"It chanced that day, that Gerismond, the lawful king of France banished by Torismond, who with a lusty crew of outlaws lived in that forest, that day in honor of his birth made a feast to all his bold yeomen, and frolicked it with store of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table under the shadow of lemon trees. To that place by chance fortune conducted Rosader, who, seeing such a crew of brave men, having store of that for want of which he and Adam perished, stepped boldly to the board's end, and saluted the company thus:

'Whatsoever thou be that art master of these lusty squires, I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreme distress may: know that I and a fellow-friend of mine are here famished in the forest for want of food: perish we must, unless relieved by thy favors. Therefore, if thou be a gentleman, give meat to men, and to such men as are every way worthy of life. Let the proudest squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me in any honorable point of activity whatsoever, and if he and thou prove me not a man, send me away comfortless. If thou refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will have amongst you with my sword; for rather will I die valiantly, than perish with so cowardly an extreme.'

Gerismond, looking him earnestly in the face, and seeing so proper a gentleman in so bitter a passion, was moved with so great pity, that rising from the table, he took him by the hand and bade him welcome, willing him to sit down in his place, and in his room not only to eat his fill, but be lord of the feast.

'Gramercy, sir,' quoth Rosader, 'but I have a feeble friend that lies hereby famished almost for food, aged and therefore less able to abide the extremity of hunger than myself, and dishonor it were for me to taste one crumb, before I made him partner of my fortunes: therefore I will run and fetch him, and then I will gratefully accept of your proffer.'

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Away hies Rosader to Adam Spencer, and tells him the news, who was glad of so happy fortune, but so feeble he was that he could not go; whereupon Rosader got him up on his back, and brought him to the place. Which when Gerismond and his men saw, they greatly applauded their league of friendship; and Rosader, having Gerismond's place assigned him, would not sit there himself, but set down Adam Spencer."

When Rosader told who he was, he was welcomed by the king, and in reply to questions as to court happenings he told Gerismond of the banishment of Rosalind and Aliena. Preferred to the place of a forester by Gerismond, Rosader was engaged in carving on a tree a sonnet in praise of Rosalind, when Ganymede and Aliena came upon him. "Reading the sonnet over, and hearing him name Rosalind, Aliena looked on Ganymede and laughed, and Ganymede, looking back on the forester, and seeing it was Rosader, blushed; yet thinking to shroud all under her page's apparel, she boldly returned to Rosader," and inquired about his Rosalind. Next day, at Ganymede's request, Rosader brought more poems in praise of his mistress, and was kept to dinner. As soon as they had finished their repast, Rosader, giving them thanks for his good cheer, would have taken his leave; but Ganymede, loth to let him go, said: "Seeing thou sayest thou art so deeply in love, let me see how thou canst woo: I will represent Rosalind, and thou shalt be as thou art, Rosader. . . . And while we sing o'f love, Aliena shall tune her pipe and play us melody." Accordingly, while Aliena plays, the lovers engage in a "wooing eclogue" in verse, at the end of which Ganymede said: "How now, forester, have I not fitted your turn?

As You Like It xvii

have I not played the woman handsomely, and shown myself as coy in grants as courteous in desires, and been as full of suspicion as men of flattery? and yet to salve all, jumped I not all up with the sweet union of love? Did not Rosalind content her Rosader?" The forester made a merry reply, concluding: "Yet do I take these follies for high fortunes, and hope these feigned affections do divine some unfeigned end of ensuing fancies."

"'And thereupon,' quoth Aliena, Til play the priest: from this day forth Ganymede shall call thee husband, and thou shalt call Ganymede wife, and so we'll have a marriage.'

'Content,' quoth Rosader, and laughed.

'Content,' quoth Ganymede, and changed as red as a rose: and so with a smile and a blush, they made up this jesting match, that after proved to a marriage in earnest, Rosader full little thinking he had wooed and won his Rosalind."

Saladyne, meanwhile, had been banished by the avaricious Torismond, who had an eye 'for his estate; in his flight, he chanced upon the forest of Arden, where, hungry and weary, he fell asleep. He was found by a lion, which watched to see if he would stir, for lions hate to prey on dead carcasses. Upon them came Rosader with a boar-spear in his hand, and after some debate with himself rescued his brother, who failed to recognize him, and expressed to his savior his repentance for the wrongs he had done Rosader. A mutual reconciliation followed, and Saladyne was also admitted to the service of the banished king. After spending two or three days with his brother, Rosader again visited Ganymede and Aliena, and was conversing with them when they were attacked by rascals who plotted to carry off Aliena. Rosader rexviii Introduction

sisted the attack, was sore wounded, and would have been overcome had not Saladyne, who was looking for him, come to the rescue, and put the rascals to flight. Aliena, attracted by Saladyne's valor and courtesy, cast an eye of affection on him, and was soon won to consent to marry him.

"Quoth Ganymede, 'a happy day should it be, if Rosader that day might be married to Rosalind.'

'Ah, good Ganymede,' quoth he, 'by naming .Rosalind, renew not my sorrows; for the thought of her perfections is the thrall of my miseries.'

'Tush, be of good cheer, man,' quoth Ganymede: 'I have a friend that is deeply experienced in necromancy and magic; what art can do shall be acted for thine advantage. I will cause him to bring in Rosalind, if either France or any bordering nation harbor her; and upon that take the faith of a young shepherd.' "

At the marriage day Gerismond is much interested in the laments of Montanus, whom Phoebe has forsaken for Ganymede.

"Gerismond, desirous to prosecute the end of these passions, called in Ganymede, who, knowing the case, came in graced with such a blush, as beautified the crystal of his face with a ruddy brightness. The king, noting well the physiognomy of Ganymede, began by his favors to call to mind the face of his Rosalind, and with that fetched a deep sigh. Rosader, that was passing familiar with Gerismond, demanded of him why he sighed so sore.

'Because, Rosader,' quoth he, 'the favor of Ganymede puts me in mind of Rosalind.'

At this word Rosader sighed so deeply, as though his heart would have burst.

'And what's the matter,' quoth Gerismond, 'that you quite me with such a sigh?'

'Pardon me, sir,' quoth Rosader, 'because I love none but Rosalind.'

'And upon that condition,' quoth Gerismond, 'that Rosalind

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were here, I would this day make up a marriage betwixt her and thee.' "

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"In went Ganymede and dressed herself in woman's attire, having on a gown of green, with kirtle of rich sendal, so quaint, that she seemed Diana triumphing in the forest; upon her head she wore a chaplet of roses, which gave her such a grace that she looked like Flora perked in the pride of all her flowers. Thus attired came Rosalind in, and presented herself at her father's feet, with her eyes full of tears, craving his blessing, and discoursing unto him all her fortunes, how she was banished by Torismond, and how ever since she lived in that country disguised.

Gerismond, seeing his daughter, rose from his seat and fell upon her neck, uttering the passions of his joy in watery plaints, driven into such an ecstasy of content, that he could not utter one word. At this sight, if Rosader was both amazed and joyful, I refer myself to the judgment of such as have experience in love, seeing his Rosalind before his face whom so long and deeply he had affected. At last Gerismond recovered his spirits, and in most fatherly terms entertained his daughter Rosalind, after many questions demanding of her what had passed between her and Rosader?

'So much, sir,' quoth she, 'as there wants nothing but your grace to make up the marriage.'

'Why, then,' quoth Gerismond, 'Rosader, take her; she is thine, and let this day solemnize both thy brother's and thy nuptials.'

Rosader, beyond measure content, humbly thanked the king, and embraced his Rosalind, who turning to Phoebe, demanded if she had shown sufficient reason to suppress the force of her loves.

'Yea,' quoth Phoebe, 'and so great a persuasive, that if it please you, madame, and Aliena to give us leave, Montanus and I will make this day the third couple in marriage.' "

Rosader and Saladyne were still engaged in the wedding festivities, when their brother Fernandyne brought word that the twelve peers of France were fighting on the edge of the forest on behalf of Gerismond against the usurper. Reinforced by Gerismond and his companions. the peers put to flight the army of Torismond, who was xx Introduction

slain in the battle. Gerismond was restored to his throne, and "created Rosader heir apparent to the kingdom; he restored Saladyne to all his father's land and gave him the Dukedom of Namours; he made Fernandyne principal secretary to himself; and that fortune might every way seem 'frolic, he made Montanus lord over all the forest of Arden, Adam Spencer Captain of the King's Guard, and Corydon master of Alinda's flocks."

While it is obvious that Shakespeare found in Lodge the outline of his plot, he did not merely dramatize the story, which, without the use he has made of it, would have been known only to literary specialists. A comparison of the play with its source does not decrease our admiration for Shakespeare; it rather makes us the more amazed, that out of such materials he could create a work of art of everlasting interest and value. Exactly how he did it is the secret of his genius, and must be sought in a thousand little touches which give life and veracity to what was before artificial and dead. Some of the more important changes may, however, be indicated. Shakespeare added new characters of his own imagining: Touchstone and Jaques, William and Audrey, — adding thereby to Lodge's conventional courtiers and shepherds living representatives of courtly wit and wisdom on the one hand, and country boorishness and simplicity on the other. Moreover, the characters suggested by Lodge's novel are no less Shakespeare's creations, for he first gave them life and probability. We shall search the novel in vain for the sprightly wit of Rosalind, founded on deep feeling and sound common sense; or for Celia's gentler

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playfulness and quick affection ; or for Orlando's ingenuous modesty and trustfulness. What happened to them we can find, in the main, in Lodge; but it was Shakespeare who made them real to us — living persons with distinct and charming individuality. Next to this all-important change is the difference between the conventional atmosphere o'f pastoral romance and the imaginative realism of romantic comedy. Shakespeare's forest of Arden has no existence in real life any more than Lodge's, but while in Lodge we are constantly reminded that everything is hollow and artificial, in the play the people are natural and lifelike. Even in the plot Shakespeare made changes which make the story run more smoothly and reasonably. He omitted the improbable incident of the tyrant's banishment of his own daughter, and by connecting Orlando with the disappearance of the two girls made the treatment of the eldest brother by Duke Frederick more probable. The meeting between Rosalind and Orlando in the forest is managed with infinitely greater skill and naturalness in the play than in the novel. On the other hand, the omission of the attack on Ganymede and Aliena by the rascals leaves the latter's falling in love with Oliver less ade< quately accounted for. The poet Swinburne deplored this " unlucky slip of the brush which has left so ugly a little smear in one corner of the canvas," but without the message which Oliver brings of the wounding of Orlando, we could not have had the scene of Rosalind's swooning at the end of Act IV, which has been justly regarded as the most natural and moving of the whole play.

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Of the literary merits of the play an admirable estimate has been recently given by Professor A. C. Bradley in his Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909) : — " If we were obliged to answer the question which of Shakespeare's plays contains, not indeed the fullest picture of his mind, but the truest expression of his nature and habitual temper, unaffected by special causes of exhilaration or gloom, I should be disposed to choose As You Like It. He who is reading it has a smooth brow and smiling lips, and a heart that murmurs,

Happy is your grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune Into so quiet and so sweet a style.

And it is full not only of sweetness, but of romance, fun, humor of various kinds, delight in the oddities of human nature, love of modesty and fidelity and high spirit and patience, dislike of scandal and censure, contemplative curiosity, the feeling that in the end we are all merely players, together with a touch of the feeling that

Then is there mirth in heaven When earthly things made even Atone together.

And, finally, it breathes the serene holiday mood of escape from the toil, competition, and corruption of city and court into the sun and shadow and peace of the country, where one can be idle and dream and meditate and sing, and pursue or watch the deer as the fancy takes one, and make love or smile at lovers according to one's age.

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" It may be added that As You Like It, though idyllic, is not so falsely idyllic as some critics would make it. It is based, we may roughly say, on a contrast between court and country; but those who inhale virtue from the woodland are courtiers who bring virtue with them, and the country has its churlish masters and unkind or uncouth maidens."

DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Prepared by Professor F. E. Pierce of Yale)

There are several convenient handbooks on Shakespeare, among which may be mentioned :

An Introduction to Shakespeare, by MacCracken, Pierce, and Durham, (Macmillan Co., New York, 1910.) Shakspere, by Edward Dowden. (American Book Co., New York.)

A simple, compact, and readable book. It should be used in

connection with a more modern work, as recent research has

changed our ideas of Elizabethan theaters somewhat since the

book was written.

Life of Shakespeare, by Sidney Lee. (Macmillan Co., New York,

1909.) The latest life of Shakespeare printed. Shakespeare, Life and Works, by Furnivall and Munro. (Cas-

sell and Co., New York, 1908.)

Not especially adapted for the use of young students, but full

of valuable material in a condensed form. Cartae Shakespeareanae, by D. H. Lambert. (George Bell and

Sons, London, 1904.)

A series of reprints of the original documents on which our

knowledge of Shakespeare is based.

Shakespeare's London, by H. T. Stephenson. (Henry Holt and Co.,

New York.)

An account c? Elizabethan London, with numerous valuable

illustrations.

Shakspere and his Predecessors, by F. S. Boas. (Chas. Scribner's

Sons, New York, 1896.)

Among the best editions of Shakespeare's works in one volume are:

The Cambridge Edition, edited by Professor W. A. Neilson.

(Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1908.) The Globe Edition. (Macmillan Co., New York, 1897.)

XXV xxvi Descriptive Bibliography

The plays assigned by modern scholarship wholly or in part to Shakespeare are thirty-seven in number. Sixteen of them were published separately during the poet's life, and the others were not printed until after his death. In 1623 thirty-six of the above plays (all except Pericles) were collected by the friends and fellow actors of the dead poet and published together in the First Folio. Pericles was added in the Third Folio in 1664. These thirty-seven plays, loosely classified, comprise the following: