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    As You Like It
    As You Like It
    As You Like It
    Ebook127 pages3 hours

    As You Like It

    By William Shakespeare

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    About this ebook

    As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio, 1623.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherQasim Idrees
    Release dateFeb 23, 2018
    ISBN9788827579411
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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      As You Like It - William Shakespeare

      As You Like It

      William Shakespeare

      Biography of Shakespeare

      Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

      We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes, just as we see with the 19th-century portrait of Shakespeare wooing his wife at the top of this page.

      William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

      Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff—much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

      Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

      For several years after Judith and Hamnet's arrival in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

      Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a Shake-scene. The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594. For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world;  his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature—clearly a selling point—on later title pages.

      Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

      Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616—the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

      The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. (The bust in the Folger's Paster Reading Room, shown at left, is a copy of this statue.) The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

      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.

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