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    As You Like It
    As You Like It
    As You Like It
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    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 based on the novel Rosalynde by Thomas Lodge, believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600. It features one of Shakespeare's most famous and oft-quoted lines, "All the world's a stage", and has been adapted for radio, film, and musical theatre.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWS
    Release dateJun 13, 2018
    ISBN9782291040408
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

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    Reviews for As You Like It

    4/5

    1,125 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a comedy with many different characters such asOrlando, Rosalind, Toushstone, Jaques, Phoebe, and Silvius. This play is composed of many clever personalities, including a boy named Oliver who will not share his father’s recently inherited wealth with his brother Orlando. Other characters include Duke Senior, usurped of his throne, Rosalind, Touchstone, and Jaques.
    • 4/5
      I struggled with the language
    • 5/5
      Fun. Rosalind plays the romantics well and Shakespeare made a happy ending even beyond what was necessary. Jaques, Act II: "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."
    • 3/5
      I haven't either read or seen this play.
    • 3/5
      Nice little comedy with lots of mistaken/disguised identities and love interests, which we later saw played in King’s Park. Not 'great' literature, but a good romp. Contains the "all the world's a stage" line. Read January 2008.
    • 4/5
      I liked "As You Like It" quite a bit. It has similarities to other works by Shakespeare -- characters in disguise and falling in love at the first glance. But it's also very charming and a nice little story, making for a fun read. Lots of familiar quotes in this one too!
    • 5/5
      So great! Absolutely love it!
    • 4/5
      Given as part of the course-work for BADA Summer 1999 in Oxford. The (very useful and well-researched) introduction is almost as long as the play itself! Loads of footnotes to help comprehension for the lay-reader.
    • 4/5
      I recently ordered this L.A. Theater Works audio production for work and couldn't resist the temptation of having James Marsters reading Shakespeare in my ears. The production is excellent and while the physical comedy that comes with cross-dressing is obviously missing, the actors do an excellent job of conveying the comedy using just their voices. An excellent way to revisit the Bard.
    • 4/5
      The New Folger Library editions of Shakespeare's works are my favorites. With ample introductory material, long notes at the end, and short language notes on the lefthand pages to match the text on the right, they are easy to read whether you need to check the notes or not.
    • 3/5
      More of Shakespear's drag king fetish; to hetero audiences, light entertainment only notable as the source of the "all the world's a stage" quote.
    • 4/5
      Fabulous language. "All the world's a stage" is just one of many quotable quotes. Very much a fairy tale, but the wonderful Rosalind and the beautiful words of Shakespeare has made it one of my favorite of his comedies thus far.
    • 3/5
      This has some really cute lines, especially from Touchstone, but it is not one of Shakespear's best works in my opinion. Although it probably would be much better to see on stage rather than to read.
    • 3/5
      I liked this play, which I had thought was something else when I first started it! I found the comedy to be of the milder type of making me smile rather than laugh but still fun. There are several famous speeches, most memorable being the one about the seven stages of life.

    Book preview

    As You Like It - William Shakespeare

    As You Like It

    William Shakespeare

     Copyright © 2018 by OPU

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

    Act I

    SCENE I. Orchard of 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 sayest, 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.

    Enter OLIVER

    OLIVER

    Now, sir! what make you here?

    ORLANDO

    Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing.

    OLIVER

    What mar you then, sir?

    ORLANDO

    Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God

    made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

    OLIVER

    Marry, sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.

    ORLANDO

    Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them?

    What prodigal portion have I spent, that I should

    come to such penury?

    OLIVER

    Know you where your are, sir?

    ORLANDO

    O, sir, very well; here in your orchard.

    OLIVER

    Know you before whom, sir?

    ORLANDO

    Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know

    you are my eldest brother; and, in the gentle

    condition of blood, you should so know me. The

    courtesy of nations allows you my better, in that

    you are the first-born; but the same tradition

    takes not away my blood, were there twenty brothers

    betwixt us: I have as much of my father in me as

    you; albeit, I confess, your coming before me is

    nearer to his reverence.

    OLIVER

    What, boy!

    ORLANDO

    Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.

    OLIVER

    Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?

    ORLANDO

    I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir

    Rowland de Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice

    a villain that says such a father begot villains.

    Wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand

    from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy

    tongue for saying so: thou hast railed on thyself.

    ADAM

    Sweet masters, be patient: for your father's

    remembrance, be at accord.

    OLIVER

    Let me go, I say.

    ORLANDO

    I will not, till I please: you shall hear me. My

    father charged you in his will to give me good

    education: you have trained me like a peasant,

    obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like

    qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in

    me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow

    me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or

    give me the poor allottery my father left me by

    testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes.

    OLIVER

    And what wilt thou do? beg, when that is spent?

    Well, sir, get you in: I will not long be troubled

    with you; you shall have some part of your will: I

    pray you, leave me.

    ORLANDO

    I will no further offend you than becomes me for my good.

    OLIVER

    Get you with him, you old dog.

    ADAM

    Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true, I have lost my

    teeth in your service. God be with my old master!

    he would not have spoke such a word.

    Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM

    OLIVER

    Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will

    physic your rankness, and yet give no thousand

    crowns neither. Holla, Dennis!

    Enter DENNIS

    DENNIS

    Calls your worship?

    OLIVER

    Was not Charles, the duke's wrestler, here to speak with me?

    DENNIS

    So please you, he is here at the door and importunes

    access to you.

    OLIVER

    Call him in.

    Exit DENNIS

    'Twill be a good way; and to-morrow the wrestling is.

    Enter CHARLES

    CHARLES

    Good morrow to your worship.

    OLIVER

    Good Monsieur Charles, what's the new news at the

    new court?

    CHARLES

    There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news:

    that is, the old duke is banished by his younger

    brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords

    have put themselves into voluntary exile with him,

    whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke;

    therefore he gives them good leave to wander.

    OLIVER

    Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke's daughter, be

    banished with her father?

    CHARLES

    O, no; for the duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves

    her, being ever from their cradles bred together,

    that she would have followed her exile, or have died

    to stay behind her. She is at the court, and no

    less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter; and

    never two ladies loved as they do.

    OLIVER

    Where will the old duke live?

    CHARLES

    They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and

    a many merry men with him; and there they live like

    the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young

    gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time

    carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

    OLIVER

    What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new duke?

    CHARLES

    Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a

    matter. I am given, sir, secretly to understand

    that your younger brother Orlando hath a disposition

    to come in disguised against me to try a fall.

    To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he that

    escapes me

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