As You Like It

by William Shakespeare , Edited by Michael Hattaway

• ISBN13: 9780521732505
• ISBN10: 0521732506
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

William Shakespeare (1564 1616) is the most influential writer in English history. Shakespeare has been called The Barb of Avon and Englands national poet. There are 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets and 38 plays in his collected works. He began work as an actor and writer in London first writing comedies and historic plays. He later wrote tragedies. Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Othello are some of his more famous plays. As you Lie It is a pastoral comedy set primarily in the forest of Arden. A duke is exiled by his cruel brother, who later banishes his daughter as well. The action switches from the court to the forest where the exiles and friends wander in a maze of romances and mixed identities.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Journeys

Plays within the play

Theatrical genres

Pastoral

Counter-pastoral

The condition of the country

Politics

'Between you and the women the play may please'

Gender

Nuptials

Sources

Date and occasion

Stage history

Screen versions

Recent critical and stage interpretations: Contexts

Recent stage history

A screen version

Note on the text

List of characters

The Play

Textual analysis

An early court performance?

Extracts from Shakespeare's principal source, Lodge's Rosalind

The songs

Reading list

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.