When the usurping Duke exiles his niece Rosalind (daughter of the overthrown Duke), she and the present Duke's daughter Celia steal away to the forest of Arden to prevent their separation. Rosalind, newly infatuated with a young wrestling champion named Orlando, disguises herself as Celia's brother, and the two set up household not far from where Rosalind's father holds his Robin Hood-like court in the wilderness. Full of the accidents, cross-dressing, wit and hurried couplings that define so many of Shakespeare's comedies, As You Like It is a delightful play to read. ( )

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. ( )

As You Like It has long been admired as one of Shakespeare's most exuberant early comedies, complete with one of the Bard's funniest and toughest heroines, Rosalind. Based on Thomas Lodge's Elizabethan novel Rosalynde, As You Like It follows the discontented Orlando as he is exiled from the tyrannical French court of Duke Frederick. By chance Frederick also banishes Rosalind, daughter of the usurped Duke Senior. The play then moves to the Forest of Arden, where chaos and misrule ensue, as Rosalind cross dresses "all points like a man", disguised as the saucy Ganymede and encourages the naive Orlando to "woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday humour". Meanwhile her clown Touchstone causes hilarity and havoc amongst the exiled lords and the pastoral inhabitants of the forest. The play concludes with Rosalind's extraordinary "unmasking" Epilogue addressed to the audience, where she offers to "kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me".
As You Like It remains one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, yet it is also appreciated by critics for its complex exploration of cross dressing and sexual politics, and its interest in relations between the country and the city.

I'm not going to go into the complicated plot on this one, but it's the one with Rosalind and Orlando, where Rosalind, for her own mysterious reasons, pretends to be a boy and flirts with Orlando, who is extremely dense, and never figures out that she is a girl.

Forget about whether this is believable or not. (It's not.) In fact, the whole plot is pretty darn farfetched. It is, however, funny in some places and thoughtful in other places. Like all Shakespeare, it's much better on stage than on paper, but it was still a fun read.

What I really enjoyed about the edition I read is that it had photos from the Royal Shakespeare Academy and others of the play, including a very young Alan Rickman as Jaques and a ludicrously costumed Kenneth Branagh as Touchstone. Very funny! ( )

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. ( )

Saw this in Boston Common in Summer 2008. It was fun! Some great lines -- which is so unusual for Shakespeare...err...

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1144179.ht...

I very much liked it, and I regret that I have never seen it on the stage. It concerns Rosalind, daughter of the deposed Duke and niece of the usurper, who flees to the forest of Arden, and Orlando, who falls in love with her, plus a couple of memorable supporting characters - the clown Touchstone and the sardonic Jaques. Rosalind herself, along with Portia and Beatrice, is one of the great Shakespearean female roles; she does her best to seize control of the situation, even if it means disguising herself as a man (and she gets to deliver the epilogue). Events off stage ensure that there is a happy ending, but that isn't really the point; once Shakespeare has got them all to the forest, we just watch the characters interact, and it is fun. As occasionally happens, I had a thouught about how I would stage this, which is that I would imply the Rosalind / Celia relationship to be somewhat Sapphic, and see how that affects the rest of the play.

It would be more fun on stage, and despite the generally good Arkangel production, I think this is one play where you really need the visuals. Niamh Cusack is great as Rosalind (who twice appears to refer to herself as Irish, so that is a neat touch, though if you think about it too much you start wondering why the rest of the ducal family aren't also Irish).

Jonathan Bate's book, which I was reading at the same time, has a couple of interesting points to make about As You Like It. He points out that the plot is basically plundered wholesale from Thomas Lodge's novel Rosalynd of 1590, but that the bits people tend to remember - Jacques (with his Seven Ages of Man), Touchstone, and Rosalind's impersonation of herself - are all Shakespearean additions. He also speculates that William, the thick country lad, is Shakespeare's own self-deprecatory portrait. I can't help but play the autobiography game myself: there are two sets of feuding brothers in this play (and likewise there were feuding brothers in Much Ado About Nothing); was this written at the time when Shakespeare's younger brother Edmund moved to London to try his luck in the theatre? He would have been 19 in 1599.

Anyway, this was better than I had anticipated. ( )

This is a comedy with many different characters such as
Orlando, 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. ( )

In this fun romantic comedy Shakespeare goes back to one of his favorite themes-mistaken identity! ( )

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. ( )

The equivalent of an Elizabethan Wedding Crashers, and no more insightful than said movie. ( )

My favorite Shakespeare play of all--for the humor and for Shakespeare's heroine, Rosalind ( )

One of my favorite plays by the Bard because it features classic role reversal between the genders as well as strong female lead characters.

http://home.comcast.net/~tonydal/wise... ( )

Gift of Esther Beamer in 1985. Lorson's List 11 - #20, 1983 lists a group of these, all in "fine and bright condition" at $12.00 each.

Found this in Kalamazoo. Beautifully illustrated on the sides of every page, with fine engraved prints throughout. I've been collecting old, single play books of Shakespeare just because I can.

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." ( )