How to Read Shakespeare's As You Like It (Pre-Play Preparation) (Patreon)

Welcome to the Forest of Arden, where we will meet Rosalind, one of Shakespeare's most charming characters.

As usual, please use these pre-play preps however best suits you. Feel free to utilise the timestamps to jump to the topics you're most interested in.

Below the timestamps, we have links to everything mentioned, scenes to focus on, and reading assignments in anticipation for the deep-dive lecture and appreciation.

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 why read As You Like It?
• 3:20 the Forest of Arden
• 7:20 the lightest comedy?
• 10:47 city vs country life
• 14:45 Shakespeare on gender
• 21:00 all the world’s a stage
• 23:23 Rosalind’s cross-dressing
• 27:12 the play’s homoerotic elements
• 31:30 the ecological/pastoral
• 35:00 assignments/points of focus
• 40:56 recommended adaptations

📚Recommended Editions

• Arden - As You Like It: Our recommended single volume edition of Shakespeare's works gets its name from this very play.
• Everyman Comedies Vol .2: This is a brilliant volume, which, in addition to As You Like It, contains Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, and more.

🎬Recommended Film Adaptations

• The BBC 1978 production with Helen Mirren delivering a great performance as Rosalind is available to stream here.
• The 1937 film version of As You Like It, with Laurence Olivier as Orlando, is available here.
• Our man Kenneth Branagh, as usual, has his version of the play with a 2006 film set in Japan.

🎙️ Worthy Audio Production

• Helena Bonham Carter makes for another wonderful Rosalind in the BBC Radio dramatisation of the play. 

📖 Deep-Cuts Shakespeare Criticism

• Essays, Mainly Shakespearean by Anne Barton is a splendid collection of essays probing not only into As You Like It but Antony and Cleopatra and Henry IV too. 
• Shakespeare's Festive Comedy by C. L. Barber continues to be an indispensable resource, and has a fantastic chapter on As You Like It.

(Optional) Reading Challenges:

• Study Shakespeare's prose. The bard's poetry is incredible, but he is also one of the greatest writers of prose in the English language too. We've examined his poetry, holding lines up to the light to see them sparkle, but let's focus on his prose. As You Like It is a play that is filled with witty repartee and meaningful prose.
• Find your rhythm. How would you deliver your favourite lines? Where would you place the weight? Where would you pause? As sound contains sense, playing with the rhythm will ultimately unlock your unique truth.
• Read and listen/watch simultaneously. Have your copy of As You Like It open on your lap as you enjoy one of the many fantastic productions.
• And do continue collecting your favourite passages, reading aloud, and comparing your reading of the play with any adaptations you enjoy.

Questions to think about:

1) What do you make of Rosalind? How does she compare with Shakespeare’s other characters?

2) "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, his acts being seven ages." How much truth is in this?

3) We can see the play as being about many things. But what does it mean to you? What did it really mean to Shakespeare?

Happy reading, everybody!