William Shakespeare – “As You Like It” (c. 1600)
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The work was based upon the early prose romance Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie by Thomas Lodge. The play’s first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility. As You Like It follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle’s court, accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the court jester, to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden. Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the work of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works and some finding the play a work of great merit.
The play features one of Shakespeare’s most famous and oft-quoted speeches, “All the world’s a stage”, and is the origin of the phrase “too much of a good thing”. The play remains a favorite among audiences and has been adapted for radio, film, and musical theatre.
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Original at Project Gutenberg. Produced by the PG Shakespeare Team and Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.
Produced for Bookstacks using MS Word 2007 and the Constantia font. This PDF is tagged for accessibility, and in PDF/A mode.
ROSALIND
Where learned you that oath, fool?TOUCHSTONE
Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught: now, I’ll stand to it, the pancakes were naught and the mustard was good: and yet was not the knight forsworn.CELIA
How prove you that, in the great heap of your knowledge?ROSALIND
Ay, marry; now unmuzzle your wisdom.TOUCHSTONE
Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, and swear by your beards that I am a knave.CELIA
By our beards, if we had them, thou art.TOUCHSTONE
By my knavery, if I had it, then I were: but if you swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn: no more was this knight, swearing by his honour, for he never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away before ever he saw those pancackes or that mustard.