Introduction to the play
Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.
Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.” At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.
The Folger Shakespeare
Our bestselling editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
—Jaques
Act 2, scene 7, lines 146–147
Men have died from time to time and worms have
eaten them, but not for love.
—Rosalind
Act 4, scene 1, lines 112–113
As You Like It in our collection
A selection of Folger collection items related to As You Like It. Find more in our digital image collection
Essays and resources from The Folger Shakespeare
As You Like It
Learn more about the play, its language, and its history from the experts behind our edition.
About Shakespeare’s As You Like It
An introduction to the plot, themes, and characters in the play
Reading Shakespeare’s Language
A guide for understanding Shakespeare’s words, sentences, and wordplay
An Introduction to This Text
A description of the publishing history of the play and our editors’ approach to this edition
Textual Notes
A record of the variants in the early printings of this text
A Modern Perspective
An essay by Susan Snyder
Further Reading
Suggestions from our experts on where to learn more
Shakespeare and his world
Learn more about Shakespeare, his theater, and his plays from the experts behind our editions.
Shakespeare’s Life
An essay about Shakespeare and the time in which he lived
Shakespeare’s Theater
An essay about what theaters were like during Shakespeare’s career
The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays
An essay about how Shakespeare’s plays were published
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Teaching As You Like It
Use the Folger Method to teach As You Like It. Become a Teacher Member to get exclusive access to lesson plans and professional development.
The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts
The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts
Free resource
Choral Reading: “Seven Ages of Man” from As You Like It
Choral Reading: “Seven Ages of Man” from As You Like It
Early printed texts
As You Like It was first published in the 1623 First Folio and that text serves as the source for all subsequent editions of the play.
