Introduction & Overview of As You Like It by William Shakespeare

As You Like It Introduction

Commentators have described As You Like It as both a celebration of the spirit of pastoral romance and a satire of the pastoral ideal. Traditionally, a pastoral is a poem focusing on shepherds and rustic life; it first appeared as a literary form in the third century. The term itself is derived from the Latin word for shepherd, pastor. A pastoral consists of artificial and unnatural elements, for the shepherd characters often speak with courtly eloquence and appear in aristocratic dress. This poetic convention evolved over centuries until many of its features were incorporated into prose and drama. It was in these literary forms that pastoralism influenced English literature from about 1550 to 1750, most often as pastoral romance, a model featuring songs and characters with traditional pastoral names. Many of these elements manifest themselves in the commonly accepted source for Shakespeare's play, Thomas Lodge's popular pastoral novel Rosalynde, written...
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