400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it means to them. In the second essay of this series, Michelle Terry, actor and artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe, chooses a speech by Rosalind - a character she played.
Rosalind appears in As You Like It - a play which was first printed in the 1623 Folio. In the scene Michelle selects, Rosalind is disguised as Ganymede and is speaking to her estranged love Orlando in the Forest of Arden. She tests his love for her by posing as a love doctor and offering to cure him of his love.
Michelle tells us how she first found the part a challenge but when she delved into the text and into the Folio, she found subtle clues which revealed an "intelligent and now liberated woman tumbling her way through long sentences." She reveals how when she played Rosalind, she learned to trust Shakespeare and to trust the words on the page.
Produced by Camellia Sinclair for BBC Audio in Bristol Mixed by Suzy Robins