The History Of European Theatre As You Like It: ‘I Can Suck Melancholy Out of a Song as a Weasel Sucks Eggs’
Episode 188:
Following on from the last episode before the run of summer guest conversations we take a sharp swerve from ‘Henry V’ to ‘As You Like It’. Although we cannot be quite sure about the chronology in which Shakespeare wrote his plays, or how much the writing of one crossed over with the writing of another, whatever the precise order it is pretty clear that Shakespeare could move freely between the History and Comedy genres and within those how he was always pushing at the edges of the forms and conventions of the theatre and playwrighting to see what could work on stage and with language. ‘As You Like It’ is no exception to that.
The Dating of the play
The sources for the play
The possible first performance date
A brief synopsis of the play
The use of poetry and prose in the play
The play as part of the ‘Pastoral’ genre
The location of the play and influence of the forest
The character of Jacques
The character of Rosalind
The character of Touchstone
The ending, Hyman, and the masque
A summary of the performance history of the play
The epilogue
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