study guide for As You Like It - Stratford Festival

y William Shakespeare
From left:
Brent Carver as Jaques,
Ben Carlson as Touchstone,
Cara Ricketts as Celia,
Paul Nolan as Orlando and
Andrea Runge as Rosalind
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Table of Contents
1. The Story ............................................................................................page 1
2. Cast of Characters...................................................................................... 1
3. The Playwright ........................................................................................... 2
4. History of As You Like It at Stratford ..................................................... 5
5. Imaginative Ways to Approach the Text ............................................... 6
6. Discussion Topics.....................................................................................12
7. Resources...................................................................................................13
As You Like It Study Guide
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

The Story
Duke Senior, whose realm has been usurped by his younger brother, Duke
Frederick, lives in exile in the Forest of Arden, attended by several loyal lords,
including the melancholy philosopher Jaques. Duke Senior’s daughter,
Rosalind, falls in love with Orlando, who has come to Duke Frederick’s court
to compete in a wrestling match; but the two are parted when she too is
banished. Disguising herself as a youth named Ganymede, and accompanied
by her cousin, Celia, and the court fool, Touchstone, Rosalind goes to join her
father in the forest. Orlando, having learned that his elder brother, Oliver, is
plotting against his life, flees there too, but does not recognize Rosalind
when he meets her in her male attire. Seeing an opportunity to test the
sincerity of his love, the disguised Rosalind engages Orlando in a game of
romantic role-playing. Meanwhile, she must also deflect the attentions of
Phebe, a shepherdess who finds “Ganymede” a much more attractive
proposition than the adoring shepherd Silvius. When Orlando saves the life of
Oliver, who has followed him into the forest, the brothers are reconciled. As
Rosalind reveals her true identity, word arrives that Duke Frederick has
undergone a religious conversion and has restored Duke Senior’s crown and
lands.
Cast of Characters
DUKE SENIOR, living in exile
DUKE FREDERICK, his brother and usurper of his dominions
LE BEAU, a courtier attending on Frederick
CHARLES, Duke Frederick’s wrestler
TOUCHSTONE, a Fool at the Duke’s court
OLIVER, eldest son of Sir Rowland de Boys
ORLANDO, second son of Sir Rowland de Boys
JAQUES DE BOYS, youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys
DENIS, servant to Oliver
ADAM, servant to Oliver
AMIENS, lord attending on Duke Senior
JAQUES, lord attending on Duke Senior
CORIN, shepherd in the Forest of Arden
SILVIUS, shepherd in the Forest of Arden
WILLIAM, a country fellow
SIR OLIVER MARTEXT, vicar of the country parish
ROSALIND, daughter to Duke Senior
CELIA, daughter to Duke Frederick
PHOEBE, a shepherdess
AUDREY, a goat-herd
Lords attending on the Dukes, with pages and other attendants
As You Like It Study Guide 1
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

The Playwright:
William Shakespeare
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small
Warwickshire town, in 1564, William
Shakespeare was the eldest son of
John Shakespeare, a glover, and Mary
Arden, the daughter of a wealthy
farmer. The exact date of his birth is
unknown, but baptismal records point
to it being the same as that of his death,
April 23. He probably attended what is
now the Edward VI Grammar School,
where he would have studied Latin
literature, and at 18, he married a
farmer’s daughter, Anne Hathaway, with
whom he had three children: Susanna,
born in 1583, and, two years later, the
twins Hamnet (who died in childhood)
and Judith.
Nothing further is known of his life until
1592, when his earliest known play, the
first part of Henry VI, became a hit in
London, where Shakespeare was now working as an actor. Soon afterwards,
an outbreak of the plague forced the temporary closure of the theatres, and
Shakespeare turned for a while to writing poetry. By 1594, however, he was
back in the theatre, acting with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He quickly
established himself as one of London’s most successful dramatists, with an
income that enabled him, in 1957, to buy a mansion back in Stratford. In 1599
he became a shareholder in London’s newly built Globe Theatre.
In 1603, Shakespeare’s company was awarded a royal patent, becoming
known as the King’s Men. Possibly as early as 1610, the playwright retired to
his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, living there – and continuing to invest in
real estate – until his death on April 23, 1616. He is buried in the town’s Holy
Trinity Church.
In the first collected edition of his works in 1623, fellow dramatist Ben Jonson
called him a man “not of an age, but for all time”. Not only did Shakespeare
write some of the most popular plays of all time, but he was a very prolific
writer, writing 38 (canonically accepted) works in 23 years. His work covered
many subjects and styles, including comedies, tragedies, histories, and
romances, all bearing his hallmark expansive plots, extraordinary language,
and humanist themes. Shakespeare enjoyed great popularity in his lifetime,
and 400 years later, he is still the most produced playwright in the world.
As You Like It Study Guide 2
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

A Shakespearean
Timeline
1558 Elizabeth I crowned.
1564 William Shakespeare born.
1572 Actors not under the protection of a patron declared rogues and
vagabonds.
1576 “The Theatre,” the first public playhouse in London, opens.
1577 “The Curtain,” London’s second playhouse, opens.
1578 James VI (later James I of England) takes over government of
Scotland.
1579 Publication of North’s English translation of Plutarch’s Lives of
the Noble Grecians and Romans.
1580 Francis Drake returns in triumph form his voyage around the
world; travelling players perform at Stratford.
1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway; Susanna is born six
months later and the twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585.
1587 “The Rose” theatre opens in London. Mary Queen of Scots is
executed.
1588 Spanish Armada defeated.
1589 Shakespeare finds work as an actor in London; he lives apart
from his wife for 21 years.
1590-1591 The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew.
1591 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI.
1592 Thousands die of plague in London; theatres closed. 1 Henry VI,
Titus Andronicus, Richard III.
1593 The Comedy of Errors.
1594 Shakespeare becomes a shareholder of his theatre company,
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
1594 Love’s Labour’s Lost.
1595 Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
1596 Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, dies.
1596-1597 King John, The Merchant of Venice, 1 Henry IV.
1597-1598 The Merry Wives of Windsor, 2 Henry IV, Much Ado About
Nothing.
1598 “The Globe” theatre built.
1598-1599 Henry V, Julius Caesar.
As You Like It Study Guide 3
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

1599-1600 As You Like It.
1600-1601 Hamlet, Twelfth Night.
1601 Shakespeare’s patron arrested for treason following the Essex
rebellion; he is later pardoned.
1602 Troilus and Cressida.
1603 Queen Elizabeth dies and is succeeded by James I;
Shakespeare’s theatre company becomes the King’s Men.
1603 Measure for Measure, Othello.
1604 Work begins on the King James Bible.
1604-1605 All’s Well That Ends Well, Timon of Athens, King Lear (Q)
1606 Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra.
1607 Pericles.
1608 Coriolanus.
1609 The Winter’s Tale.
1610 King Lear (F), Cymbeline.
1610 Shakespeare retires to Stratford-upon-Avon.
1611 The Tempest.
1611 King James Bible published.
1613 Henry VIII (All Is True), The Two Noble Kinsmen.
1613 “The Globe” theatre burns down.
1616 Shakespeare dies in Stratford-upon-Avon.
1623 The first folio of Shakespeare’s collected plays is published.
* Some dates are approximate.
As You Like It Study Guide 4
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Festival Production
History
There have been 10 other productions of As You Like It at the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival.
1959 (Festival Theatre): Directed by Peter Wood, with William Hutt as Jaques,
William Sylvester as Orlando, Irene Worth as Rosalind and Douglas Campbell
as Touchstone. Designed by Desmond Heeley.
1972 (Festival Theatre): Directed by William Hutt, with Roland Hewgill as
Jaques, Nicholas Pennell as Orlando, Carole Shelley as Rosalind and Edward
Atienza as Touchstone. Designed by Alan Barlow.
1977 and 1978 (Festival Theatre): Directed by Robin Phillips, with Brian
Bedford as Jaques, Jack Wetherall as Orlando, Maggie Smith as Rosalind and
Bernard Hopkins as Touchstone. Designed by Robin Fraser Paye.
1983 (Festival Theatre): Directed by John Hirsch, with Nicholas Pennell as
Jaques, Andrew Gillies as Orlando, Roberta Maxwell as Rosalind and Lewis
Gordon as Touchstone. Designed by Desmond Heeley.
1987 (Third Stage, now the Tom Patterson Theatre): Directed by Robin
Phillips, with Peter Donaldson as Jaques, Nigel Hamer as Orlando, Nancy
Palk as Rosalind and Albert Schultz as Touchstone. Designed by Patrick
Clark.
1990 (Festival Theatre): Directed by Richard Monette, with David William and
Peter Donaldson as Jaques, Ronn Sarosiak as Orlando, Lucy Peacock as
Rosalind and William Dunlop as Touchstone. Designed by Debra Hanson.
1996 (Tom Patterson Theatre): Directed by Richard Rose, with David Jansen
as Jaques, Jonathan Crombie as Orlando, Kristina Nicoll and Jane Spidell as
Rosalind and Kevin Bundy as Touchstone. Designed by Charlotte Dean.
2000 (Avon Theatre): Directed by Jeannette Lambermont, with Juan Chioran
as Jaques, Donald Carrier as Orlando, Lucy Peacock as Rosalind and Brian
Tree as Touchstone. Designed by Douglas Paraschuk.
2005 (Festival Theatre): Directed by Antoni Cimolino, with Graham Abbey as
Jaques, Dion Johnstone as Orlando, Sara Topham as Rosalind and Stephen
Ouimette as Touchstone. Designed by Santo Loquasto.
As You Like It Study Guide 5
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Imaginative Ways to Approach the Text
All the World’s a Stage:
Pageant
Grade Level 9 - 12
Ontario Listening to Understand
Curriculum Speaking to Communicate
Expectations Reading for Meaning
Writing: Developing and Organizing Content
Drama: Theory, Creation, Analysis
Dance: Theory, Creation, Analysis
Music: Theory
Time Needed two class periods
Space
Materials
enough room for eight groups to rehearse separately
Jaques’ speech “All the world’s a stage…”, from As You
Like It, Act 2, scene 7 (see page 7). One copy per student.
Setting up the exercise:
Distribute copies of the speech. Have the class read the text in unison.
Discuss the imagery in the text: what mental pictures does each of the
“seven ages” evoke?
Split the class into eight groups.
Assign one “age” to each of seven groups; the eighth group is the
chorus.
The exercise:
Each group will create an original vignette that embodies the spirit of
their “age.”
The vignette can be set in any time period.
Each “age” vignette must include:
o original dialogue between the characters
o a song from the chosen time period
o accompanying movement, appropriate to the song and time
period
o appropriate costumes
Each “age” group will choose a site in the school to perform their
vignette.
The chorus group will also choose a time period with appropriate
costumes, movement and a song.
When all are ready to perform:
The entire class travels to the site of the first vignette; the chorus
group provides travel accompaniment with their song.
Upon arrival at the first site, the first “age” group performs their
vignette.
Travel on to the next site with accompaniment from the chorus group,
and so on.
As You Like It Study Guide 6
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7
Jaques:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like It Study Guide 7
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Imaginative Ways to Approach the Text
In Your Own Words
Grade Level 7 - 12
Ontario
Curriculum
Expectations
read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of
literary… texts, using a range of strategies to construct
meaning (7/8)
generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to
write for an intended purpose and audience (7/8)
draft and revise their writing… (7/8)
Developing and Organizing Content (Writing 9 - 12)
Using Knowledge of Form and Style (Writing 9 - 12)
Applying Knowledge of Conventions (Writing 9 - 12)
Time Needed one class period
Space writing desks
Materials Jaques de Boys’s speech from As You Like It relating
Duke Frederick’s religious conversion: Act 5, scene 4
(see page 9)
Setting up the exercise:
Read Jaques de Boys’s short speech. He describes a scene we don’t
see in the play – we only hear about it from him.
The exercise:
Write a short story elaborating Jaques de Boys’s account of Duke
Frederick’s conversion.
Questions to consider:
o How does the conversion really happen?
o Is Jaques de Boys telling the truth?
o What else might have happened to Duke Frederick besides
what Jaques says?
Possible extensions:
Create a screenplay from this story.
Film it at school, using students and teachers as actors.
Use it as a “bonus feature” in your class’s film version of As You Like
It.
As You Like It Study Guide 8
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Jaques de Boys’s telling of Duke Frederick’s religious conversion:
Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day
Men of great worth resorted to this forest,
Addressed a mighty power, which were on foot,
In his own conduct, purposely to take
His brother here and put him to the sword.
And to the skirts of this wild wood he came
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After some question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprise and from the world,
His crown bequeathing to his banished brother,
And all their lands restored to them again
That were with him exiled. This to be true
I do engage my life.
As You Like It Study Guide 9
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Imaginative Ways to Approach the Text
The Rhymes of the Forest
Grade Level 9 -12
Ontario
Curriculum
Expectations
Writing:
Developing and Organizing content
Using Knowledge of Form and Style
Applying Knowledge of Conventions
Time Needed one class period
Space desks that can be arranged in three working groups
Materials small papers
hat, bowl or other container
writing paper and pens or pencils
Before you begin:
Read As You Like It up to Act 3, scene 2.
Setting up the exercise:
Each student writes down, on a small piece of paper, two rhyming
words about the same subject. Subjects can be anything, such as:
o love
o jealousy
o the school principal
o student’s significant other
Students fold up their papers and place them in a hat (or bowl or trash
can).
Give the class the Ground Rules for a Sonnet (see page 11).
As practice, ask each student to come up with one line of their own
text in iambic pentameter.
Have each student speak their line out loud; have the rest of the class
decide whether it follows iambic pentameter.
The exercise:
Divide the class into three groups.
Each group pulls two papers from the hat. Each paper has two rhyming
words, written down earlier.
Each group creates four iambic lines of text (a quatrain) using the
rhyming words they picked from the hat.
Each group presents their quatrain to the rest of the class.
The class decides together how to arrange and adjust the three
quatrains to form the first three stanzas of a sonnet.
The class works together to create the final rhyming couplet to finish
the sonnet.
As You Like It Study Guide 10
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Ground Rules for a
Sonnet
A sonnet follows a strict rhyme scheme and a specific structure.
A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line
containing 10 syllables and written in iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter:
o five “feet” per line
o each “foot” consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable
o the resulting sound is de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM de
DUM
The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-fe-f,
g-g (the last two lines are a rhyming couplet).
Example:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet #2
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held:
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer, “This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,”
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
As You Like It Study Guide 11
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Discussion Topics for
Your Class
For classes reading the play before seeing it:
1. What do you expect to see on stage at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival?
Have each student make a list of predictions about what they expect. Save
these predictions. After your Stratford trip, revisit them to see how they
compared to the actual production.
2. Create a character web showing how all the characters are connected to
each other. Discuss the complexity of these relationships and how they affect
the progression of the play.
After your Stratford trip:
1. As You Like It has appealed to artists and audiences around the world for
400 years. What do you think the play’s message is?
2. What parts did you respond to most?
3. Were there parts you wished were different? How?
For more classroom activities, complete with instructions, materials and
Ontario curriculum expectation links, visit
stratfordshakespearefestival.com/teachingmaterials.
As You Like It Study Guide 12
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

Resources
SHAKESPEARE: HISTORY, CRITICISM and BIOGRAPHY:
Beckerman, Bernard. Shakespeare and the Globe, 1599-1609. 1962.
Bentley, G.E. Shakespeare: A Biographical Handbook. 1951.
Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z. 1990.
Brown, Ivor. Shakespeare and the Actors. 1970.
Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare and his Theatre.
Burgess, Anthony. Shakespeare. 1970.
Campbell, Oscar James, ed. The Reader’s Encyclopedia of Shakespeare.
1966.
Dobson, Michael, ed. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. 2001.
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. 1992.
Frye, R. M. Shakespeare’s Life and Times: a Pictorial Record. 1067.
Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642. 1980.
Hodges, C. Walter. Shakespeare and the Players. 1948.
Muir, Kenneth and Samuel Schoenbaum, eds. A New Companion to
Shakespeare Studies, 1985.
Nagler, A. M. Shakespeare’s Stage. 1985.
Schoenbaum, Samuel. William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life. 1975.
Taylor, Gary. Reinventing Shakespeare. 1989.
Thomson, Peter. Shakespeare’s Theatre. 1983.
Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture. 1943.
Wells, Stanley, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies.
1986.
AS YOU LIKE IT:
Gibson, Rex. Teaching Shakespeare. 1998.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Cambridge School. 2000.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Arden. 1975
ONLINE RESOURCES:
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet, shakespeare.palomar.edu
Sh:in:E Shakespeare in Europe, www.unibas.ch/shine
Encyclopaedia Britannica presents: Shakespeare and the Globe: Then and
Now, search.eb.com/shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Life and Times,
web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/intro/introsubj.html
Shakespeare Online, www.shakespeare-online.com
Movie Review Query Engline, www.mrqe.com
Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com
As You Like It Study Guide 13
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010

AS YOU LIKE IT ONLINE:
MIT Shakespeare Homepage: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,
the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
AS YOU LIKE IT ON FILM, VIDEO and DVD:
1936 (UK): Directed by Paul Czinner, starring Elizabeth Bergner and Laurence
Olivier.
1978 (UK): Part of the BBC TV series, starring Helen Mirren and Brian Stirner.
1984: (Canada): Stratford Shakespeare Festival production directed by John
Hirsch, starring Roberta Maxwell and Andrew Gillies.
1992 (UK): Directed by Christine Edzard, starring Emma Croft and Andrew
Tiernan.
As You Like It Study Guide 14
Stratford Shakespeare Festival 2010