As You Like It (Bard to the Bone #10)

Year written: 1599

As You Like It – Wikipedia

Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): He was having a bit of an annus mirabilus, wasn’t he, our Bill

Plot in a paragraph: Rosalind and Celia are cousins as close as close sisters. Ros is banished by her uncle, who has already usurped her dad. Celia joins Rosalind in the Forest of Arden.  Gender-bending hijinks ensue, and everyone sort of ends up happy, more or less.

Things that worked well: 

Things that didn’t work well: Meh, it was fine.

Favourite character: Jacques, obvs (cf the chap from Timon of Athens)

Words I learnt: 

Word	Definition
Manege	Manege – an enclosed area in which horses and riders are trained.
Umber	Umber – a natural pigment resembling but darker than ochre, normally dark yellowish-brown in colour ( raw umber ) or dark brown when roasted ( burnt umber ).2.a brownish moth with colouring that resembles tree bark.
Batlet	Batlet – Batlet” refers to a small bat or club, traditionally used for beating clothes during washing. It’s also known as a “batler” or “batting staff”. This tool was especially used in the process of beating clothes after they had been soaked in a solution like buck (a lye solution
Peascod	Peascod – A peascod belly is a type of exaggeratedly padded stomach that was very popular in men’s dress in the mid-16th and early 17th centuries. The term has been said to have come from “peacock,”[1] though more likely it comes from the resemblance of the stomach shape in profile to a peapod, as “peascod” is an archaic form of the word.[2] Contemporary plate armour copies this fashionable silhouette,[3] which was sometimes called a “goose belly”.[4]
Ducdame	Ducdame – “Ducdame” is a nonsensical word used by the character Jaques in Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It. It’s part of a song where he explains it as a “Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle”. While seemingly meaningless, it’s interpreted as a way to mock those who are easily drawn into a situation.
Chanticleer	Chanticleer – a name given to a domestic cock, especially in fairy tales.
Osiers	Osiers – Strong, neat and bendy, osier willow is the best of the best for basket weaving. It’s not only a source of food and shelter for native wildlife, it can even decontaminate soils it is planted on!https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/osier-willow/
Thrasonical	Thrasonical – “Thrasonical” is an adjective that means boastful or bragging. It is derived from the name Thraso, a character in the Roman play “Eunuchus” who is a boastful soldier. The word can also be used to describe something that is of, relating to, or characteristic of Thraso.
Convertite	Convertite  a reformed prostitute.

Lines worth knowing: 

Act scene lines	Character	Lines	Comment
Act 1, scene 2, lines 162-8	Celia	Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold foryour years. You have seen cruel proof of this man’sstrength. If you saw yourself with your eyes or knewyourself with your judgment, the fear of your adventurewould counsel you to a more equal enterprise.We pray you for your own sake to embrace yourown safety and give over this attempt.
Act 1, scene 3, line 52	Duke Frederick	Firm and irrevocable is my doom
Act 2, scene 5	Jacques	And I have been all this day to avoid him. He istoo disputable for my company. I think of as manymatters as he, but I give heaven thanks and make noboast of them.
Act 2, scene 7, line 26	Jacques	And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
Act 2, scene 7, line 41	Jacques	After a voyage, he hath strange places crammedWith observation, the which he ventsIn mangled forms
Act 2, scene 7, line 135-166	Jacques	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.Then the whining schoolboy with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven 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 shiftsInto the lean and slippered pantaloonWith spectacles on nose and pouch on side,His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd 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.
Act 3, scene 2, line 311	Rosalind	Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I’ll tellyou who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
Act 4, scene 1, line 10	Jacques	I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, whichis emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical;nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor thesoldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s,which is politic; nor the lady’s, which is nice; northe lover’s, which is all these; but it is a melancholyof mine own, compounded of many simples, extractedfrom many objects, and indeed the sundrycontemplation of my travels, in which my oftenrumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
Act 5, scene 4, line 182	Jacques	Out of these convertitesThere is much matter to be heard and learned.

Marc’s entirely subjective verdict and score out of 5 bards (ymmv): 4

Will I be tracking down movies of this? : yes

How far would I travel to see a good production of this? Manchester? Brum? (i.e. an hour or so)

Limericks

The love of the cousins is tender

Though their odds of survival are slender

But here comes Orlando!!

and Jacques- (some rando)

As the lasses keep swapping their gender

AND

The Duke doth Ros and C a-banish

Their disguises are dually mannish

The action’s in Arden

The plot holes you’ll pardon

As all blocks to happiness vanish.