As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

This is been a favorite of mine I think mainly because it has my favorite soliloquy:

II.7

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,...

Then the whining school-boy...

And then the lover,...

Then a soldier,...

And then the justice,...

The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well sav'd, 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.

Jacques generally is my favorite character in this play. He is melancholy and prefers to be so!

II.5

Jacques: "I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs."

In contrast to Jacques melancholy nature, the banished Duke Senior finds the positive of hiding out in the Forest of Arden:

II.1

Duke Senior:"...Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it."

And then the shepherd, Corin's philosophy:

III.2

Corin:"...that he that wants money, means, 

and content, is without three good friends;..."

Of course, it wouldn't be Shakespeare without some good barbs:

III.2

Jaques: "By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found you."

Orlando: "He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you shall see him."

III.5 (Rosalind to Phebe who is turning down Silvius' declarations of love)

Rosalind:"...Sell when you can; you are not for all markets."

IV.1 (Rosalind to Orlando when he claims he will die without her love)

Rosalind:"...men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love."