The New Student's Reference Work/As You Like It
As You Like It is a comedy of Shakespeare, written probably in 1599 and founded as to its plot upon Rosalind, a novel by Thomas Lodge. In As You Like It Shakespeare imagines a sort of golden age, in which an ideal life according to nature is led by the outlawed Duke and his court “under the shade of melancholy boughs” in the forest of Ardennes. The bright wit and beauty of the dialogue and the combination of romance, philosophy and art in this play, make it one of the most readable of the works of Shakespeare, and still a favorite drama upon the stage. In no other play are grace and thought so exquisitely mingled and touched with humor.
See the full text of As You Like It.