The Forest of Arden

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How regular is the rhythm in this speech? Can you find lines in the scene where the normal rhythm is disturbed? What might those disturbances mean in relation to the content of the speech? During the last ice age, 12,000 years ago, there were no trees at all across England. At the end of the ice age, trees began to move northwards from Southern Europe. 5,000 years ago, England was largely covered by wildwood. Pollen analysis shows that the commonest tree, throughout central and southern England was the lime. As confirmation of this, we find the same contrast repeated in Rosalind's and Celia's first encounter with Arden in II.iv. At first, as they enter the forest while in the throes of thirst and hunger, their reaction is none too keen. It is summarized by Touchstone's comment about being a fool for being there for having been in a better place before: In the Forest of Arden, the banished duke (Duke Senior) and the courtiers who share his exile discuss their life in the country and listen to a story about their fellow-courtier Jaques.

In the Orlando mythos, Arden Wood is the location of Merlin's Fountain, a magic fountain causing anyone who drinks from it to fall out of love. Many editions keep Shakespeare's "Arden" spelling, partly because that the pastoral mode depicts a fantastical world in which geographical details are irrelevant, and also because Shakespeare wrote in a time of non-standardised spelling. In Arden, both Rosalind and Oliver have a chance to reinvent themselves. Rosalind, having fled the corrupt society of court, approaches the Forest of Arden as a place where she may be able to be free to be herself. In a move that suggests the particular oppression of women in Renaissance England, Rosalind re-imagines herself as the mythological male figure of Ganymede: a Trojan boy of great beauty and Zeus' cupbearer (II.1.123). In Rosalind's attempt to shed her identity in outside society as the daughter of Duke Senior, she chooses the identity of a strong male. Underneath her disguise, however, she clings fiercely to her femininity. Even in her man's apparel, Rosalind insists that she can "cry like a woman" (II.4.5). Gender poses as one of the play's integral themes. While disguised as Ganymede, Rosalind also presents a calculated perception of affection that is "disruptive of [the] social norms" and "independent of conventional gender signs" that dictate women's behavior as irrational. In her book As She Likes It: Shakespeare's Unruly Women, [24] Penny Gay analyzes Rosalind's character in the framework of these gender conventions that ascribe femininity with qualities such as "graciousness, warmth ... [and] tenderness". However, Rosalind's demanding tone in her expression of emotions towards Orlando contradicts these conventions. Her disobedience to these features of femininity proves a "deconstruction of gender roles", since Rosalind believes that "the wiser [the woman is], the waywarder" she is. [24] [25] By claiming that women who are wild are smarter than those who are not, Rosalind refutes the perception of women as passive in their pursuit of men

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General Editor's Preface by Una Ellis-Fermor, dated 1951, as printed in Macbeth, Arden Shakespeare, 2nd Series Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare, was a member of this prominent West Midlands family. [12] Love is the central theme of As You Like It, like other romantic comedies of Shakespeare. Following the tradition of a romantic comedy, As You Like It is a tale of love manifested in its varied forms. In many of the love-stories, it is love at first sight. This principle of "love at first sight" is seen in the love-stories of Rosalind and Orlando, Celia and Oliver, as well as Phebe and Ganymede. The love-story of Audrey and Touchstone is a parody of romantic love. Another form of love is between women, as in Rosalind and Celia's deep bond. [21] Forgiveness [ edit ] Historically, critical response has varied, with some critics finding the play a work of great merit and some finding it to be of lesser quality than other Shakespearean works. Andrew Watkins (1997). "Landowners and their Estates in the Forest of Arden in the Fifteenth Century" (PDF). Agricultural History Review. 45 (1): 18–33. JSTOR 40275129. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007.

Religious allegory [ edit ] Illustration by Émile Bayard (1837–1891): "Rosalind gives Orlando a chain" So, the Forest is a place where there are no regulations or limits set by Time. Its importance is that it provides the space for the development of the most elementary emotion in its characters which is love. Act 2, scene 1 is the first scene in the play that occurs in the Forest of Arden. Duke Senior and some of his followers are walking through the forest, "like forester," says the stage directions in the First Folio. Duke Senior tells his followers how much he enjoys living in the forest, but it doesn't sound like a particularly pleasant place for those who don't have Duke Senior's optimistic, accepting attitude.What is the atmosphere like in Shakespeare's As You Like It, especially with respect to the Forest of Arden? The Robin Hood legend which Shakespeare refers to in As You Like It, is also associated with nature spirits such as the Green man or Woodwose (the wild man of the woods) and of course Robin Goodfellow. There is a really good example of a Green Man in the Shakespeare Centre bookshop. By a strange quirk of history a Robert Fitz Odo was lord of the manor of Loxley just south of Stratford in Henry IInds reign.

It is noteworthy that Thomas Lodge's father owned the manor Soulton and his uncle lived there. This place is located inside the boundaries of the English Forest of Arden when the boundaries are taken to be the Roman Roads. It is where the emerging Sir Rowland Hill (who bought the manor from the family) kept up courtly entertainment, and drama in particular, for the internally exiled Protestants of the Tudor elite. [16] [17] [18] [19]

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Unlike other forests of the era it does not appear that the Forest of Arden was ever subject to forest law. It is unclear why this is, however it is possibly because wide-scale settlement of the area did not occur until comparatively late, and thus the forest still represented something of a frontier. [10] The forest is also a place for meditation ( Jaques and Duke Senior), self-discovery (Rosalind and Orlando), self-renewal (Duke Senior and Oliver), and for fantasy and make-believe, in the sense of a person being able to indulge their make-believe fantasies—Rosalind, disguised as a man, teaches Orlando how to love Rosalind—not in a sense of the forest itself being fantastical. In the 12th Century the Royal Forests became means for raising money, though fines and other mechanisms. Nobilty could buy leases from the Crown to farm areas of the Forest. Act 1, scene 1 Orlando demands that his elder brother Oliver give him part of the money left by their father. Oliver decides to get rid of Orlando by encouraging him to take part in a wrestling match almost sure to be fatal. Atmosphere is the same as mood and both are defined as the emotional feeling generated by a work or a section of a work, as atmosphere/mood can change from scene to scene in a long complex work. Having said that, it is important to note that even if the atmosphere changes between scenes, there is nonetheless usually an overriding atmosphere that remains a prevailing constant throughout the work.

The playwright Christopher Marlowe was also an exceptional pastoral poet, and his verse The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, published posthumously in 1599, infuses the pastoral mode with unmistakeable erotic allure as the speaker offers his beloved a series of material temptations to take up the shepherding life: Arden Shakespeare has also published a Complete Works of Shakespeare, which reprints editions from the second and third series but without the explanatory notes.

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Shakespeare's Arden seems to have promulgated a vision of the forest that fits in with the English nostalgic autostereotype of Merry England, and inspired subsequent artists such as Pre-Raphaelite John Collier. The general editors for this series are Suzanne Gossett of Loyola University Chicago; John Jowett of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham; and Gordon McMullan of King's College London. Pinciss, Gerald M. (2005). "Mixing verse and prose". Why Shakespeare: An Introduction to the Playwright's Art. New York: Continuum. p. 101. ISBN 0-8264-1688-8. What role does the Forest of Arden play in creating the atmosphere in Shakespeare's As You Like It?