Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act One – “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry…”

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act One – “Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry…”

Around 1599, everything seemed to be coming together for Shakespeare professionally. He had just moved with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men to the Globe Theatre, he had had a great success with the play ‘Julius Caesar’ and he finally had an actors worthy of playing great parts since the actor Richard Burbage seemed to be growing in skill and reputation. But still Shakespeare was restless or as Shakespeare’s Hamlet puts it, “Something is (was) rotten in the state of Denmark.” On about August 9^th, 1596, William Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet had died and sometime in August 1599, Shakespeare had returned to Stratford Upon Avon for a memorial service. He wrestled with the ‘ghost’ of his son and notions of mortality and death in ‘King John’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Julius Caesar’ and even had entered a period of writing comedies like ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing' to forget his loss, but still the big questions of life and death seemed to plague him. On top of this, with Queen Elizabeth I entering her 66^th year without a direct heir and questions of who would succeed her always on people's thoughts (and sometimes their tongues), questions of death, life and stability abounded in the minds and hearts of most English men and women, including Shakespeare.

It is not, therefore, unthinkable that as the summer weather started to turn in August 1599 and the rain and ghostly mist worked its way back into Shakespeare’s daily life, that he turned his mind to reworking Saxo Grammaticus’ ‘Amleth’ (probably as influenced by Beleforest’s 16^th century retelling of the story).

It may be useful to ask why ‘Hamlet’ has become such a famous play for Shakespeare. It is his longest play, though probably the full five-hour version we have today is a conglomerate of a number of versions and a number of approximately four-hour stage versions of the play that would have been performed in Shakespeare’s time. This means that he wrestled with this play even after writing it and it is probably the only one of his plays that seems to have been re-written and had speeches added to many times. What I think is so riveting about the play is its dramatic structure, its complex characterization, its rich verse and dialogue and the masterly way it deals with complex issues of life, death, love, revenge and fate.

The play starts on a dark, misty winter’s night on the walls of Elsinore Castle in Denmark in about 1200. Bernardo relieves Francisco from his watch on the wall and the darkness and the mist make it difficult for them to identify one another. Francisco leaves and Bernardo is soon joined by Marcellus and Horatio (a good friend of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet). We soon discover the reason for why Horation is on the wall this dark night. It seems that Bernardo and Marcellus wanted Horation to witness something strange that they have encountered on previous watches.

Horatio is cynical  about the ‘ghost’ they claim they have seen and even more skeptical that it would be the ghost of Old King Hamlet who recently died but when suddenly a ghost appears which is indeed dressed like Old King Hamlet. Horatio remarks:

“Such was the very armour he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated…”

Horatio, in a great piece of storytelling, retells the story of King Hamlet’s triumph over Norway, and warns that now he is dead, Fortinbras, the young Prince of Norway, is trying to take back the lands won by Old King Hamlet in his conquests. His narrative is broken off when the ghost reappears and just as Horation speaks to the ghost, the sound of the first cock is heard and the hint of dawn makes the ghost disappear. Horatio then suggests:

“Let us impart what we have seen to-night

Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.”

It is the next morning and the new King Claudius (the brother to the recently dead King Hamlet) basks in the glory of his recent marriage to his brother’s widow, Gertrude (mother to Prince Hamlet) while declaring that people need to find balance in mourning King Hamlet’s death while finding finding joy in his marriage. He mentions that young Fortinbras and his Norwegian army is on the march and then dispatches to the elderly Fortinbras, King of Norway, a message with Cornelius and Voltimand. As if checking off a list, he then turns to Laertes, the son of the Polonius (his chief advisor) and his request to return to Paris. Claudius agrees after checking that Polonius’ agreement. He then turns to Prince Hamlet.

Hamlet is first seen still in black clothes mourning the death of his father and his mother Gertrude asks him:

“Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

Do not for ever with thy vailed lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,

Passing through nature to eternity.”

Claudius’s statement to Hamlet that he is now his father and that he has even graciously announced that Hamlet will be next in line for the throne does not placate him. Moreover, Claudius expresses that Hamlet stays in Elsonore and does not return to his studies in Wittenberg. Gertrude reinforces this desire and Hamlet replies by stating that he will obey his mother. Claudius exits with Queen Gertrude to continue to celebrate his wedding.

Hamlet, now alone, expresses how his world is falling to pieces around him, his loss of faith, religion, God and his family. He desires that he didn’t exist and curses the hasty timing of this marriage so soon after his father’s death:

“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:

So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly… Frailty, thy name is woman!--

A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--

O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,

Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,

My father's brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules: within a month…

O, most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.”

Horatio enters with Marcellus and Bernardo. Hamlet seems genuinely pleased to see his friend from university in Wittenberg even though he senses that Horatio has arrived in Elsinore more for the royal wedding than the death of King Hamlet. Horatio then reveals that Marcellus and Bernardo have seen while on watch on the castle walls, a ghost that appears in the form of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. Hamlet is very interested in these visions and he is eager to watch with them that very night to see if the ghost will speak to him.

Meanwhile, at Polonius’s house, Laertes is preparing to leave for Paris with some last words of advice for his sister about how to Hamlet’s affection towards her is probably fleeting and amorous in its nature and intent since Hamlet is above her social station and probably does not have honorable intentions. Ophelia seems to take on this advice. Then Polonius enters and gives Laertes more advice than he can possibly ever follow eventually ending with the sound advice that: “This above all: to thine ownself be true…”

When Laertes exitis, Polonius asks Ophelia about her conversation with Laertes and Ophelia reveals that it was about Hamlet’s displays of love and affection for her. Polonius reinforces Laertes’ advice not to trust Hamlet’s declarations of love and he is able to get Ophelia to agree to reject hamlet’s advances.

Darkness descends and we join Hamlet and his friend Horatio and the men of the watch who are waiting for the ghost to appear once more. At midnight the trumpets and gunfire of Claudius’ celebrations are heard. Then the ghost appears, beckoning Hamlet to follow it to a secluded spot. The others don’t want Hamlet to follow in case the ghost means to harm him but Hamlet’s desire to hear the ghost prevails since he also doesn’t value his own life and rationalizes that the ghost could not harm his soul. Hamlet leaves with the ghost but soon after Horatio and Marcellus make a decision to secretly follow him.

When they finally seem alone, Hamlet stops the ghost and the ghost claims that he is indeed the ghost of Hamlet’s father and that he has come to inform hamlet that he was murdered and he comes to get hamlet to avenge his “foul and most unnatural murder”. The ghost then tells the whole story of how he King Hamlet was sleeping in the garden when his brother Claudius poured poison into his ear. Hamlet then sees that his mistrust of his uncle is well-founded. The ghost then goes on to point out how Claudius has corrupted Gertrude and Denmark and urges Hamlet to take the justice of revenge:

“Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--

O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen…

But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;…

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury and damned incest…

Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.”

Dawn starts to break and as the ghost evaporates, Hamlet refuses to tell the others what the ghost has said and gets them to swear to keep what they have seen tonight a secret even if he starts to act strangely from now onwards. Then the ghost quickly re-appears to make sure that they swear to silence. They swear on Hamlet’s sword, the ghost disappears again and as they exit, Hamlet reflects on the responsibility and task that has now been laid on his shoulders:

“The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!”

As You Like It – Act Five – “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

As You Like It – Act Five – “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

In good Arcadian tradition, love seems to abound in the Forest of Ardene but as Shakespeare’s Lysander in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ states: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Not that Act Five of ‘As You Like It’ necessarily starts with true love.

We encounter Touchstone and Audrey talking about the postponement of their marriage and Audrey claims that she wanted to proceed with the ceremony regardless and Touchstone agrees with Jacques previous belief that the priest was unqualified and not good enough for a proper ceremony. Touchstone then mentions another lover in the forest William, who he has heard also loves Audrey. In good serendipitous scenic timing, William appears (many people think or hope that William Shakespeare played this part and enacted a caricature of a Warwickshire country bumpkin). Touchstone toys with the young dim witted William and queries him with questions, parries him with puns, slithers him with synonyms until William eventually gets the message to go. Corin then arrives to bring so that the simple lad is sure to understand him. William exits, just as Corin enters to bring Touchstone and Audrey to Rosalind.

In another part of the forest, Orlando can’t believe that Oliver, who seemed so without feeling and emotions, has been so smitten with love for Aliena. Oliver is even so taken with love that he swears that he will give over all of his father’s estate to Orlando once he is married to Aliena (of which half probably belongs to Orlando anyway). Orlando gives his consent to the marriage (but why Oliver needs his consent I don’t know) and Oliver leaves to make preparations for his wedding the next day.

Enter Ganymede (still Rosalind in disguise although her recent fainting has given away the ghost). Both seem happy to find Oliver and Aliena (Celia in disguise) so in love, but this seems to make Orlando pine more for his love Rosalind (who he doesn’t realize is right in front of him albeit dressed as a man called Ganymede): “But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!” Rosalind ironically asks whether she, as Ganymede, could not tomorrow get rid of his heavy heart by standing in for Rosalind: “Why then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for Rosalind?” But Orlando says that he is tired of wooing a man pretending to be a woman (even though we as an audience know that the actor playing Orlando is wooing a young male actor pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man who is pretending to be a woman who is being wooed). It is then that Rosalind finds her out clause. She tells Orlando that she can work magic and that he will marry Rosalind at the same time as his brother marries Aliena. Phoebe and Silvius enter and Phoebe berates Ganymede (Rosalind) and arguments abound until Rosalind (as Ganymede) stops them all to come up with a resolution to make them almost all happy. She ends the scene by making proposals and getting all the others to agree: “(To PHOEBE) I would love you, if I could. To-morrow meet me all together. I will marry you, if ever I marry woman, and I'll be married to-morrow. (To ORLANDO) I will satisfy you, if ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow. (To SILVIUS) I will content you, if what pleases you contents you, and you shall be married to-morrow. (To ORLANDO) As you love Rosalind, meet. (To SILVIUS) As you love Phoebe, meet: and as I love no woman, I'll meet. So fare you well…”

We then switch briefly back to Touchstone and Audrey who are preparing for their wedding the next day. A group of Duke Senior’s men play a song of love and springtime. When the song ends, Touchstone shows himself to not have been the best audience as he claims the song made no sense and was out of tune. Touchstone makes a pun about loosing time listening to the song. But, if one of the purposes of this song was to facilitate a quick set and character costume change, then we know that the timing of the song and the scene’s end was timely.

The last scene is revealed and we know that perhaps a quadruple wedding might be seen. Orlando is questioned by Duke Senior about whether he thinks Ganymede can deliver all he has promised. Orlando says that he hopes all will be fulfilled but fears it will not. Enter Oliver, Celia disguised as Aliena, Amiens, and Jaques to see whether Ganymede (Rosalind) can weave his (her) magic. Rosalind enters as Ganymede (with Silvius and Phoebe in tow) and checks that everyone still agrees to their promises that Orlando agrees to marry Rosalind, Phoebe will marry Ganymede unless she wants to refuse in which case she must marry Silvius. We also know that Oliver is to marry the woman he calls Aliena, and that Touchstone has agreed to marry Audrey. Ganymede and Aliena leave into the forest forever (but the audience already knows that they will magically transform back into Rosalind and Celia).

Obviously, not the most observant father in the past, Duke Senior notes uncanny resemblance of the young man Ganymede to his own daughter Rosalind. Touchstone gives a long but witty description of a quarrel he had which gives just enough time for a costume change so that Rosalind and Celia magically return (dressed as their beautiful courtly selves) attended by Hymen, the god of marriage, who just happened to be passing through the Forest of Ardenne (unless that is where he always lives). Not enamored by the thought of marrying a woman, Phoebe, consents to marry Silvius. Then Hymen starts to marry the four couples (“Here’s eight that must take hands…”). Then once all are married.

Just when the wedding party is beginning, Jaques de Bois, the middle brother of Oliver and Orlando, enters to tell everyone that Duke Frederick had set out to storm the forest and capture Duke Senior his brother but on entering the Forest of Ardenne, he met a religious hermit and has decided to give up the throne and his riches to Duke Senior and move into a monastery. All although happy in the forest, are pleased to return to the court (except for Jacques who soon reveals much including his well wishes to everyone, his belief that Touchstone’s Audrey is already two months pregnant and his desire to find Duke Frederick and the Hermit to continue his quest). The celebrations continue and Rosalind steps forward and gives one of the only Elizabethan Epilogues given to a female character:

“ It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue;

but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord

the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs

no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no

epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes,

and good plays prove the better by the help of good

epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am

neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with

you in the behalf of a good play! I am not

furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not

become me: my way is to conjure you; and I'll begin

with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love

you bear to men, to like as much of this play as

please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love

you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering,

none of you hates them--that between you and the

women the play may please. If I were a woman I

would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased

me, complexions that liked me and breaths that I

defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good

beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my

kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.”

Shakespeare returns in 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'

As You Like It – Act Four – “… men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

As You Like It – Act Four – “… men have died from time to

time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

The pace of the play slow downs for Act Four when Jaques talks to Ganymede (Rosalind in disguise) about his melancholy and his travels. She/he tells Jacques that “ I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; then, to have seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands.”

Orlando arrives for his first love lesson and Jacques leaves. Apologizing to Ganymede for his lateness, Orlando addressing him/her as Rosalind (as agreed prior). Ganymede/Rosalind refuses to accept the apology claiming that lovers divide “a part of the thousand part of a minute in the affairs of love”. She then states that she “…had as lief be wooed of a snail...”  since at least a snail carries his house on his back. Rosalind as Ganymede then allows Orlando to woo him/her Ganymede and pretend that he/she id Rosalind. The love lesson starts with Orlando wanting to kiss the woman he woos and she says that a kiss should only come when there is gap in the conversation. Orlando then wonders what happens if his kiss is rejected and Rosalind says that this would create a new matter for interesting conversation. Then Rosalind rejects Orlando and Orlando he would die if rejected. She then rejects this saying “… men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love.”

Rosalind changes to Lesson Two in love and starts to return Orlando’s affections with a “more coming on disposition” and then urges Celia to pretend to play a priest and join them in marriage. Orlando goes along with this and then suddenly remembers that he had promised Duke Senior that he would have a dinner with him. Orlando promises he will return in two hours after dinner. Orlando leaves and then Celia criticizes Rosalind because she has “… simply misused our sex in your love-prate…” Rosalind says she will wait for Orlando and Celia says she will sleep.

Deeper in the forest we find Jaques and some of Duke Senior’s merry men after they have killed a deer for the Duke to feast on. They plan to place the deer horns on the killer’s head as a sign of victory over nature. Jacques asks them to sing a song which suits the occasion and they exit singing a bawdy crude song about horns of another nature.

Back to Rosalind and Celia’s part of the forest where, still in disguise, Orlando seems to be late and have stood up Ganymede (Rosalind in disguise) again. Silvius arrives with what he thinks is a stern letter from his love Phoebe to Ganymede. Silvius warns that the letter may have railing and chiding in it. Ganymede (Rosalind) reads the letter and find its tone of a different manner. She asserts, ironically, that the letter does indeed rail and reads the letter aloud. Silvius is astounded to find out that the letter he has delivered is, in fact, a love letter from Phoebe to Ganymede (Rosalind), comparing Ganymede to a god. Celia feels sorry for Silvius but Rosalind sees that love has made Silvius too much like a tamed snake and she rallies against Phoebe and gives Silvius a reply for Phoebe that Ganymede, he/she will never love Phoebe until Phoebe is able to show love for Silvius.

For a quiet part in the forest, this patch is an extremely busy thoroughfare for no sooner does Silvius exit than Oliver (Orlando’s courtly but deceptive) enters. However, it seems like the Arcadian serendipitous air of the Forest of Ardenne can even sooth the soul of one such as Oliver. Oliver asks to be directed to the cottage of Ganymede and Aliena. They reveal that they are the aforementioned brother and sister. Oliver then delivers a blood covered handkerchief from Orlando for Ganymede and then reveals the explanation for Orlando’s non-arrival. It seems that Orlando came across a man asleep in the forest, who was about to be bitten by a green venomous snake. Orlando scared the snake away but in doing so awakes a lioness who moves towards the sleeping man. It was then that Orlando recognized the sleeping man to be his vengeful brother and then Orlando the lion off his brother. Oliver sees the virtue and selflessness of his brother and renounces his old ways. It was then realized that Orlando was hurt in the attack and he faints through loss of blood. Just before losing consciousness completely, Orlando asks Oliver to deliver the blood soaked handkerchief and an apology to the young lad Ganymede who “in sport” Orlando calls Rosalind. It is revealed that Oliver is the much changed brother too. Rosalind faints and then as Ganymede tries to cover up for her weakness. She claims that she “counterfeited” this reaction but Oliver seems not convinced. They then leave and Rosalind as Ganymede asks Oliver to commend her/his “counterfeiting” to the injured Orlando.

As You Like It – Act Three – “… sell while you can; you are not for all markets.”

As You Like It – Act Three – “… sell while you can; you are not for all markets.”

This act of ‘As You Like It’ is one that can get confusing when you think about it too much. So don’t. It would have even more confusing for an Elizabethan audience who would see a boy playing a woman who pretends to be an educated country man who in trying to win the heart of another man (a real one), by having that man pretend that he (who is really a she) is the woman the real man loves, whilst fighting off the affections of a real country lass who has fallen in love with the young man who is really a woman pretending to be a man but is in fact played by a boy.

So, with this in the wings, of course the act starts simply with Duke Frederick who want to locate Orlando. The Duke finally decides that threats work and says he will take all of Oliver’s land and fortune unless he is able to find Orlando within a year.

Meanwhile, Orlando is using his time well, running throughout the forest putting love poems to Rosalind on every tree. Corin and Touchstone enter and do not notice the verse vines choking the forestry because they are comparing court life to country life.

Ganymede, who is really the fair maid Rosalind in disguise enters, reads one of love poems naming her Rosalind with out knowing who has written them. Touchstone mocks the verse, with rude and crude and sometimes clever metaphors. Aliena, who is really Celia in disguise, enters and she knows that Orlando has written the poems. She teases Rosalind before finally telling her that her love is in the forest, turning every tree into a distribution network for his verse. Rosalind is, needless to say, reduced to the status of a love-smitten school girl.

Orlando and Jaques enter and Celia and Rosalind hide themselves away and listen to the conversation. Jaques rebukes Orlando for his defiling of the trees with sentimental love verse and Orlando mocks Jaques’s melancholic demeanour. Jacques exits and Rosalind dressed as Ganymede confronts Orlando and claims that she can cure him of his love if he was to pretend that he, Ganymede, is Orlando’s true love Rosalind (who in fact she really is). “I would cure you if you would but call me Rosalind and come every day to my cot, and woo me.“ Orlando bizarrely agrees.

Love is certainly in the air in Arden for we next comes across Touchstone and Audrey, a goat keeper and Touchstone is trying to either woo her. Jacques is secretly eavesdropping. When Oliver Martext, who Touchstone has pre-arranged with to perform a wedding ceremony, we know Touchstone seems serious. Oliver Martext requires someone to give away the woman and suddenly Jacques appears. Eventually Jacques convinces Touchstone that this ceremony and this vicar would make for an ill wedding and an ill-fated marriage and the three leave a rather perplexed Oliver Martext alone – a vicar with no purpose.

Orlando doesn’t keep his first date or rather his first lesson in falling out of love. Rosalind is very upset and Celia’s attempts to placate her by telling her that Orlando is untruthful and looks like Judas, doesn’t really help. Then Corin enters and they then witness the love-struck country lad Silvius being rejected by his love Phoebe. Phoebe mocks and ridicules Silvius so eventually Rosalind, dressed as Ganymede decides to intervene and chastise Phoebe, claiming that because she is ill mannered and lacks beauty that she is very lucky to have the love of an honest man such as Silvius. Phoebe definitely needs therapy because when she is put down by a person she thinks is a young man, she falls instantly in love with him. As Rosalind and Celia exit, Phoebe (who probably can’t write herself) is trying to get Silvius to write for her what she claims will be “a very taunting letter” to Ganymede. We know otherwise and the plot becomes as thick as the Forest of Arden was, before the Romans and medieval woodcutters became a little over enthusiastic. 

‘As You Like It’ Act Two – “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players…”

‘As You Like It’ Act Two – “All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players…”

“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.”

We enter the majestic world of the Forest of Ardennes (aka Arden) where Duke Senior lives a life open to the freedom of the forest and finds everything he wants without the “painted pomp” of the court:

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,

Hath not old custom made this life more sweet

Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods

More free from peril than the envious court…

And this our life exempt from public haunt

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones and good in every thing.

I would not change it.”

The duke then recommends that go hunting for a deer even though he laments the fate of the way that locals kill their deer. It is then pointed out that the their forest companion the melancholic and poetic Lord Jaques has expressed this exact sentiment. Someone is sent to find Jaques so that Duke Senior can have some fun with his loyal, but melancholic, noble-born comrade.

We then move back to Duke Frederick’s Court where Duke Frederick is enraged to find out that not only Rosalind left but Celia (his daughter) and Touchstone (his motley fool whose humour he didn’t appreciate until now) have left the court without a trace. Of course, at least one lord had heard Rosalind appreciating Orlando’s good looks and wrestling exploits so ot is assumed that Orlando is to blame. Frederick thinks that it is a good idea to solicit Oliver to find his brother and thus his daughter and niece. Little does he know that his relationship between he and his brother is as thwart as that between Oliver and Orlando.

When Orlando returns home, his old servant Adam (who was also a servant of his father) tells him that Orlando’s bravery might just undo him. Adam, although old, believes that their only hope is to take to the open road and he offers his more than modest savings as funding for Orlando’s escape. Orlando thanks Adam and they escape into, guess where, the forest or Ardenne (aka Arden). suggests that the two of them take to the road with his modest life’s savings. Touched by Adam’s constant service, Orlando agrees.

Meanwhile Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone enter in, guess where, th Forest of Ardenne (aka Arden). At this point some of you may be wondering why I am emphasizing the name of the forest so much. Well, I will divert and tell you. So for those of you who know the story, please skip ahed until you find that Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone seek rest in the Forest of Arden.

Arden probably derives from the Ancient British (pre-Roman) word ardu, meaning "forested high land". Now half of Shakespeare’s mother’s family land was not cut through with Roman roads and thus half of the county of Warwickshire (the county of Shakespeare mother and the adopted county of Shakespeare’s great grandfather on his father’s side) stretching from Stratford-on-Avon in the south to Tamworth in the north was covered in forest. The fact that this was covered in forest is probably the origin of the phrase “sent to Coventry” since both Birmingham and Coventry are at the edge of where this forest stretched to. The Arden family, of which William Shakespeare mother was an inheritor were the lease holders of the forest and its deer and game. Shakespeare's ‘As You Like It’ is set in the Forest of Ardenne or Arden which is based on the French Ardennes forest in Thomas Lodge's prose romance poem ‘Rosalynde’ but is like the Forest of Arden of Shakespeare’s youth which even thenhad been decimated due to deforestation and thus is a ‘hippy’ dream of a place of freedom and fantasy for Shakespeare.

Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone sit down to rest when two shepherds, young Corin and old Silvius enter talking about Silvius’s love for Phoebe. Hungry and not coping with their adventures beyond the court, Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone approach Corin and ask for food and shelter. Corin admits he doesn’t have much and that that his master’s lodging and land holding are up fup for sale, and Rosalind and Celia to not just pay for food and lodgibg but to attempt to purchase the whole property and effects. Bloody city folk (aka court folk) thinking that they can just purchase up country folk lots at cheap prices.

Back to more pastoral matters where Amiens is searching the Forest of Ardenne for Jaques. Amiens sings songs Jaques begs him to continue and “suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs”. Truly, Jacques would have listened endlessly to Leonard Cohen and Joy Division if he was born in the early 1960’s. Amiens leads Jacques to the Duke and better company.

Just when we think that Shakespeare can not maintain multiple characters and plots, he switches to Orlando and Adam who are, by now exhausted from their travels, or escape , into the Forest of Ardenne (aka Arden, I like doing that). Adam being old is exhausted, even though he claimed earlier to be filled with life, and Orlando proclaims that he will play ‘Grizzly Adams’ or ‘Bear Grills’ and find them both food. He does however not drink his own urine like ‘Bear Grills’.

Duke Senior eventually finds Jaques, who instead of being melancholic is merry:

“A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest,

A motley fool; a miserable world!

As I do live by food, I met a fool

Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,

And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms,

In good set terms and yet a motley fool.”

Jacques eventually decides that he would rather be a ‘motley fool’. Eventually after much philosophizing between Jacques and the Duke they end their philosophical meanderings when Orlando enters armed and acting like a wild aggressor. The duke questions whether Orlando’s attitude is due to pure rudeness or bad breeding and upbringing. Orlando points out his situation and is accepted by Duke Senioor and he goes to fetch Old Adam. Jaques then contemplates the nature of life, nature and existence and relates this to a stage a metaphor:

“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 slipper'd 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.”

Orlando then enters with Adam and they all feast. 

‘As You Like It’ Act One – “The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.”

‘As You Like It’ Act One – “The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.”

I like to think that as the summer was drawing to a close in 1599, Shakespeare thought it was time for a good pastoral comedy; a rustic love story which starts in a duchy somewhere in France and moves to the mystical Forest of Ardenne (aka Arden). Perhaps writing ‘Julius Caesar’ had made him question the machinations of power and city life and he yearned for the simple pleasure of country life. Some people put the writing of 'As You Like It' as late as 1603 but elements of the story and allusions in it to events in 1599 mean that it was more likely written in 1599 or 1600.

If you did happen to see 'As You Like it' at The Globe Theatre in June of 1600. This is probably how your day would have gone. You probably woke about 8am if it was a Saturday. If you did have breakfast since it was a rite "more honoured in the breach than in the observance", you probably had a small ale with bread and butter. If you were of French origin, like the Mountjoy family who Shakespeare lodged with around this time, you probably had muscadel wine with eggs beaten up in it for breakfast. You would have either had this breakfast provided at your lodging or you would have got it from a local inn just around the corner.

Around 10am you would have heard one of the bells from one of the local churches which indicated the time of day. You would then venture into the streets.

As you walked across London Bridge (unless you took a ferry-boat or punt across the Thames River), you probably saw the white flag flying above the Globe Theatre to indicate that a comedy would be playing in the theatre in the afternoon. As you came across the bridge and into Bankside in Southwark, you were probably handed a pamphlet to advertise the day's play at the Globe which would have been 'As You Like It'. Bankside was outside the city limits of London and it was considered a 'den of iniquity" with brothels, gambling houses, bear-baiting pits and theatres. 

You may have visited a herbalist or tobacconist while you were waiting to pick up Trinidada tobacco or Henbane of Peru for your pipe.

A trumpet would sound about 30 minutes before the play was about to begin at about 1pm. This would signal to you that you better make your way down to the Globe Theatre. You would pay 1 penny for a ticket to stand with the groundlings or 3 to 5 pennies to purchase a seat and a cushion. You could for a halfpenny purchase an ale in the groundling area or in the yard outside the theatre and food such as bread, roasted chestnuts or smoked pig's ears were also available for about a halfpenny too. Eating raw fruit was regarded with suspicion in Elizabethan times so you would not have had fruit. You may even have bought an oyster to eat and you probably got two oysters for about a halfpenny. But wine and ale were the main items consumed for lunch. In 1598, the German lawyer Paul Hentzner visited the theatre in Bankside in London and he reported seeing wine and ale for sale at the theatre.

Then a final trumpet would sound three times and the performance of 'As You Like It' would begin. 

The play starts with a feud between brothers. Orlando, whose father Sir Rowland de Bois has recently died, describes to Adam (an old family servant), how since his father’s death his brother, Oliver, who inherited his father’s estate, has deprived him of education and a decent allowance. This is against his father’s expressed wishes. Moreover, Oliver allows Orlando’s older brother to be educated widely and broadly. Orlando wants to confront his brother with his grievances.

Just then Oliver enters, and the brothers start to argue both verbally and physically. Orlando claims that their father’s blood runs through both of them in the same way. Oliver is taken back and insults Orlando who grabs his brother around the neck. Old Adam tries to part the two by evoking the name of their good father. Orlando refuses to let go until Oliver promises to treat him with more respect or else give him his portion of his father’s estate to make his own destiny. Oliver unwillingly agrees and Orlando and Adam exit.

But Oliver will not give up his money nor his honour so easily. He gets his servant Denis to bring the court wrestler, Charles, to him, who has been waiting to see Oliver about some matter. Since Shakespeare has no Chorus in this play, he has to give the audience a quick background and Charles is the man to do it. So when Oliver asks Charles for the “new news at the new court” Charles, who must be the most articulate wrester ever to have lived launches into his narration. Charles tells Oliver (and the audience) that Duke Frederick has seized power over Duke Senior and fled into the Forest of Ardenne has been usurped by his younger brother, Duke Frederick, and has forfeited his property and fled with a number of loyal lords to the Forest of Ardenne where he lives “…like the old Robin Hood of England…” and that Duke Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, although banished, lives with her beloved cousin and childhood friend Celia, Duke Frederick’s only daughter. Then Charles reveals that the real reson he wanted to talk to Oliver was because he had heard that Orlando, Oliver’s brother, plans to enter the court wrestling match against Caharles in disguise. Charles reveals that his problem is that his reputation is built on breaking bones and hurting his opponents (no fake acting here) and he worries that he will hurt Orlando. Oliver tells Charles that Orlando is scoundrel who will probably try a trick like poisoning Charles to win the match. Charles becomes resolved to win the match and perhaps hurt the ‘dishonest’ Orlando. Charles leaves and Oliver gloats alone (well maybe not so alone if the two thousand people in the Globe Theatre that day were quiet enough to be listening).

We shift then to Rosalind and Celia where Celia is trying to cheer Rosalind up who is distressed over the banishment of her father Duke Senior. Celia promises to always look after her cousin and Rosalind promises less depressing. Suddenly the court jester Touchstone arrives and after telling a story of a courtier named Le Beau who swore by honour he didn’t possess, informs the ladies of the wrestling entertainment and the strength of Charles the wrestler.

Then the wrestling contestants and the spectator’s for the match enter. Duke Frederick acknowledges both Rosalind and Celia and then reinforces his belief that Charles will hurt and defeat anyone. Rosalind and Celia try to convince the young challenger, Orlando in disguise, to back down but the young challenger refuses. Charles and his young opponent wrestle and surprisingly, Orlando wins. Duke Frederick asks the young winner to reveal his identity and Orlando divulges that he is the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois. Duke Frederick admits that he and Sir Rowland were enemies and the Duke exits. Rosalind and Celia congratulate Orlando and Rosalind gives Orlando a chain from around her neck and before she leaves, suggests that he has won more in this battle than the wrestling match.

“Sir, you have wrestled well and overthrown

More than your enemies.”

The scene ends with Le Beau warning Orlando that his win might cause more problems with the Duke and that he wishes

“Hereafter, in a better world than this,

I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.”

In another room in the palace, Celia is wondering how Rosalind is could fall in love so easily and so quickly. Then Duke Frederick enters and denounces Rosalind as a traitor and demands that she leaves the court under threat of death. Celia pleads to her father for Rosalind.

“But now I know her: if she be a traitor,

Why so am I; we still have slept together,

Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together,

And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans,

Still we went coupled and inseparable.”

The Duke remains unmoved and reinforces Rosalind’s banishment and leaves. Celia proclaims that she will also go with Rosalind and they devise a plan to find Duke Senior in the Forest of Ardenne. They decide to disguise themselves for this dangerous journey, Celia as a shepherdess and Rosalind as a young man. Although this seems confusing for us, Shakespeare’ audience had no problem with a young man laying a young girl playing a young man. They decide that they will take the jester Touchstone, with them on their journey into the Forest of Ardenne.

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act Five – “Caesar, thou art revenged, Even with the sword that kill'd thee.”

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act Five – “Caesar, thou art revenged,

Even with the sword that kill'd thee.”

The play ends on the battlefields of Philippi. Octavius and Antony hear that the enemy is ready. However, we will see that Anthony and Octavius are not unified at this point. Anthony, being experienced in battle says that he will attack from the right and Octavius should attack from the left. Octavius refuses and replies that he will attack from the right and Antony can come from the left. Antony feels slighted by this but Octavius will not budge so Anthony grants him his wish even though he knows that places them in a weaker position.

The face-off before the battle begins. Brutus, Cassius, Titinius, Lucillius, and Messala enter. Octavius, so self-assured a few moments before, now asks Antony if they should attack the enemy first. Calling Octavius “Caesar”, Antony declares that they should be patient and wait for the enemy to attack. Then Antony and Octavius meet Brutus and Cassius and exchange final words until Octavius gets impatient, takes out his sword and declares:

“Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,

The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look;

I draw a sword against conspirators;

When think you that the sword goes up again?

Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds

Be well avenged; or till another Caesar

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.”

Antony and Octavius leave and Cassius talks privately to Messala informing him that although it is his own birthday today that he has seen ‘bad’ omens and fears for the worst. Cassius then talks to Brutus and questioning whether they shall meet again after this battle and asks Brutus that if things go badly today whether he would want to be led through the streets of Rome as a captive and a traitor. Brutus says that he would rather die that be a prisoner declaring that:

“… But this same day

Must end that work the ides of March begun;

And whether we shall meet again I know not.”

The pace of the play picks up as the battle rages and strategies and battle communications drive the action. Brutus sends a message to Cassius on Octavius’ battle weaknesses which he wants to utilize. We then move to Cassius who can see that Brutus’ attack came too quickly and that the tide is turning against Brutus and Cassius. News arrives that Cassius’ own camp has been attacked by Anthony. Cassius refuses to leave his position and then sends Pindarus up a hill to find out about the state of Titinius troops. Pindarus sees that Titinius, seems surrounded, and when he returns to Cassius, Cassius seeing that defeat seems inevitable, hands Pindarus his own sword, and asks Pindarus to do the noble thing and kill him. Cassius’ dying words show his resignation to his fate. “Caesar, thou art revenged,

Even with the sword that kill'd thee.”

In a cruel twist of fate, Titinius enters unharmed. He was not surrounded by enemy troops but jubilant allies. We hear that Brutus’ forces are having some success. Titinus and Messala then discover Cassius’ dead body. Titinius realizes that Cassius had seen  him greeting other allied troops and thought the cries of joy were cries of death and defeat. Messala leaves to tell Brutus of Cassius’ death and Titinius, anguished by causing Cassius’ death, stabs himself.

Messala brings back Brutus and seeing the ever-growing pile of dead bodies, Brutus feels that this is all caused by the dead Caesar finally getting his revenge and showing his immortality in death rather than life.

“O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!

Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords

In our own proper entrails.”

Brutus proclaims the virtue of Cassius and asks for the bodies to be taken from away for proper burial. They then set off to face Anthony and Octavius and their troops once more.

Lucillius is captured and pretends that he is Brutus but the rouse is easily discovered when Lucillius is brought before Antony who then sends troops to find the real Brutus.

Meanwhile Brutus sitting with the last of his band of followers and servants realizes that he has been defeated. He reveals to these men that the ghost of Caesar had visited him and he asks that they hold his sword so that he may run against it and kill himself in good honorable Roman tradition. They urge him to flee and leave and he allows them to retreat but asks Strato to stay. Brutus then gets Strato to hold a sword up and Brutus impales himself to death crying:

“Caesar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.”

Then Antony enters followed by Octavius and others. Lucillius sees his master Brutus’ body and is thankful that Brutus was not captured alive. Antony gives a noble tribute to Brutus declaring:

“This was the noblest Roman of them all:

All the conspirators save only he

Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;

He only, in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them.

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world 'This was a man!'”

Octavius then reinforces this and adds that Brutus should be buried with full Roman rites and with the respect owed to him. He tells them to depart and be joyous in the “glories of this happy day”.