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'