Pastoral/Forest Scenes

'As you like it" is one of the darker comedies of Shakespeare's and is largely based on pastoral tradition that was very popular during Renaissance. This comedy especially draws inspiration from a pastoral novel by Thomas Lodge entitled "Rosalynde." Published in 1590, this romance by Lodge provided all the material that Shakespeare later needed for his own comedy including the exiled ruler, the animosity between two brothers, young women in disguise present in a forest etc. Shakespeare's version of the pastoral comedy is definitely richer. His characters have more depth and his forest is not a lonely place. It has some lively and interesting characters such as Touchstone and Jaques and the work on the whole is not bounded by pastoral traditions even though it certainly belonged to that genre. Corin, William and Audrey are not shallow characters, instead they are fully developed ones that offer an insight...
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