Where a Duke, a Princess, and a Clown Walk Into the Woods

As You Like It by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like most of Shakespeare's comedies, this isn't really about anything. Because of *waves hands* reasons, a bunch of people end up living in the woods. Then some of them get married.

Curtain.

I mean, a bad duke and a bad older brother have a change of heart, but it happens offstage and it was not as a result of anything the main characters did. Shakespeare just did a snowplow thing for Duke Senior and Rosalind and Orlando--he cleared out the problems that sent them to the woods in the first place. Imagine if Frodo and the others just hung out in Rivendell until Sauron had a change of heart--and then they all went home.

Just sayin'.

But that's fine. It's not about that part of the plot. It's about Rosalind in disguise as a boy getting her love to call her Rosalind anyway and pretend she is who she really is. It's about grumpy old Jaques being miserable. Orlando's bad poetry. The clown getting engaged to the plain country girl. And they sing songs. For no reason.

It's a play made to look like a story, but it's really just a bunch of set pieces--amusing conversations, songs, characters in amusing situations--masquerading as a story. And, again, that's fine.

My favorite bit of wit is Touchstone's explanation of the seven degrees of a lie:

O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; as you have
books for good manners: I will name you the degrees.
The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the
Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the
fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the
Countercheque Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with
Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All
these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may
avoid that too, with an If...

The quip modest and the reply churlish. LOL

I remember hearing this on vinyl back in tenth grade. That "sans hair, sans teeth, sans everything" part brought it back. I definitely didn't like it that time. But I've never seen it performed. I think it'd be pretty funny, or could be.

Someday.



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