With its explorations of sexual ambivalence, As You Like It speaks directly to the twenty-first century. Juliet Dusinberre demonstrates that Rosalind's authority in the play grows from new ideas about women and reveals that Shakespeare's heroine reinvents herself for every age. But the play is also deeply rooted in Elizabethan culture and through it Shakespeare addresses some of the hotly debated issues of the period. "This will be the definitive edition of As You Like It for many years to come" - Phyllis Rackin, University of Pennsylvania

"This will be the definitive edition of As You Like It for many years to come" - Phyllis Rackin, University of Pennsylvania

3rd edition

List of illustrations General editors preface Preface INTRODUCTION A brief view of the play Fictions of gender - Rosalind and the boy actor - Later Rosalinds - Celia - Orlando - Phoebe and Audrey Date The Forest of Arden - Well, this is the Forest of Arden - The hunt - Robin Hood and his Merry Men - Staging the Forest of Arden Early foresters - The Earl of Essex - Thomas Morley Realms of Gold - Shakespeare and Thomas Lodge - Shakespeare and Sidney - Harrington, Ariosto and Rabelais - Golden Worlds Pastoral - Genre: entertainments for Elizabeth - Corin and Touchstone - Borderlands: love and politics - A wise man and a fool: Jaques and Touchstone A speaking picture: readers and painters Text - The staying order - The Folio text: provenance and editorial practices - Text and performance Epilogue: All the worlds a stage AS YOU LIKE IT Appendix 1: A court epilogue, Shrovetide 1599 Appendix 2: Casting and doubling Appendix 3: Ben Jonson, As You Like It and the War of the Theatres Appendix 4: The Douai manuscript Appendix 5: Political after-lives: Veracinis opera Rosalinda (1744) and Charles Johnsons Love in a Forest (1723)