Anne Barton in her introduction to As You Like It in The Riverside Shakespeare makes the following observations:
- The story is derived from Thomas Lodge Rosalynde or Euphue’s Golden Legacy (1590), an Elizabethan prose work. Lodge’s romance has similar characters (except for Jacques, Touchstone, and Audrey) and a similar plot. However, in Shakespeare’s play, the two dukes are brothers and Celia and Rosalind are cousins. There is also less violence in WS play.
- There is not much action or suspense in the play. Shakespeare stresses words and ideas above action.
- Shakespeare provides a substitute for plot: “a structure of juxtaposed characters and attitudes”:
ideas, themes, contrasts: court vs. country
nature vs. fortune youth vs. age
realism vs. romanticism nobility vs. virtue
active life vs. contemplative life laughter vs. melancholy
[truth vs. falsehood]
- The play, however, does not assert choices in the above.
