Memoria Press: As You Like It

Memoria Press: As You Like It

As You Like It is a delightful comedy, but it is not just a comedy. None of Shakespeare’s comedies are simply comedies. There is always much gravitas within the levitas, much that is serious within that which is merely fun or funny.

At the heart of the play are the hearts of the lovers, Rosalind and Orlando, and at its rhetorical heart is the meaning of love itself. What is love? Is it as blind as Cupid? Or is it the laying down of one’s life for another, even if the other is thine own worst enemy?

William Shakespeare wrote As You Like It in 1599 or 1600. The complicated backdrop of life in England in the 1590s amidst decades of political and religious upheaval informs much of the play. As such, this pits the corrupt Duke Frederick’s court against the world of merry exile of those in the forest. We are forced to consider if freedom of conscience in exile is preferable to the perilous misery of an exiled conscience. 

• Age Level = 14-16
• Book Author = William Shakespeare
• Book Material = Paperback
• Book Publisher = Memoria Press
• Book Series = Shakespeare Collection
• Copyright = c2024
• Grade Level = 9
• Condition = New