Forest of Arden and Pastoral Tradition in As You Like It

Introduction: Shakespeare and the Pastoral Tradition

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's darker comedies and is largely based on the pastoral tradition that was very popular during the Renaissance. This comedy draws particular inspiration from a pastoral novel by Thomas Lodge entitled Rosalynde. Published in 1590, Lodge's romance provided much of the material Shakespeare later adapted for his own comedy, including the exiled ruler, the animosity between two brothers, and young women in disguise present in a forest. Shakespeare's version of the pastoral comedy is, however, decidedly richer. His characters have more depth, and his forest is not a lonely place — it is inhabited by lively and interesting figures such as Touchstone and Jaques. On the whole, the work is not bounded by pastoral traditions, even though it certainly belongs to that genre. Corin, William, and Audrey are not shallow characters; instead, they are fully developed figures who offer genuine insight and add flavor to the plot. (Mabillard, 2004)

Characteristics of Pastoral Literature

Pastoral literature was escapist in nature. Rapin, in his Dissertatio de carmine pastorali of 1659, described pastoral as "a perfect image of the state of Innocence, of that golden Age, that blessed time, when Sincerity and Innocence, Peace, Ease, and Plenty inhabited the Plains." It carried the feel-good quality associated with fairy tales and stories of escape and adventure. The forest was almost always the central setting of these plays and served as an important element in completing the escapist picture. Some of the other vital characteristics of pastoral literature included shepherds who were passionately in love and professed their feelings in elaborate language, unrequited love was common, love at first sight was an accepted tradition, and some kind of supernatural or magical element was always present.

The Forest of Arden as a Dark Comic Space

After encountering Shakespeare at his comic best in plays such as Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It appears darker and more serious — a work in which comedy almost seems forced. The Forest of Arden is not the usually jovial setting of pastoral literature but is instead beset by genuinely serious problems. For this reason, the comic element in the play feels strained, as if it were introduced to help the play maintain its balance and prevent it from tilting further toward tragedy in the manner of Hamlet or Macbeth. The Forest of Arden thus hosts complicated characters whose complex behavior generates laughter and lightens the mood. There is humor, and at times a healthy dose of it makes the play appear less grave — but again and again, the humor fails to produce the happiness it achieves in Shakespeare's other comedies.

The Forest of Arden is presented as the land of pastoral delight and escape. It generates genuine reader interest when Oliver learns about it from the wrestler Charles. The old Duke had been "banished by his younger brother the new Duke" (1.1.91–92) and was now living in the forest:

OLIVER. Where will the old Duke live?
CHARLES. They say he is already in the Forest of Arden.... many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.
[1.1.104–9]

The play has anything but a jovial feel in the first act, but to restore the pastoral mood it quickly shifts to comedy in the next. This was done primarily to remain in keeping with pastoral tradition, and the Duke's speech accomplishes it well:

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
[2.1.1–17]

Yet the Duke's notion of "good" does not encompass the sweetness and lightness of other comedies, and while the Forest of Arden is more like heaven to him, it is not free of its due share of problems. The "churlish chiding of the winter's wind" may not always be as torturous as it can seem, but it enjoys a pervasive presence in the forest nonetheless. Thus the Forest of Arden, in Helen Gardner's words, "is not a place where the laws of nature are abrogated and roses are without their thorns." The forest is not a happy place, free of cares or worries. It can be a dangerous land, and the presence of danger is highlighted by Oliver's encounter with Orlando, which Oliver later describes:

A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck
A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd
The opening of his mouth; but suddenly,
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
And with indented glides did slip away
Into a bush....
[4.3.105–12]

References

Gardner, Helen. "As You Like It," in More Talking of Shakespeare, ed. John Garrett. New York: Theater Arts Books, 1970.

Mabillard, Amanda. "Sources: As You Like It." Shakespeare Online. 2000. Accessed September 16, 2005.

Rosenmeyer, Thomas. The Green Cabinet: Theocritus and the European Pastoral Lyric. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

Rapin, René. Dissertatio de carmine pastorali (1659), translated by Creech (1684).

Wilson, Richard. "As You Like It and the Enclosure Riots," in Will Power: Essays on Shakespearean Authority.