The Forest of Arden

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Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare, was a member of this prominent West Midlands family. [12] a b Bate, Jonathan; Rasmussen, Eric (2010). As You Like It. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan. p.10. ISBN 978-0-230-24380-4. Reversing dramatic convention, it is the courtly characters who speak prose and the shepherds who court in verse. Pinciss, Gerald M. (2005). "Mixing verse and prose". Why Shakespeare: An Introduction to the Playwright's Art. New York: Continuum. p. 101. ISBN 0-8264-1688-8. How regular is the rhythm in this speech? Can you find lines in the scene where the normal rhythm is disturbed? What might those disturbances mean in relation to the content of the speech?

The Countryside Commission considered creating a new national forest in the area in 1989, but the proposal was not taken up. [33] A Community Forest was established in the 1990s to the north of the forest of Arden called the Forest of Mercia, and a national forest has since been established between Leicester and Swadlincote in the East Midlands, however. The ultimate recovery of harmony is marked with four weddings and a dance of harmony [18] [19] for eight presided over by Hymen, [20] before most of the exiled court are able to return to the court and their previous stations are recovered. The Oxford Shakespeare edition proceeds on the basis that there is confusion between the two Ardens, and assums that "Arden" is an anglicisation of the forested Ardennes region of France, where Lodge set his tale, [14] and alters the spelling to reflect this.

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English broad leaf woodlands have been managed, coppiced or pollarded for centuries and tend to be beautiful open sunlit places, very different to the dark, dense coniferous Germanic forests which really are scary places. What is the atmosphere like in Shakespeare's As You Like It, especially with respect to the Forest of Arden?

As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 (the house having been a focus for literary activity under Mary Sidney for much of the later C16th) has been suggested as a possibility. But this forest was already in decline in Shakespeare’s time. Trees provided timber for house and ship building, fuel for cooking and heating. In his Description of England in 1587, William Harrison commented that both England and Wales “have sometimes been very well replenished with great woods and groves, although at this time the said commodity be not a little decayed in both”. The area of the Forest of Arden correlates with an area of underlying Mercia Mudstone (shown in light brown) and Carboniferous Sandstones (grey). Sherwood Forest lies 40 miles to the North, on the same band of Mercia Mudstone, which forms a narrow arc across England.

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Religious allegory [ edit ] Illustration by Émile Bayard (1837–1891): "Rosalind gives Orlando a chain" The main theme of pastoral comedy is love in all its guises in a rustic setting, the genuine love embodied by Rosalind contrasted with the sentimentalised affectations of Orlando, and the improbable happenings that set the urban courtiers wandering to find exile, solace or freedom in a woodland setting are no more unrealistic than the string of chance encounters in the forest which provoke witty banter and which require no subtleties of plotting and character development. The main action of the first act is no more than a wrestling match, and the action throughout is often interrupted by a song. At the end, Hymen himself arrives to bless the wedding festivities. Shapiro, James (2005). 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-21481-9. The name still occurs in the several place names in the region: Hampton-in-Arden and Henley-in-Arden.

The Forest of Arden serves as a refuge for Duke Senior and his followers, as well as for Celia and Rosalind—if not quite so much for Touchstone—and for Orlando and his old servant, Adam, when Orlando flees to the forest to escape from his abusive brother, Oliver.Tooley, David (14 June 2023). "Archaeologists coming closer to breaking the 'code' of ancient Shropshire hall which folklore links to Shakespeare". www.shropshirestar.com . Retrieved 8 July 2023. As You Like It is known as a musical comedy because of the number of songs in the play. There are more songs in it than in any other play of Shakespeare. These songs and music are incorporated in the action that takes place in the forest of Arden, as shown below: Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone arrive in Arden in act 2, scene 4. When Rosaline says "Well, this is the Forest of Arden," Touchstone puts the forest into perspective.

What shall he have that killed the deer": It is another song which adds a lively spectacle and some forest-colouring to contrast with love-talk in the adjoining scenes. it highlights the pastoral atmosphere. Lodge, Thomas (10 January 2012). Lodge's 'Rosalynde': Being the Original of Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' . HardPress Publishing. ISBN 978-1-290-07302-8. Since As You Like It is a comedy, the atmosphere, especially in the Forest of Arden, is portrayed as a light, happy atmosphere, despite the harshness of reality. Most importantly, As You Like It is a pastoral play, and like other pastoral literature, the forest is portrayed as a peaceful and even healing place. Pastoral literature likens the country to a type of utopia, while city life is portrayed as being full of corruption. The forest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is different from this pastoral vision because it’s dominated by the supernatural. Here the imagination runs riot:We see the jovial atmosphere in the forest especially portrayed by Duke Senior and his courtiers. Despite the obvious hardships they must face, they remain happy and optimistic, as shown in Duke Senior's first speech in Act 2, Scene 1. He even opens by asking his courtiers: Robert Catesby, leader of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, was a native of Lapworth, a village in Arden. It is believed that many local families had resisted the Reformation and retained Romanist sympathies, including the family of Shakespeare, whose paternal ancestors were from Temple Balsall. In many of his plays, including in As You Like It, Shakespeare creates contrasting atmospheres and settings that his characters move between. One of these atmospheres is that of a city or a court, where things are often portrayed as needlessly complicated and shrewdness and immorality wins. The other atmosphere is the country, where life is simple and straightforward, and hard work pays off. This country setting is referred to as the " green world," and appears in numerous Shakespearean plays, particularly in his comedies, such as As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. Helen Mirren starred as Rosalind in the 1978 BBC videotaped version of As You Like It, directed by Basil Coleman. [48]