In Shakespeare, the forest is often a place of danger and sometimes a place of refuge. In As You Like It, the main character, Rosalind, is exiled out of the city by her uncle and she runs away to the forest of Arden. Her cousin Celia chooses to accompany her. Touchstone, the court fool, joins them.

However, this forest holds no real danger. Shepherds contently live and work there. Touchstone, like many travelers smitten with new discoveries, waxes lyrical about the joys of pastoral life. So much so that he falls in love with Audrey.

Rosalind's lover follows her into exile and seeks her out. In love, he carves poems to her on the trees. The others in Arden, including other refugees, find this all rather tedious and foolish.

The old lesson stands that city and country dwellers each know best how to lead their lives in their own place. Touchstone marries Audrey and yet Jaques predicts, in agreement with the audience, that their union might not last.

TRIVIA
-This play contains the famous line "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players." (act II scene vii line 138)
-Celia, a woman of noble birth, uses a double negative: "I cannot go no further." (act II scene iv line 9)
-Sylvius and Phebe are only shepherds, but they speak in verse.
-Rosalind is pronounced to rhyme with find, kind, bind, hind. If it were not, then one poem in the play would not make sense.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
In Shakespeare, the forest is often a place of danger and sometimes a place of refuge. In As You Like It, the main character, Rosalind, is exiled out of the city by her uncle and she runs away to the forest of Arden. Her cousin Celia chooses to accompany her. Touchstone, the court fool, joins them. However, this forest holds no real danger. Shepherds contently live and work there. Touchstone, like many travelers smitten with new discoveries, waxes lyrical about the joys of pastoral life. So much so that he falls in love with Audrey. Rosalind's lover follows her into exile and seeks her out. In love, he carves poems to her on the trees. The others in Arden, including other refugees, find this all rather tedious and foolish. The old lesson stands that city and country dwellers each know best how to lead their lives in their own place. Touchstone marries Audrey and yet Jaques predicts, in agreement with the audience, that their union might not last. TRIVIA
-This play contains the famous line "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. " (act II scene vii line 138)
-Celia, a woman of noble birth, uses a double negative: "I cannot go no further. " (act II scene iv line 9)
-Sylvius and Phebe are only shepherds, but they speak in verse. -Rosalind is pronounced to rhyme with find, kind, bind, hind. If it were not, then one poem in the play would not make sense. Vincent Poirier, Tokyo