William Shakespeare
AS YOU LIKE IT

1598–1600
Jaques's famous "All the World's a Stage" speech seems to echo the Globe's motto Totus Mundus Agit Histrionem (poor Latin, "All the World does the Actor"). Many scholars see in this a celebration of the newly-opened playhouse and therefore consider this play (along with Henry V and Julius Caesar) among the first written specifically for the Globe in its inaugural year, 1599.

a synoptic, alphabetical character list

ADAM

Adam, the former servant of Sir Rowland de Boys, is the epitome of faithfulness and loyalty. He warns Sir Rowland's son Orlando that his brother Oliver is plotting his demise, offers Orlando his life savings, and then insists on accompanying him to the forest of Arden. Orlando's integration into the court-in-exile of Duke Senior occurs when the elderly Adam collapses and Orlando demands food for him from the duke's followers. At the end of the play, when virtually all of the characters are reunited in a country dance, only Adam is absent from the scene. n.b. There are four production practices in dealing with Adam

ALIENA

Celia adopts the disguise of an inconspicuous young woman and the name Aliena when she leaves her father Duke Frederick's court for the forest of Arden. As Aliena she assists "Ganymede" in "his" love cure for Orlando and falls in love herself with Oliver.

AMIENS

When Duke Senior is banished, Amiens remains loyal and joins his court-in-exile located in the forest of Arden. Amiens' chief contribution to their pastoral enjoyment is his singing.

AUDREY

Audrey, a comically inarticulate goatherd, marries Touchstone in the quadruple wedding that closes the play.

CELIA

Celia is Duke Frederick's daughter, niece of the banished Duke Senior and cousin to Rosalind. When her father banishes Rosalind, Celia chooses to join Rosalind in exile. Celia disguises herself as Aliena, and sets out for the forest of Arden with her father's jester Touchstone and Rosalind in the male disguise of Ganymede. When Oliver arrives in the forest, having repented his mistreatment of his brother Orlando and reformed, Celia falls in love with him. Celia and Oliver's is among the four marriages that close the play.

CHARLES

Charles, a wrestling champion, warns Oliver that Orlando is a challenger in a match scheduled for the next day from which he cannot escape uninjured. Oliver tells Charles to kill Orlando if he can, but the match does not go according to plan and Orlando vanquishes the champion instead. It is during the wrestling match that Rosalind first notices Orlando. She awards him a chain for his victory.

CLOWN

An alternative designation for Touchstone.

CORIN

When Celia, Rosalind, and Touchstone arrive in the forest of Arden, they meet Corin, an elderly shepherd who offers to share what little he has with them. He tells them that his master is trying to sell the cottage, flock, and pasture, and they negotiate a purchase. He also tells them of young Silvius and his hopeless love for the shepherdess Phebe.

DENIS

Denis is Oliver's servant.

DUKE FREDERICK

Before the action of the play, Duke Frederick seizes power from his brother, Duke Senior, and begins a paranoid and short-lived reign. In the play his paranoia manifests when he banishes his niece, Rosalind, fearing she will become a popular reminder of her father. When he banishes Rosalind, Duke Senior's daughter, his own daughter Celia chooses to share in her cousin's banishment. Reacting to a report that Celia's attendant Hisperia had overheard Celia and Rosalind praising Orlando, Frederick orders Oliver to find Orlando in the hope that he will lead them to Celia. After a spate of banishments and threats, Frederick enters the forest of Arden himself, where it is reported he met a reverend father and repented, choosing to enter holy orders. The rightful duke is thereby restored to power.

DUKE SENIOR

At the beginning of the play, Duke Senior has been overthrown and banished by his brother, Duke Frederick. With his loyal courtiers, Duke Senior sets up a kind of court-in-exile in the forest of Arden. There Duke Senior finds a new sort of contentment–far from the intrigues of court–where there are "sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good in every thing." Duke Senior's daughter Rosalind is later exiled and arrives in the forest disguised as the young man Ganymede. Near the end of the play, all of the characters reunite in the forest, Jaques de Boys arrives to announce that Duke Frederick has repented, and Duke Senior is restored to power with an improved sense of his duties as ruler.

GANYMEDE

The male disguise Rosalind adopts when she leaves Duke Frederick's court for the forest of Arden. Taking advantage of her disguise, she tests Orlando's love for her by proposing to "cure" him of his love sickness.

HISPERIA

A "ghost character," described as "the princess' gentlewoman." According to the two lords who tell Duke Frederick that Celia is missing, Celia's attendant Hisperia overheard her mistress and Rosalind praising Orlando and that she believes they are with him.

HYMEN

At the end of the play, Hymen officiates at the quadruple wedding that unites Rosalind with Orlando, Celia with Oliver, Audrey with Touchstone, and Phoebe with Silvius.

JANE SMILE

A "ghost character." Touchstone mentions that he has once been in love with a woman named Jane Smile.

JAQUES

A melancholic courtier. While the other members of Duke Senior's court-in-exile focus on the positive aspects of their new life in the forest of Arden, the melancholy Jaques draws their attention to the negatives. In his view, life is a progression from one ignoble stage of existence to the next, and the courtiers' pastoral pleasures make them usurpers of joys not their own as surely as Duke Frederick has usurped the position belonging to his brother. Jaques delivers the famous "All the World's a Stage" speech. At the end of the play, when all of the characters except the elderly Adam are reunited in a country dance, Jaques refuses to participate. Instead, Jaques allies himself with Duke Frederick on the grounds that recent converts often prove to be interesting interlocutors.

JAQUES DE BOYS

Jaques de Boys, not to be confused with the other Jaques in this play, is the second son of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, and middle brother of Orlando and Oliver. Near the end of the play he enters to announce that Duke Frederick had been on his way to the forest intent on killing Duke Senior, but met a religious man in the woods and was persuaded to renounce his dukedom and the world in favour of a rustic life.

LE BEAU

Le Beau is a foppish courtier to Duke Frederick. When Celia and Rosalind are jesting with Touchstone early in the play, Le Beau interrupts to report that they are missing an exciting wrestling match. At the match, Rosalind sees Orlando for the first time, and they fall in love at first sight. After the match, Le Beau warns Orlando to be on his guard against the unpredictable Duke Frederick, who now knows that Orlando is the son of his old enemy Sir Rowland de Boys. Like Adam, Le Beau disappears from the text. Some productions (though with no textual justification) assign the lines of Jaques De Boys to Le Beau at play's end.

LORDS

There are several lords who figure in the play. In the forest of Arden, besides Jaques and Amiens, several unnamed lords attend Duke Senior during his exile and one is depicted as having bravely killed a deer. In court, Duke Frederick is also attended, in addition to Le Beau, by several unnamed lords, including two who report that Celia is missing.

OLIVER

Oliver is the eldest son of Sir Rowland de Boys. He undergoes a remarkable transformation in the play. Initially, he is a villainous figure who mistreats his brother Orlando and schemes to have him murdered. After Orlando has left his brother's house fearing for his life, Duke Frederick orders Oliver to find him in the hope that Orlando will lead them to the duke's daughter Celia. Oliver makes his way to the forest of Arden where Orlando saves his life. He then meets "Aliena" (Celia in disguise) and the two fall immediately and passionately in love. By the end of the play, Oliver and Celia's marriage is among the unions that close the play.

ORLANDO

Early in the play Orlando complains that his elder brother Oliver has violated the terms of their father's (Sir Rowland de Boys) will by keeping him "rustically at home" instead of educating him as a gentleman. When Orlando challenges the wrestling champion Charles, Oliver instructs Charles to kill his brother if possible. Instead of being killed by Charles, Orlando wins the match. At the match he first meets Rosalind and both fall in love at first sight. Adam warns Orlando that Oliver is plotting to eliminate him, and Orlando retreats to the forest of Arden with the loyal old Adam, where they join Duke Senior's court-in-exile. In the forest, Orlando spends his time hanging tributes to Rosalind on tree trunks in the form of doggerel verse. When Rosalind arrives in the forest disguised as the boy Ganymede, she persuades Orlando to try curing himself of love with Ganymede's help. Meanwhile, Duke Frederick orders Oliver to find Orlando, hoping that Orlando will lead them to the duke's daughter Celia. When Orlando saves Oliver's life in the forest, Oliver repents and is reformed. Rosalind removes her disguise, and the quadruple wedding that closes the play includes their union.

PAGES

In V.iii, two pages loyal to Duke Senior sing a duet to Touchstone and Audrey.

PHEBE

An alternative spelling for Phoebe.

PHOEBE

Phoebe is a shepherdess in the forest of Arden. Although she is apparently unhandsome (she is instructed to sell where she can, she is not for all markets), the shepherd Silvius passionately loves her. When Rosalind, disguised as Ganymede, upbraids her for being cold to the worthy Silvius, Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede. Rosalind treats Phoebe as cruelly as Phoebe treats her faithful lover Silvius, but Phoebe's love is steadfast. At the end of the play, Rosalind tricks Phoebe into marrying Silvius by making her promise to marry him if ever she should reject Ganymede. When Ganymede proves to be Rosalind, Phoebe does reject "him" for Silvius and their nuptials make up one quarter of the quadruple wedding that closes the play.

RELIGIOUS MAN

A "ghost character." Near the end of the play, Jaques de Boys announces that Duke Frederick had been on his way to the forest intent on killing Duke Senior, but met an old religious man in the woods and was persuaded to renounce his dukedom and the world in favour of a rustic life. The man does not appear on stage.

ROSALIND

Rosalind is Duke Senior's daughter. When her uncle Duke Frederick seizes power, she is soon banished. Celia, Duke Frederick's daughter and her dear friend, chooses to accompany Rosalind to the forest of Arden. With Touchstone, Duke Frederick's jester, the two women set off, Celia disguised as the inconspicuous maiden Aliena and Rosalind as a young man, Ganymede. In the forest, they meet Corin, a shepherd, and arrange to purchase the cottage, pasture and flock he oversees. They also encounter Orlando, who is living in the forest after discovering that his brother Oliver intends to have him killed. Rosalind and Orlando had fallen in love at first sight when they met at his wrestling match with Charles (just before her own banishment). When Rosalind arrives in the forest Orlando is demonstrating his love by hanging tributes to her on all the trees in the form of doggerel verse. Rosalind chooses to remain disguised as Ganymede, and promises Orlando that she will cure him of love. Although he does not want to be cured, Orlando agrees to court Ganymede as though "he" were Rosalind. Meanwhile, while she is tormenting and testing her real lover, Rosalind inadvertently attracts the romantic attentions of Phoebe, a local shepherdess. Rosalind controls the action of the play almost from the moment she enters the forest of Arden, and through her cleverness manages most of the happy ending. In the end, Rosalind tricks Phoebe into marrying her loyal suitor Silvius, and Hymen unites Rosalind with Orlando in the quadruple wedding that closes the play. The epilogue is spoken by the boy actor who has played Rosalind.

SECOND BROTHER

An alternative designation for Jaques de Boys.

SIGNIOR LOVE

A term of contempt in the mouths of Shakespearean men. When Orlando and Jaques spar in III.ii, Jaques calls Orlando Signior Love. Shakespeare uses the same designation in Much Ado when Benedick calls Cladio Signior Love.

SILVIUS

Silvius, a young shepherd swain, is the unhappy suitor of Phoebe, who is in love with Ganymede, who is really Rosalind in male disguise. At the end of the play, Rosalind tricks Phoebe into marrying Silvius, and their nuptials comprise one quarter of the quadruple wedding that closes the play.

SIR OLIVER MARTEXT

When Audrey insists on marriage as a necessary precursor to copulation, Touchstone enlists Sir Oliver Martext to perform a secret marriage ceremony (one that Touchstone might later deny). Jaques arrives on the scene just in time to recommend a more conventional wedding, which eventually occurs when Audrey and Touchstone make up one quarter of the quadruple wedding at the end of the play.

SIR ROWLAND DE BOYS

A "ghost character." The late Sir Rowland de Boys is the father of Oliver, Orlando, and Jaques de Boys. Duke Senior remembers him fondly, while Duke Frederick recalls that Sir Rowland was his enemy. This enmity is what causes Duke Frederick's displeasure when he learns Orlando's lineage after the wrestling match.

TOUCHSTONE

A jester to Duke Frederick. He is a witty clown, a verbal comic typical of the parts written for the comedian Robert Armin after Will Kempe left the Chamberlain's Men. When Celia decides to accompany the banished Rosalind to the forest of Arden, she persuades her father's jester, Touchstone, to join them. He mocks Jaques in a manner that causes that melancholic gentleman to admire the motley fool. He wittily derides the doggerel verse Orlando pins to the trees. As a lover of Audrey, he is far more interested in copulation than commitment. He arranges a secret marriage in the woods (one he might later deny), but the wedding party of Touchstone, Audrey, and Sir Oliver Martext is interrupted when Jaques enters and tells them to marry in church. Among the four marriages that close the play is Touchstone's union with Audrey.

WILLIAM

William is a country gentleman in love with Audrey, whom he loses to Touchstone. Touchstone overwhelms the simple man with a courtly fusillade of threats far beyond his understanding. William withdraws at once and disappears from the text.