As You Like It

This Wordsworth Edition includes an exclusive Introduction and Notes by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex.

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s finest romantic comedies, blending a variety of tones and themes. It is:

• Lyrical,
• Melancholy,
• Satiric,
• Comic, and
• Absurd.

The boldly implausible plot features:

• A profusion of love-lorn men,
• A resourceful heroine in disguise,
• Sexual ambiguity,
• Sceptical philosophising, and
• A multiplicity of marriages.

The ironic medley of pastoral artifice, romantic ardour, and quizzical reflection has helped to make As You Like It perennially popular in the theatre.

This edition is part of the Wordsworth Classics’ Shakespeare Series, which is used in the workshops of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Each volume in the series has been newly edited by Cedric Watts, described by Edward Said as ‘a man for whom the enjoyment and enrichment of friends and students is the main consideration in what he does’.