As You Like it

"As Your Like It" is Shakespeare's most light-hearted comedy with his longest female role. Alan Brissenden examines Shakespeare's sources and elucidates the central themes of love, pastoral and doubleness. He reassesses its performance and textual history, showing how interpretations have changed since the first recorded production in 1740. Detailed annotations investigate the allusive and often bawdy language, enabling student, actor and director to savour the humour and the seriousness of the play to the full. Alan Brissenden is the author of "Shakespeare and Some Others" and "Shakespeare and the Dance".