Theme of Pastoralism in Shakespeare's as You Like It
William Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ is probably one of the most famous pastoral comedies of all times. Written around 1599 and published in 1623, its plot was derived from Thomas Lodge’s pastoral romance ‘Rosalynde’. But what is interesting about this play is how Shakespeare, using the features and tropes of a pastoral comedy, undercuts the idea of the pastoral.
The pastoral, as a genre, can be said to have had its beginnings with Theocritus’ ‘Idylls’. Other notable works in this genre are Virgil’s ‘Eclogues’ and Longus’ ‘Daphnis and Chloe’. Artificiality and lack of realism are the chief characteristics of this tradition. When the Elizabethans wrote in this tradition, they more or less followed the set conventions. The shepherds with which they peopled their rural landscape were metaphors for amorous lovers, scholar-poets and aristocrats in exile. These poets gave the primacy to courtiers who led a shepherd-like existence or merely treated the rural environment as a background to the amours of shepherds and shepherdesses who in their love-behaviour resembled the refined noble-men of the court. ‘As You Like It’ also has these love-lorn figures in characters such as Silvius and Phebe. Yet, it can be clearly seen from their marginalized status in the play that Shakespeare has clearly departed from the convention of ‘pastoralisation’ of the courtly people.1. The people in Shakespeare’s pastoral are not the dainty shepherds and shepherdesses of the golden world. They are uneducated, plain-spoken, not much concerned with romance, poetry and etiquette.
The reason for this far-away-from-reality portrayal of the country people in pastoral romances and poetry was the fact that the authors/poets were a part of a class belonging to the town and court. Their anxieties and pre-occupations with their own socio-politico-economic conditions necessitated the construction of an idyllic space, free from all the troubles and tensions. And it was to fulfil this need to escape
The pastoral, as a genre, can be said to have had its beginnings with Theocritus’ ‘Idylls’. Other notable works in this genre are Virgil’s ‘Eclogues’ and Longus’ ‘Daphnis and Chloe’. Artificiality and lack of realism are the chief characteristics of this tradition. When the Elizabethans wrote in this tradition, they more or less followed the set conventions. The shepherds with which they peopled their rural landscape were metaphors for amorous lovers, scholar-poets and aristocrats in exile. These poets gave the primacy to courtiers who led a shepherd-like existence or merely treated the rural environment as a background to the amours of shepherds and shepherdesses who in their love-behaviour resembled the refined noble-men of the court. ‘As You Like It’ also has these love-lorn figures in characters such as Silvius and Phebe. Yet, it can be clearly seen from their marginalized status in the play that Shakespeare has clearly departed from the convention of ‘pastoralisation’ of the courtly people.1. The people in Shakespeare’s pastoral are not the dainty shepherds and shepherdesses of the golden world. They are uneducated, plain-spoken, not much concerned with romance, poetry and etiquette.
The reason for this far-away-from-reality portrayal of the country people in pastoral romances and poetry was the fact that the authors/poets were a part of a class belonging to the town and court. Their anxieties and pre-occupations with their own socio-politico-economic conditions necessitated the construction of an idyllic space, free from all the troubles and tensions. And it was to fulfil this need to escape