Appunti Letteratura Inglese, Prof. Keir Douglas Elam

As You Like It: Environmental Awareness in Shakespeare's Time

Other things about environmental awareness at the time of Shakespeare which has to do with the weather: was a major problem.

In As You Like It, in Act II, Scene I (page 49), there is the forest of Arden. There is a Duke of the Arden World (Duke Senior) and he is in exile because his brother (Duke Frederick) has taken his place. Duke Senior takes refuge in the forest of Arden.

At first sight, it is exclusively a pastoral moment in the play because we have the Duke describing the pleasure of life in the countryside (eternal summer, no season: utopian world of perfect sunshine and where there is no death and suffering, the pastoral world). But what we actually find in the Duke's speech is a negative description of the circumstance. This is not a typical pastoral description but an antipastoral description. There is some moment in which Shakespeare goes against the pastoral conventions.

In the speech of Duke Senior, he says that the pastoral life is more superior to the

corrupt life of the city (typical of the pastoral). It begins like a kind of typical pastoral (city corrupt and morally superior and freer of pastoral life). But something changes in this description because he seems to say that there is no time and season. (Here fell we not the penalty of Adam mortality, time, season, they have lost paradise, the eternal but actually this is not what he wants to say. It's not that the season are not summer of paradise), present, but he describes the bitterly cold winter. There are metaphors of punishment, violence, chiding. He describes a very realistic subject of the season, but he refuses to get into the cold. The winter is very present and strong and punishes the body but compare to the relative comfort to the court at least this is no flattery. He prefers the cold, bitter counsellors of ice of the winter wind to the counsellors of the brother's false court. It's a moral question not a physical question. It is a moral and ethical choice.

So they remain into the wood. In Shakespeare's day, the winters were much colder than today, not because of global warming, but because of the problem of global cooling. There are a lot of references to the cold in Shakespeare's plays (such as "As You Like It" and "The Tempest"). This was the result of the Little Ice Age, a phenomenon that occurred from the 14th century through to the 19th century. During the Little Ice Age, the mountain glaciers expanded, especially in the North. The Renaissance was a period of extreme meteorological phenomena, as freezing conditions were terrible. On the other hand, in the Atlantic, there was a great increase in the strength of winds and storms. This was one of the effects of the Little Ice Age (global cooling). The North Atlantic Oscillation is a kind of fluctuation in atmospheric pressure. These extreme differences in temperature cause fluctuations and result in very...

The Tempest begins with a sea storm typical experience of the first colonialism to the America or Caribbean.

One of the consequences, the weather was so cold in England that during winter The frozen Thames was very frequent: the weather was so cold, and it frozen also for month, block all the activities. This was transformed in the first Thames Frost Fair, 1608.

In the speech of Duke Senior in Act II, scene I he describes something that is literally true (English winter). So, there is an awareness of the climate condition. The clime change was not due to the emission /human intervention but was caused by natural causes. But the Elizabethan was aware of the climate change.

In Shakespeare there are references to these extreme climate condition for example Twelfth Night begins with a disaster storm (high wind) and there are references to the icy conditions, and to the relationship between the extreme cold and the

phenomenon of shipwreck, the expedition fail due to the present of ice (like Titanic). This reference here sounds like a joke. The weather was a very big issue. everybody was interest in time also for the effect on everyday like. Especially the winter.

AS YOU LIKE IT

It is an important play for Shakespeare company and Shakespeare itself why is one of the plays in which Shakespeare reflects frequently about the theatre and his theatre. It was a popular play and an ambitious play. it was a significant play has to do to the date of the play because it is linked to the end of an era (1599). The company and also Shakespeare were very aware of the significance of this moment (Queen very old). It is a play which wants to celebrate this closing of a glorious era, for theatre, literature and also the era of Elizabet and political success.

In a way it celebrates the past and the old England tradition, the popular traditions of English life connected to nature, season, agriculture etc. It is a nostalgic

play: look back to a period of relative innocence. It is a play which is full of comedy, jokes, stories. (reformation, return of Catholicism and As You Like It celebrate the old tradition). It is also a comedy which has moment of social criticism, aware of social and political injustice, about the abuse of power, about the misogyny, but also celebrates the role of women, the moral/intellectual superiority of women. This is appropriate to a play that in a sort of sense celebrate the Elizabethan period, there are several allusions of the Elizabethan court and Queen itself. It was a feminist play, aware to the English environment.

It was one of the last plays to be performed in the XVI century (last chance to make aware people). It is possible that it was written to inaugurate a new theatre (THE GLOBE THEATRE*, the Shakespeare company). In 1599 they are opening a new theatre. The company have to find a new site and they have to built rapidly (risk to disappear). They took the wood to the old side.

The new Globe (opening in 1599) was a bigger theatre than the previous one. When the New Globe opened, it became the most popular company and people had high expectations. "As You Like It" was the play that inaugurated the new theatre, although there were other candidates for being the first play. "As You Like It" was a good choice to end a century and begin a new chapter in theatre history because there are several moments in the play that emphasize the idea of performing on stage, particularly the idea of the theatre as a world. The Globe is a play of the world, with a double meaning: it refers to the shape of the theatre (circle) but also suggests an ambition to represent the globe, the world. There is nothing in the world that Shakespeare's company could not represent. This is true because the plays performed at the Globe could take place all over the world, including Italy, Venice, Europe, and exotic lands like the Caribbean. There was a new interest in geography.

exploration. This was the theatre that could represent this, it was very ambitious.

As You like it is not about an exotic play, but it is sets in England, they have English name.

17–Martina Pittalis UNIBO

There are reference to the theatre as a representation of the world and humanity, how human being performs in the world.

ACT II, SCENE VIII (pag 83):

Jaques : All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.

This is one of the most famous speech in the all of Shakespeare. This is Jaques, who is a kind of philosopher in the play (he meditates on life). He considers the way in which during the lifetime one person could play many parts, and the world itself is a stage. This speech seems to be appropriate to the performance at the globe theatre, because it’s a kind of manifesto for the globe. The globe theatre could represent the world because the world itself is a theatre (theatrum).

Scene (cross dressing). A male actor is played by a woman. This is a gender game and the guy's identity in As You Like It is particularly present. Shakespeare wants to take the convention of theatre to the extreme. This play shows what actors can do: an actor simply changing his costume demonstrates the potentiality of the theatre and celebrates it.

As You Like It is a romantic comedy by Shakespeare. At the end of the play, in an unexpected way, we discover that Rosalind (very intelligent, powerful) has supernatural powers, and it is something new in Shakespeare. It gives an idea of a magical theatre (all the marriages). It is Shakespeare who shows the audience what the theatre can do without scenography machines.

At the end of the play, everything is magically transformed. It is more than a simple celebration of marriage, but it seems like a celebration of theatre.

Audience: the play was performed for a big popular audience but also at the court of Queen Elizabeth, for a more exclusive and aristocratic audience.

As You Like It

Two approaches to AYLI: one more critic and the other more traditional and illuminating approach to the comedy.

The title "As You Like It" is a little more ambiguous. There are two possible interpretations:

• One refers to the play itself.
• The other refers to the title itself.

It's an optimistic reference to the fact that the play is likely to please. It may also be seen as a play which has a positive ending. The title acts as a sub reverential act, inviting the audience to call the play whatever they want to.

Another example is the second title of the play Twelfth Night, which is "or It is call what you will". It's Twelfth Night, but it does not really matter the way you call it. This introduces a kind of sense of freedom. This is part of the festive spirit of the comedy itself.