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'As You Like It' and the Pastoral Tradition.

The pastoral tradition is a very long one. It goes back to the writers of ancient Greece and Rome, such as Hesiod and Virgil, was very popular at the time Shakespeare lived - Sidney's 'Arcadia', for instance - and can be seen in the writers of the romantic period of the 19th century, such as Wordsworth.

Essentially pastoral is based upon an idealised rustic setting, offering readers and viewers a vision of the country as a place where shepherds, country characters and maidens act out their lives in a kind of Eden-like innocence. They belong to a world of joviality and simplicity of lifestyle, and appear to be free from many of the problems of the city or court life. The pastoral offers a place of simple virtue and humility where happiness and innocence reign.

The shepherd was a central figure . His character was idealised or simplified, as were most of the characters. The dramas emphasised the value of a natural life and idealised nature too.

Why do we have a pastoral tradition?

It is important to realize that, although pastoral was about rustic life, it was not for rustics: it was for the urban dweller and court. Pastoral offered an alternative to the complex, hectic, urban present: an IMAGINARY alternative. It is a literary genre that offered a vision of life that was in contrast to the actual lives of the audience who watched these dramas or read the tales. This is particularly noticeable in 'As You Like It', beginning as it does with the courtly, urban world of the present and the corruption, greed and the 'unnatural' practices of brother set against brother. In traditional pastoral all this is the antithesis of the simplicities that reign in the world of Corin and the other rustics.

Time in pastoral. Pastoral writing also tends to reflect a discontent with a courtly or urban PRESENT. Pastoral is often set in the past, an idyllic past too. Arguably, pastoral reflects the myth of the Fall in the Bible (and other such myths). It offers us a vision of a mankind without sin, without corruption and without many of the complexities that permeate human life. It points to an historic Golden Age of peace, prosperity and goodwill. TIME, in fact, is usually a major issue in pastoral. Pastoral stories invite us to step outside time for a moment and in our imaginations live well, or better, or without the tribulations and trials of our actual lives. They are stories that offer a kind of psychological release, as all fantasy does.

Pastoral was often, then, a criticism of contemporary life or a momentary escape from life: a mythical literary form that spoke of a desire for change, a change born of dissatisfaction. Note the dissatisfactions that are present in Act 1 of "AYLI': consider Orlando's plight; the banishment of Duke Senior and its affect on Rosalind, the sense of loss that Adam speaks of as he remembers the days of Sir Rowland de Boys, and the wittily debated issues of women's 'rights' conducted by Rosalind and Celia.

Pastoral in Shakespeare's time was also an elaborate court entertainment. Sherherds would dance, sing and offer compliments to the royal patrons present. The rustic characters, in these entertainments, offered the royals an opportunity to indulge themselves at the expense of these 'mythic' rustics. They could enjoy the sense of their own superiority in manners, wit and education. In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' we see such an entertainment put on by the urban 'low-life' of the time. You will remember how they fail to achieve tragedy in their performance of the story of 'Pyramus and Thisbe', reducing it to comedy instead, to the great amusement of the court figures. In 'AYLI' Touchstone treats Corin as just such a rustic simpleton, incapable, he proposes, of 'philosophy'.

The pastoral genre, then, reflected court needs, problems and values. It also reflected general human needs and concerns.

Aspects of Pastoral

Renunciation and Retreat in pastoral. Pastoral dramas often involve characters who renounce their lifestyles and go to the country as a form of retreat or escape from the present conditions of life or, in some cases, as a retreat from human nature and the complexities of human life. In this respect, consider the decisions of Jacques and Duke Frederick at the end of the play to stay in the forest of Arden, to renounce the life of the court and to adopt ascetic lifestyles. Duke Senior's banishment in another variation on this theme. His idealisation of the life of the forest at the beginning of Act 2 could be his adoption of the values of the rustic - now that he is reduced to one by fortune - or as a witty comment on the pastoral tradition and its idealisation of the trials and tribulations of actually living close to nature, with its "icy fang". As we see at the end, Duke Senior and his men return to the court. There is really no alternative, in actuality, to the world of the court. The pastoral tradition idealises country life as it also idealises nature itself. The main characters in Skakespeare's pastoral romances never renounce life for what is clearly imaginary.

Longing for innocence and happiness. This aspect of pastoral is evident in 'AYLI, perhaps most noticeably in Jacques whose cynicism is based on the loss of innocence and happiness. Time and experience has destroyed his potential happiness. He now takes a perverse pleasure in being cynical, in contrast to the lovers of the play who frolic in the pastoral setting innocent of the implications of time.

A world without consequences. In pastoral rustic characters CAN suffer, mourn, fall in love and be rejected, but suffering is never irreversible and has no long-term consequences. William may suffer as Phoebe rejects him, but he will have her in the end! There will be no remorse, no guilt, no failure, no sense of mortality.

Desire for spiritual peace. This is noticeable in 'AYLI'. Note the decisions of Jacques and Duke Frederick.

Escape and wish-fulfillment. A central issue in 'AYLI'. The forest and the pastoral world in general is a momentary release for the courtly characters, offering opportunities not available in the court or, perhaps, in actuality.

Perspective. More sophisticated pastoral has a philosophical element to it; there is often an element of satire that adds a sophisticated perspective and many make a moral point.

Many pastoral stories involve entertainments, including dance, song, etc but also clowning, dumb-show and multiple plots woven into a delightfully complex whole. The confusions are a part of the entertainment. Be careful, though, the entertainments have an important role - they feature as part of the joy and pleasure of this imagined world.

Manners. Pastoral can often be a vehicle for the exploration of manners (polished courtly versus rustic). Pastoral will, particularly in Skakespeare, affirm the variety of manners and invite audiences to take pleasure in all manners, from those of the finest courtly wits to the lowest of country characters. Touchstone and Corin's exploration of the manners of court and country presents us with a stalemate: as Corin wisely argues, neither is superior; both sets of manners are appropriate in their different settings.

Class divisions. Pastoral can often be used to play with, or explore, class divisions in society (aristocrat versus commoner).

Shakespearean Pastoral: the basic structure.

i) Exile of central characters into natural setting.

ii) They sojourn there.

iii) They eventually return.

ARCADIA: a crucial term.

The notion of an Arcadia has a long tradition, going back to ancient Greece, when it referred to a mountainous sheep-rearing area of Greece. This is the idealised pastoral world of most pastoral writing. Arcadian fiction, then, is fiction set in this idealised pastoral setting.

The arcadia of most pastoral dramas is set in a MIDDLE PLACE in time. It is between a past perfection - a 'golden age' - and a possible future. We can see this in 'AYLI'. At the beginning of the play Adam tells us of a kind of 'Golden Age' that predates the play's present, a time when the finer values of Sir Rowland ruled. Our vision of Duke Senior is also of a fine ruler, now supplanted by a corrupt, 'envious' brother. The main part of the play takes place in an arcadian setting, which leads to a future that re-establishes the virtues of this 'golden age' of the past. In a sense the present of the play is a dual one. It is the corrupt present of the world of Duke Frederick AND it is the arcadian world of the forest. It is out of the values of the forest and the arcadian setting that renewal springs and good overwhelms evil. MOST PASTORAL reverses the Fall from Grace of the Biblical story. We move from an idealised perfect world of the past; Man 'falls' because of his inherent tendencies to corruption; Man returns to 'grace' and goodness.

NOTE: the arcadian setting of 'AYLI' is not set in the past. In one sense it is in the present - the present time of the reign of Duke Frederick. DO NOT CONFUSE this arcadia with the 'golden age' of the past. This arcadian pastoral setting may lead to a new 'golden age' when Duke Senior returns to power and all is well again but in itself it is a place of transition for the courtly characters. The setting, then, is a kind of arcadia NOT a 'golden age'.

'Art' and arcadia. It is often the case that pastoral explores the relationship between the craft and deceits of the urban courtly world and the artlessness of the rustic world. Although the artlessness of the rustics is something we are meant to find refreshing and appealing, the 'art' of the courtly characters will. in the end, be affirmed. We may admire Corin and take pleasure in witnessing the simple love dramas of the rustics, but it is Rosalind's manipulations, elaborate game-playing, her wit and her final arrangement of the entire denouement of the play that triggers our admiration. Mankind is a creature of 'art' and artifice. However idyllic the rustic world might seem, it is an 'artless' world, one we would tire of and one that does not recognise, in the end, the potential of mankind. Rosalind's activities, then, are emblematic of the superiority of the sophisticated life over the rustic life. The play itself also affirms a sophisticated point of view: after all, Shakespeare must have been something of a wit himself to take such pleasure in the variety of wit that is offered here. We would also - if you think about it for a moment - find 'AYLI' a bit of a bore if there were not courtly types present who create the more interesting and complex dilemmas. It is the complexities of this play that may it a joy, not the simplicities that the rustic world offers us in itself.