FOREST OF ARDEN

Although there is a Forest of Arden in Warwickeshire, England, the Forest of Arden in which Shakespeare set his As You Like It is generally recognized to be the Ardennes region of France, as Shakespeare's primary source text was Rosalynd: Euphues Golden Legacie by Thomas Lodge, a physician from the area.

It is interesting to note that Shakespeare's mother's maiden name was Mary Arden. Her father, John Arden, certainly owned lands in the countryside, and it is very possible that they were connected to the Ardens who owned the woods, which may have inspired the nomenclature, as a kind of homage.

"The place recalls for us Nottinghamshire and the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood, where persons in retreat from a society seemingly beyond repair find refuge in a mythic folk world purged of social injustice. As the 'golden world' (1.1.114) the forest evokes an even deeper longing for a mythological past age of innocence and plenty...This myth has its parallel in the biblical Garden of Eden, before the human race experienced 'the penalty of Adam' (2.1.5). Finally, in another of its aspects. the forest is Arcadia, a pastoral landscape embodied in an ancient and sophisticated literary tradition...

All but the first of these Ardens, compared and contrasted with one another, involve some idealization, not only of nature and the natural landscape, but also of the human condition."1

The forest itself functions a place of catalysis, compelling Orlando to carve love poems for Rosalind into trees, springing Rosalind into love with Orlando via those poems, bringing Oliver and Orlando into a situation where they can reconciled. The forest also functions as something of a metaphysical lock- down; once all the necessary characters have entered, we do not - cannot? - leave until all conflicts are resolved.

 

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