As You Like It (1623)

This is a great collection, worthy of a place in the library of any Shakespeare-phile. Rather than just being a glorified book of excerpts, or one of those tacky dimestore books that collect some basic "love" quotes from the Sonnets, 'Shakespeare As You'd Like It' is more like a compendium of phrases and speeches from the Bard's work. The breadth of the collection should be evidenced by the fact that Kennedy has picked 3000 quotes from 15 plays - that's 200 per play on average. Quotes range from entire speeches to phrases and clever retorts, and includes many that are at first elusive or opaque, which means that even the most pretentious intellectual will find some new material to add to their repertoire. Whether you're using this to sound intelligent in conversation or just to have a laugh, this is the way to go.

I'm not sure whether the promised Volume II (to cover the remaining majority of Shakespeare's canon) was ever released, but I hope so. There are a couple of issues here - I sometimes take argument with Kennedy's footnotes, which I don't think are always accurate in their translation - but for the most part this is a collection far more worthy than you might think at face value. ( )

ROSALIND:
My way is to conjure you; and I'll begin
with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love
you bear to men, to like as much of this play as
please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love
you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering,
none of you hates them--that between you and the
women the play may please. If I were a woman I
would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased
me, complexions that liked me and breaths that I
defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good
beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my
kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. ( )

It was like watching a family romantic comedy drama. And im happy at the end everyone found someone to share their life with. Even touchstone. Lol ( )

H1.31.4

English