Page:As You Like It (1919) Yale.djvu/140

128 him an old servant, Adam Spencer, and journeys to the forest of Arden.

From this point on the comedy follows the main incidents of the romance with equal closeness, even to the lions and other strange fauna. Enough has been given, however, to indicate the nature of the material Shakespeare made use of, and to give some indication of the method he followed in turning it into a stage play.

 

An entry in the Stationers' Register, dated August 4, and belonging in all probability to the year 1600, lists As You Like It with three other plays 'to be staied'—i.e., an order to postpone publication. The prohibition was apparently effective, for the first known edition of this comedy is the text found in the First Folio, published in 1623. Scholars are in fairly general agreement that the play was written in the year 1600, or a few months before. The internal evidence, such as it is, tends to confirm this date.

Practically nothing is known of the early stage history of As You Like It from the time of its first mention in the Stationers' Register until its revival in the eighteenth century. There are two traditions, neither of them substantiated by facts, relative to the performances of this comedy in Shakespeare's lifetime. One of them, quoted by Oldys, is to the effect that Shakespeare played the part of old Adam; the other is that As You Like It was performed before King James I at Wilton House, December 2, 1603. Of the latter, Sir Sidney Lee affirms that there is 'no tangible evidence' to show what play or plays were 