History Theatre / AsYouLikeIt

* PungeonMaster: Touchstone. And ''how.''

-->''Touchstone:'' Well, if I don't keep up my rank-
-->''Rosalind:'' ...you'll lose your smell.

* CoupledCouples

* MortonsFork: Touchstone's attempt to argue for unchastity.

--> '''Le Beau''' ''(to Orlando):'' Hereafter, in a better world than this, [[HoYay I shall desire much love and knowledge of you.]]

* BadassBoast: Touchstone telling Silvius "I will kill the a hundred and fifty ways".

Eventually, due to a mixture of cunning plots and DeusExMachina, the tangled love triangles are sorted out and Oliver and Frederick mend their ways, returning power to their brothers. The play ends with ''four'' marriages, and everyone returns happily to the duchy-- except melancholy Jaques, who stays behind in the forest.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When Charles challenges Orlando, he calls for "this young gallant that is so desirous to lie with his mother earth". His phrasing makes it sound like he's looking for a young man eager to lie [[{{Squick}} with his]] [[IncestIsRelative mother]].

* GenreSavvy: Rosalind is unimpressed when Orlando trots out Petrarchan cliches.

A comedy by WilliamShakespeare. Like many of his lighter plays, this one focuses on young love, comic misunderstandings, and good ol' fashioned cross-dressing.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys:

** There is also a Forest of Arden in England that was just outside Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-on-Avon. In fact, Shakespeare's mother was born Mary Arden. Her family had taken their name from the forest. No doubt Shakespeare combined elements of all these for the play.

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Rosalind again. She gives [[TwelfthNight Viola]] a run for her money.

* DeusExMachina: Oliver repents his ways and reunites with Orlando because Orlando saves him from a conveniently placed ''lion''. Riiight.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Touchstone's threatened punishment to William for ''daring'' to like Audrey:
--> "...abandon the society of this female, or, clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; or, to wit I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage: I will deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction; I will o'errun thee with policy; I will kill thee [[UpToEleven a hundred and fifty ways]]: therefore tremble and depart!"

* GrumpyBear: Jaques is a pre-Nietzsche NietzscheWannabe stuck in a pastoral comedy.

* LoveLetterLunacy: Hanging love notes on every tree in the forest.

* MeaningfulName: Celia deliberately uses one of these as her alias ("Aliena" means "the estranged one"), as she wants her name to be "something that hath a reference to [her] state".
* MenDontCry: Referenced several times by Celia and Rosalind. Rosalind's disguised as a man, so crying wouldn't "become" her.

* HoYay: Orlando courts Rosalind ''while he thinks she's a man''. Even in the productions that don't play this as him falling for "Ganymede,"[[hottip:*:That name, by the by, originally belonged to Zeus' male lover in GreekMythology and thus was used to denote an object of male homosexual affection in Renaissance England]] the implications are pretty overt.
** Also a Les Yay: The aforementioned Rosalind and Celia.

* TheJester: Touchstone. {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Jaques when he reveals that he plans on becoming "a fool" as well--he'd ''love'' to be able to criticize everyone and everything without retribution!

* WholesomeCrossdresser

* {{Arcadia}}: The Forest of ''Arden''. [[TheBible Ringing any bells?]]

* GenreSavy: Rosalind is unimpressed when Orlando trots out Petrarchan cliches.

** Also, Fredrick just ''suddenly'' has a change of heart, goes religious, and gives the duchy back to the Duke? All offstage? Due to a previously unmentioned THIRD brother who happens to be the priest who performs the quadruple wedding?

** Touchstone, by the way, doesn't even especially like Audrey: he's only marrying her so that he can justify having a fling with her, and he's planning to divorce her afterwards. And Audrey's got about zero interest in William, so he isn't even a ''threat.''

** Audrey probably thinks she and Touchstone are an example, but he's just in it for the sex and already planning their divorce.

** LesYay: The aforementioned Rosalind and Celia.

** Subverted with Phebe. She originally spurns Silvius and falls for "Ganymede" right away, but when it becomes obvious [[MistakenIdentity that]] [[GenderBender isn't]] [[LesYay going]] [[IncompatibleOrientation to work]], it's Silvius' unswerving devotion that wins the day.