As You Like It

Kevin Kline en Alfred Molina in Kenneth Branagh se filmweergawe 

Wat beteken die woorde As You Like It?

Die tradisionele antwoord is dat As You Like It 'n "pastorale drama" is (wat dit ook al beteken), en dat Shakespeare inter alia sê "Hier is een soos wat julle plebs daarvan hou".

Die drama is verbasend gewild met akteurs - wat ek kan verstaan - en met gehore ( vir iets so staties en on-dramaties - verstommend ).

Eerstens: dink aan As You Like It as 'n klomp hippies wat dagga rook in 'n woud en sit en snert praat oor die wereld daar buite.

Vergeet vir 'n oomblik dat dit 'n drama is en dat iets veronderstel is om te gebeur - sonder daardie verwagting word As You Like It ongetwyfeld een van Shakespeare se grootste werke, een van my absolute gunstelinge. Shakespeare onderdruk die "storie" - gender-bender Rosalind wat die woud in vlug - soveel as moontlik. Alles speel af in "die forest of Arden" waar dit ookal is.

Kenneth Branagh het 'n wonderlike fliek daarvan gemaak, wat afspeel in...errrm... 19de eeuse Japan.

Sy fliek sny ongelukkig een van die teks se juwele uit - TOUCHSTONE se verduideliking van hoe konflik in high-society werk.

I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard: 
he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, 
he was in the mind it was: 
this is called the Retort Courteous.
If I sent him word again 'it was not well cut,' 
he would send me word, he cut it to please himself:
this is called the Quip Modest. 
If again 'it was not well cut,'
he disabled my judgment: 
this is called the Reply Churlish. 
If again 'it was not well cut,' 
he would answer, I spake not true: this
is called the Reproof Valiant. 
If again 'it was not well cut,' 
he would say I lied: this is called the
Counter-check Quarrelsome: and so to the Lie
Circumstantial and the Lie Direct.

As You Like It is deurdrenk met sinisme en melankolie soos daardie - en dis nie sommer enige melankolie nie:

JAQUES
I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical; nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor the soldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s, which is politic; nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the lover’s, which is all these, but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

Die bekendste voorbeeld van hierdie melankolie is seker die "All the world's a stage" toespraak, een van Shakespeare se bekendstes.

Maar daar is twee stemme in As You Like It.

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale

Daar is die Rot maar ook die Ripe: Liefde. Die ander helfde van As You Like It is liefde.

PHEBE Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love.

SILVIUS It is to be all made of sighs and tears;
It is to be all made of faith and service;
It is to be all made of fantasy,
All made of passion and all made of wishes,
All adoration, duty, and observance,
All humbleness, all patience and impatience,
All purity, all trial, all observance;

Sulke pragtige onskuld en idealisme in dieselfde bitter siniese werk? Dieselfde skrywer? Yebo.

As You Like is die teks waaruit die woorde too much of a good thing kom. In baie opsigte vang daardie frase hierdie oorgang vas: van ryp na vrot, van onskuld na ervaring.

En dit bring my by: wat beteken As You Like It?

Soos ander drama-titels (eg Measure for Measure en All's Well That Ends Well) glo ek dit is 'n sleutel tot die Shakespeare fenomeen. Sy weiering om een waarheid to aanvaar.

Do I contradict myself?, het Walt Whitman gesê. Very well, I am large, I contain multitudes.

As You Like It beteken daar is te veel vir een mens, maar daar is iets vir jou. Tussen alles, soek en kies dit. Neem daaruit wat vir jou sin maak. As You Like It.

O wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful 
wonderful, and yet again wonderful

Sien ook: My Somer van Shakespeare.