Учебное пособие 4 unit I. The renaissance 1485-1649

AS YOU LIKE IT
In
As You Like It
, written about 1599 but not published until the 1623
First Folio, Shakespeare draws a rich and varied contrast between the strict
code of manners at the court and the relative freedom from such structure in
the countryside. Yet it also satirizes popular pastoral plays, novels, and
poems of the time. Those popular but sentimental works presented rural life
as idyllic and its inhabitants as innocents not yet corrupted by the world. In
Shakespeare’s
play the rural
world is far from
perfect, and the
characters are not
always what they
appear. Rosalind
and Celia have
disguised
themselves as men
when they flee the
court for the
forest, but other
characters not disguised are self-deceived. In the forest, however, true
identities are re-established. A number of love matches mark the conclusion,
and the play ends in a parade of lovers marching two-by-two, like “couples
coming to the Ark.” Even the melancholy Jacques, who remains outside the
play’s concluding harmonies, expresses his benevolent hopes for the lovers,
as the comic logic promises all “true delights.”
The nobleman Orlando falls in love with the lady Rosalind. Rosalind,
disguised as a boy named Ganymede, then comes across Orlando in the forest
and urges him to pretend that “Ganymede” is Rosalind. Orlando plays along,
oblivious to the fact that he is indeed speaking to Rosalind. Other characters
who appear in this scene are Rosalind’s cousin Celia, disguised as the boy
Aliena, and the nobleman Jaques, whom Rosalind teases for his somberness.
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
The Merry Wives of Windsor
is among the most popular of Shakespeare’s
comedies. Firmly English in its character and setting, it draws its inspiration
from the popularity of Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s earlier history

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plays, Henry I V, Parts I and II, and from the body of folk tales and ribald
fabliaux, popular in medieval and early modern England, that featured
jealous husbands, wily wives, and lecherous and greedy old men. Falstaff,
down on his luck, has been attempting to seduce both Mistress Ford and
Mistress Page, in order to gain access to their finances. Neither woman is
impressed by his advances, which they regard as an assault on their honour,
and together they concoct schemes to humiliate him in revenge. In Act 3,
Scene III, Falstaff arrives for a supposed love-tryst with Mistress Ford. The
two women have planned to trick him into thinking that Ford, known for his
jealousy, is about to return home so that Falstaff will be forced into the trap
they have set. The plan goes even better than the women could have hoped
when Ford—who has earlier heard Falstaff bragging of his seduction
attempt—arrives in person, but is unable to discover the secret. Mistress Ford
is thus revenged not only on Falstaff and his dishonorable intentions, but also
on her own distrustful husband, who is shamefully forced to admit that he has
done wrong in doubting her. The comic potential of the situation is further
exploited by the presence of Mistress Page’s husband, together with the
comically accented French doctor Caius and Welsh cleric Evans, as witnesses
to Ford’s humiliation. In its tone, situations, breakneck pace, and the
opportunities it offers for slapstick and physical humour, it is perhaps
Shakespeare’s most farce-like comedy.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
, written probably in 1599 but first published
in 1602, is Shakespeare’s only comedy of middle-class life. The “merry
wives,” Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, outwit Shakespeare’s greatest
comic invention, Sir John Falstaff, who had first appeared in Henry I V.
Falstaff’s unsuccessful efforts to seduce the two wives and their comic
revenge upon him make up the main plot of the play. The comedy also
includes the story of Anne Page, who is wooed by two inappropriate lovers,
but who finally is united with Fenton, the man she loves. According to an
early 18th-century tradition The Merry Wives of Windsor was written at the
request of Queen Elizabeth I, who wished to see “Falstaff in love” following
his comic appearance in both of the Henry IV plays.