nce Jaques wishes no joy for himself, we wish none for him, and with
little regret we leave him as he has lived, a lonely, fascinating
figure.

+Date+.--Like _Much Ado_, _As You Like It_ is not mentioned by Meres,
and was entered in the Stationers' Register on August 4, 1600. Some
critics have placed this play before _Much Ado_, but, although there is
little evidence on either side, the style and tone of the play incline
us to place it after, dating it 1599-1600.

+Source+.--_As You Like It_ is a dramatization of Lodge's pastoral
novel entitled _Rosalynde_, which was founded in its turn on the _Tale
of Gamelyn_, incorrectly ascribed to Chaucer. Shakespeare condensed
his original to great advantage, leaving out many episodes and so
changing others as to give the subject a new and higher unity. The
atmosphere of the forest is all of his creation, as are many of the
characters, including Jaques and Touchstone.

+Twelfth Night, or What You Will+.--In _Twelfth Night_ romance and
comedy are less perfectly fused than in {170} the comedy which preceded
it. Here there are two distinct groups of characters, on the one hand
riotous old Sir Toby and his crew leading the Puritanical steward
Malvolio into the trap baited by his own egotism; on the other, the
dreaming Duke, in love with love rather than with the beautiful Olivia
whom he woos in vain, and ardently loved by Viola, whose gentle nature
is in touching contrast with the doublet and hose which misfortune has
compelled her to assume. There is, however, no lack of dramatic unity.
In Olivia the two groups meet, for Toby is Olivia's uncle, Malvolio her
steward, the Duke her lover, Viola--later happily supplanted by her
twin brother Sebastian--the one she loves. Thus the romantic and comic
forces act and react upon each other. Yet this play, by reason of its
setting, the court of Illyria, was bound to lack the magical atmosphere
of the forest, which inspired kindly humor in the serious and gentle
seriousness in the merry. If Peste is as witty as Touchstone, he is
less of a man; if Viola is more appealing than Rosalind, she has a less
sparkling humor. Here the love story is more passionate, the fun more
uproarious. Toby is not Falstaff; he is overcome by wine and
difficulties as that amazing knight never was; but it is a sad soul
which does not roar with Toby in his revels; shout with laughter over
the duel which he arranges between the shrinking Viola and the fool