As You Like It Setting

Want to know where As You Like It is set? See each setting Shakespeare used in the play on the map below.

Shakespeare set As You Like It in France – first in the French royal court, and then the action moving to the Forest of Arden. The Elizabethan audience would have associated a forest in France with something romantic, far away, dreamy. But there is also a Forest of Arden in England so they would have made associations with their own lives in England. The Elizabethans were capable, though, of multi-dimensional thinking and as the name is similar to ‘Eden‘ the setting would have suggested a paradise as well. There’s an irony in all that, however, because forest life is cold and windy with wild animals. Watching this play would have given the audience all sorts of problems around the perceptions of life they had.

The map below shows all the locations Shakespeare used for As You Like It. You can zoom in on the map for a more detailed view of an area, and click the icons on the map for more information. Text in the more info box are the specific locations Shakespeare references in his As You Like It text.