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As You Like It | Which "side" did Shakespeare favor in the play's division between town and country?

As You Like It is a genial satire of the pastoral romance genre, and plainly Shakespeare recognized that his London audiences would enjoy humor at the expense of bucolic pretensions and country bumpkins. Even before we enter the forest we are told that Duke Senior and his exiled court live off the land "like Robin Hood" in a "golden age." The Duke and his men are a merry crew, but the forest has its hardships, and the play clearly punctures romantic myths surrounding idealized living in a primitive realm. This is evident in the rather foolish passion of the shepherd youth...

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