Home > Shakespearean Criticism > As You Like It (Vol. 57) - Anne Herrmann (essay date 1989)

As You Like It (Vol. 57) - Anne Herrmann (essay date 1989)

Anne Herrmann (essay date 1989)

SOURCE: “Travesty and Transgression: Transvestism in Shakespeare, Brecht, and Churchill,” in Theatre Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, May, 1989, pp. 133-54.

[In the following essay, Herrmann examines the role of transvestism in As You Like It, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan, and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill.]

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither
shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are an abomination
unto the Lord thy God.

—Deuteronomy (22:5)

                                             This earth that beareth and nourisheth us,
hath been turned into a Stage, and women have come forth acting the parts
of men.

—Francis Rous (1624)

We’re all born stark naked;
To dress is bizarre.
And that's the reason why
Everybody's in drag.
...

[The entire page is 10928 words long]

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