INTRODUCTION THE text of this edition of As You Like It is based upon that of the first folio; most of those emendations which have become almost classical through universal acceptance have been combined with it, and where a divergence occurs from the majority of editors, the reasons for it are discussed. It will be seen from the Textual Notes that changes in the first folio text are mainly, in the later folios, in the direction of modernising syntax and spelling, and that even the eighteenth and nineteenth century critics have altered little. With little straining, even the more obstinate cruces of the first folio text yield possible and acceptable meanings, and editors have in general advanced conjectural emendations with diffidence. Dr. Furness's words (Antony and Cleopatra, 1907, p. vi) are particularly applicable also to this play: "It is not generally realised, I think, to what an extent this First Folio survives in all our texts, and how little, how very little, it varies, save in spelling, and in stage directions, from the most popular texts of the present day." In the absence of quarto editions, the first folio must be the ultimate criterion, and the really small amount of necessary alteration is evidence to the purity of its text. Wright (Clarendon Press Edition, p. vi seq.) cites passages in support of his contention that the play was hurriedly composed; but they all point to the fact that the haste was on the author's, not on the printer's part. "The name of Jaques is given to the second son of Sir Roland de Boys at the beginning of the play, and then when he really appears in the last scene he is called in the folios 'Second Brother' to avoid confounding him with the melancholy Jaques. Again, in the first Act there is a certain confusion between Celia and Rosalind which is not all due to the printer. . too hard upon the printer to attribute to him . . It would be the slip in I. ii. 258, where the first folio reads, in Le Beau's answer to Orlando's enquiry which of the two was daughter of the Duke, 'But yet indeed the taller is his daughter,' when it is evident from the next scene that Rosalind is the taller, for she says, as a justification of her assuming male attire (I. iii. III), 'Because that I am more than common tall.' I scarcely know whether to attribute to the printer or to the author's rapidity of composition the substitution of 'Juno' for 'Venus' in I. iii. 72. But it must be admitted that in the last scene of all there is a good deal which, to say the least of it, is not in Shakespeare's best manner, and conveys the impression that the play was finished without much care.” The date of composition of the play is to be assigned to the latter part of 1599 or the earlier part of 1600. The external evidence for this is a note in the Stationers' Registers, occurring, not in the bulk of the entries, but on the third page of two fly-leaves at the beginning of volume C, which contains entries for the years I 595-1620. These fly-leaves contain promiscuous notes dating from August, 1595, to May, 1615, and it is to be noticed that with one exception, those occurring on the first and second pages are dated subsequent to those at the top of the third. The critical entries are as follows (Arber, Transcript, iii. 36):— 4 AUGUSTI As you lyke yt/ a booke Henry the Ffift/ a booke Euery man in his humour/a booke The commedie of muche A doo about-nothing a booke to be staied. There is no indication of the year, except the fact that the preceding entry is dated 27 May, 1600, and runs "To master Robertes, under the handes of the wardens, A morall of Clothe breches and velvet hose, As It is acted by my lord Chamberlens seruantes. Provided that he is not to putt it in prynte without further and better Aucthority." Two days later, "A |