With its witty heroine Rosalind who has the longest role of Shakespeare's female characters As You Like It is Shakespeare's most light-hearted and most performed comedy. This edition includes numerous illustrations of productions and reassesses both its textual and performance history showing how interpretations have changed since the first recorded production in 1740. It also examines Shakespeare's sources and elucidates the central themes of love pastoral and doubleness and provides detailed annotations investigating the play's allusive and often bawdy language.