SOURCE: Kuhn, Maura Slattery. “Much Virtue in ‘If.’” Shakespeare Quarterly 28, no. 1 (winter 1977): 40-50.

In the following essay, Kuhn observes the suppositional and conditional quality of As You Like It, reflected in the prevalence of “ifs” in the language of the play.

I

Four arresting problems occur in As You Like It within the space of one scene, V. iv. The first involves staging; the second, decorum; the third, the text; the fourth, dramatic recognition.

The first problem does not leap off the page at the reader but does emerge in production. In the course of V. iv, the last scene, Rosalind and Celia are offstage from line 26 to line 105 (2601-80),¹ at which point they re-enter with Hymen. In productions since the revival of the play after the Restoration, Rosalind has normally returned dressed as a woman. Such a costume change is expedited in modern stagings by means of...