[Van Laan points out several instances where the characters in Arden either take part in or discuss role-playing sessions, proposing that the forest in a sense becomes the stage for these brief "play lets. " Shakespeare composed variations of this theme, the critic continues, to explore the circumstances surrounding the way in which the play's four couples fall in love. Van Laan concludes that if being in love means assuming a role, then Shakespeare assures us in As You Like It that there is more than one way to play the lover.]

The adherence of a character to one or more pre-formulated roles, his deriving his identity therefrom, by no means necessitates his being a lifeless stereotype, even if he is a character of type one and only a single role is involved. Some of the roles Shakespeare utilizes are themselves sufficiently fresh and new because they come...