The city of London had seen its population double in the decades following 1563, to top 200,000 people for the first time, and a massive new middle class was influencing the economic, cultural, and literary development of the nation. ... To be sure, As You Like It contains good and bad rulers - Duke Frederick and Oliver are tyrannous siblings, who usurp the rights of their nobler kin, Duke Senior and Orlando - but their wickedness comes straight out of fairy tales, and, the nature of their badness left unexplored, it is easy to create a happy ending by simply letting them reform. ... Adam, the...

• Word Count: 1477
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School