Arden and Orlando

Margaret Garber points out that Arden, the name of the forest in As You Like It , is also the maiden name of Shakespeare’s mother, “so it is arguable that some nostalgia for childhood would double the geographical place with a psychological, or at least a remembered, place of ideal past-ness and fantasy.” Charles the wrestler describes the life of exiled Duke Senior and his pastoral “court” as a “golden world,” an allusion to ancient mythologies of the golden age. Arden is also the childhood of man.

She also notes that Orlando’s name is a variation on his father’s (Roland) and that both conjure the hero of medieval romance. Though Orlando is the youngest of the De Boys (of the wood) brothers, his name indicates he is his father’s replacement. The play is a fairy tale in which the youngest brother triumphs.