Shakespeare's Romantic Comedies

Extract

Readers of Mr. Brooks Atkinson's review (New York Times, 19 Feb. 1950) of a recent production of As You Like It must have felt that the critic was at a loss for something relevant to say. The cluttered stage elicited objections (the danger of Miss Hepburn's barking her shins made the reviewer apprehensive—her legs “deserve every possible protection”). But the play itself was dismissed as pleasant but not suitable for tough-minded modern grown-ups: Shakespeare wrote it “carelessly as far as construction and logic were concerned,” and “By modern standards the plot is silly.” After these remarks, it would seem, nothing good could be said for the play. But the day is saved for Shakespeare's fame by the redeeming fact that despite all its demerits the play shows “the matchless genius of Shakespeare.”