with gentle womanliness that makes Shakespeare's Rosalind perhaps the
most popular heroine of English comedy. Yet Lodge furnished to
Shakespeare far more than a name for his heroine. In the dialogue
between Ganymede (Rosalynde) and Aliena there is a good deal of lively
banter that must have furnished more than a suggestion for the teasing
playfulness of Rosalind in the play. Such, for example, is the
conversation between the two girls upon finding a love poem "carved on
a pine tree."[2] As in the drama, Rosalynde's wit is always sharpened
by the presence of her lover. Often her tone of raillery is noticeably
similar to that of Shakespeare's heroine.[3]

[Footnote 1: W.G. Stone, _Transactions of the New Shakspere Society_,
1880-1886, pp. 277-293.]

[Footnote 2: P. 29. Compare the speech of Ganymede (Rosalynde) with
Rosalind's speech in "As You Like It," III, ii, 367-381.]

[Footnote 3: Compare "Rosalynde," pp. 63-64, with "As You Like It,"
IV, i, 80-93.]

Upon a careful study of "Rosalynde" one cannot avoid the conviction
that in selecting it as the basis for "As You Like It" Shakespeare
displayed a sound judgment. Not only is it a good story of its kind,
but it lends itself readily to dramatic adaptation. In adapting it
Shakespeare made of it something quite different and incalculably more
valuable than the romance. Yet "Rosalynde" is still in its way
charming, and an appreciation of its charm may, instead of lessening
our reverence for Shakespeare's genius, really increase it by leading
us to see as he did the freshness and beauty as well as the dramatic
possibilities of the story.