Jaques (As You Like It) Jaques (As You Like It) Jaques () is one of the main characters in Shakespeare's "As You Like It". The 'Melancholy Jaques', as he is known, is one of Duke Senior's noblemen who lives with him in the Forest of Arden (or Ardennes). The role has long been a favourite for famous Shakespearean actors. Jaques' distinguishing characteristic is his unmitigated cynicism. He is the only purely contemplative character in Shakespeare. He thinks, and does nothing. His whole occupation is to amuse his mind, and he is totally regardless of his body and his fortunes. Hazlitt describes him as "the prince
As You Like It Ayres", published in London in 1600 contains a musical setting for the song "It was a lover and his lass" from "As You Like It". This evidence implies that the play was in existence in some shape or other before 1600. It seems likely this play was written after 1598, since Francis Meres did not mention it in his "Palladis Tamia". Although twelve plays are listed in "Palladis Tamia", it was an incomplete inventory of Shakespeare's plays to that date (1598). The new Globe Theatre opened some time in the summer of 1599, and tradition has it that the new