Before the bloody hurly-burly of Henry V , Shakespeare went soft.

He wrote one of his most famous rom-coms, As You Like It . Scholars are still debating when he penned it. Most think it had to be after the death of Kit Marlowe in 1593, since Act III contains two references to the famous writer, the Bard’s predecessor and major influence. Phebe's quote, "Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?" is a direct quotation from Marlowe’s epic poem Hero and Leander.

And later, the fool Touchstone says, "It strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room," as a direct acknowledgment of Marlowe’s tragic murder in a bar brawl. So far, nobody seems to know exactly in what order Shakespeare wrote his bucolic farce, but we’re glad he

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