<P> And one man in his time plays many parts ..." </P> <P> The arresting imagery and figures of speech in the monologue develop the central metaphor: a person's lifespan is a play in seven acts . These acts, or "seven ages", begin with "the infant / Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms" and work through six further vivid verbal sketches, culminating in "second childishness and mere oblivion, / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,". </P> <P> The main theme of pastoral comedy is love in all its guises in a rustic setting, the genuine love embodied by Rosalind contrasted with the sentimentalised affectations of Orlando, and the improbable happenings that set the urban courtiers wandering to find exile, solace or freedom in a woodland setting are no more unrealistic than the string of chance encounters in the forest which provoke witty banter and which require no subtleties of plotting and character development . The main action of the first act is no more than a wrestling match, and the action throughout is often interrupted by a song . At the end, Hymen himself arrives to bless the wedding festivities . </P> <P> William Shakespeare's play As You Like It clearly falls into the Pastoral Romance genre; but Shakespeare does not merely use the genre, he develops it . Shakespeare also used the Pastoral genre in As You Like It to' cast a critical eye on social practices that produce injustice and unhappiness, and to make fun of anti-social, foolish and self - destructive behaviour', most obviously through the theme of love, culminating in a rejection of the notion of the traditional Petrarchan lovers . </P>

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