In the play, As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, there is an omnipresent theme of a pastoral life versus court life that permeates throughout the play and engulfs all the characters. This ubiquitous theme italicizes and exhibits the similarities and differences that court and pastoral life play on the characters that inhabit these surroundings and environment. Characters such as Duke Senior, Touchstone, and Corin play a major part in shedding light on the comparison of pastoral and court life, which help the readers more plainly discover the similarities and discrepancies of these two ways of life.
             In Act Two, Duke Senior presents his views of court life and that of pastoral life, which does a great deal in clearing up the gray areas in Shakespeare's readers' minds of the two very different lifestyles. Duke Senior engages in a discourse with his fellow brothers of exile and rhetorically questions them by saying, "Hath not old custom made this life more sweet that that of painted pomp? Are not these woods more free from peril than the envious court? (2.1)" He responds to his own question with a biblical allusion stating "Here feel we not the penalty of Adam (2.1)" This statement implies that there is peace and rapport between those in the forest and that they do not feel the repercussions of Adam's transgression, which was disorder in the peaceful relationship between man and man, man and animal, and animals amongst themselves.
             Furthermore, Touchstone and Corin's quarrel over pastoral life versus court life help to further elucidate the pros and cons of these two means of living. When Touchstone and Corin are walking together Corin asks Touchstone how he likes the Shepard's life. Touchstone replies that "in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught.....in respect that it is in the fields,
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