Which forest is the setting for William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It?

The Forest of Arden is the forest setting for William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It.

In the play, characters flee the court and find refuge in the forest. The woodland becomes a place where social roles are tested, identities are concealed, and several characters experience freedom away from court politics.

Shakespeare's Forest of Arden may draw on both the Arden Forest in the Ardennes region and the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, England. The name therefore carries both literary and geographical associations.

The play was probably written in the late 1590s and was first published in the First Folio of 1623. The forest is not simply background scenery: its changing social world drives much of the comedy's action.