Cuckoldry in AYLI

Cuckolds hold a lot of weight in As You Like It, due to the deeply personal and vulnerable nature of its conflict. In As You Like It, Horns or Cuckoldry are referenced by the characters Touchstone and Jaques. Touchstone uses this concept twice. Once, he plays with the idea of Cuckold Horns, and decides that being married and baring Cuckold Horns is better than being entirely unwed and having the “bare brow of a bachelor”. It is for this reason that he wants to marry Audrey. Touchstone also shames Corin(a) for allowing young she-lambs to be had by an “old, cuckoldy ram”. He uses this as a tactic in their argument over country life versus life at the court.

Later, Jaques suggests placing the Horns of a dead deer on the head of Duke Senior for “a branch of victory”. This is actually an insult because the implication would be that the Duke had been Cuckolded. It’s a sly attack by Jaques, that then turns into a song, proclaiming that everyone should take no scorn “to wear the Horn. It was a crest ere thou was born”. The intended image is of a long line of men who have been cheated on. If all your forefathers have been Cuckolded, why shouldn’t you be too? (See the video above for a rough draft of our Cuckold Song filmed in early March!).

The song is an incredibly disrespectful gesture, especially in a play with love as one of its biggest themes. Cuckold Horns were a very popular idea in this time, and it is likely that their inclusion in the play was an example of Shakespeare appealing to groundlings. What is funnier than a scared little man fumbling trying to please his cheating wife, all the while being exposed to the world with Horns that he can’t even see?