As You Like It

Part of my affection for some of the meatier language in As You Like It comes from Sherlock Holmes. In the Holmes canon, Sherlock quotes most often from Twelfth Night, leading some to surmise that Holmes’ birthday must be Twelfth Night (January 6). Beyond the actual Holmes stories however are all the pastiches and works by other artists in other media. As well as famously portraying Holmes and Watson in the movies, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce also starred in over 200 weekly radio broadcasts that spanned World War II. In one of my favourites of these (The Accidental Murderess) Holmes and Watson are in Stratford Upon Avon for a Shakespeare festival and Holmes laments the sordid necessity of making money that will take him away from the bucolic pleasures of the countryside. He intones ‘books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it.’ When watching the play itself though, I was surprised that Holmes hadn’t also borrowed the other famous part of the Duke’s speech: ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’ – the idea that hardship can yield value, ‘like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head’. The creature shown on the front of this card is rather obviously a frog not a toad, but I simply couldn’t find a likeness of a toad that worked for me.