Rosalind

a witty and intelligent young woman, the daughter of the deposed Duke Senior, in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. One of Shakespeare’s most notable female characters, Rosalind (disguised as a young man named Ganymede) offers wise counsel to the lovesick Orlando: “Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.” She lends the proper weight to her words by seeming a comradely male but brings an uncommon maturity to the subject of love by presenting a female perspective. Thus, she can observe: “Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.”