Classical - As You Like It - Character Study for Audrey

Character Study

In 'As You Like It' I'm playing the character Audrey in Act 3 Scene 3. She is a rural character living in a farmhouse in the Forest of Arden. She is a servant. I'm going to create a vast and imaginative character through the use of a Character Study and use it to explore my character further, thinking about ways I can develop her into a stage (or this our case, screen) ready character.

Introduction

Audrey is a character living in the Forest of Arden (which in our contemporary version we've decided to turn into a pub) as I've previously said, since she hasn't been married or in a relationship and has a young boy chasing after her love - William (which isn't in our scene) - I've decided that she will still be quite young at 21. She is old enough to know herself but still hasn't got the wise thought of an older woman as of yet. Audrey was born in a common area of Portsmouth and hasn't known any different, secretly I believe she is waiting for a posh lad to whisk her away to richness, I love to play her this way because it gives her way more depth than how she's portrayed to the audience by other characters. To the audience, she seems like this dumb witted, stupid farm girl who has no future, but I believe Audrey is so much more than that. This is the basis of what I want to play her as, I have many more ideas but this is what I want to give her as an introduction. Audrey, despite having these dreams, works as a barmaid in the Forest of Arden pub, she is nothing but a working class girl and has been her whole life. It's a boring but common reality, I don't think she really minds that much, as she's always been this way, however I believe she would love to move away and experience city life with a posh man in a suit. Audrey is usually portrayed as an ugly and ignorant shepherd girl (on stage) but in our contemporary adapted version I want her to be just a little dumb but chatty and a fun loving girl. In the stage version, Touchstone introduces her to the Duke as 'a poor virgin, an ill-favoured thing but my own'. She is attracted by the courtly manners and wit of Touchstone and Touchstone discovers in her in the farmhouse when escaping from the court with Rosalind and Celia. Touchstone eventually falls in love with Audrey, but in more of a lustful way. Their love is a parody of the romantic love of the hero and the heroine of the play, but this is a point I'll develop on further. If it was contemporary, Touchstone would probably introduce her to his boss in some high tech company, and expecting her to get a job there, this could be a fun story to play out however we are only focusing on Act 3 Scene 3.

Context of the Character
One of Audrey's main functions as a character with context in the play is the

Touchstone and Audrey having a chat in the wild forest

satire of pastoral life, her character represents that nature isn't all pure and isn't this clean, beautiful life that Elizabethan City people believed it to be. Audrey is known as a "foul slut", someone who is impure and has had sex with a lot of men at her young age. Touchstone makes this clear to the audience, as soon as he discovers her, that Audrey is nothing to admire or aspire to be since it is all fake. Shakespeare loves to take the mick out of this glorified nature life, he uses the obvious likes of Touchstone and Jaques to do this, however Audrey is an unexpected contender in the parody area. Another way Audrey represents the parody of pastoral life is the way that she doesn't really get what she wants in the end compared to Rosalind and Celia, you can tell that Touchstone does love Audrey, but it is a more lustful love than anything. They will eventually grow old to resent each other, and I believe Audrey wants more than just lustful love. Yes, she found the man to whisk her away to city life, but he really doesn't want her forever, plus the marriage is unlawful and it will affect later life greatly. I think what Shakespeare is trying to do with Audrey, basically, is to show people how unrealistic they're being and what they're giving up. He's not being biased and saying the city is better, but what he is saying is that the countryside is probably just as bad, everything is just as unclean and nothing is pure either. Shakespeare loved to use parody to belittle the idea of this fantasy world of the countryside, and Audrey is another way of showing this. Also, Like Dorcas and Mopsa in 'The Winter's Tale', Audrey is a country girl looking for love. When she's not busy herding goats, she's being chased by either Touchstone or William. Audrey's not the brightest sunbeam in the sky, so it's a bit of a surprise when Touchstone declares that he's going to marry her. While Touchstone spends most of his time running around using his linguistic language on everyone, Audrey has a very hard time with basic vocabulary. Audrey manages to misunderstand the words "poetical", "features", "honest", and "foul" the first time she appears on stage. I believe again, this is another feature of Shakespeare contrasting city and countryside life. While Touchstone has all of this fancy knowledge, Audrey suffers even with the more common of words. She has had little education in her life, the most she is good for is being the common housewife, cleaning and used to raise a family. Very old ethics but it's how she is and how she was raised. This context in the historical version is something I'm going to use in our contemporary film, the dumb version of her in the play is definitely a heavy influence in my own character. I like the fact that Touchstone and William are after her because isn't unheard of that men will try and hit on the barmaids at a pub, it's a great fitting contemporary scene. 

Again, another Elizabethan take on Touchstone and Audrey

Research
'As You Like It' is a play that really shows how Shakespeare felt about popular writing and culture in the time of his life. The play was most likely written between 1598 and 1600. As I've previously mentioned, Shakespeare was a fan of making parodies of current work surrounding him in the writing scene, I wanted to find a story published before 'As You Like It' that could possibly be a stimulus for his parody, I found a play called 'Rosalynde', written by Thomas Lodge in "1586-87" and published in "1590". People describe 'Rosalynde' as an "extremely popular prose romance" and it obviously took city life by storm, being this beautiful pure nature story that everyone dreamed of. Shakespeare was very aware of this play as it was a part of popular culture and taking in his views, obviously wanted to create a parody of this play. One of the main ways Shakespeare satirises 'Rosalynde' is using the setting of the "Forest of Ardenne" (that is described as an "ancient woodland comprising parts of France") and turning into a place of uncleanliness and impurity. He recreates this heaven-like forest using the name "Forest of Arden" and recreates the inhabitants of the forest using the art of satire. Instead of enforcing the perceptions of the countryside women being entirely pure, Shakespeare decided to be completely blunt with his hoping audience and show them a reality most of them were oblivious to. Audrey is a great representative of this reality, as I've previously said she is a young woman of the countryside (or in my case, a woman of the bar) who is impure, as soon as she comes on stage she shows the audience how dumb and uneducated she is, which is exactly what I'll be doing as soon as my scene comes into play. I'll show the audience how much of a dumb barmaid I am. Touchstone calls her a slut, although she denies this the Elizabethan audience are more inclined to believe Touchstone, only because of his mass wit and his previous encounters with other characters, the audience are immediately aware that Audrey isn't what she seems, even if they refuse to believe it. Because I'm portraying Audrey as a woman of many dreams, I feel this research will really back up my characterisation because it's exactly what the Elizabethan audience feels. The audience (if from the city) will have this dream location of the countryside, well my Audrey feels the same about the richer life.

Back Story

Past
Audrey has always been a girl living in the seaside town of Portsmouth. In the play (present day) her parents aren't mentioned and are not around in the play. She lives in a little gathering of farm houses with characters like William and Corin. I believe she had parents around her growing up, but at the same time I believe that these parents were more interested in the finer things in life and didn't really care for her much. They were normal parents, they sent her to school and she got below average GCSE grades, they didn't really expect much of her growing up. When Audrey tried to get a job anywhere remotely involving skill, she was turned down because she didn't have the right grades and no one thought she was clever enough, or there were better contenders. Audrey was counted as unemployable as a school leaver, and spent most of her time with William as they were growing up in Southsea and in school together. William, also being a raggedy misbehaving boy wasn't ready for the employment life either. I believe when she was younger William was her best friend growing up, they used to spend countless of hours together and they loved what they had in their own little world. However, Audrey's mother used to feed her stories of what it was like in the richer world. Rich buildings, clean streets, fine food and handsome men in suits. Audrey's parents used to take many trips to cities such as Paris and London when they could, leaving Audrey by herself. One day, when Audrey was 17, her parents had decided they were going to move out of Portsmouth to pursue richer life. Audrey's parents now live in London, but she is happy to take employment under a pub owner and has lived that way ever since she was 18.

Present
Audrey has worked in the pub for a few years now and is becoming more serious about being a woman, she is even saving up to get a house of her own that her parents don't pay for. Although she has a love for William she is becoming tired of his company, William has grown a huge superficial love for Audrey and wants them to get more serious, but Audrey still pursues her dream of finding an educated man from the world of city life. She has high hopes and when discovering Touchstone she immediately wants to get to know him, Touchstone and William are in battle for Audrey but because William is a coward he will not challenge Touchstone, so eventually after a while Audrey is to get married to Touchstone. Audrey has a lustful love for him, since she is everything he is after, she knows she wants what he has to offer but secretly I believe she knows what is to happen. Touchstone doesn't really want her for love, he wants her for lust, but she stays oblivious to this because this is the one chance she's going to have the man of her dreams.

Future
Audrey has a promising future of a new woman in the city, Touchstone manages to give her the education and life she always dreamed of. Audrey, although not losing her working class charm, becomes a proper woman, not forgetting her past, she misses her life in Portsmouth greatly. She and Touchstone live together and have gradually lost their enjoyment in each other's company, none the less it is still lustful at times. Audrey has become a gold digger in a sense, and takes advantage of all of the income Touchstone gets to help her marriage move swiftly along. Audrey is now good friends with Celia and Rosalind, although doesn't enjoy their company as much as she enjoyed William's. She realises that her dream of becoming a city woman were far from what the reality actually is, and that her life in the city isn't as fulfilling as she originally planned. She is content however, and continues to live on this way.

Description of the Character

Costume
My costume is going to be something casual, in most pubs woman behind the bar would wear casual clothes, sometimes there are uniforms but in the bar there is nothing expected to wear in this bar's uniform code. In an Elizabethan version of the play, she would probably wear raggedy clothing and farm garments.

Vocal Aspects
I think Audrey should have a fairly teenage-dumb like voice, if I was going to use anyone as an example I would probably use Amy Childs, formerly known as a "The Only Way is Essex" star, typically dumb, she is known for her stupidity but has a wide fan base because of it, here is a video of her talking to an interviewer:

I don't really want to use the Essex accent but I believe the tone in her voice is something to keep in mind, she is known for being a bit dumb and her voice is a main reason for this, even though she is quite intelligent and well known in the fashion industry.

Posture
Audrey wouldn't have a naturally good posture, it would be slightly off from leaving over a bar day-in day-out. She has never really cared for her posture and is leaning over most of the time in our scene anyway.

Personality
Audrey has a fun personality, she is enthusiastic and extremely flirty to Touchstone. She wants someone to whisk her away from this average lifestyle and I believe that this is what she has made her personality to be. She isn't extremely flattering in looks so she needs to have an out-going and flirty personality to seem attractive to men. She's never really had a proper love before, and is hoping to get that. But her personality has made her go down the wrong path to get what she truly wants.

Status

Relationships with Other Characters
Audrey doesn't really encounter anymore characters other than Jaques, Sir Oliver Martex and Touchstone in the scene I'm playing her in, and even then she really only has a proper relationship with Touchstone.

Jaques - Jaques relationship with Audrey isn't much, she is the man who gives her away, fully knowing that Touchstone is using her for lust. He doesn't try to stop this, he merely gets involved in their marriage because he wants to have a good laugh.

Sir Oliver Martex - Martex has a tiny relationship with Audrey, even less than Jaques, he is the man who Touchstone has planned to marry Audrey and him together.

Touchstone - Touchstone is the man Audrey falls in love, or rather lust with. He is the person she is involved with most in the play and ends up marrying her. He chases after her throughout, challenging William for her love and wins. He wants to just lead her into bed but after a while eventually falls in complete lust with her as well. Audrey and Touchstone's relationship is the parody of the typical hero and heroine relationship, their relationship shows what life was really like for people in the city and what life was like for people in the country. They are eventually married by the goddess Hymen with three other couples.

Lines for Status Transactions
"Your features, lord warrant us! What features?" - This is the first thing Audrey says to Touchstone. She is trying to shut down Touchstone after he tries to attract her with his "features", which to her are non-existent. She believes he's just another man at the bar.

"I do not know what “poetical” is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing?" - In this line she severely lowers her status in front of Touchstone, she is bringing herself down because she doesn't know what the word "poetical" means, and to Touchstone this is hilarious because after trying to lower his status he regains it incredibly quickly. Audrey soon realises she is out of her depth here.

Christopher Oden as Touchstone and Shannon
Warrick as Audrey

"Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical?" - Her status is still low at this point, she realises that she is out of her depth and decides to stay under Touchstone's wrath of words. She asks what he wants, soon realising that he is not what he seems. He is someone greater, is he the man she has dreamed of?

"Would you not have me honest?" - She is asking Touchstone if he would have her chaste, as in if he would have her pure. Although we all know that Audrey is nothing of the sort. Her status grows a little here, as she is offering him something better and she grows confident, but she is again shot down again with her honesty later on.

"Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make me honest." - She is saying here that she isn't beautiful, so she hopes that the gods have made her pure, however she isn't pure and she knows she isn't beautiful. This means she lowers her status again.

"I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul." - She has no idea what the word foul means and Touchstone knows this, her status is still low.

Conclusion
Audrey is a fun loving girl who works at a bar and has been in a working class family all of her life. Waiting for her city like prince to take her away, she is working her days away and gradually getting older. When she meets someone just like her prince, she jumps straight in there with her flirty-like charm, and it's something she loves to do, flirt. After having an awkward childhood with her parents, she's trying to make a life for herself. Her posture is awkward and her voice makes her look dumb, but she is ready for anything. She eventually marries Touchstone and decides to live a city life with him. I'm glad I looked into the character of Audrey through this layout of character study because now I feel I can portray her in a much better light when filming. I'm excited to start filming with everything I have in mind now.

Classical - As You Like It - Shakespeare's Language

Classical - As You Like It - Shakespeare's Language

Today I am going to discuss the language that Shakespeare uses in his texts and the devices he uses to create the world of his writing, Shakespeare was a fantastic writer and continued developing through his career with inspirations all around him. As he grew more confident in his writing, he began to explore the possibilities through the medium of word and the devices he could create and use to make the writing flow and to stick devices to certain characters (that I will be explaining more on soon) to develop them and to give them a certain sense. As we are studying 'As You Like It' for our first taste in classical theatre I will use constant examples from the play.

Shakespeare's Devices

I'm going to give some key examples of devices Shakespeare would use in his plays, they appear frequently in his work and especially in 'As You Like It'.

1.  Rhyming - Rhyming is a simple concept, and is probably the most commonly known device used in Shakespeare's writing. The concept of rhyming is that two or more different words sound the same, he usually used this device in the verse form of his writing and used it to enhance emotions such as love and anger. He also uses rhyme because it emphasises a person's social status or intelligence. A character of the court or a person who specialises in writing or a creative career in a Shakespeare play would talk in such a way, it gives off their vibe and shows them in a beautiful light. Their intelligence is emphasised in the way that they talk. In As You Like It, Rosalind uses an interesting sentence that contains a lot of rhyme. Rosalind: If she love me, I charge her to love thee... (Act 4 Scene 3). As you cans see, this example definitely shows a heightened emotion. Rosalind (in this scene) is angry at Silvius because he has fallen in love with a woman who seems unlovable and un-devoting to a husband. The girl he has fallen in love with is a feisty character, and she will not love Silvius back because of his naive and devoting attitude, but she has fallen in love with Ganymede (Rosalind's disguise) because of "him" being angry at her, and now Rosalind is angry at the situation and decides to give Silvius a good talking to.
2. Repetition - Repetition is also a fairly simple concept in Shakespeare's writing, the main description of repetition is that a word is repeated twice or more in the same text. Shakespeare may have used repetition to emphasise a point a character was making, or to show a need for the word that was being repeated. Repetition is a vague device and can be used for anything, but Shakespeare does use a lot of it and can be found almost everywhere. In As You Like It, Celia uses repetition of the word brave: Celia: O, that's a brave man! He writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely... (Act 3, Scene 4). Celia here is using the word brave constantly because this is how she feels about Orlando. She feels he is brave, but is a coward about his bravery. Shakespeare has repeated the word brave and used it as an adverb because he wanted to show that Celia was being deeply sarcastic about Orlando's bravery, and wanted to overpower Rosalind because she is in love with him and Celia thinks this is a little foolish, she also might be jealous of Rosalind's new found love, and tries to put her down because of it.
3. Alliteration - Alliteration is another common device used in all types of writing as well as Shakespeare, in modern day it is one of the first linguistic devices that children learn about in school. Alliteration is when a row of words starts with the same letter, Shakespeare would use this for various reasons depending on what character is using it. In general, I believe Shakespeare used alliteration to emphasise a word or a phrase, to make it flow, alliteration is a poetical form and naturally a word sounds better when accompanied by an adjective or adjectives that compliment the beginning letter. Alliteration is used continuously through 'As You Like It' especially though characters like Jaques and Touchstone, an example of Touchstone's alliteration is: Touchstone: ...to be a bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb... (Act 3 Scene 2). In this scene, Touchstone is talking to Corin and is talking down to him, using his high mighty court-like wit to outsmart Corin, similar to the way Corin tries to educate Silvius on the ways of love and how he tries to coach him in dealing with Phoebe. Touchstone uses alliteration (alongside many other linguistic devices) to confuse Corin and gain a higher status. Touchstone is seen doing this a lot to many people in the forest, including Audrey who he woos and marries. Although Shakespeare uses it to emphasise certain words and to make them flow, Touchstone has a deeper meaning for using these devices so much. It gives him high status, people think he's a wordsmith, stringing sentences together like a true poet, when really he is the court's clown, maybe this is why he does it so much?
4. Assonance - Assonance is when the vowel sounds of two non-rhyming words rhyme, Shakespeare could use these to make a scene and its language more colourful, everyone will agree that assonance (when said aloud) makes it sound like a story being told in a poet-like, spell kind of form, I believe Shakespeare would give assonance to characters of higher class, maybe ones that are more poetical and involved in writing, or maybe characters that have a supernatural element to them. A brilliant example of assonance being used in 'As You Like It' is yet again, Touchstone with his fast and clever way of talking: Touchstone: by the copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match... (Act 3 Scene 2). Since this is the same scene as the last example of Shakespeare's language, I believe the reasoning for Touchstone's use of assonance isn't much different from his reasoning for his use of alliteration. However, I do believe because he doesn't want to completely lose all of the fun he is having with Corin, he uses this assonance to draw him back in after insulting him. He hides through this words, and uses them cleverly to get what he wants.
5. Dissonance - Dissonance is when the sounds of two words clash violently together, like when the rhyming of the two words doesn't match what so ever, causing both of the words to be emphasised and heightened. In the same scene as before, Corin uses a rural expression that includes dissonance: Corin: And would you have us kiss tar? (Act 3 Scene 2) In this scene Touchstone constantly bashes Corin for shallow thinking, giving him the higher status, and Corin tries to backfire every comment Touchstone makes but Touchstone only tries to emphasise his point further. I think it's clever how Shakespeare uses assonance for Touchstone and dissonance for Corin, it represents that polar opposite between the two characters, and because "kiss tar" is such a rural expression, it emphasises that Corin is the low status both in general and social classes.
6. Paradox - A paradox is a more complicated idea compared to the other devices, it is an idea that has reasoning but leads to a conclusion that completely contradicts the first reasoning. For example, it is like a box that when turned on, it is only designed to turn itself off. Thus the idea becoming confusing and self-contradictory. Paradoxes are often used in Shakespeare's writing to either create an intellectual idea or to make a character look stupid in a sense, because when using paradoxes there is a fine line between intellect and stupidity. There are many paradoxes in 'As You Like It' one being in Act 5 Scene 2 with Rosalind. Rosalind: I will marry you, if ever I marry a woman, and I'll be married to-morrow... (Act 5 Scene 2). Rosalind says to Phoebe that if Rosalind where to marry a woman, she would marry Phoebe, but in the same sentence states that she is getting married tomorrow, however it is obvious in the play that she doesn't like women and wouldn't marry a women. She offers Phoebe this paradox to show Phoebe that the love she has for Rosalind is obsolete. It's useless and it can never happen anyway. This is a clever use of paradox.
7. Antithesis - Antithesis is the common dilemma of weighing two ideas down, saying things like "on the one hand, and on the other hand", giving a character or a situation two possible ideals. One possible famous example is Hamlet's "To be or not to be", to give you an idea of how Shakespeare has used it. The thoughts in Shakespeare's Prose are usually expressed using antithesis. Antithesis is not always serious however, it can be used in more comical situations, Touchstone uses antithesis against Corin to lower his status, calling his rural life "vile". Touchstone: Truly shepherd, 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 solitary, I like it very well; but in the respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. (Act 3 Scene 2). Touchstone balances the pros and cons of the shepherd's life to try and annoy Corin as well as up his own status, it's not used much different to any of the other devices Touchstone uses in this scene, but it's a great scene to show how Touchstone uses many of these devices and how clever he truly is.
8. Oxymoron - An oxymoron is a contradiction, for example a tall dwarf or a white raven. Shakespeare uses a lot of examples of oxymoron in his plays, for example one in 'As You Like It' could be: Rosalind: As many other mannish cowards have. (Act 1 Scene 3). Rosalind in this scene is discussing with Celia how she will address herself after being banished, she will dress up as a man. She is using the term mannish cowards, meaning that she will try to maintain a brave face even though that is not what she is feeling at all. Rosalind knows what is to come but has to hide those feelings, a man is supposed to be brave but she is feeling like a coward. This oxymoron represents how she feels perfectly because everything is opposites. It represents her truth inside a disguise.
9. Lists - Lists are one of the most famous rhetorical devices there are, being used continuously in many Shakespeare plays, especially in a famous example; Julius Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered". Also used in famous speeches and used in a way to entice the listener. Lists, especially in three parts, are extremely good for drawing an audience member in. A good example from 'As You Like It' is Rosalind's line in Act 4 Scene 1: Rosalind: Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that and 'twill out at the keyhole; Stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney. (Act 4 Scene 1). Rosalind uses this list of three to emphasise that women are cleverer than they seem, back in a day where women were oppressed for being proud of who they are, it was hard to maintain any respect for a woman. However, this combats that idea, and she uses this list of three to give women empowerment.

These 9 devices are all ones we've probably seen before, however Shakespeare used a more complex way of writing in his plays using more devices. Here are some more examples:

Verse - Verse is an incredibly important device used in every Shakespeare play. It is the opposite form of Prose. Verse is writing used with lots of poetical devices and rhetorical devices, a form of speech used commonly by characters of higher class (to represent their higher status, to show their better form of education) and much more. Shakespeare uses verse in one of the biggest speeches in 'As You Like It', Jaques's 'All the world's a stage...' speech. In this speech there are many devices that make it a verse speech, for example:

• Single Syllables - Single Syllables are great to look out for in verse speeches. Often Shakespeare uses them to make an important, hard thinking or complicated thought, the very first line in Jaques's speech is a line of single syllables 'All the world's a stage...'. See how it emphasises his point? Yes, the whole world is a stage for everyone to play out their story. It's a big point, but expressed in a simple way without losing any passion or opinion.
• End Words - End Words are words at the end of a line in verse (not much to it, right?) but these are incredibly useful. Back in Elizabethan times, the actor would stress the end words on verse speeches, in a big speech a list of the end words of each line normally offers you a pretty good summary of the speech. In 'As You Like It's famous speech, they all summarise the stages of a man's life; "infant" "lover" "soldier" and more.
• Rhyming, Assonance and Alliteration (all explained above) are used in verse, mainly because they are rhetorical devices.
• Iambic Pentameter - Iambic Pentameter is a device used to create a natural flow to a sentence in verse, it is made up of five "de-dums". So, if you were to say "de dum, de dum, de dum, de dum, de um" and that fit the syllables in a sentence, that sentence would have Iambic Pentameter. Shakespeare uses Iambic Pentameter to give the language a light and pleasant beat that is good to the ear. It makes his words enjoyable, even today, and when a line fits into the rhythm it's nice to say and it speeds up the pace of the line. More than often there is a word in these types of lines that do not fit the Iambic beat, this is because these words are meant to be emphasised. An example of this is Celia's line in Act 1, Scene 3: Celia: I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face. The line ends are stressed and give us the subject of the conversation.
• Eleven Beat Lines - If Shakespeare has written a line that has more than ten beats there's normally a reason for it. If a line sounds heavy or that it has too many words in it for a verse, it's usually because it's trying to emphasise the way the character is feeling in verse. An example of this is Phoebe in Act 3 Scene 5, she wants to really work out whether she loves or hates Rosalind's disguise, Ganymede. Phoebe: But that's all one; Omittance is no quittance. I'll write to him a very taunting letter. In the whole monologue beforehand, she weighs down all the pros and cons of Ganymede and justifies all of them as to why she may love him. She comes to a conclusion and this line at the end shows her massive amount of thought.

Prose is generally just a normal way of talking. A character would use prose to talk to another character informally, usually family or close friends, people who they were associated with and close with. The way we talk to each other everyday is in prose, basically. A famous example of prose in 'As You Like It' is Rosalind and Celia talking to each other in Act 1 Scene 3. Rosalind and Celia are cousins but have grown up together in the court under the rising of Duke Frederick. Here's a short snippet of a conversation between those two:

Celia: Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy, not a word?

Rosalind: Not one to throw at a dog.

Celia: No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs. Throw some of them at me. Come, lame me with reasons.
Rosalind: Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should be lamed with reasons and the other mad without any.

In this conversation you can see that Celia and Rosalind are playing around, Celia knows that Rosalind has eyes for someone and she wants to find out so she uses prose to get her way, becoming more friendly and informal with her cousin. This friendly behaviour isn't alien to Rosalind however, because the two are basically like sisters. They are extremely comfortable with each other and know how each other work, I think if Celia was more angry with Rosalind about this, she would use a more formal way of talking.