As You Like It is based on Thomas Lodge's 1590 Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie. However, the character "Lord of Amyens" is Shakespeare's invention "Nine characters are added outright [including] Amiens" (Baldwin).
In the First Folio the character is referenced "Amyens" three times and "Amiens" two times. According to EEBO, Amiens was the much more common spelling, several hundred examples before 1610 and only a few dozen for Amyens. Holinshed Chronicles mentions Amiens in several contexts and spells it with an "i".
What I am suggesting here is that Sir Henry Neville passed through Amiens, France in 1600, around the time that we believe As You Like It was written. The play is set in France and has a character named "Amyens" or "Amiens". Neville's experience in Amiens probably inspired him to pick that character name when writing the play.
One of the main theories I am suggesting on this blog is that As You Like It and Henry V were written all, or in part, while Henry Neville was ambassador to France. Both plays have extremely strong parallels with both the letters he wrote as ambassador as well as his experiences there. This is the some of the strongest evidence, I believe, for the Neville authorship hypothesis.
As You Like It is the first Shakespeare play set in France and Henry V is the first play to contain extensive French dialog. All's Well That Ends Well, another play written a few years later, is also set in France; the King of France, whom Neville often spoke with as ambassador, is a main character. No plays before 1599 are set entirely in France, though some earlier history plays have scenes set in France.
Neville was in Boulogne for several months. As I mentioned in this blog post, in 18 July 1600, two months after arriving in Boulogne, Neville gave a gift of venison to the Ambassador of Spain. Presumably he acquired the venison through deer hunting, and that may have inspired the deer hunting scene in As You Like It where they specifically reference venison: "Come, shall we go and kill us venison?" (As You Like It, 2.1)
Boulogne-sur-la-mer is surround by the forest Parc naturel régional des Caps et Marais d'Opale. This forest has a lot of deer in it. Neville set the play in the Forest of Arden because that is the setting of Rosalynde. But his experiences in the forest surrounding Boulogne might have influenced the play as well.
Bonus Discussion on the Setting of As You like It
There is absolutely no question that As You Like It is set in France, because it says in Act 1 Scene 1 that it is in France, Oliver talking about his younger brother Orlando:
OLIVER: Good Monsieur Charles... I’ll tell thee, Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of France, full of ambition, an envious emulator of every man’s good parts, a secret and villainous contriver against me his natural brother.
In Act 1 Scene 2 they speak French:
Bon jour, Monsieur Le Beau: what's the news?
Shakespeare even tells us that "Bon Jour" is French in Romeo and Juliet:
Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to your French slop. (3.4)
(Shakespeare does use "bonjour" in a non-french sense in Titus Andronicus: "With horn and hound we'll give your grace bonjour.")
Specifically, the play is set in the "Forest of Arden". We know that because it says so in Act 1 Scene 1 of the First Folio, the only extant version of the play:
They say hee is already in the Forrest of Arden (1.1)
Shakespeare's play is based upon Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde: or, Euphues' Golden Legacy. We know that because it is obvious from even a superficial reading. Many of the character names are the same, including the heroine Rosalynde... The storyline is very obviously taken directly from Lodge's work. Here is what that work says about the location:
THere dwelled adioyning to the Cittie of Bordeaux a Knight of most honourable
and about the forest:
Torismond the King of France, who hauing by force banished Gerismond their lawful King that liued as an outlaw in the Fo∣rest of Arden
So As You Like It is set in France; the play makes that extremely clear from the first scene. It is based on a story also based in France that features the "Forest of Arden" which is the forest where the "lawful" King of France goes to hide. The same "Forest of Arden" is a major setting for the play.
There is a character the "Lord of Amiens". Amiens is a city in France.
Neither the play nor the story are set in Warwickshire. They are set in France. The text is unequivocal and unambiguous.
Apparently, there is also a forest in Warwickshire called "Arden" and Shakespeare's mother's maiden name was "Arden". So we have ridiculous chatter like this:
Where was Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden?
The desire to link the play with Shakespeare's life is so strong that the Folger libary's website doesn't even list As You Like It as being set in France: "sometimes considered to be in France".
The play is set in France. The text says it is in France. The text decides the issue, not the maiden name of the supposed author's wife.
