Forest of Arden is the Golden World in As You Like It

The Golden World refers to the Forest of Arden which represents the Conventional pastoral world without any artificial idealization of its unalloyed bliss. In this idyllic region, the passage of time is not measured by minutes or seconds, and therefore hours of worries and anxieties do not trouble one. Here as life is not burdened with duty, nor fraught with toil and moil, all spend their time happily and freely in a state of fanciful idleness. Life in the Forest of Arden away from evils and envy, intrigues and iniquities at court is in harmony with nature. In As You Like It, the Forest of Arden with its natural artifices is a haven of ease and contentment, peace and rest to Duke Senior who seeks pleasure even out of the bowl of melancholy and believes:

Life exempt from public haunt

Find tongues in trees, books, in running brooks

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

The Forest of Arden is free from the disgraces of reality like corruption, war, strife and avarice but cannot break loose from only one disgrace that is the inclemency of weather causing discomfort to Duke of Senior. The Golden World of the Forest of Arden has been splendidly celebrated in the song of Amiens:

Under the Greenwood true

Who loves to lie with me,

And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird’s throat

Come hither, come hither, come hither.

Here shall he see

No enemy.

But winter and rough weather.