As You Like It: Ada Renan as Rosalind, at the Lyceum Theatre, 1890.

Rosalind's role as a boy has always been a favorite one for actresses. Originally, during Shakespeare's time, in her forest scenes with Orlando, "Rosalind" was actually a boy actor portraying a girl, but one who later dresses up as a boy, and then pretends to be a girl again in order to tease "her" lover. Some of this complexity is necessarily lost in any modern productions with actresses in the role. HMR