Arden is an area in Warwickshire, in the middle of England, that used to be a great forest. People still say the Forest of Arden. It is not a wild wood now in the old way — towns and farms have eaten most of it — but the name remains. Students of English literature meet it because Shakespeare’s play As You Like It is set there: dukes, lovers, and fools hiding in the green wood. Though actually, Shakespeare’s Arden is half a real place and half a story-place, a forest of freedom where city rules grow thin. The name comes from an old Celtic (Brythonic) word meaning “high.” On the page it looks like the Ardennes, the forest hills in Belgium and France; they are different places, and mixing them up will put Shakespeare in the wrong country.