Act 3, Scene 5

Another part of the Forest.

[Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.]
Silvius
1583 Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe:
1584 Say that you love me not; but say not so
1585 In bitterness. The common executioner,
1586 Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard,
1587 Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
1588 But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be
1589 Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?
[Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, at a distance.]
Phebe
1590 I would not be thy executioner:
1591 I fly thee, for I would not injure thee.
1592 Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye:
1593 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable,
1594 That eyes,—that are the frail'st and softest things,
1595 Who shut their coward gates on atomies,—
1596 Should be called tyrants, butchers, murderers!
1597 Now I do frown on thee with all my heart;
1598 And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee:
1599 Now counterfeit to swoon; why, now fall down;
1600 Or, if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,
1601 Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers.
1602 Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee:
1603 Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
1604 Some scar of it; lean upon a rush,
1605 The cicatrice and capable impressure
1606 Thy palm some moment keeps; but now mine eyes,
1607 Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not;
1608 Nor, I am sure, there is not force in eyes
1609 That can do hurt.
Silvius
1610 O dear Phebe,
1611 If ever,—as that ever may be near,—
1612 You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,
1613 Then shall you know the wounds invisible
1614 That love's keen arrows make.
Phebe
1615 But till that time
1616 Come not thou near me; and when that time comes
1617 Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not;
1618 As till that time I shall not pity thee.
[Advancing]
Rosalind
1619 And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
1620 That you insult, exult, and all at once,
1621 Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty,—
1622 As, by my faith, I see no more in you
1623 Than without candle may go dark to bed,—
1624 Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
1625 Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?
1626 I see no more in you than in the ordinary
1627 Of nature's sale-work:—Od's my little life,
1628 I think she means to tangle my eyes too!—
1629 No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it;
1630 'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
1631 Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
1632 That can entame my spirits to your worship.—
1633 You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
1634 Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain?
1635 You are a thousand times a properer man
1636 Than she a woman. 'Tis such fools as you
1637 That makes the world full of ill-favour'd children:
1638 'Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her;
1639 And out of you she sees herself more proper
1640 Than any of her lineaments can show her;—
1641 But, mistress, know yourself; down on your knees,
1642 And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love:
1643 For I must tell you friendly in your ear,—
1644 Sell when you can; you are not for all markets:
1645 Cry the man mercy; love him; take his offer;
1646 Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.
1647 So take her to thee, shepherd;—fare you well.
Phebe
1648 Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together:
1649 I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
Rosalind
1650 He's fall'n in love with your foulness, and she'll fall
1651 in love with my anger. If it be so, as fast as she answers thee
1652 with frowning looks, I'll sauce her with bitter words.—Why look
1653 you so upon me?
Phebe
1654 For no ill-will I bear you.
Rosalind
1655 I pray you do not fall in love with me,
1656 For I am falser than vows made in wine:
1657 Besides, I like you not.—If you will know my house,
1658 'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by.—
1659 Will you go, sister?—Shepherd, ply her hard.—
1660 Come, sister.—Shepherdess, look on him better,
1661 And be not proud; though all the world could see,
1662 None could be so abused in sight as he.
1663 Come to our flock.
[Exeunt ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN.]
Phebe
1664 Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might;
1665 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'
Silvius
1666 Sweet Phebe,—
Phebe
1667 Ha! what say'st thou, Silvius?
Silvius
1668 Sweet Phebe, pity me.
Phebe
1669 Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.
Silvius
1670 Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:
1671 If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
1672 By giving love, your sorrow and my grief
1673 Were both extermin'd.
Phebe
1674 Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly?
Silvius
1675 I would have you.
Phebe
1676 Why, that were covetousness.
1677 Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
1678 And yet it is not that I bear thee love:
1679 But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
1680 Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
1681 I will endure; and I'll employ thee too:
1682 But do not look for further recompense
1683 Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd.
Silvius
1684 So holy and so perfect is my love,
1685 And I in such a poverty of grace,
1686 That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
1687 To glean the broken ears after the man
1688 That the main harvest reaps: lose now and then
1689 A scatter'd smile, and that I'll live upon.
Phebe
1690 Know'st thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile?
Silvius
1691 Not very well; but I have met him oft;
1692 And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds
1693 That the old carlot once was master of.
Phebe
1694 Think not I love him, though I ask for him;
1695 'Tis but a peevish boy:—yet he talks well;—
1696 But what care I for words? yet words do well
1697 When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
1698 It is a pretty youth:—not very pretty:—
1699 But, sure, he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him:
1700 He'll make a proper man: the best thing in him
1701 Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
1702 Did make offence, his eye did heal it up.
1703 He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall;
1704 His leg is but so-so; and yet 'tis well:
1705 There was a pretty redness in his lip;
1706 A little riper and more lusty red
1707 Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference
1708 Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
1709 There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him
1710 In parcels as I did, would have gone near
1711 To fall in love with him: but, for my part,
1712 I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet
1713 I have more cause to hate him than to love him:
1714 For what had he to do to chide at me?
1715 He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black;
1716 And, now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me:
1717 I marvel why I answer'd not again:
1718 But that's all one; omittance is no quittance.
1719 I'll write to him a very taunting letter,
1720 And thou shalt bear it: wilt thou, Silvius?
Silvius
1721 Phebe, with all my heart.
Phebe
1722 I'll write it straight,
1723 The matter's in my head and in my heart:
1724 I will be bitter with him and passing short:
1725 Go with me, Silvius.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1585historical topical
“common executioner, Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard”
Professional hangmen and headsmen at public executions in Elizabethan England were required by custom to ask the condemned person's forgiveness before carrying out the sentence — a ritual acknowledgment that the killer acted under the law's order, not personal malice. Silvius argues that even a hard-hearted man whose job is killing still begs pardon, so Phebe should at least tell him gently she does not love him.
TLN 1594archaic vocab
“eyes,—that are the frail'st and softest things, Who shut their coward gates on atomies,—”
'Atomies' means tiny specks of dust — literally the smallest conceivable particles. Phebe's argument is logical: eyes are so delicate that they involuntarily close against the merest dust-mote, so they can hardly be weapons capable of murdering a man.
TLN 1605archaic vocab
“cicatrice and capable impressure Thy palm some moment keeps”
'Cicatrice' means a scar or the mark left by a healed wound; 'capable impressure' means an impression deep enough to be felt — a dent that can be registered by the hand. Phebe's point: even a rush (a thin reed) pressed against your palm leaves a brief mark, but her eyes, she insists, leave no mark at all.
TLN 1613classical allusion
“wounds invisible That love's keen arrows make”
Silvius invokes the standard classical image of Cupid, the Roman god of love, whose arrows strike the heart and cause the 'invisible wounds' of passion. He is telling Phebe that when she herself falls in love she will understand how love wounds without leaving a visible scar.
classical Cupid's golden and leaden arrows
TLN 1626archaic vocab
“no more in you than in the ordinary Of nature's sale-work”
'Sale-work' means goods made cheaply for ordinary sale rather than crafted to order — mass-produced, unremarkable merchandise. Rosalind (as 'Ganymede') is telling Phebe bluntly that she is no more special to look at than the most common, off-the-shelf product of nature: plainly made, nothing custom or fine about it.
TLN 1630archaic vocab
“your inky brows, your black silk hair, Your bugle eyeballs”
'Bugle' here means black and shiny, like a bugle-bead — a small, tubular, jet-black glass bead used in Elizabethan embroidery and ornamentation. Rosalind/Ganymede is listing Phebe's dark features (black brows, black hair, black-bead eyes) as though reciting an inventory, and the dismissive catalogue deflates the Petrarchan blazon that traditionally treats a woman's features as divine wonders.
historical Petrarch and the Petrarchan lover
TLN 1641cultural context
“down on your knees, And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love”
Rosalind tells Phebe she should kneel and give thanks for Silvius's love even on an empty stomach — 'fasting,' meaning without any feast or celebration — because she should count it a blessing, not take it for granted. The phrase 'thank heaven fasting' implies a humility that does not wait for comfort: true gratitude needs no reward to prompt it.
TLN 1644rhetorical device
“Sell when you can; you are not for all markets”
Rosalind/Ganymede uses a blunt market metaphor: Phebe is perishable goods that will not find a buyer everywhere, so she should take the offer she has. The commercial language ('sell,' 'markets') deflates romance entirely, treating Phebe's situation as a practical matter of supply and demand rather than sentiment.
historical Pastoral and the Forest of Arden
TLN 1664parallel passage
“Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'”
Phebe quotes a line from Christopher Marlowe's poem Hero and Leander (1598) — 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?' — calling him 'Dead shepherd' because Marlowe was killed in 1593. A 'saw' is a wise saying or proverb. The quotation marks Phebe's sudden love for 'Ganymede' as the classic example of instantaneous passion the poem describes.
classical Hero and Leander
TLN 1686biblical allusion
“I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps”
Silvius uses the image of gleaning — gathering the leftover grain ('broken ears,' i.e. stalks of wheat) that a harvester drops after the main crop is cut. The practice is drawn from the book of Ruth, where the poor were permitted by law to follow reapers and gather what was left. Silvius means he will be content with the scraps of Phebe's attention — an occasional smile — that fall from her preoccupation with 'Ganymede.'
TLN 1692archaic vocab
“he hath bought the cottage and the bounds That the old carlot once was master of”
'Carlot' (also 'carle' or 'churl') means a peasant farmer or rustic commoner — someone of low, unfree social rank. Silvius says 'Ganymede' has purchased the property that an old peasant formerly held, which is how Rosalind and Celia came to be living in Arden.
TLN 1718rhetorical device
“omittance is no quittance”
A legal proverb: the fact that you failed to reply ('omittance') does not mean the debt or obligation is cancelled ('quittance' = a formal discharge or receipt releasing one from a claim). Phebe is telling herself that because she did not answer back when 'Ganymede' scolded her, that silence does not mean she has let it go — she still intends to respond, by letter.