Act 4, Scene 3

Another part of the Forest.

[Enter ROSALIND and CELIA.]
Rosalind
1925 How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock?
1926 And here much Orlando!
Celia
1927 I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, he hath
1928 ta'en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth—to sleep. Look,
1929 who comes here.
[Enter SILVIUS.]
Silvius
1930 My errand is to you, fair youth;—
1931 My gentle Phebe did bid me give you this:
[Giving a letter.]
Silvius
1932 I know not the contents; but, as I guess
1933 By the stern brow and waspish action
1934 Which she did use as she was writing of it,
1935 It bears an angry tenor: pardon me,
1936 I am but as a guiltless messenger.
Rosalind
1937 Patience herself would startle at this letter,
1938 And play the swaggerer; bear this, bear all:
1939 She says I am not fair; that I lack manners;
1940 She calls me proud, and that she could not love me,
1941 Were man as rare as Phoenix. Od's my will!
1942 Her love is not the hare that I do hunt;
1943 Why writes she so to me?—Well, shepherd, well,
1944 This is a letter of your own device.
Silvius
1945 No, I protest, I know not the contents: Phebe did write it.
Rosalind
1946 Come, come, you are a fool,
1947 And turn'd into the extremity of love.
1948 I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand,
1949 A freestone-colour'd hand: I verily did think
1950 That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;
1951 She has a huswife's hand: but that's no matter:
1952 I say she never did invent this letter:
1953 This is a man's invention, and his hand.
Silvius
1954 Sure, it is hers.
Rosalind
1955 Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel style;
1956 A style for challengers: why, she defies me,
1957 Like Turk to Christian: women's gentle brain
1958 Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention,
1959 Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect
1960 Than in their countenance.—Will you hear the letter?
Silvius
1961 So please you, for I never heard it yet;
1962 Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty.
Rosalind
1963 She Phebes me: mark how the tyrant writes.
[Reads]
Rosalind
1964 'Art thou god to shepherd turn'd,
1965 That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?'
Rosalind
1966 Can a woman rail thus?
Silvius
1967 Call you this railing?
Rosalind
1968 'Why, thy godhead laid apart,
1969 Warr'st thou with a woman's heart?'
Rosalind
1970 Did you ever hear such railing?
Rosalind
1971 'Whiles the eye of man did woo me,
1972 That could do no vengeance to me.'—
Rosalind
1973 Meaning me a beast.—
Rosalind
1974 'If the scorn of your bright eyne
1975 Have power to raise such love in mine,
1976 Alack, in me what strange effect
1977 Would they work in mild aspect?
1978 Whiles you chid me, I did love;
1979 How then might your prayers move?
1980 He that brings this love to thee
1981 Little knows this love in me:
1982 And by him seal up thy mind;
1983 Whether that thy youth and kind
1984 Will the faithful offer take
1985 Of me and all that I can make;
1986 Or else by him my love deny,
1987 And then I'll study how to die.'
Silvius
1988 Call you this chiding?
Celia
1989 Alas, poor shepherd!
Rosalind
1990 Do you pity him? no, he deserves no pity.—Wilt thou love
1991 such a woman?—What, to make thee an instrument, and play false
1992 strains upon thee! Not to be endured!—Well, go your way to her,
1993 —for I see love hath made thee a tame snake,—and say this to
1994 her;—that if she love me, I charge her to love thee; if she will
1995 not, I will never have her unless thou entreat for her.—If you
1996 be a true lover, hence, and not a word; for here comes more
1997 company.
[Exit SILVIUS.]
[Enter OLIVER.]
Oliver
1998 Good morrow, fair ones: pray you, if you know,
1999 Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
2000 A sheep-cote fenc'd about with olive trees?
Celia
2001 West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom:
2002 The rank of osiers, by the murmuring stream,
2003 Left on your right hand, brings you to the place.
2004 But at this hour the house doth keep itself;
2005 There's none within.
Oliver
2006 If that an eye may profit by a tongue,
2007 Then should I know you by description;
2008 Such garments, and such years: 'The boy is fair,
2009 Of female favour, and bestows himself
2010 Like a ripe sister: the woman low,
2011 And browner than her brother.' Are not you
2012 The owner of the house I did inquire for?
Celia
2013 It is no boast, being ask'd, to say we are.
Oliver
2014 Orlando doth commend him to you both;
2015 And to that youth he calls his Rosalind
2016 He sends this bloody napkin:—are you he?
Rosalind
2017 I am: what must we understand by this?
Oliver
2018 Some of my shame; if you will know of me
2019 What man I am, and how, and why, and where,
2020 This handkerchief was stain'd.
Celia
2021 I pray you, tell it.
Oliver
2022 When last the young Orlando parted from you,
2023 He left a promise to return again
2024 Within an hour; and, pacing through the forest,
2025 Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
2026 Lo, what befell! he threw his eye aside,
2027 And, mark, what object did present itself!
2028 Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age,
2029 And high top bald with dry antiquity,
2030 A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
2031 Lay sleeping on his back: about his neck
2032 A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself,
2033 Who, with her head nimble in threats, approach'd
2034 The opening of his mouth; but suddenly,
2035 Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself,
2036 And with indented glides did slip away
2037 Into a bush: under which bush's shade
2038 A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,
2039 Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch,
2040 When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis
2041 The royal disposition of that beast
2042 To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead:
2043 This seen, Orlando did approach the man,
2044 And found it was his brother, his elder brother.
Celia
2045 O, I have heard him speak of that same brother;
2046 And he did render him the most unnatural
2047 That liv'd amongst men.
Oliver
2048 And well he might so do,
2049 For well I know he was unnatural.
Rosalind
2050 But, to Orlando:—did he leave him there,
2051 Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?
Oliver
2052 Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd so;
2053 But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
2054 And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
2055 Made him give battle to the lioness,
2056 Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling
2057 From miserable slumber I awak'd.
Celia
2058 Are you his brother?
Rosalind
2059 Was it you he rescued?
Celia
2060 Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him?
Oliver
2061 'Twas I; but 'tis not I: I do not shame
2062 To tell you what I was, since my conversion
2063 So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.
Rosalind
2064 But, for the bloody napkin?—
Oliver
2065 By and by.
2066 When from the first to last, betwixt us two,
2067 Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd,
2068 As, how I came into that desert place;—
2069 In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,
2070 Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
2071 Committing me unto my brother's love,
2072 Who led me instantly unto his cave,
2073 There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
2074 The lioness had torn some flesh away,
2075 Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
2076 And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.
2077 Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound,
2078 And, after some small space, being strong at heart,
2079 He sent me hither, stranger as I am,
2080 To tell this story, that you might excuse
2081 His broken promise, and to give this napkin,
2082 Dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd-youth
2083 That he in sport doth call his Rosalind.
[ROSALIND faints.]
Celia
2084 Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede!
Oliver
2085 Many will swoon when they do look on blood.
Celia
2086 There is more in it:—Cousin—Ganymede!
Oliver
2087 Look, he recovers.
Rosalind
2088 I would I were at home.
Celia
2089 We'll lead you thither:—
2090 I pray you, will you take him by the arm?
Oliver
2091 Be of good cheer, youth:—you a man?—You lack a man's heart.
Rosalind
2092 I do so, I confess it. Ah, sir, a body would think
2093 this was well counterfeited. I pray you tell your brother how
2094 well I counterfeited.—Heigh-ho!—
Oliver
2095 This was not counterfeit; there is too great testimony
2096 in your complexion that it was a passion of earnest.
Rosalind
2097 Counterfeit, I assure you.
Oliver
2098 Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man.
Rosalind
2099 So I do: but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by right.
Celia
2100 Come, you look paler and paler: pray you draw homewards.—
2101 Good sir, go with us.
Oliver
2102 That will I, for I must bear answer back
2103 How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.
Rosalind
2104 I shall devise something: but, I pray you, commend my
2105 counterfeiting to him.—Will you go?
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1941classical allusion
“man as rare as Phoenix”
The Phoenix was a mythical bird of which only one existed in all the world at any time; it lived for hundreds of years, then burst into flames and was reborn from its own ashes. To call a man 'as rare as the Phoenix' is to say he would be literally unique. Phebe's letter is thus complaining that even if men were vanishingly scarce she would not love 'Ganymede.'
TLN 1941archaic vocab
“Od's my will”
'Od's' is a contracted form of 'God's,' used in mild oaths to avoid the sacrilege of directly taking God's name. 'Od's my will' means something like 'God's will be done' or, more colloquially, 'Good heavens.' It was a common Elizabethan expletive of surprise or indignation.
TLN 1948archaic vocab
“leathern hand: a freestone-colour'd hand”
'Leathern' means leather-like, tough and roughened from outdoor work. 'Freestone-colour'd' means the brownish-grey colour of freestone, a soft sandstone used in building, giving it a weather-beaten, calloused look. 'Huswife's hand' (line 1951) means the hand of a working housewife, hardened by domestic labour. Rosalind is sarcastically proving, from the physical evidence of the letter, that Phebe — a working shepherdess — could not have composed such a 'boisterous and cruel style.'
TLN 1956historical topical
“she defies me, Like Turk to Christian”
The Ottoman ('Turkish') empire and Christian Europe were in a state of near-constant warfare throughout the sixteenth century, and 'Turk' was an Elizabethan byword for an implacable, ruthless enemy. To defy someone 'like Turk to Christian' is to invoke the most absolute imaginable hostility — two sides with nothing in common and no possibility of mercy.
TLN 1963wordplay
“She Phebes me”
Rosalind coins a new verb on the spot: 'to Phebe' someone is to treat them with Phebe's characteristic disdain — to be cold and scornful like the shepherdess who rejects all suitors. The joke is at Silvius's expense too, since Phebe has turned her scorn on 'Ganymede' rather than on him. Shakespeare often turns proper names into verbs for comic effect.
TLN 1964classical allusion
“Art thou god to shepherd turn'd”
Phebe's letter casts 'Ganymede' as a god who has disguised himself as a shepherd to walk among mortals — a recurring motif in classical myth, where gods take human or pastoral form to approach mortals they desire. The most pointed parallel is Apollo, who served as a shepherd for King Admetus as a divine punishment; but the question also glances at Jove's pursuit of Ganymede, whose name Rosalind is wearing as her disguise.
classical Ganymede, cupbearer of Jove
TLN 1974archaic vocab
“scorn of your bright eyne”
'Eyne' is a poetic plural of 'eye,' already archaic in Shakespeare's day but kept alive in verse for its elegiac and romantic sound. It appears here inside Phebe's letter, which is written in rhymed couplets — a signal that it is a love-poem as much as a letter, and Phebe is deploying the worn vocabulary of the lovelorn Petrarchan lover.
historical Petrarch and the Petrarchan lover
TLN 1993archaic vocab
“love hath made thee a tame snake”
Rosalind is calling Silvius a harmless, spineless creature — the sort of man who meekly delivers his beloved's cruel letter to her rival and then waits for instructions. A 'tame snake' is a kept, defanged serpent, incapable of the danger or pride one might expect: the opposite of the 'waspish action' and fierceness Rosalind has just described Phebe displaying as she wrote.
TLN 1999archaic vocab
“in the purlieus of this forest”
'Purlieus' (singular: 'purlieu') are the outlying parts of a forest — the fringe land where the forest blends into cultivated or open ground. Specifically in English law, a purlieu was land once included in a royal forest but later disafforested, which retained certain forest customs. Oliver is asking for the location of a sheep-cote that sits on the forest's edge.
TLN 2025rhetorical device
“Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy”
Oliver describes Orlando walking through the forest lost in lovesick thoughts — 'fancy' here means love or romantic longing. The phrase uses the image of a ruminating animal chewing its cud to capture the repetitive, slow turning-over of a lover's mixed feelings ('sweet and bitter' because love brings both joy and anguish). It is a compressed metaphor that tells us Orlando's mind was entirely on Rosalind as he walked.
TLN 2032cultural context
“green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself”
The scene of a sleeping man threatened by a snake coiling toward his mouth, then a lioness crouching nearby, is a deliberate piece of emblematic natural history — a double danger that requires a hero to rescue his sleeping enemy. Renaissance natural history (Pliny, Topsell) held that a snake entering a sleeping person's mouth was a recognized peril; the lioness's attribute (below) adds a second emblem. Together they stage Orlando's decision as a test of magnanimity.
TLN 2041cultural context
“royal disposition of that beast To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead”
Oliver states it as a fact of natural history that a lion will not attack anything that appears to be dead — only living prey. This belief (that lions are too noble to strike what is motionless and seemingly lifeless) was a commonplace of Elizabethan natural history writing, representing the lion as a creature of royal magnanimity that disdains ignoble kills. Oliver's sleeping body therefore survives only because he looked dead.
TLN 2053rhetorical device
“kindness, nobler ever than revenge”
Oliver encapsulates Orlando's moral victory in a sententious couplet: both 'kindness' (benevolent feeling toward kin — 'kind' derives from 'kin,' the same nature) and 'nature' (natural love of family) overcame Orlando's 'just occasion' for revenge against the brother who had tried to kill him. The phrase 'nobler ever than revenge' is a deliberate moral maxim — a pithy general truth — of the kind that the genre of comedy uses to mark a character's conversion.
TLN 2084cultural context
“sweet Ganymede”
Rosalind faints at the sight of Orlando's blood-stained handkerchief, involuntarily breaking her male disguise. When she recovers, she scrambles to explain it away: the swoon was 'counterfeited' — an act, a piece of performance. Oliver, watching, does not believe her. The scene turns on the collision between her real feelings and the role she has been playing, and it is the first time her composure as 'Ganymede' fully cracks.
classical Ganymede, cupbearer of Jove