Act 5, Scene 3

Frontiers of Mantua. The forest.

[Enter OUTLAWS with SILVA.]
First Outlaw
2008 Come, come.
2009 Be patient; we must bring you to our captain.
Silvia
2010 A thousand more mischances than this one
2011 Have learn'd me how to brook this patiently.
Second Outlaw
2012 Come, bring her away.
First Outlaw
2013 Where is the gentleman that was with her?
Second Outlaw
2014 Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us;
2015 But Moyses and Valerius follow him.
2016 Go thou with her to the west end of the wood;
2017 There is our captain; we'll follow him that's fled.
2018 The thicket is beset; he cannot 'scape.
[Exeunt all except the First Outlaw and SYLVIA.]
First Outlaw
2019 Come, I must bring you to our captain's cave.
2020 Fear not; he bears an honourable mind,
2021 And will not use a woman lawlessly.
Silvia
2022 O Valentine, this I endure for thee!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2011archaic vocab
“learn'd me how to brook this patiently”
'Brook' means to endure or put up with something. Silvia is saying that suffering so many earlier misfortunes has taught her to bear this new one calmly. The phrase 'learn'd me' (taught me) is also an archaic construction; modern usage would be 'taught me.'
TLN 2015cultural context
“Moyses and Valerius follow him”
Moyses and Valerius are the only members of the outlaw band given individual names. The detail — specific men with names and assigned tasks — gives the forest outlaws the feel of an organised company, like the Merry Men of the Robin Hood ballads. Earlier in the play the outlaws explicitly compare their greenwood life to 'the old Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest' (4.1).
historical Robin Hood and the greenwood
TLN 2018archaic vocab
“The thicket is beset”
'Beset' here means surrounded or blockaded on all sides. The Second Outlaw is assuring his companions that Eglamour cannot escape the forest because every exit is covered.
TLN 2020archaic vocab
“he bears an honourable mind, And will not use a woman lawlessly”
'Use a woman lawlessly' is an Elizabethan phrase for sexual assault. The outlaw is reassuring Silvia that Valentine, their captain, will not harm her. The phrase carries more weight than it might appear: the word 'lawlessly' covers rape as well as any other violence, and the assurance anticipates — and darkly fails to prevent — Proteus's attempted assault on Silvia in the very next scene (5.4).
historical Robin Hood and the greenwood