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As You Like It - Act 3, scene 5
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As You Like It - Act 3, scene 5Act 3, scene 5
Scene 5
Synopsis:
“Ganymede” intervenes to try to help Silvius prevail over Phoebe and win her love. Instead, Phoebe falls in love with “Ganymede.”
Enter Silvius and Phoebe.SILVIUS
1799 Sweet Phoebe, do not scorn me. Do not, Phoebe.
1800 Say that you love me not, but say not so
1801 In bitterness. The common executioner,
1802 Whose heart th’ accustomed sight of death makes
1803 5 hard,
1804 Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck
1805 But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be
1806 Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?
Enter, ⌜unobserved,⌝ Rosalind ⌜as Ganymede,⌝ Celia ⌜as
Aliena,⌝ and Corin.
PHOEBE
1807 I would not be thy executioner.
1808 10 I fly thee, for I would not injure thee.
1809 Thou tell’st me there is murder in mine eye.
1810 ’Tis pretty, sure, and very probable
1811 That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things,
1812 Who shut their coward gates on atomies,
1813 15 Should be called tyrants, butchers, murderers.
1814 Now I do frown on thee with all my heart,
1815 And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee.
1816 Now counterfeit to swoon; why, now fall down;
1817 Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,
1818 20 Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers.
1819 Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee.
1820 Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains
1821 Some scar of it. Lean upon a rush,
1822 The cicatrice and capable impressure
1823 25 Thy palm some moment keeps. But now mine eyes,
1824 Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not;
1825 Nor I am sure there is no force in eyes
1826 That can do hurt.
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SILVIUS
1827
O dear Phoebe,1828 30 If ever—as that ever may be near—
1829 You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy,
1830 Then shall you know the wounds invisible
1831 That love’s keen arrows make.
PHOEBE 1832 But till that time
1833 35 Come not thou near me. And when that time
1834 comes,
1835 Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not,
1836 As till that time I shall not pity thee.
ROSALIND, ⌜as Ganymede, coming forward⌝
1837 And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
1838 40 That you insult, exult, and all at once,
1839 Over the wretched? What though you have no
1840 beauty—
1841 As, by my faith, I see no more in you
1842 Than without candle may go dark to bed—
1843 45 Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
1844 Why, what means this? Why do you look on me?
1845 I see no more in you than in the ordinary
1846 Of nature’s sale-work.—’Od’s my little life,
1847 I think she means to tangle my eyes, too.—
1848 50 No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it.
1849 ’Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
1850 Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream
1851 That can entame my spirits to your worship.—
1852 You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
1853 55 Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain?
1854 You are a thousand times a properer man
1855 Than she a woman. ’Tis such fools as you
1856 That makes the world full of ill-favored children.
1857 ’Tis not her glass but you that flatters her,
1858 60 And out of you she sees herself more proper
1859 Than any of her lineaments can show her.—
1860 But, mistress, know yourself. Down on your knees
1861 And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love,
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133
1862
For I must tell you friendly in your ear,1863 65 Sell when you can; you are not for all markets.
1864 Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer.
1865 Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.—
1866 So take her to thee, shepherd. Fare you well.
PHOEBE
1867 Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together.
1868 70 I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
ROSALIND,⌜as Ganymede⌝ 1869 He’s fall’n in love with your
1870 foulness. (⌜To Silvius.⌝) And she’ll fall in love with
1871 my anger. If it be so, as fast as she answers thee with
1872 frowning looks, I’ll sauce her with bitter words. (⌜To
Phoebe.⌝) 1873 75Why look you so upon me?
PHOEBE 1874 For no ill will I bear you.
ROSALIND, ⌜as Ganymede⌝
1875 I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
1876 For I am falser than vows made in wine.
1877 Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,
1878 80 ’Tis at the tuft of olives, here hard by.—
1879 Will you go, sister?—Shepherd, ply her hard.—
1880 Come, sister.—Shepherdess, look on him better,
1881 And be not proud. Though all the world could see,
1882 None could be so abused in sight as he.—
1883 85 Come, to our flock.
She exits, ⌜with Celia and Corin.⌝
PHOEBE, ⌜aside⌝
1884 Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:
1885 “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”
SILVIUS
1886 Sweet Phoebe—
PHOEBE 1887 Ha, what sayst thou, Silvius?
SILVIUS 1888 90Sweet Phoebe, pity me.
PHOEBE
1889 Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.
SILVIUS
1890 Wherever sorrow is, relief would be.
p.
135
1891
If you do sorrow at my grief in love,1892 By giving love your sorrow and my grief
1893 95 Were both extermined.
PHOEBE
1894 Thou hast my love. Is not that neighborly?
SILVIUS
1895 I would have you.
PHOEBE 1896 Why, that were covetousness.
1897 Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
1898 100 And yet it is not that I bear thee love;
1899 But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
1900 Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
1901 I will endure, and I’ll employ thee too.
1902 But do not look for further recompense
1903 105 Than thine own gladness that thou art employed.
SILVIUS
1904 So holy and so perfect is my love,
1905 And I in such a poverty of grace,
1906 That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
1907 To glean the broken ears after the man
1908 110 That the main harvest reaps. Loose now and then
1909 A scattered smile, and that I’ll live upon.
PHOEBE
1910 Know’st thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile?
SILVIUS
1911 Not very well, but I have met him oft,
1912 And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds
1913 115 That the old carlot once was master of.
PHOEBE
1914 Think not I love him, though I ask for him.
1915 ’Tis but a peevish boy—yet he talks well—
1916 But what care I for words? Yet words do well
1917 When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
1918 120 It is a pretty youth—not very pretty—
1919 But sure he’s proud—and yet his pride becomes
1920 him.
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1921
He’ll make a proper man. The best thing in him1922 Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
1923 125 Did make offense, his eye did heal it up.
1924 He is not very tall—yet for his years he’s tall.
1925 His leg is but so-so—and yet ’tis well.
1926 There was a pretty redness in his lip,
1927 A little riper and more lusty red
1928 130 Than that mixed in his cheek: ’twas just the
1929 difference
1930 Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
1931 There be some women, Silvius, had they marked
1932 him
1933 135 In parcels as I did, would have gone near
1934 To fall in love with him; but for my part
1935 I love him not nor hate him not; and yet
1936 ⌜I⌝ have more cause to hate him than to love him.
1937 For what had he to do to chide at me?
1938 140 He said mine eyes were black and my hair black,
1939 And now I am remembered, scorned at me.
1940 I marvel why I answered not again.
1941 But that’s all one: omittance is no quittance.
1942 I’ll write to him a very taunting letter,
1943 145 And thou shalt bear it. Wilt thou, Silvius?
SILVIUS
1944 Phoebe, with all my heart.
PHOEBE 1945 I’ll write it straight.
1946 The matter’s in my head and in my heart.
1947 I will be bitter with him and passing short.
1948 150 Go with me, Silvius.
They exit.