Enter Rosalind dressed as Ganymede and Celia
dressed as Aliena. ROSALIND How say you now? Is it not past two o’clock?
And here much Orlando. CELIA I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain
he hath ta’en his bow and arrows and is gone forth
to sleep. 5 Enter Silvius. Look who comes here. SILVIUS, to Rosalind
My errand is to you, fair youth.
My gentle Phoebe did bid me give you this. He gives Rosalind a paper. I know not the contents, but as I guess
By the stern brow and waspish action 10
Which she did use as she was writing of it,
It bears an angry tenor. Pardon me.
I am but as a guiltless messenger. Rosalind reads the letter. ROSALIND, as Ganymede
Patience herself would startle at this letter
And play the swaggerer. Bear this, bear all. 15
She says I am not fair, that I lack manners.
She calls me proud, and that she could not love me
Were man as rare as phoenix. ’Od’s my will,
Her love is not the hare that I do hunt.
Why writes she so to me? Well, shepherd, well, 20
This is a letter of your own device. SILVIUS
No, I protest. I know not the contents.
Phoebe did write it. ROSALIND, as Ganymede Come, come, you are a
fool, 25
And turned into the extremity of love.
I saw her hand. She has a leathern hand,
A freestone-colored hand. I verily did think
That her old gloves were on, but ’twas her hands.
She has a huswife’s hand—but that’s no matter. 30
I say she never did invent this letter.
This is a man’s invention, and his hand. SILVIUS Sure it is hers. ROSALIND, as Ganymede
Why, ’tis a boisterous and a cruel style,
A style for challengers. Why, she defies me 35
Like Turk to Christian. Women’s gentle brain
Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention,
Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect
Than in their countenance. Will you hear the letter? SILVIUS
So please you, for I never heard it yet, 40
Yet heard too much of Phoebe’s cruelty. ROSALIND, as Ganymede
She Phoebes me. Mark how the tyrant writes.
(Read.)
"Art thou god to shepherd turned,
That a maiden’s heart hath burned?"
Can a woman rail thus? 45 SILVIUS Call you this railing? ROSALIND, as Ganymede
(Read.)
"Why, thy godhead laid apart,
Warr’st thou with a woman’s heart?"
Did you ever hear such railing?
"Whiles the eye of man did woo me, 50
That could do no vengeance to me."
Meaning me a beast.
"If the scorn of your bright eyne
Have power to raise such love in mine,
Alack, in me what strange effect 55
Would they work in mild aspect?
Whiles you chid me, I did love.
How then might your prayers move?
He that brings this love to thee
Little knows this love in me, 60
And by him seal up thy mind
Whether that thy youth and kind
Will the faithful offer take
Of me, and all that I can make,
Or else by him my love deny, 65
And then I’ll study how to die." SILVIUS Call you this chiding? CELIA, as Aliena Alas, poor shepherd. ROSALIND, as Ganymede Do you pity him? No, he
deserves no pity.—Wilt thou love such a woman? 70
What, to make thee an instrument and play false
strains upon thee? Not to be endured. Well, go your
way to her, for I see love hath made thee a tame
snake, and say this to her: that if she love me, I
charge her to love thee; if she will not, I will never 75
have her unless thou entreat for her. If you be a true
lover, hence, and not a word, for here comes more
company. Silvius exits. | Over two hours later, Rosalind/Ganymede and Celia/Aliena ponder over Orlando, who hasn't shown up yet. Silvius enters, with a letter from Phoebe to "Ganymede." Rosalind reads the thing and is shocked by the contents and accuses Silvius of forging the letter The letter, by the way, basically says "You were really mean to me and I love you for it. If you don't love me back, I'll die." Worst of all, Phoebe writes that Ganymede can send his response to her through Silvius. Poor Silvius! Rosalind, tells Silvius to give Phoebe some instructions: If Phoebe loves Ganymede, then Ganymede commands her to love Silvius. If she won't do that, then Ganymede won't take her, unless Silvius convinces him to take her. Um…OK. Silvius leaves with the message. |
Enter Oliver. OLIVER
Good morrow, fair ones. Pray you, if you know,
Where in the purlieus of this forest stands 80
A sheepcote fenced about with olive trees? CELIA, as Aliena
West of this place, down in the neighbor bottom;
The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand brings you to the place.
But at this hour the house doth keep itself. 85
There’s none within. OLIVER
If that an eye may profit by a tongue,
Then should I know you by description—
Such garments, and such years. “The boy is fair,
Of female favor, and bestows himself 90
Like a ripe sister; the woman low
And browner than her brother.” Are not you
The owner of the house I did inquire for? CELIA, as Aliena
It is no boast, being asked, to say we are. OLIVER
Orlando doth commend him to you both, 95
And to that youth he calls his Rosalind
He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he? He shows a stained handkerchief. ROSALIND, as Ganymede
I am. What must we understand by this? OLIVER
Some of my shame, if you will know of me
What man I am, and how, and why, and where 100
This handkercher was stained. CELIA, as Aliena I pray you tell it. OLIVER
When last the young Orlando parted from you,
He left a promise to return again
Within an hour, and pacing through the forest, 105
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befell. He threw his eye aside—
And mark what object did present itself:
Under an old oak, whose boughs were mossed with
age 110
And high top bald with dry antiquity,
A wretched, ragged man, o’ergrown with hair,
Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck
A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats, approached 115
The opening of his mouth. But suddenly,
Seeing Orlando, it unlinked itself
And, with indented glides, did slip away
Into a bush, under which bush’s shade
A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, 120
Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch
When that the sleeping man should stir—for ’tis
The royal disposition of that beast
To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.
This seen, Orlando did approach the man 125
And found it was his brother, his elder brother. CELIA, as Aliena
O, I have heard him speak of that same brother,
And he did render him the most unnatural
That lived amongst men. OLIVER And well he might so do, 130
For well I know he was unnatural. ROSALIND, as Ganymede
But to Orlando: did he leave him there,
Food to the sucked and hungry lioness? OLIVER
Twice did he turn his back and purposed so,
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge, 135
And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,
Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling,
From miserable slumber I awaked. CELIA, as Aliena Are you his brother? 140 ROSALIND, as Ganymede Was ’t you he rescued? CELIA, as Aliena
Was ’t you that did so oft contrive to kill him? OLIVER
’Twas I, but ’tis not I. I do not shame
To tell you what I was, since my conversion
So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. | Oliver, Orlando's older brother, shows up in the forest. He's been trying to find these two (Ganymede and Aliena) in particular, and recognizes Ganymede, who has been described as fair and effeminate with a short sister. It turns out that Oliver has just come from a visit with Orlando, who has recently been wounded by an angry mama lion. Oliver hands over a bloody napkin as proof. Rosalind/Ganymede is just as confused as we are, until Oliver explains what's been going on. After Orlando left Ganymede, he discovered a ragged man sleeping under an oak. A snake was wrapped around the man's neck, but when the snake saw Orlando, it got scared and slithered away. But the man was still in danger because there was a hungry lioness waiting nearby. Orlando realized the sleeping man was his brother and almost left him to his death, but he couldn't. Instead, Orlando fought the lion and saved his wicked brother's life. Oliver admits that he is the wicked brother in the story, but he says he's undergone a "conversion," and no longer feels like murdering his brother. |
ROSALIND, as Ganymede
But for the bloody napkin? OLIVER By and by.
When from the first to last betwixt us two
Tears our recountments had most kindly bathed—
As how I came into that desert place— 150
In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother’s love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripped himself, and here upon his arm 155
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
And cried in fainting upon Rosalind.
Brief, I recovered him, bound up his wound,
And after some small space, being strong at heart, 160
He sent me hither, stranger as I am,
To tell this story, that you might excuse
His broken promise, and to give this napkin
Dyed in his blood unto the shepherd youth
That he in sport doth call his Rosalind. 165 Rosalind faints. CELIA, as Aliena
Why, how now, Ganymede, sweet Ganymede? OLIVER
Many will swoon when they do look on blood. CELIA, as Aliena
There is more in it.—Cousin Ganymede. OLIVER Look, he recovers. ROSALIND I would I were at home. 170 CELIA, as Aliena We’ll lead you thither.—I pray you,
will you take him by the arm? OLIVER, helping Rosalind to rise Be of good cheer,
youth. You a man? You lack a man’s heart. ROSALIND, as Ganymede I do so, I confess it. Ah, 175
sirrah, a body would think this was well-counterfeited.
I pray you tell your brother how well I
counterfeited. Heigh-ho. OLIVER This was not counterfeit. There is too great
testimony in your complexion that it was a passion 180
of earnest. ROSALIND, as Ganymede Counterfeit, I assure you. OLIVER Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to
be a man. ROSALIND, as Ganymede So I do; but, i’ faith, I should 185
have been a woman by right. CELIA, as Aliena Come, you look paler and paler. Pray
you draw homewards.—Good sir, go with us. OLIVER
That will I, for I must bear answer back
How you excuse my brother, Rosalind. 190 ROSALIND, as Ganymede I shall devise something.
But I pray you commend my counterfeiting to him.
Will you go? They exit. | Um...what about the bloody handkerchief? Right. Well, everything is great now, except that Orlando didn't fare so well and fainted from a wound he received while fighting the lioness. Rosalind, on hearing this whole story, "swoons" (faints). As she recovers, she remembers her masculine disguise, and that men aren't really supposed to swoon. Oliver teases "Ganymede" for acting like a girl. Rosalind/Ganymede laughs it off, saying she did a good job of acting like a woman there, which was part of her master plan. Ho, ho, ho. Oliver doesn't buy it, and recommends that the next time the boy pretends, he should pretend to be a man. (Snarky, or uniquely perceptive among those in the forest? Your call.) Celia, concerned with all the fainting, tries to get Rosalind/Ganymede home. |