the man mercy, love him, take his offer;
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.
So take her to thee, shepherd. Fare you well.
Phe.
Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together,
I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
Ros. He’s fall’n in love with your foulness—and she’ll fall in love with my anger. If it be so, as fast as she answers thee with frowning looks, I’ll sauce her with bitter words.—Why look you so upon me?
Phe. For no ill will I bear you.
Ros.
I pray you do not fall in love with me,
For I am falser than vows made in wine.
Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,
’Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by.
Will you go, sister? Shepherd, ply her hard.
Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better,
And be not proud; though all the world could see,
None could be so abus’d in sight as he.
Come, to our flock.
Exit [with Celia and Corin].
Phe.
Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,
“Who ever lov’d that lov’d not at first sight?”
Sil.
Sweet Phebe—
Phe.
Hah! what say’st thou, Silvius?
Sil.
Sweet Phebe, pity me.
Phe.
Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius.
Sil.
Where ever sorrow is, relief would be.
If you do sorrow at my grief in love,
By giving love, your sorrow and my grief
Were both extermin’d.
Phe.
Thou hast my love; is not that neighborly?
Sil.
I would have you.
Phe.
Why, that were covetousness.
Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
And yet it is not that I bear thee love,
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure; and I’ll employ thee too.
But do not look for further recompense
Than thine own gladness that thou art employ’d.
Sil.
So holy and so perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
To glean the broken ears after the man
That the main harvest reaps. Loose now and then
A scatt’red smile, and that I’ll live upon.
Phe.
Know’st thou the youth that spoke to me yerwhile?
Sil.
Not very well, but I have met him oft,
And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds
That the old carlot once was master of.
Phe.
Think not I love him, though I ask for him;
’Tis but a peevish boy—yet he talks well—
But what care I for words? Yet words do well
When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
It is a pretty youth—not very pretty—
But sure he’s proud—and yet his pride becomes him.
He’ll make a proper man. The best thing in him
Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue
Did make offense, his eye did heal it up.
He is not very tall—yet for his years he’s tall;
His leg is but so so—and yet ’tis well;
There was a pretty redness in his lip,
A little riper and more lusty red
Than that mix’d in his cheek; ’twas just the difference
Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
There be some women, Silvius, had they mark’d him
In parcels as I did, would have gone near
To fall in love with him; but for my part
I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet
Have more cause to hate him than to love him,
For what had he to do to chide at me?
He said mine eyes were black and my hair black,
And, now I am rememb’red, scorn’d at me.
I marvel why I answer’d not again.
But that’s all one;
