top of page

Act IV: French Scene 2

travaile: "travel" and "travail" were interchangeably spelled. Here, Rosalind outwardly means "travel" but puns on 'travail' meaning "labor"

God buy you: goodbye

blanke verse: Jaques is quick to notice Orlando's pentameter

serve me such another tricke: If Orlando serves (assults) Rosalind with another tricke (affront, a wrong, an injury), he will never serve her (render her a sexual service) with a tricke (copulation). If Orlando isn't careful he will lose the opportunity to come (achieve orgasm, body contact, or sexual connection) in Rosalind's site (the female parts).

Breake an houres promise: Because Orlando has not kept his appointment, his promise is no better than an houres (a whore's)

Cupid hath clapt him oth'shoulder: Cupid has caught his attention (as a sergeant arrests a criminal)

warrant him heart hole: guarantee not wounded in the heart; Orlando is heart hole (uninjured at heart) because Cupid's arrow hath clapt (hit, struck) his shoulder instead of making a hole (wound) in his heart. Rosalind also implies that Orlando is an insincere heart hole (asshole) therefore Cupid has clapt him (given him the clap, or venereal taint) oth'shoulder (i.e. on his ass and/or testicles; in leather the shoulder is the portion of the hide between the butt and the cheeks).

verie: true, real; Ganymede/Rosalind also "varies" (changes gender presentation) 

gravel'd: nonplussed, stuck (like a ship run aground); An orator who suffers a lack of matter will be put to silence, or be stuck. An orator is also a vigorous fornicator (whore = "or" "ator", "one who does a whore"). If an orator (fornicator) might suffer a lacke of matter (semen) he could not take a woman's occasion (vagina) but he might at least take occasioon to kisse.

occasion: opportunity

entreatie: pleading; If a man's kiss is denide he must then "entreat" (beg amorously). The woman's denial gives him a) new matter (something new to talk about) and b) new matter (sexual vigor or appetite).

in her person: speaking on her behalf

by Attorney: by proxy, have a lawyer act for you; If Rosalind will not sleep with Orlando, he could easily find an Attorney ("Procurer": pimp or bawd). Thus he would die (orgasm) by Attourney ("by a tourney" or sexual intercourse).

six thousand yeeres old: Biblical scholars estimated this age for the world, which was thought to be decaying

died in his owne person: who died in real life

videlicet: meaning "namely" in Latin, like any good Attorney Rosalind intersperses her arguments with Latin phrases 

men have died: Men have died (experienced orgasm) from time to time, and wormes (venereal diseases such as syphilis) have eaten them, but this was due to lust, not love.

right: true

of this mind: thinking like this

protest: declare

comming-on: approachable; Rosalind will be of comming-on (sexually forward) disposition, like "Coming-women" (free of their Flesh, breeding women). She will also be of a disposition (sexual inclination) more suitable for achieving comming-on (sexual orgasm).

I will grant it: Rosalind will grant Orlando anything, even if he asks her to grant him her what (pudend).

fridaies and saterdaies: Rosalind will love Orlando whether she is "Friday-faced" (melancholy, sour-featured) or indulging in "Saturday-wit" (lewd or bawdy talk). Fridays and Saturdays were the days appointed by the church for fasting, but Rosalind would agree to make love to Orlando anytime, despite an injunction to "fast" (sexually abstain).

have: a) have in marriage, b) have sexually; Rosalind plays on the latter meaning in the line following.

can one desire too much of a good thing: Proverbially "A man make take too much of a good thing"; the specific thing Rosalind desires is a good (virile, sexually potent) thing (penis).

I cannot say the words: Celia has good reason to hesistate, for Rosalind is in a way tricking Orlando into marriage: even without a Priest "The contract per verba de praesenti... by which the pair exchanged before witnesses such phrases as 'I do take thee to my wife' and 'I do take thee to my husband,' was regarded in ecclesiastical law as an irrevocable commitment which could never be broken, and which nullified a later church wedding to someone else". Moreover, "sexual intercourse was permitted to take place immediately after the formal public betrothal" so a verbal contract would allow Orlando and Rosalind to consummate their union.

Goe to: that's enough

Commission: authority

runs before her actions: She is perhaps anxious to be announced because her thought (of consummating the marriage) runs before (anticipates) her actions (sexual intercourse).

possest her: a) married her b) had intercourse with her

when they are maides: while they are virgins; Maides are May when they are maides (unmarried). However, once they are wives the sky changes as quickly as it does during May, a month traditionally associated with changeable weather. She is again asserting that women are extremely capricious.

Barbary cocke-pigeon: Barbary: North African; cocke-pigeon: male pigeon, male pigeons were said to be very possessive of their mates

against: before; a Parrat cries out in expectation of rain. The Parrat was also extremely lecherous, so Rosalind hints that she will be clamorous for Orlando's raine (seminal emission).

new-fang-led: fond of novelty; Rosalind will also be new-fangled (steady of purpose) then an ape (nymphomaniac).

giddy: changeable; Her desires (sexual appetite, lust) will make her more giddy (lustful, wanton) with her monkey (female pudendum) then a monkey (symbol of lechery)

Diana in the fountaine: A possible reference to a fountain with a statue of Diana, goddess of chastity, which was erected in London in 1595. Diana was a popular figure in fountains, probably because the ancient tale of Diana bathing in the fountain was a convenient excuse to depict a nude woman. Rosalind also hints at the changes that Diana (the Moon) will effect in her Fountaine (vagina) at the pre-menstrual syndrome that will make her weepe for nothing.

laugh like a Hyena: Even if Orlando is inclin'd (disposed to love-making) to sleepe (have sex) Rosalind will stilll laugh (make love) adulterously like a Hyena (an unfaithful wife, the hyena symbolized adultery and fornication). The hyena in particular also hints at Rosalind's disguise, first as a creature known for facility with impersonation and imitation, as Rosalind immitates, attracts, and captures a man. Similar to the beliefs about the hare, it was believed at this time that the hyena could change its sex from year to year. Shakespeare may have seen this noted in Ovid's Metamorphoses: "But if that any noveltye woorth woondring bee in theis, Much rather may we woonder at the Hyen if we please. Loo see how interchaungeably it one whyle dooth remayne a female, and another whyle becommeth male againe." In referring to herself as a hyena, Rosalind hints at her changing sexual identity.

waywarder: more wilful; A "wayward" woman will go in search of another man's "warder" (penis, literally a staff) but to her husband she will be a "warder" (one who wards off) and bar him from her "way" (vagina).

casement: window; A man cannot make (close) his wife's doores (vagina and anus) simply by "making" (mating with) her. If out at the casement (out the window, given an opportunity or occasion) a womans wit (vagina) will out (copulate). In folklore the key-hole and chimney were seen as means of entrance for witches, so Rosalind is implying a wife will prove harder to control than a supernatural fury. Any man who attempts to make the doores upon a womans wit will find that she "Shut the door" (refuse to copulate) and her wit (sexual urges, genitals) will still out (fornicate) at the key-hole (female pudendum). Any attempt to stop that will make the woman flie out (get angry) and her wit (vagina) will still flie (wanton) with the smoake (copulation) out at the chimney (vagina).

wit whether wil't?: a common phrase that would be addressed to someone who's tongue got away from them; someone who is known for being intelligent but has apparently lost it in a moment of weakness or fickleness.

Nay you might keep that checke for it: checke meaning "rebuke"; you might keep the rebuke "wit whether wil't" to yourself until you witness your wife going to your neighbor's bed with her "wit" (see below).

wit: sexual desire

take: catch

tongue: possibly play on tongue as the clitoris

what wit: what ingenious excuse

dinner: the main midday meal

troth: faith

in good earnest: seriously

so God mend mee: proverbial, may God improve me

not dangerous: attempts were being made by religious reformers to suppress the use of blasphemous oaths

jot: tiniest particle; the word derives from 'iota'

patheticall: miserable, pitiable, unworthy; also meaning patheticall (passionate, persuasive, affection-moving)

hollow: insincere

grosse band: whole company

religion: devotion

try: be the judge

bottom of page