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Act IV: French Scene 6

waspish action: spiteful gesture

tenure: message, tone, Silvius assumes the message to have an angry "tenor" or tone; In reality the contents are waspish (amorous) and she hopes her letter will establish tenure (hold or manner of holding possession) over Ganymede and being about her own "content" (sexual fulfillment).

swaggerer: quarrelsome fighter

beare this, beare all: if I can endure this, I can endure anything

faire: beautiful

Phenix: a mythical Arabian bird; the only one of its kind, it cremated itself and a new bird rose from the ashes.

'od's my will: may God's will be done

device: invention; with play on invention as a) literary composition and b) excrement

boysterous: vehement, violent, raging, furious

defies: challenges

She Phebes me: addresses me with her own customary distain

godhead: divine influence or nature, in reference to the name Ganymede as a god in human form

laid a part: set aside

Meaning me a beast: calling me an animal (since she says men could not injure her); Silvius could do her no vengeance (arouse reciprocal love), however Ganymede, who is not a man but a beast (A god or man, the first behaving like a sex-driven animal, the latter behaving with the sexual appetite of an animal). In Rosalind's deliberate misinterpretation, Phebe is vengeance, or Nemesis, the God of Revenge whom Jove ardently pursued in "all shapes of every animal".

chid: rebuked

move: pursuade

by him seale up thy minde: send a letter by him with your thoughts

kinde: natural affectation

faithfull offer take: Phebe makes Ganymede an offer (proposal of marriage). If Ganymede would take (marry) her he will be entitled to all the she can make meaning do, provide, become, give birth to, and earn.

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