As You Like It: Act 4, Scene 3 Summary & Analysis

Rosalind (still disguised as Ganymede) is impatiently awaiting Orlando, who is now late. Celia suggests that he has gone to sleep.

Silvius approaches and gives a letter to Rosalind, which, he reports, Phebe wrote with an angry look on her face—a “stern brow.” Rosalind reads it and tells Celia it is a list of insults, and wonders why Phebe would write such a letter; she first accuses Silvius of being its author, assuming no woman could write so rudely and injuriously.

Rosalind then reads the letter aloud, interjecting “Did you ever hear such railing?” The content of the letter, however, is an expression not of insults or chiding but of adoration. It proclaims such things as “Whiles you chid me, I did love; / How then might your prayers move!” Celia says that she is sorry for Silvius, since his love now loves Ganymede. But Rosalind says that she has no pity for him since he loves someone like Phebe. Rosalind then orders Silvius to go report to Phebe that she (i.e. Ganymede) will only love Phebe if Phebe loves Silvius. Silvius departs.

Oliver enters, looking for the sheep cottage owned by Ganymede and Aliena. He then notes that the two people he is speaking to fit Orlando’s description of Aliena and Ganymede, and asks if they in fact they are the owners of the cottage. When they confirm that they do, Oliver gives to Rosalind a bloody napkin, which was sent to her by Orlando. Rosalind is confused, and Oliver explains: a little bit ago, Orlando came across a man (Oliver, though Orlando didn’t recognize him yet) sleeping under a tree with a snake wrapped around his neck. At the sight of Orlando, the snake slithered away, drawing attention to a lion crouching in the bushes. When Orlando discovered that the sleeping man was in fact Oliver, he initially planned to leave his cruel brother as lion’s prey, but then kindness got the best of him, and he fought off the beast, getting wounded in the process.

Oliver reports that in response he himself has had a conversion to kindness and that he cared for Orlando’s wound before coming to deliver the napkin to Ganymede so that he would excuse Orlando’s “broken promise.” Rosalind faints, and Celia tries to excuse it as an effect of the sight of blood. When Rosalind comes to, Oliver comments that she lacks "a man's heart," but she responds by telling Oliver to report to Orlando how well she “counterfeited” her swoon, just as she had taught him in their lessons. Oliver thinks the faint must have been authentic, but Rosalind assures him it was faked.