As You Like It (Vol. 69) | Michael Gelven (essay date 2000)
Michael Gelven (essay date 2000)
SOURCE: Gelven, Michael. “Silvius.” In Truth and the Comedic Art, pp. 11-20. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
[In the following essay, Gelven sees the minor character Silvius as an embodiment of true love in As You Like It, who serves as a foil to the deceitful lovers of Shakespeare's romantic comedy.]
He is the purest lover in the forest. It is a magical place, this forest of Arden, where the very thickets are barbed with lovers; yet this poor shepherd with the golden tongue outloves them all. At his first entrance (II, 2) he shows us his scars:
No, Corin, being old thou canst not guess; Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover As ever sighed upon a midnight pillow: But if thy love were ever like to mine,— As sure I think did never man love so,— How many actions most ridiculous Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy?
Into a thousand that I have...
[The entire page is 4850 words long]
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