Shakespeares As You Like It - The Romantic Love of Silvius and Phebe :: Shakespeare As You Like It Essays

As You resembling It  The Romantic Love of Silvius and Phebe   There are several types of whap depicted in Shakespeares As You Like It.  ace variety of love portrayed in this comedy is romantic love, the romantic literary ideal which became popular in the Middle Ages. According to the gracious love tradition a yellowish brown worships his lady and serves her, suffers all sorts of indignities for her sake, and thinks save of her. He must be loyal to her for life, no matter how severely she treats him, or how much he suffers for unrequited love. A straight devotee never ceases to adore his lady, and when he speaks of her he only uses poetic lyric and style. These conventions of polished love are clearly exemplified in As You Like It in the romantic attachment of Silvius and Phebe. When Rosalind, Celia and Touchstone arrive in the tone of Arden they meet Silvius and Corin, an gray-headed shepherd, who are engaged in a parley about love. Corin is advising hi s friend on how to treat the woman he loves. However, Silvius doubts the old shepherds authority in such matters, for although Corin admits having been drawn into acts of madness for the sake of love during his youth, he cannot recall any of them. Silvius clearly manifests that if Corin has forgotten even the intimately insignificant detail of the actions love made him run into, then he has never been truly in love. Even more, Silvius also explains that a true lover never ceases to adore his lady in speech, even if this moves his attendee to discomfort, and further explains that sincere love may drive a lover to interrupt a conversation out of passion. To prove this last point, Silvius perfectly interrupts his speech passionately crying the name of Phebe, his beloved, several times. Silvius reflects the behavior of the courtly lover, who is capable of the most foolish actions for the sake of his beloved, and who suffers the pangs of unrequited love and the impolite separation fr om his lady. His only concern is love and, although he is uneducated, his language is lofty, poetic, and maudlin when he speaks in praise of Phebe. Indeed, both Phebe and Silvius speak in solve verse in order to comply with the courtly love conventions. In their courtship, Silvius praises her virtues and begs for the slightest sign of affection, and Phebe scorns and rejects him all along.