Mojo, The Bard, & Me

For no ill will I bear you.

-Phebe

 

As You Like It                     Act III, scene iv    Line 69

Well today we’re back to one of Will’s scenes with the woman pretending to be a man (again, if you count the actor playing the role of the woman, it’s a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man). In this case it is the country girl Phebe falling instantly in love with Rosalind, the latter being disguised as the young fellow named Ganymede. But of course Rosiland/Ganymede has no feelings for Phebe because she’s not gay and is only interested in men, and in particular in Orlando. So this raises an interesting question; is Will attempting, in his inimitable cagey fashion, to address gayness in 1600 England? Let’s be clear on a few items. First, I’m not historically savvy enough to know much of anything about gay society in 1600 England, but I’d have to guess that it’s not exactly an open thing. Second, Will spent quite a bit of time having various female roles masquerading as men, and in many of these cases it was pretty clear that the sexual orientation question was not on the table (consider Portia/Balthazar in Merchant Of Venice). However, the wordplay and the scenario in this particular scene lends itself to this question of whether or not he’s trying to address gayness. Phebe appears to be head over heels with Ganymede/Rosalind. So I put it to you; Is Will bringing up the matter of gay women or gayness in general, and if he is, what’s he saying about it? In this scene Rosalind realizes that Phebe is interested in her and is doing everything she can to dissuade her. But she’s having a tough time of it. In the meantime Phebe has a man after her, but she seems to want no part of this fellow as she pursues Ganymede/Rosalind. So what gives?

For no ill will I bear you. That’s what infatuated Phebe is saying to Ganymede/Rosalind. Is Will talking here? Is he saying that he’s perfectly accepting of women who are attracted to other women (even if she is dressed as a man)? Well, what do you think?

In the interest of fair disclosure, and to recognize Halloween (which I’m pretty sure was not being celebrated as a costume holiday in Will’s time), here’s a pic of two young ladies I know. I believe I had something to do with the older one’s costume which is her being dressed up as a guy (I can't take any credit for the little cheeseburger LT, that was Aunt Nancy's doing). And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t trying to make any kind of a statement about gayness at the time, so maybe I’m just completely off base with my line of thinking about Will above. Oh, and this pic is pretty old, about twenty years or so, but apparently you can’t dress as a hobo anymore because it’s insensitive. So, sorry about that.