Rosalind continues to hide in her disguise as Ganymede in order to test whether Orlando’s love for her is real or is actually just a temporary infatuation. As Ganymede she tells Orlando that she was raised by an uncle who lectured her against falling in love because women are too full of “giddy offenses” (317). Rosalind then proceeds to add that if she were ever to meet the young fool who is plastering the forest with love poems, she would give him good counsel to stop his irrational feelings and behavior.
Orlando declares that he is the man who has been putting the poems on the trees (at line 332). Rosalind, however, informs Orlando that he does not look like a lover because a person can recognize a true lover by his outward appearance. Orlando asks Rosalind to describe such a lover, and Rosalind responds by providing a list of the lover’s characteristics (beginning at line 338). During the Renaissance the stereotypical unrequited lover could not eat and could not sleep. Therefore he would have a lean face and dark circles under his eyes. Furthermore, such a lover would be continuously thinking about the woman he adores and thus he would neglect his own appearance. Thus, he would look sloppy and careless. Rosalind declares that Orlando has none of these signs, and so he must love himself far more than he loves any woman.
Orlando asserts that he is indeed truly in love with Rosalind despite his appearance. Shakespeare thus indicates that the common and stereotypical