But if you're really sorry for me, you can cure me. If you're sorry for the grief I feel in loving you, you can love me back. Then both my grief and your sorrow will be cured.
PHOEBE
100
Thou hast my love. Is not that neighborly?
PHOEBE
You have my friendship. Isn't that enough?
SILVIUS
I would have you.
SILVIUS
I want you.
PHOEBE
Why, that were covetousness.
Silvius, the time was that I hated thee,
And yet it is not that I bear thee love,
105
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure, and I'll employ thee too.
But do not look for further recompense
Than thine own gladness that thou art employed.
PHOEBE
Well, that's just greedy. Silvius, I used to hate you. I still don't love you, but since you're well-spoken when it comes to love, I'll keep you around and make use of you. But don't expect any more than that.
SILVIUS
110
So holy and so perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
To glean the broken ears after the man
That the main harvest reaps. Loose now and then
115
A scattered smile, and that I'll live upon.
SILVIUS
My love for you is so pure and perfect, and I'm in such a bad way, that I'll be grateful for whatever leftover love you throw my way. Every once in a while, toss me a distracted smile, and I'll live on that.
