William Shakespeare
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Tragedies
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- Hamlet
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- The Comedy of Errors
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- A Lover's Complaint
- Sonnets 1 to 50
- Sonnets 50 to 100
- Sonnets 100 to 154
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- The Rape of Lucrece
- Venus and Adonis
Twelfth Night (1601)
Edmund Blair Leighton, Olivia, 1888" style="width: 281px; height: 220px; float: right;" class="PopBoxImageSmall" title="Click to magnify/shrink" onclick="Pop(this,50,'/');"/>ACT ONE
SCENE 1. DUKE ORSINO's palace.
[Enter DUKE ORSINO, CURIO, and other Lords; Musicians attending]
DUKE ORSINO
- If music be the food of love, play on;
- Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
- The appetite may sicken, and so die.
- That strain again! it had a dying fall:
- O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
- That breathes upon a bank of violets,
- Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
- 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
- O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
- That, notwithstanding thy capacity
- Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
- Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
- But falls into abatement and low price,
- Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
- That it alone is high fantastical.
CURIO
- Will you go hunt, my lord?
DUKE ORSINO
- What, Curio?
CURIO
- The hart.
DUKE ORSINO
- Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
- O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
- Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
- That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
- And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
- E'er since pursue me.
- [Enter VALENTINE]
- How now! what news from her?
VALENTINE
- So please my lord, I might not be admitted;
- But from her handmaid do return this answer:
- The element itself, till seven years' heat,
- Shall not behold her face at ample view;
- But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk
- And water once a day her chamber round
- With eye-offending brine: all this to season
- A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
- And lasting in her sad remembrance.
DUKE ORSINO
- O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame
- To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
- How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
- Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
- That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
- These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd
- Her sweet perfections with one self king!
- Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:
- Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.
- [Exeunt]
[Enter VIOLA, a Captain, and Sailors]
VIOLA
- What country, friends, is this?
Captain
- This is Illyria, lady.
VIOLA
- And what should I do in Illyria?
- My brother he is in Elysium.
- Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you, sailors?
Captain
- It is perchance that you yourself were saved.
VIOLA
- O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be.
Captain
- True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,
- Assure yourself, after our ship did split,
- When you and those poor number saved with you
- Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,
- Most provident in peril, bind himself,
- Courage and hope both teaching him the practise,
- To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;
- Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
- I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
- So long as I could see.
VIOLA
- For saying so, there's gold:
- Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,
- Whereto thy speech serves for authority,
- The like of him. Know'st thou this country?
Captain
- Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born
- Not three hours' travel from this very place.
VIOLA
- Who governs here?
Captain
- A noble duke, in nature as in name.
VIOLA
- What is the name?
Captain
- Orsino.
VIOLA
- Orsino! I have heard my father name him:
- He was a bachelor then.
Captain
- And so is now, or was so very late;
- For but a month ago I went from hence,
- And then 'twas fresh in murmur,--as, you know,
- What great ones do the less will prattle of,--
- That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.
VIOLA
- What's she?
Captain
- A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
- That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her
- In the protection of his son, her brother,
- Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
- They say, she hath abjured the company
- And sight of men.
VIOLA
- O that I served that lady
- And might not be delivered to the world,
- Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
- What my estate is!
Captain
- That were hard to compass;
- Because she will admit no kind of suit,
- No, not the duke's.
VIOLA
- There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
- And though that nature with a beauteous wall
- Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
- I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
- With this thy fair and outward character.
- I prithee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,
- Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
- For such disguise as haply shall become
- The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke:
- Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him:
- It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing
- And speak to him in many sorts of music
- That will allow me very worth his service.
- What else may hap to time I will commit;
- Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.
Captain
- Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:
- When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.
VIOLA
- I thank thee: lead me on.
- [Exeunt]
[Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA]
SIR TOBY BELCH
- What a plague means my niece, to take the death of
- her brother thus? I am sure care's an enemy to life.
MARIA
- By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o'
- nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great
- exceptions to your ill hours.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Why, let her except, before excepted.
MARIA
- Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest
- limits of order.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Confine! I'll confine myself no finer than I am:
- these clothes are good enough to drink in; and so be
- these boots too: an they be not, let them hang
- themselves in their own straps.
MARIA
- That quaffing and drinking will undo you: I heard
- my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish
- knight that you brought in one night here to be her wooer.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Who, Sir Andrew Aguecheek?
MARIA
- Ay, he.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria.
MARIA
- What's that to the purpose?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Why, he has three thousand ducats a year.
MARIA
- Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats:
- he's a very fool and a prodigal.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Fie, that you'll say so! he plays o' the
- viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four languages
- word for word without book, and hath all the good
- gifts of nature.
MARIA
- He hath indeed, almost natural: for besides that
- he's a fool, he's a great quarreller: and but that
- he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he
- hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent
- he would quickly have the gift of a grave.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- By this hand, they are scoundrels and subtractors
- that say so of him. Who are they?
MARIA
- They that add, moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- With drinking healths to my niece: I'll drink to
- her as long as there is a passage in my throat and
- drink in Illyria: he's a coward and a coystrill
- that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn
- o' the toe like a parish-top. What, wench!
- Castiliano vulgo! for here comes Sir Andrew Agueface.
- [Enter SIR ANDREW]
SIR ANDREW
- Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch!
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Sweet Sir Andrew!
SIR ANDREW
- Bless you, fair shrew.
MARIA
- And you too, sir.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Accost, Sir Andrew, accost.
SIR ANDREW
- What's that?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- My niece's chambermaid.
SIR ANDREW
- Good Mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance.
MARIA
- My name is Mary, sir.
SIR ANDREW
- Good Mistress Mary Accost,--
SIR TOBY BELCH
- You mistake, knight; 'accost' is front her, board
- her, woo her, assail her.
SIR ANDREW
- By my troth, I would not undertake her in this
- company. Is that the meaning of 'accost'?
MARIA
- Fare you well, gentlemen.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst
- never draw sword again.
SIR ANDREW
- An you part so, mistress, I would I might never
- draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have
- fools in hand?
MARIA
- Sir, I have not you by the hand.
SIR ANDREW
- Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.
MARIA
- Now, sir, 'thought is free:' I pray you, bring
- your hand to the buttery-bar and let it drink.
SIR ANDREW
- Wherefore, sweet-heart? what's your metaphor?
MARIA
- It's dry, sir.
SIR ANDREW
- Why, I think so: I am not such an ass but I can
- keep my hand dry. But what's your jest?
MARIA
- A dry jest, sir.
SIR ANDREW
- Are you full of them?
MARIA
- Ay, sir, I have them at my fingers' ends: marry,
- now I let go your hand, I am barren.
- [Exit]
SIR TOBY BELCH
- O knight thou lackest a cup of canary: when did I
- see thee so put down?
SIR ANDREW
- Never in your life, I think; unless you see canary
- put me down. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit
- than a Christian or an ordinary man has: but I am a
- great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- No question.
SIR ANDREW
- An I thought that, I'ld forswear it. I'll ride home
- to-morrow, Sir Toby.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Pourquoi, my dear knight?
SIR ANDREW
- What is 'Pourquoi'? do or not do? I would I had
- bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in
- fencing, dancing and bear-baiting: O, had I but
- followed the arts!
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Then hadst thou had an excellent head of hair.
SIR ANDREW
- Why, would that have mended my hair?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Past question; for thou seest it will not curl by nature.
SIR ANDREW
- But it becomes me well enough, does't not?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I
- hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs
- and spin it off.
SIR ANDREW
- Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby: your niece
- will not be seen; or if she be, it's four to one
- she'll none of me: the count himself here hard by woos her.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- She'll none o' the count: she'll not match above
- her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; I
- have heard her swear't. Tut, there's life in't,
- man.
SIR ANDREW
- I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o' the
- strangest mind i' the world; I delight in masques
- and revels sometimes altogether.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Art thou good at these kickshawses, knight?
SIR ANDREW
- As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the
- degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare
- with an old man.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?
SIR ANDREW
- Faith, I can cut a caper.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- And I can cut the mutton to't.
SIR ANDREW
- And I think I have the back-trick simply as strong
- as any man in Illyria.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have
- these gifts a curtain before 'em? are they like to
- take dust, like Mistress Mall's picture? why dost
- thou not go to church in a galliard and come home in
- a coranto? My very walk should be a jig; I would not
- so much as make water but in a sink-a-pace. What
- dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in?
- I did think, by the excellent constitution of thy
- leg, it was form'd under the star of a galliard.
SIR ANDREW
- Ay, 'tis strong, and it does indifferent well in a
- flame-coloured stock. Shall we set about some revels?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- What shall we do else? were we not born under Taurus?
SIR ANDREW
- Taurus! That's sides and heart.
SIR TOBY BELCH
- No, sir; it is legs and thighs. Let me see the
- caper; ha! higher: ha, ha! excellent!
- [Exeunt]
SCENE 4. DUKE ORSINO's palace.
[Enter VALENTINE and VIOLA in man's attire]
VALENTINE
- If the duke continue these favours towards you,
- Cesario, you are like to be much advanced: he hath
- known you but three days, and already you are no stranger.
VIOLA
- You either fear his humour or my negligence, that
- you call in question the continuance of his love:
- is he inconstant, sir, in his favours?
VALENTINE
- No, believe me.
VIOLA
- I thank you. Here comes the count.
- [Enter DUKE ORSINO, CURIO, and Attendants]
DUKE ORSINO
- Who saw Cesario, ho?
VIOLA
- On your attendance, my lord; here.
DUKE ORSINO
- Stand you a while aloof, Cesario,
- Thou know'st no less but all; I have unclasp'd
- To thee the book even of my secret soul:
- Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her;
- Be not denied access, stand at her doors,
- And tell them, there thy fixed foot shall grow
- Till thou have audience.
VIOLA
- Sure, my noble lord,
- If she be so abandon'd to her sorrow
- As it is spoke, she never will admit me.
DUKE ORSINO
- Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds
- Rather than make unprofited return.
VIOLA
- Say I do speak with her, my lord, what then?
DUKE ORSINO
- O, then unfold the passion of my love,
- Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith:
- It shall become thee well to act my woes;
- She will attend it better in thy youth
- Than in a nuncio's of more grave aspect.
VIOLA
- I think not so, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO
- Dear lad, believe it;
- For they shall yet belie thy happy years,
- That say thou art a man: Diana's lip
- Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
- Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
- And all is semblative a woman's part.
- I know thy constellation is right apt
- For this affair. Some four or five attend him;
- All, if you will; for I myself am best
- When least in company. Prosper well in this,
- And thou shalt live as freely as thy lord,
- To call his fortunes thine.
VIOLA
- I'll do my best
- To woo your lady:
- [Aside]
- yet, a barful strife!
- Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.
- [Exeunt]
[Enter MARIA and CLOWN]
MARIA
- Nay, either tell me where thou hast been, or I will
- not open my lips so wide as a bristle may enter in
- way of thy excuse: my lady will hang thee for thy absence.
CLOWN
- Let her hang me: he that is well hanged in this
- world needs to fear no colours.
MARIA
- Make that good.
CLOWN
- He shall see none to fear.
MARIA
- A good lenten answer: I can tell thee where that
- saying was born, of 'I fear no colours.'
CLOWN
- Where, good Mistress Mary?
MARIA
- In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery.
CLOWN
- Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those
- that are fools, let them use their talents.
MARIA
- Yet you will be hanged for being so long absent; or,
- to be turned away, is not that as good as a hanging to you?
CLOWN
- Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and,
- for turning away, let summer bear it out.
MARIA
- You are resolute, then?
CLOWN
- Not so, neither; but I am resolved on two points.
MARIA
- That if one break, the other will hold; or, if both
- break, your gaskins fall.
CLOWN
- Apt, in good faith; very apt. Well, go thy way; if
- Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a
- piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.
MARIA
- Peace, you rogue, no more o' that. Here comes my
- lady: make your excuse wisely, you were best.
- [Exit]
CLOWN
- Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling!
- Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft
- prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may
- pass for a wise man: for what says Quinapalus?
- 'Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.'
- [Enter OLIVIA with MALVOLIO]
- God bless thee, lady!
CLOWN
- Take the fool away.
Clown
- Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady.
OLIVIA
- Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you:
- besides, you grow dishonest.
CLOWN
- Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel
- will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is
- the fool not dry: bid the dishonest man mend
- himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
- he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Any thing
- that's mended is but patched: virtue that
- transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that
- amends is but patched with virtue. If that this
- simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not,
- what remedy? As there is no true cuckold but
- calamity, so beauty's a flower. The lady bade take
- away the fool; therefore, I say again, take her away.
OLIVIA
- Sir, I bade them take away you.
CLOWN
- Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, cucullus non
- facit monachum; that's as much to say as I wear not
- motley in my brain. Good madonna, give me leave to
- prove you a fool.
OLIVIA
- Can you do it?
CLOWN
- Dexterously, good madonna.
OLIVIA
- Make your proof.
CLOWN
- I must catechise you for it, madonna: good my mouse
- of virtue, answer me.
OLIVIA
- Well, sir, for want of other idleness, I'll bide your proof.
CLOWN
- Good madonna, why mournest thou?
OLIVIA
- Good fool, for my brother's death.
CLOWN
- I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA
- I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
CLOWN
- The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's
- soul being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
OLIVIA
- What think you of this fool, Malvolio? doth he not mend?
MALVOLIO
- Yes, and shall do till the pangs of death shake him:
- infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the
- better fool.
CLOWN
- God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the
- better increasing your folly! Sir Toby will be
- sworn that I am no fox; but he will not pass his
- word for two pence that you are no fool.
OLIVIA
- How say you to that, Malvolio?
MALVOLIO
- I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a
- barren rascal: I saw him put down the other day
- with an ordinary fool that has no more brain
- than a stone. Look you now, he's out of his guard
- already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to
- him, he is gagged. I protest, I take these wise men,
- that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better
- than the fools' zanies.
OLIVIA
- Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste
- with a distempered appetite. To be generous,
- guiltless and of free disposition, is to take those
- things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets:
- there is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do
- nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet
- man, though he do nothing but reprove.
CLOWN
- Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou
- speakest well of fools!
- [Re-enter MARIA]
MARIA
- Madam, there is at the gate a young gentleman much
- desires to speak with you.
CLOWN
- From the Count Orsino, is it?
MARIA
- I know not, madam: 'tis a fair young man, and well attended.
OLIVIA
- Who of my people hold him in delay?
MARIA
- Sir Toby, madam, your kinsman.
OLIVIA
- Fetch him off, I pray you; he speaks nothing but
- madman: fie on him!
- [Exit MARIA]
- Go you, Malvolio: if it be a suit from the count, I
- am sick, or not at home; what you will, to dismiss it.
- [Exit MALVOLIO]
- Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, and
- people dislike it.
CLOWN
- Thou hast spoke for us, madonna, as if thy eldest
- son should be a fool; whose skull Jove cram with
- brains! for,--here he comes,--one of thy kin has a
- most weak pia mater.
- [Enter SIR TOBY BELCH]
OLIVIA
- By mine honour, half drunk. What is he at the gate, cousin?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- A gentleman.
OLIVIA
- A gentleman! what gentleman?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- 'Tis a gentle man here--a plague o' these
- pickle-herring! How now, sot!
CLOWN
- Good Sir Toby!
OLIVIA
- Cousin, cousin, how have you come so early by this lethargy?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Lechery! I defy lechery. There's one at the gate.
OLIVIA
- Ay, marry, what is he?
SIR TOBY BELCH
- Let him be the devil, an he will, I care not: give
- me faith, say I. Well, it's all one.
- [Exit]
OLIVIA
- What's a drunken man like, fool?
CLOWN
- Like a drowned man, a fool and a mad man: one
- draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads
- him; and a third drowns him.
OLIVIA
- Go thou and seek the crowner, and let him sit o' my
- coz; for he's in the third degree of drink, he's
- drowned: go, look after him.
CLOWN
- He is but mad yet, madonna; and the fool shall look
- to the madman.
- [Exit]
- [Re-enter MALVOLIO]
MALVOLIO
- Madam, yond young fellow swears he will speak with
- you. I told him you were sick; he takes on him to
- understand so much, and therefore comes to speak
- with you. I told him you were asleep; he seems to
- have a foreknowledge of that too, and therefore
- comes to speak with you. What is to be said to him,
- lady? he's fortified against any denial.
OLIVIA
- Tell him he shall not speak with me.
MALVOLIO
- Has been told so; and he says, he'll stand at your
- door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter to
- a bench, but he'll speak with you.
OLIVIA
- What kind o' man is he?
MALVOLIO
- Why, of mankind.
OLIVIA
- What manner of man?
MALVOLIO
- Of very ill manner; he'll speak with you, will you or no.
OLIVIA
- Of what personage and years is he?
MALVOLIO
- Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for
- a boy; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod, or a
- codling when 'tis almost an apple: 'tis with him
- in standing water, between boy and man. He is very
- well-favoured and he speaks very shrewishly; one
- would think his mother's milk were scarce out of him.
OLIVIA
- Let him approach: call in my gentlewoman.
MALVOLIO
- Gentlewoman, my lady calls.
- [Exit]
- [Re-enter MARIA]
OLIVIA
- Give me my veil: come, throw it o'er my face.
- We'll once more hear Orsino's embassy.
- [Enter VIOLA, and Attendants]
VIOLA
- The honourable lady of the house, which is she?
OLIVIA
- Speak to me; I shall answer for her.
- Your will?
VIOLA
- Most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty,--I
- pray you, tell me if this be the lady of the house,
- for I never saw her: I would be loath to cast away
- my speech, for besides that it is excellently well
- penned, I have taken great pains to con it. Good
- beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very
- comptible, even to the least sinister usage.
OLIVIA
- Whence came you, sir?
VIOLA
- I can say little more than I have studied, and that
- question's out of my part. Good gentle one, give me
- modest assurance if you be the lady of the house,
- that I may proceed in my speech.
OLIVIA
- Are you a comedian?
VIOLA
- No, my profound heart: and yet, by the very fangs
- of malice I swear, I am not that I play. Are you
- the lady of the house?
OLIVIA
- If I do not usurp myself, I am.
VIOLA
- Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp
- yourself; for what is yours to bestow is not yours
- to reserve. But this is from my commission: I will
- on with my speech in your praise, and then show you
- the heart of my message.
OLIVIA
- Come to what is important in't: I forgive you the praise.
VIOLA
- Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical.
OLIVIA
- It is the more like to be feigned: I pray you,
- keep it in. I heard you were saucy at my gates,
- and allowed your approach rather to wonder at you
- than to hear you. If you be not mad, be gone; if
- you have reason, be brief: 'tis not that time of
- moon with me to make one in so skipping a dialogue.
MARIA
- Will you hoist sail, sir? here lies your way.
VIOLA
- No, good swabber; I am to hull here a little
- longer. Some mollification for your giant, sweet
- lady. Tell me your mind: I am a messenger.
OLIVIA
- Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver, when
- the courtesy of it is so fearful. Speak your office.
VIOLA
- It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of
- war, no taxation of homage: I hold the olive in my
- hand; my words are as fun of peace as matter.
OLIVIA
- Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you?
VIOLA
- The rudeness that hath appeared in me have I
- learned from my entertainment. What I am, and what I
- would, are as secret as maidenhead; to your ears,
- divinity, to any other's, profanation.
OLIVIA
- Give us the place alone: we will hear this divinity.
- [Exeunt MARIA and Attendants]
- Now, sir, what is your text?
VIOLA
- Most sweet lady,--
OLIVIA
- A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it.
- Where lies your text?
VIOLA
- In Orsino's bosom.
OLIVIA
- In his bosom! In what chapter of his bosom?
VIOLA
- To answer by the method, in the first of his heart.
OLIVIA
- O, I have read it: it is heresy. Have you no more to say?
VIOLA
- Good madam, let me see your face.
OLIVIA
- Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate
- with my face? You are now out of your text: but
- we will draw the curtain and show you the picture.
- Look you, sir, such a one I was this present: is't
- not well done?
- [Unveiling]
VIOLA
- Excellently done, if God did all.
OLIVIA
- 'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather.
VIOLA
- 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
- Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on:
- Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive,
- If you will lead these graces to the grave
- And leave the world no copy.
OLIVIA
- O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give
- out divers schedules of my beauty: it shall be
- inventoried, and every particle and utensil
- labelled to my will: as, item, two lips,
- indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to
- them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were
- you sent hither to praise me?
VIOLA
- I see you what you are, you are too proud;
- But, if you were the devil, you are fair.
- My lord and master loves you: O, such love
- Could be but recompensed, though you were crown'd
- The nonpareil of beauty!
OLIVIA
- How does he love me?
VIOLA
- With adorations, fertile tears,
- With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.
OLIVIA
- Your lord does know my mind; I cannot love him:
- Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,
- Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;
- In voices well divulged, free, learn'd and valiant;
- And in dimension and the shape of nature
- A gracious person: but yet I cannot love him;
- He might have took his answer long ago.
VIOLA
- If I did love you in my master's flame,
- With such a suffering, such a deadly life,
- In your denial I would find no sense;
- I would not understand it.
OLIVIA
- Why, what would you?
VIOLA
- Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
- And call upon my soul within the house;
- Write loyal cantons of contemned love
- And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
- Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
- And make the babbling gossip of the air
- Cry out 'Olivia!' O, You should not rest
- Between the elements of air and earth,
- But you should pity me!
OLIVIA
- You might do much.
- What is your parentage?
VIOLA
- Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
- I am a gentleman.
OLIVIA
- Get you to your lord;
- I cannot love him: let him send no more;
- Unless, perchance, you come to me again,
- To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well:
- I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
VIOLA
- I am no fee'd post, lady; keep your purse:
- My master, not myself, lacks recompense.
- Love make his heart of flint that you shall love;
- And let your fervor, like my master's, be
- Placed in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty.
- [Exit]
OLIVIA
- 'What is your parentage?'
- 'Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
- I am a gentleman.' I'll be sworn thou art;
- Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit,
- Do give thee five-fold blazon: not too fast:
- soft, soft!
- Unless the master were the man. How now!
- Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
- Methinks I feel this youth's perfections
- With an invisible and subtle stealth
- To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.
- What ho, Malvolio!
- [Re-enter MALVOLIO]
MALVOLIO
- Here, madam, at your service.
OLIVIA
- Run after that same peevish messenger,
- The county's man: he left this ring behind him,
- Would I or not: tell him I'll none of it.
- Desire him not to flatter with his lord,
- Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him:
- If that the youth will come this way to-morrow,
- I'll give him reasons for't: hie thee, Malvolio.
MALVOLIO
- Madam, I will.
- [Exit]
OLIVIA
- I do I know not what, and fear to find
- Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
- Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe;
- What is decreed must be, and be this so.
- [Exit]