Twelfth Night (4 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
Enter
Orsino
Duke of Illyria,
Curio
and other Lords
ORSINO
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it, that
surfeiting
2
,
The
appetite
3
may sicken and so die.
That strain again, it had a
dying fall
4
:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet
sound
5
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more,
Music stops
’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love, how
quick and fresh
9
art thou
That, notwithstanding thy
capacity
10
,
Receiveth
as the sea.
11
Nought enters there,
Of what
validity and pitch
12
soe’er,
But falls into
abatement
13
and low price
Even in a minute. So full of
shapes
is
fancy
14
That it
alone is high fantastical.
15
CURIO
Will you go hunt, my lord?
ORSINO
What, Curio?
CURIO
The
hart.
18
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.
21
That instant was I turned into a hart,
And my desires, like
fell
and cruel
hounds
23
,
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
27
,
Shall not behold her face at
ample
28
view,
But like a
cloistress
29
she will veilèd walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With
eye-offending brine
— all this to
season
31
A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.
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
36
Hath killed the flock of all
affections else
37
That live in her — when
liver, brain and heart
38
,
These sovereign thrones, are all
supplied
, and
filled
39
Her sweet perfections with
one self
40
king!
Away before me, to sweet beds of flowers.
Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.
Exeunt
running scene 2
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.
4
Perchance
5
he is not drowned: 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
8
,
Assure yourself, after our ship did split,
When you and those poor number saved with you
Hung on our
driving
11
boat, I saw your brother,
Most
provident
12
in peril, bind himself —
Courage and hope both teaching him the
practice
13
—
To a strong mast that
lived
14
upon the sea,
Where, like
Arion
15
on the dolphin’s back,
I saw him
hold acquaintance with
16
the waves
So long as I could see.
Gives money
VIOLA
For saying so, there’s gold.
Mine own escape
unfoldeth to my hope
19
,
Whereto thy speech serves for authority,
The
like of him.
21
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 his 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
30
,
For but a month ago I went from hence,
And then ’twas fresh in
murmur
32
— as you know,
What great ones do, the less will prattle of
33
—
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 sight
And company of men.
VIOLA
O that I served that lady,
And might not
be delivered to the world
43
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is.
CAPTAIN
That were hard to
compass
46
,
Because she will admit no kind of
suit
47
,
No,
not
48
the duke’s.
VIOLA
There is a
fair behaviour
49
in thee, captain,
And
though that
50
nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft
close in
51
pollution, yet of thee
I will believe thou hast a mind that
suits
52
With this thy fair and outward
character.
53
I prithee — and I’ll pay thee bounteously —
Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as
haply shall become
56
The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.
Thou shalt present me as an
eunuch
58
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
61
his service.
What else may
hap
62
, to time I will commit,
Only shape thou thy silence to my
wit.
63
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
running scene 3
Enter Sir Toby
[
Belch
]
and Maria
SIR TOBY
What a plague
means my
niece
1
to take the death of
her brother thus? I am sure
care
2
’s an enemy to life.
MARIA
By my
troth
3
, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier
a-nights
: your
cousin
4
, my lady, takes great exceptions to
your
ill
5
hours.
SIR TOBY
Why, let her
except, before excepted.
6
MARIA
Ay, but you must confine yourself within the
modest
8
limits of order.
SIR TOBY
Confine? I’ll
confine myself no finer
9
than I am:
these clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these
boots too.
An
11
they be not, let them hang themselves in their
own straps.
MARIA
That
quaffing
13
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
Who, Sir Andrew
Aguecheek?
16
MARIA
Ay, he.
SIR TOBY
He’s as
tall
a man as
any’s
18
in Illyria.
MARIA
What’s that to th’purpose?
SIR TOBY
Why, he has three thousand
ducats
20
a year.
MARIA
Ay, but
he’ll have but a year in all these ducats
21
: he’s
a
very
fool and a
prodigal.
22
SIR TOBY
Fie, that you’ll say so! He plays
o’th’viol-de-gamboys
23
,
and speaks three or four languages word for word
without book
25
, and hath all the good gifts of nature.
MARIA
He hath indeed, almost
natural
26
, 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
28
quarrelling, ’tis
thought among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of
a grave.
SIR TOBY
By this hand, they are scoundrels and
subtractors
31
that say so of him. Who are they?
MARIA
They that add, moreover, he’s drunk nightly in your
company.
SIR TOBY
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
37
that will not drink to my niece
till his brains turn
o’th’toe
like a
parish top.
38
What, wench?
Castiliano vulgo!
For here comes Sir Andrew
Agueface.
39
Enter Sir Andrew
[
Aguecheek
]
SIR ANDREW
Sir Toby Belch. How now, Sir Toby Belch?
SIR TOBY
Sweet Sir Andrew.
To Maria
SIR ANDREW
Bless you, fair
shrew.
42
MARIA
And you too, sir.
SIR TOBY
Accost
44
, Sir Andrew, accost.
SIR ANDREW
What’s that?
SIR TOBY
My niece’s
chambermaid.
46
SIR ANDREW
Good Mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance.
MARIA
My name is Mary, sir.
SIR ANDREW
Good Mistress Mary Accost —
SIR TOBY
You mistake, knight. ‘Accost’ is
front
her,
board
50
her,
woo her,
assail
51
her.
SIR ANDREW
By my troth, I would not
undertake
her
in this
52
company. Is that the meaning of ‘accost’?
MARIA
Fare you well, gentlemen.
Starts to leave
SIR TOBY
An thou let part so
55
, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst
never draw
sword
56
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
58
hand?
MARIA
Sir, I have not you by th’hand.
Gives her his hand
SIR ANDREW
Marry
61
, but you shall have, and here’s
my hand.
MARIA
Now, sir,
thought is free.
63
I pray you bring your hand
to
th’buttery-bar
64
and let it drink.
SIR ANDREW
Wherefore
65
, sweetheart? What’s your metaphor?
MARIA
It’s
dry
66
, sir.
SIR ANDREW
Why, I think so: I am not such an ass but
I can keep
67
my hand dry. But what’s your jest?
MARIA
A
dry jest
69
, sir.
SIR ANDREW
Are you full of them?
MARIA
Ay, sir, I have them
at my fingers’ ends.
71