Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Complete Plays, The (415 page)
C
HARACTERS
OF
THE
P
LAY
Orsino, Duke of Illyria.
Sebastian, brother to Viola.
Antonio, a sea captain, friend to Sebastian.
A Sea Captain, friend to Viola.
Valentine and Curio, gentlemen attending on the Duke.
Sir Toby Belch, uncle to Olivia.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Malvolio, steward to Olivia.
Fabian and Feste, a Clown, servants to Olivia.
Olivia.
Viola.
Maria, Olivia's woman.
Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other Attendants.
Scene: A city in Illyria, and the sea-coast near it.
A
CT
I
S
CENE
I. D
UKE
O
RSINO
’
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
S
CENE
II. T
HE
SEA
-
COAST
.
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
S
CENE
III. O
LIVIA
’
S
HOUSE
.
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.