ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Orsino, Duke of Illyria, Curio, and other Lords, with Musicians playing.
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 odor. 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, naught 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.
...hunt, my lord?
What, Curio?
... The hart.
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 turned into a hart,
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E’er since pursue me.
Enter Valentine.
How now, what news from her?
...her sad remembrance.
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 killed the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and filled
Her sweet perfections with one self king!
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers!
Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.
They exit.
Scene 4
...I thank you.
Enter Orsino, Curio, and Attendants.
...comes the Count.
Who saw Cesario, ho?
...my lord, here.
to Curio and Attendants
Stand you awhile aloof.—Cesario,
Thou know’st no less but all. I have unclasped
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 fixèd foot shall grow
Till thou have audience.
...will admit me.
Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds
Rather than make unprofited return.
...lord, what then?
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.
...so, my lord.
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 womans 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.
...be his wife.
They exit.
ACT 2
Scene 4
...knight; come, knight.
Enter Orsino, Viola, Curio, and others.
Give me some music.
Music plays.
Now, good morrow, friends.—
Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night.
Methought it did relieve my passion much,
More than light airs and recollected terms
Of these most brisk and giddy-pacèd times.
Come, but one verse.
...should sing it.
Who was it?
...about the house.
Seek him out and play the tune the while.
Music plays.
To Viola.
Come hither, boy. If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me,
For such as I am, all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved. How dost thou like this tune?
...love is throned.
Thou dost speak masterly.
My life upon ’t, young though thou art, thine eye
Hath stayed upon some favor that it loves.
Hath it not, boy?
...by your favor.
What kind of woman is ’t?
...Of your complexion.
She is not worth thee, then. What years, i’ faith?
...years, my lord.
Too old, by heaven. Let still the woman take
An elder than herself. So wears she to him;
So sways she level in her husband’s heart.
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are.
...well, my lord.
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
For women are as roses, whose fair flower,
Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.
...Feste, the Fool.
O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.—
Mark it, Cesario. It is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it. It is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love
Like the old age.
...you ready, sir?
Ay, prithee, sing.
...To weep there.
giving money
There’s for thy pains.
...in singing, sir.
I’ll pay thy pleasure, then.
...time or another.
Give me now leave to leave thee.
...of nothing. Farewell.
Let all the rest give place. Once more, Cesario,
Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty.
Tell her my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands.
The parts that Fortune hath bestowed upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as Fortune.
But ’tis that miracle and queen of gems
That nature pranks her in attracts my soul.
...love you, sir—
I cannot be so answered.
...then be answered?
There is no woman’s sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart
So big, to hold so much; they lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
No motion of the liver but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.
...but I know—
What dost thou know?
...should your Lordship.
And what’s her history?
...in our love.
But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
...to this lady?
Ay, that’s the theme.
To her in haste. Give her this jewel. Say
My love can give no place, bide no denay.
He hands her a jewel and they exit.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...my dog again.
Enter Orsino, Viola, Curio, and Lords.
Belong you to the Lady Olivia, friends?
...of her trappings.
I know thee well. How dost thou, my good fellow?
...for my friends.
Just the contrary: the better for thy friends.
...sir, the worse.
How can that be?
...for my foes.
Why, this is excellent.
...of my friends.
giving a coin
Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there’s gold.
...make it another.
O, you give me ill counsel.
...blood obey it.
Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a
double-dealer: there’s another.He gives a coin.
...mind—one, two, three.
You can fool no more money out of me at this
throw. If you will let your lady know I am here to
speak with her, and bring her along with you, it
may awake my bounty further.
...did rescue me.
That face of his I do remember well.
Yet when I saw it last, it was besmeared
As black as Vulcan in the smoke of war.
A baubling vessel was he captain of,
For shallow draught and bulk unprizable,
With which such scatheful grapple did he make
With the most noble bottom of our fleet
That very envy and the tongue of loss
Cried fame and honor on him.—What’s the matter?
...’twas but distraction.
Notable pirate, thou saltwater thief,
What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies
Whom thou, in terms so bloody and so dear,
Hast made thine enemies?
...can this be?
to Antonio
When came he to this town?
...Olivia and Attendants.
Here comes the Countess. Now heaven walks on Earth!—
But for thee, fellow: fellow, thy words are madness.
Three months this youth hath tended upon me—
But more of that anon. To an Officer.
Take him aside.
...with me. Madam?
Gracious Olivia—
...howling after music.
Still so cruel?
...so constant, lord.
What, to perverseness? You, uncivil lady,
To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars
My soul the faithful’st off’rings have breathed out
That e’er devotion tendered—what shall I do?
...shall become him.
Why should I not, had I the heart to do it,
Like to th’ Egyptian thief at point of death,
Kill what I love?—a savage jealousy
That sometime savors nobly. But hear me this:
Since you to nonregardance cast my faith,
And that I partly know the instrument
That screws me from my true place in your favor,
Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still.
But this your minion, whom I know you love,
And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly,
Him will I tear out of that cruel eye
Where he sits crownèd in his master’s spite.—
Come, boy, with me. My thoughts are ripe in mischief.
I’ll sacrifice the lamb that I do love
To spite a raven’s heart within a dove.
...the holy father.
to Viola
Come, away!
...lord?—Cesario, husband, stay.
Husband?
...he that deny?
Her husband, sirrah?
...but two hours.
to Viola
O thou dissembling cub! What wilt thou be
When time hath sowed a grizzle on thy case?
Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow
That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow?
Farewell, and take her, but direct thy feet
Where thou and I henceforth may never meet.
...very devil incardinate.
My gentleman Cesario?
...than he did.
How now, gentleman? How is ’t with you?
...so late ago.
One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!
A natural perspective, that is and is not!
...maid and man.
to Olivia
Be not amazed; right noble is his blood.
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
I shall have share in this most happy wrack.—
Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
...day from night.
Give me thy hand,
And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds.
...this? Ay, madam.
This savors not much of distraction.
...my proper cost.
Madam, I am most apt t’ embrace your offer.
To Viola.
Your master quits you; and for your service done him,
So much against the mettle of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you called me “master” for so long,
Here is my hand. You shall from this time be
Your master’s mistress.
...Malvolio and Fabian.
Is this the madman?
...most notoriously abused.
Pursue him and entreat him to a peace.
He hath not told us of the Captain yet.
When that is known, and golden time convents,
A solemn combination shall be made
Of our dear souls.—Meantime, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence.—Cesario, come,
For so you shall be while you are a man.
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.
All but the Fool exit.