Dramatis Personae
ORSINO Duke of Illyria. (DUKE ORSINO:)
SEBASTIAN brother to Viola.
ANTONIO a sea captain, friend to Sebastian.
A Sea Captain, friend to Viola.
VALENTINE, CURIO } gentlemen attending on the Duke.
SIR TOBY BELCH uncle to Olivia.
SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK
MALVOLIO steward to Olivia.
FABIAN, 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.
Act 1
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
Scene 2
The 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
Scene 3
OLIVIA’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.