TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. ACT I. SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Musicians attending. DUKE. 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: Stealing, and giving odour.-Enough; no more; O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! CUR. Will you go hunt, my lord? DUKE. CUR. What, Curio? DUKE. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: The hart. And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me.-How now? what news from her? Enter VALENTINE. VAL. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, DUKE. O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame, Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, Those 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 II.-The Sea-coast. Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors. VIO. What country, friends, is this? CAP. This is Illyria, lady. VIO. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. Perchance he is not drown'd:-What think you, sailors? When you, and those poor number sav'd with you, (Courage and hope both teaching him the practice) Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back, VIO. 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? VIO. Who governs here? CAP. A noble duke, in nature as in name. CAP. Orsino. VIO. Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor, then. CAP. And so is now, or was so very late: VIO. What's she? CAP. 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 abjur'd the sight And company of men. VIO. O, that I serv'd that lady: And might not be deliver'd to the world, What my estate is. CAP. That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the duke's. VIO. There is a fair behaviour 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 Conceal me what I am; and be my aid CAP. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be; SCENE III-A Room in Olivia's House. Enter Sir TOBY BELCH and MARIA. [Exeunt. SIR TO. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care 's an enemy to life. MAR. By my troth, sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights; your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. SIR TO. Why, let her except before excepted. MAR. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. SIR TO. 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. MAR. 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 TO. Who? Sir Andrew Ague-cheek? MAR. Ay, he. SIR TO. He's as tall a man as any 's in Illyria. SIR TO. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year. MAR. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats; he's a very fool, and a prodigal. SIR TO. 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. MAR. 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, 't is thought among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of a grave. SIR TO. By this hand, they are scoundrels and subtractors that say so of him. Who are they? MAR. They that add, moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company. SIR TO. 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 coystril, 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 Ague-face. Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK. SIR AND. Sir Toby Belch! how now, sir Toby Belch! SIR AND. Bless you, fair shrew. MAR. And you too, sir. SIR TO. Accost, sir Andrew, accost. SIR AND. What 's that? SIR TO. My niece's chambermaid, SIR AND. Good mistress Accost, I desire better acquaint ance. MAR. My name is Mary, sir. SIR AND. Good mistress Mary Accost, SIR TO. You mistake, knight; accost is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her. SIR AND. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of accost? MAR. Fare you well, gentlemen. SIR TO. An thou let part so, sir Andrew, 'would thou mightst never draw sword again. SIR AND. An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand? |