TWELFTH NIGHT

Act 2 Scene 4

(Enter the Duke, Viola as Cesario, Curio, and others)
l1l	Orsino	 Give me some music. Now good morrow, friends.
l2l		Now good Cesario, but that piece of song,
l3l		That old and antic song we heard last night.
l4l		Methought it did relieve my passion much,
l5l		More than light airs and recollected terms
l6l		Of these most brisk and giddy-pacèd times.
l7l		Come, but one verse.
l8l	Curio	 He is not here, so please your lordship, that should
l9l		sing it.
l10l	Orsino	Who was it?
l11l	Curio	Feste the jester, my lord, a fool that the lady Olivia’s
l12l		father took much delight in. He is about the house.
l13l	Orsino	 Seek him out, and play the tune the while.
		( 13 Exit Curio)
l14l		(Music plays)
		(To Viola)
		 Come hither, boy. If ever thou shalt love,
l15l		In the sweet pangs of it remember me#
l16l		For such as I am, all true lovers are,
l17l		Unstaid and skittish in all motions else
l18l		Save in the constant image of the creature
l19l		That is beloved. How dost thou like this tune?
l20l	Viola	It gives a very echo to the seat
l21l		Where love is throned.
	Orsino	Thou dost speak masterly.
l22l		My life upon ’t, young though thou art thine eye
l23l		Hath stayed upon some favour that it loves.
l24l		Hath it not, boy?
	Viola	A little, by your favour.
l25l	Orsino	What kind of woman is ’t?
	Viola	Of your complexion.
l26l	Orsino	She is not worth thee then. What years, i’ faith?
l27l	Viola	About your years, my lord.
l28l	Orsino	Too old, by heaven. Let still the woman take
l29l		An elder than herself. So wears she to him#
l30l		So sways she level in her husband’s heart.
l31l		For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
l32l		Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
l33l		More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
l34l		Than women’s are.
	Viola	I think it well, my lord.
l35l	Orsino	Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
l36l		Or thy affection cannot hold the bent#
l37l		For women are as roses, whose fair flower
l38l		Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.
l39l	Viola	And so they are. Alas that they are so:
l40l		To die even when they to perfection grow.
		(Enter Curio and Feste the clown)
l41l	Orsino	(to Feste)
		 O fellow, come, the song we had last night.
l42l		Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain.
l43l		The spinsters, and the knitters in the sun,
l44l		And the free maids that weave their thread with bones,
l45l		Do use to chant it. It is silly sooth,
l46l		And dallies with the innocence of love,
l47l		Like the old age.
l48l	Feste	Are you ready, sir?
l49l	Orsino	I prithee, sing.
		(Music)
l50l	Feste	(sings)
		> Come away, come away death,
l51l		And in sad cypress let me be laid.
l52l		Fie away, fie away breath,
l53l		I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
l54l		My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
l55l		O prepare it.
l56l		My part of death no one so true
l57l		Did share it.
l58l		Not a flower, not a flower sweet
l59l		On my black coffin let there be strewn.
l60l		Not a friend, not a friend greet
l61l		My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
l62l		A thousand thousand sighs to save,
l63l		Lay me O where
l64l		Sad true lover never find my grave,
l65l		To weep there.
l66l	Duke	(giving money)
		 There’s for thy pains.
l67l	Feste	No pains, sir. I take pleasure in singing, sir.
l68l	Orsino	I’ll pay thy pleasure then.
l69l	Feste	Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or
l70l		another.
l71l	Orsino	Give me now leave to leave thee.
l72l	Feste	Now the melancholy god protect thee, and the
l73l		tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy
l74l		mind is a very opal. I would have men of such constancy
l75l		put to sea, that their business might be everything,
l76l		and their intent everywhere, for that’s it that always
l77l		makes a good voyage of nothing. Farewell.
		(Exit)
l78l	Orsino	 Let all the rest give place:
		(Exeunt Curio and others)
		 Once more, Cesario,
l79l		Get thee to yon same sovereign cruelty.
l80l		Tell her my love, more noble than the world,
l81l		Prizes not quantity of dirty lands.
l82l		The parts that fortune hath bestowed upon her
l83l		Tell her I hold as giddily as fortune#
l84l		But ’tis that miracle and queen of gems
l85l		That nature pranks her in attracts my soul.
l86l	Viola	But if she cannot love you, sir?
l87l	Orsino	I cannot be so answered.
	Viola	Sooth, but you must.
l88l		Say that some lady, as perhaps there is,
l89l		Hath for your love as great a pang of heart
l90l		As you have for Olivia. You cannot love her.
l91l		You tell her so. Must she not then be answered?
l92l	Orsino	There is no woman’s sides
l93l		Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
l94l		As love doth give my heart# no woman’s heart
l95l		So big, to hold so much. They lack retention.
l96l		Alas, their love may be called appetite,
l97l		No motion of the liver, but the palate,
l98l		That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt.
l99l		But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
l100l		And can digest as much. Make no compare
l101l		Between that love a woman can bear me
l102l		And that I owe Olivia.
l103l	Viola	Ay, but I know—
l104l	Orsino	What dost thou know?
l105l	Viola	Too well what love women to men may owe.
l106l		In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
l107l		My father had a daughter loved a man
l108l		As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman
l109l		I should your lordship.
	Orsino	And what’s her history?
l110l	Viola	A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
l111l		But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud,
l112l		Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
l113l		And with a green and yellow melancholy
l114l		She sat like patience on a monument,
l115l		Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
l116l		We men may say more, swear more, but indeed
l117l		Our shows are more than will# for still we prove
l118l		Much in our vows, but little in our love.
l119l	Orsino	But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
l120l	Viola	I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
l121l		And all the brothers too# and yet I know not.
l122l		Sir, shall I to this lady?
	Orsino	Ay, that’s the theme,
l123l		To her in haste. Give her this jewel. Say
l124l		My love can give no place, bide no denay.
		(Exeunt severally)