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- TWELFTH NIGHT
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- Act 2 Scene 4
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- (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-pacΦd 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 OliviaÆs
- l12l father took much delight in. He is about the house.
- l13l Orsino Seek him out, and play the tune the while.
- (Exit Curio)
- (Music plays)
- l14l (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 Æt, 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 Æt?
- Viola Of your complexion.
- l26l Orsino She is not worth thee then. What years, iÆ 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 husbandÆs 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 womenÆs 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) ThereÆs for thy pains.
- l67l Feste No pains, sir. I take pleasure in singing, sir.
- l68l Orsino IÆll 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 thatÆs 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 Ætis 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 womanÆs sides
- l93l Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
- l94l As love doth give my heart; no womanÆs 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 knowù
- 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 whatÆs her history?
- l110l Viola A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
- l111l But let concealment, like a worm iÆ thÆ 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 fatherÆs house,
- l121l And all the brothers too; and yet I know not.
- l122l Sir, shall I to this lady?
- Orsino Ay, thatÆs the theme,
- l123l To her in haste. Give her this jewel. Say
- l124l My love can give no place, bide no denay.
- (Exeunt severally)
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