TPTT Twelfth Night, or What You Will: ACT II
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
SCENE I. The sea-coast.
SCENE II. A street.
SCENE III. OLIVIA's house.
SCENE IV. DUKE ORSINO's palace.
SCENE V. OLIVIA's garden.
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
Feedback
  Search:   
for:

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
SCENE IV. DUKE ORSINO's palace.
Enter DUKE ORSINO, VIOLA, CURIO, and others
DUKE ORSINO
      Give me some music. 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,
5     More than light airs and recollected terms
      Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times:
      Come, but one verse.
CURIO
      He is not here, so please your lordship that should sing it.
DUKE ORSINO
      Who was it?
CURIO
10    Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the lady
      Olivia's father took much delight in. He is about the house.
DUKE ORSINO
      Seek him out, and play the tune the while.

Exit CURIO. Music plays

      Come hither, boy: if ever thou shalt love,
      In the sweet pangs of it remember me;
15    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?
VIOLA
      It gives a very echo to the seat
20    Where Love is throned.
DUKE ORSINO
      Thou dost speak masterly:
      My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye
      Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves:
      Hath it not, boy?
VIOLA
25    A little, by your favour.
DUKE ORSINO
      What kind of woman is't?
VIOLA
      Of your complexion.
DUKE ORSINO
      She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith?
VIOLA
      About your years, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO
30    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,
35    More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
      Than women's are.
VIOLA
      I think it well, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO
      Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
      Or thy affection cannot hold the bent;
40    For women are as roses, whose fair flower
      Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.
VIOLA
      And so they are: alas, that they are so;
      To die, even when they to perfection grow!
Re-enter CURIO and Clown
DUKE ORSINO
      O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.
45    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,
50    Like the old age.
Clown
      Are you ready, sir?
DUKE ORSINO
      Ay; prithee, sing.

Music
SONG.
Clown
      Come away, come away, death,
      And in sad cypress let me be laid;
55    Fly away, fly away breath;
      I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
      My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
      O, prepare it!
      My part of death, no one so true
60    Did share it.
      Not a flower, not a flower sweet
      On my black coffin let there be strown;
      Not a friend, not a friend greet
      My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown:
65    A thousand thousand sighs to save,
      Lay me, O, where
      Sad true lover never find my grave,
      To weep there!
DUKE ORSINO
      There's for thy pains.
Clown
70    No pains, sir: I take pleasure in singing, sir.
DUKE ORSINO
      I'll pay thy pleasure then.
Clown
      Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another.
DUKE ORSINO
      Give me now leave to leave thee.
Clown
      Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the
75    tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for
      thy mind is a very opal. I would have men of such
      constancy put to sea, that their business might be
      every thing and their intent every where; for that's
      it that always makes a good voyage of nothing. Farewell.
Exit
DUKE ORSINO
80    Let all the rest give place.

CURIO and Attendants retire

      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;
85    The parts that fortune hath bestow'd 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.
VIOLA
      But if she cannot love you, sir?
DUKE ORSINO
90    I cannot be so answer'd.
VIOLA
      Sooth, but you must.
      Say that some lady, as perhaps there is,
      Hath for your love a great a pang of heart
      As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her;
95    You tell her so; must she not then be answer'd?
DUKE ORSINO
      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
100   Alas, their love may be call'd 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
105   Between that love a woman can bear me
      And that I owe Olivia.
VIOLA
      Ay, but I know--
DUKE ORSINO
      What dost thou know?
VIOLA
      Too well what love women to men may owe:
110   In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
      My father had a daughter loved a man,
      As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
      I should your lordship.
DUKE ORSINO
      And what's her history?
VIOLA
115   A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
      But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
      Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
      And with a green and yellow melancholy
      She sat like patience on a monument,
120   Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
      We men may say more, swear more: but indeed
      Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
      Much in our vows, but little in our love.
DUKE ORSINO
      But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
VIOLA
125   I am all the daughters of my father's house,
      And all the brothers too: and yet I know not.
      Sir, shall I to this lady?
DUKE ORSINO
      Ay, that's the theme.
      To her in haste; give her this jewel; say,
130   My love can give no place, bide no denay.
Exeunt
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene