THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

ORSINO, Duke of Illyria

FIRST OFFICER

SECOND OFFICER

VIOLA, a lady, later disguised as Cesario

A CAPTAIN

SEBASTIAN, her twin brother

ANTONIO, another sea-captain

OLIVIA, a Countess

MARIA, her waiting-gentlewoman

SIR TOBY Belch, Olivia’s kinsman

SIR ANDREW Aguecheek, companion of Sir Toby

MALVOLIO, Olivia’s steward

FABIAN, a member of Olivia’s household

FESTE the Clown, her jester

A PRIEST

A SERVANT of Olivia

Musicians, sailors, lords, attendants

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

1.1 Music. Enter Orsino Duke of Illyria, Curio, and other lords

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.

⌈Music ceases⌉

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou

That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,

Of what validity and pitch so e’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?

ORSINO

What, Curio?

CURIO

The hart.

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 turned 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.

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 killed the flock of all affections else

That live in her—when liver, brain, and heart,

These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and filled

Her sweet perfections with one self king!

Away before me to sweet beds of flowers.

Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.

Exeunt

1.2 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 drowned. 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 practice—

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 (giving money)

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 his 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 sight

And company 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,