Twelfth Night | Act I, Scene V - Page 2
- OLIVIA:
-
Cousin, cousin, how have you come so early by this(115)
lethargy?
- SIR TOBY:
-
Lechery! I defy lechery. There's one at the gate.
- OLIVIA:
-
Ay, marry; what is he?
- SIR TOBY:
-
Let him be the devil an he will, I care not: give me
faith, say I. Well, it's all one.(120)
[Exit.]
- OLIVIA:
-
What's a drunken man like, fool?
- CLOWN:
-
Like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman: one
draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads
him; and a third drowns him.
- OLIVIA:
-
Go thou and seek the crowner, and let him sit o' my(125)
coz; for he's in the third degree of drink; he's drowned:
go, look after him.
- CLOWN:
-
He is but mad yet, madonna; and the fool shall look
to the madman.
[Exit.]
[Re-enter Malvolio .]
- MALVOLIO:
-
Madam, yond young fellow swears he will speak(130)
with you. I told him you were sick; he takes on him to
understand so much, and therefore comes to speak with
you. I told him you were asleep; he seems to have a fore-
knowledge of that too, and therefore comes to speak with
you. What is to be said to him, lady? he's fortified against(135)
any denial.
- OLIVIA:
-
Tell him, he shall not speak with me.
- MALVOLIO:
-
Has been told so; and he says, he'll stand at your
door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter to a
bench, but he'll speak with you.(140)
- OLIVIA:
-
What kind of man is he?
- MALVOLIO:
-
Why, of mankind.
- OLIVIA:
-
What manner of man?
- MALVOLIO:
-
Of very ill manner; he'll speak with you, will you
or no.(145)
- OLIVIA:
-
Of what personage and years is he?
- MALVOLIO:
-
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough
for a boy; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod, or a codling,
when 'tis almost an apple: 'tis with him in standing water,
between boy and man. He is very well-favoured, and he(150)
speaks very shrewishly; one would think his mother's milk
were scarce out of him.
- OLIVIA:
-
Let him approach. Call in my gentlewoman.
- MALVOLIO:
-
Gentlewoman, my lady calls.
[Exit.]
[Re-enter Maria.]
- OLIVIA:
-
Give me my veil; come, throw it o'er my face. We'll once(155)
more hear Orsino's embassy.
[Enter Viola.]
- VIOLA:
-
The honourable lady of the house, which is she?
- OLIVIA:
-
Speak to me; I shall answer for her. Your will?
- VIOLA:
-
Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty,—I pray
you, tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw(160)
her: I would be loath to cast away my speech, for besides
that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to
con it. Good beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very
comptible, even to the least sinister usage.
- OLIVIA:
-
Whence came you, sir?(165)
- VIOLA:
-
I can say little more than I have studied, and that
question's out of my part. Good gentle one, give me modest
assurance, if you be the lady of the house, that I may proceed
in my speech.
- OLIVIA:
-
Are you a comedian?(170)
- VIOLA:
-
No, my profound heart: and yet, by the very fangs of
malice I swear, I am not that I play. Are you the lady of the
house?
- OLIVIA:
-
If I do not usurp myself, I am.
- VIOLA:
-
Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp yourself; for(175)
what is yours to bestow is not yours to reserve. But this is
from my commission: I will on with my speech in your
praise, and then show you the heart of my message.
- OLIVIA:
-
Come to what is important in't: I forgive you the
praise.(180)
- VIOLA:
-
Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical.
- OLIVIA:
-
It is the more like to be feigned: I pray you, keep it in.
I heard you were saucy at my gates, and allowed your
approach rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you
be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief: 'tis not(185)
that time of moon with me to make one in so skipping
a dialogue.
- VIOLA:
-
No, good swabber; I am to hull here a little longer.
Some mollification for your giant, sweet lady.(190)
- OLIVIA:
-
Tell me your mind.
- VIOLA:
-
I am a messenger.
- OLIVIA:
-
Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver, when
the courtesy of it is so fearful. Speak your office.
- VIOLA:
-
It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of war,(195)
no taxation of homage: I hold the olive in my hand; my
words are as full of peace as matter.
- OLIVIA:
-
Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would
you?
- VIOLA:
-
The rudeness that hath appeared in me have I learned(200)
from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would,
are as secret as maidenhead; to your ears, divinity; to
any other's, profanation.
- OLIVIA:
-
Give us the place alone: we will hear this divinity.
[Exit Maria.]
Now, sir, what is your text?(205)
- VIOLA:
-
Most sweet lady,—
- OLIVIA:
-
A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it.
Where lies your text?
- VIOLA:
-
In Orsino's bosom.
- OLIVIA:
-
In his bosom? In what chapter of his bosom?(210)
- VIOLA:
-
To answer by the method, in the first of his heart.
- OLIVIA:
-
O, I have read it: it is heresy. Have you no more to
say?
- VIOLA:
-
Good madam, let me see your face.
- OLIVIA:
-
Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate(215)
with my face? you are now out of your text: but we
will draw the curtain and show you the picture.
[Unveiling.]
Look you, sir, such a one I was this present. Is't not well
done? (220)
- VIOLA:
-
Excellently done, if God did all.
- OLIVIA:
-
'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather.
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