Twelfth Night | Act IV, Scene I

Scene I

Before Olivia's house.

[Enter Sebastian and Clown.]

CLOWN:
Will you make me believe that I am not sent for you?
SEBASTIAN:
Go to, go to, thou art a foolish fellow;
Let me be clear of thee.
CLOWN:
Well held out, i' faith! No, I do not know you; nor I am
not sent to you by my lady, to bid you come speak with her;(5)
nor your name is not Master Cesario; nor this is not my nose
neither. Nothing that is so is so.
SEBASTIAN:
I prithee, vent thy folly somewhere else: Thou know'st
not me.
CLOWN:
Vent my folly! he has heard that word of some great man(10)
and now applies it to a fool. Vent my folly! I am afraid this
great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. I prithee now,
ungird thy strangeness and tell me what I shall vent to my
lady: shall I vent to her that thou art coming?
SEBASTIAN:
I prithee, foolish Greek, depart from me:(15)
There's money for thee: if you tarry longer,
I shall give worse payment.
CLOWN:
By my troth, thou hast an open hand. These wise men
that give fools money get themselves a good report—after
fourteen years' purchase.(20)

[Enter Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, and Fabian.]

SIR ANDREW:

[To Sebastian.]

Now, sir, have I met you again?

[Striking Sebastian.]

there's for you.
SEBASTIAN:
Why, there's for thee, and there, and there. Are all the
people mad?

[Beating Sir Andrew.]

SIR TOBY:
Hold, sir, or I'll throw your dagger o'er the house.(25)
CLOWN:
This will I tell my lady straight. I would not be in
some of your coats for two pence.

[Exit Clown.]

SIR TOBY:
Come on, sir; hold.

[Holding Sebastian.]

SIR ANDREW:
Nay, let him alone: I'll go another way to work
with him; I'll have an action of battery against him, if(30)
there be any law in Illyria: though I struck him first, yet
it's no matter for that.
SEBASTIAN:
Let go thy hand.
SIR TOBY:
Come, sir, I will not let you go. Come, my young
soldier, put up your iron: you are well fleshed; come(35)
on.
SEBASTIAN:
I will be free from thee. What wouldst thou now?
If thou dar'st tempt me further, draw thy sword.
SIR TOBY:
What, what? Nay, then I must have an ounce or two
of this malapert blood from you.(40)

[Draws.]

[Enter Olivia.]

OLIVIA:
Hold, Toby; on thy life, I charge thee hold.
SIR TOBY:
Madam!
OLIVIA:
Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch,
Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves,
Where manners ne'er were preach'd! Out of my sight!(45)
Be not offended, dear Cesario.
Rudesby, be gone!

[Exeunt Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian.]

I pr'ythee, gentle friend,
Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway
In this uncivil and unjust extent(50)
Against thy peace. Go with me to my house,
And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks
This ruffian hath botch'd up, that thou thereby
Mayst smile at this: thou shalt not choose but go;
Do not deny. Beshrew his soul for me,(55)
He started one poor heart of mine in thee.
SEBASTIAN:
What relish is in this? how runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream:
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep;(60)
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!
OLIVIA:
Nay, come, I prithee; would thou'dst be ruled by
me!
SEBASTIAN:
Madam, I will.
OLIVIA:
O, say so, and so be!

[Exeunt.]

  • I haven't been ordered to get you?
  • Leave me alone
  • Well kept up
  • rude person
  • clueless person
  • let loose your aloofness
  • merry fellow
  • to delay or linger
  • a generous nature
  • Feste is implying that wise men who give their money to fools pay a high price. The value of a piece of land was usually calculated by the amount of rent collected on it during a period of twelve years. A purchase price calculated over fourteen years of rent payment would be a very high price.
  • I would not be in your shoes
  • accuse him of assault
  • it doesn't matter
  • Take your hands off me.
  • Well fleshed is a hunting phrase that means eager to fight. Hunters would give their dogs a taste of the flesh of the prey, which would whet the dog's appetite and provoke it to chase after the prey.
  • rude, impudent
  • a miserable person
  • brutal, uncivilized
  • Brute
  • rule
  • display
  • empty, idle; worthless
  • a hooligan
  • Olivia means that she feared for Sebastian (whom she thinks is Cesario) upon hearing Sir Toby threaten him. The statement contains a pun on the word heart, similar to the pun regarding the same word in the first scene of Act I. To start an animal is to alarm it so that it will flee into the open and become an easier target.
  • pleasant taste
  • where is this going?
  • In Greek mythology, Lethe was the river of forgetfulness, one of five rivers of the underworld. The others are: Acheron (sorrow), Cocytus (lamentation), Phlegethon (fire), and Styx (the river that the gods swore unbreakable oaths to).