Act V, Scene I - Page 3

Twelfth Night | Act V, Scene I - Page 3

SEBASTIAN:: [To Olivia]
So comes it, lady, you have been
mistook:
But nature to her bias drew in that.(270)
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.

DUKE ORSINO:: Be not amazed; right noble is his blood.
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,(275)
I shall have share in this most happy wreck:

[To Viola.]
Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times,
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

VIOLA:: And all those sayings will I overswear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul(280)
As doth that orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night.

VIOLA:: The captain that did bring me first on shore
Hath my maid's garments: he upon some action,
Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit,
A gentleman, and follower of my lady's.

OLIVIA:: He shall enlarge him: fetch Malvolio hither:
And yet, alas, now I remember me,(290)
They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.

[Re-enter Clown, with a letter.]
A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.
How does he, sirrah?

CLOWN:: Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's
end as well as a man in his case may do: he has here
writ a letter to you; I should have given it you today morning,
but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not
much when they are delivered.

CLOWN:: Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the
madman. [Reads] ‘By the Lord, madam,’—

CLOWN:: No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship
will have it as it ought to be, you must allow Vox.(305)

CLOWN:: So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read
thus; therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.

FABIAN:: [Reads]
'By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know(310)
it: though you have put me into darkness and given your
drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses
as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced
me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but(315)
to do myself much right or you much shame. Think of me as
you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak
out of my injury.
The madly-used Malvolio.'

OLIVIA:: See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither.

[Exit Fabian.]
My lord so please you, these things further thought on,
To think me as well a sister as a wife,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,(325)
Here at my house and at my proper cost.

DUKE ORSINO:: Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.

[To Viola]
Your master quits you; and, for your service
done him,
So much against the mettle of your sex,(330)
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand: you shall from this time be
You master's mistress.

[Re-enter Fabian with Malvolio.]

MALVOLIO:: Madam, you have done me wrong, Notorious wrong.
Notorious wrong.(340)

MALVOLIO:: Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter.
You must not now deny it is your hand:
Write from it, if you can, in hand or phrase;
Or say 'tis not your seal, not your invention:(345)
You can say none of this: well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you;
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown(350)
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull(355)
That e'er invention played on? tell me why.

OLIVIA:: Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character
But out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she(360)
First told me thou wast mad; then camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,(365)
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

FABIAN:: Good madam, hear me speak;
And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,(370)
Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him: Maria writ(375)
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance;
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd(380)
That have on both sides past.

CLOWN:: Why, ‘some are born great, some achieve greatness, and
some have greatness thrown upon them.’ I was one, sir, in(385)
this interlude: one Sir Topas, sir; but that's all one. ‘By the
Lord, fool, I am not mad.’ But do you remember? ‘Madam,
why laugh you at such a barren rascal? An you smile not,
he's gagged:’ and thus the whirligig of time brings in his
revenges.(390)

[Exit.]

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