Internet Shakespeare Editions

About this text

  • Title: Twelfth Night (Modern)
  • Editors: David Carnegie, Mark Houlahan
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-372-4

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editors: David Carnegie, Mark Houlahan
    Peer Reviewed

    Twelfth Night (Modern)

    2951.5
    Enter Maria, and Clown.
    Maria
    Nay, either tell me where thou hast been, or I will not open my lips so wide as a bristle may enter, in way of thy excuse. My lady will hang thee for thy absence.
    300Clown
    Let her hang me; he that is well hanged in this world needs to fear no colors.
    Maria
    Make that good.
    Clown
    He shall see none to fear!
    Maria
    A good lenten answer. I can tell thee where that 305saying was born, of "I fear no colors."
    Clown
    Where, good Mistress Mary?
    Maria
    In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery.
    Clown
    Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and 310those that are fools, let them use their talents.
    Maria
    Yet you will be hanged for being so long absent; or to be turned away--is not that as good as a hanging to you?
    Clown
    Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; 315and for turning away, let summer bear it out.
    Maria
    You are resolute, then?
    Clown
    Not so neither, but I am resolved on two points--
    Maria
    That if one break, the other will hold; or if both break, your gaskins fall!
    320Clown
    Apt in good faith, very apt. Well, go thy way; if Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.
    Maria
    Peace, you rogue, no more o'that! 325
    Enter Lady Olivia, with Malvolio [and Gentlemen] [and Ladies].
    Here comes my lady. Make your excuse wisely, you were best.
    Clown
    [To the audience] Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? "Better a witty fool, 330than a foolish wit." [To Olivia] God bless thee, lady!
    Olivia
    [To the Gentlemen] Take the fool away.
    Clown
    Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady.
    Olivia
    Go to, y'are a dry fool; I'll no more of you. Besides, you grow dishonest.
    335Clown
    Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry. Bid the dishonest man mend himself: if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Anything that's mended is but patched; virtue 340that transgresses is but patched with sin, and sin that amends is but patched with virtue. If that this simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not, what remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so beauty's a flower. The lady bade take away the fool, therefore I 345say again, take her away.
    Olivia
    Sir, I bade them take away you.
    Clown
    Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, cucullus non facit monachum--that's as much to say, as "I wear not motley in my brain." Good madonna, give me leave to 350prove you a fool.
    Olivia
    Can you do it?
    Clown
    Dexteriously, good madonna.
    Olivia
    Make your proof.
    Clown
    I must catechize you for it, madonna. Good my 355mouse of virtue, answer me.
    Olivia
    Well sir, for want of other idleness, I'll bide your proof.
    Clown
    Good madonna, why mourn'st thou?
    Olivia
    Good fool, for my brother's death.
    360Clown
    I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
    Olivia
    I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
    Clown
    The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul, being in heaven. [To the Gentlemen] Take away the fool, gentlemen.
    365Olivia
    What think you of this fool, Malvolio? Doth he not mend?
    Malvolio
    Yes, and shall do, till the pangs of death shake him: infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool.
    370Clown
    God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the better increasing your folly: Sir Toby will be sworn that I am no fox, but he will not pass his word for twopence that you are no fool.
    Olivia
    How say you to that, Malvolio?
    375Malvolio
    I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal. I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool, that has no more brain than a stone. Look you now, he's out of his guard already. Unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged. I protest 380I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies.
    Olivia
    Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those things for 385bird-bolts that you deem cannon bullets. There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove.
    Clown
    Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou 390speak'st well of fools.
    Enter Maria.
    Maria
    Madam, there is at the gate a young gentleman much desires to speak with you.
    Olivia
    From the Count Orsino, is it?
    395Maria
    I know not, madam. 'Tis a fair young man, and well attended.
    Olivia
    Who of my people hold him in delay?
    Maria
    Sir Toby, madam, your kinsman.
    Olivia
    Fetch him off, I pray you, he speaks nothing but 400madman. Fie on him!
    [Exit Maria.]
    Go you, Malvolio; if it be a suit from the count, I am sick, or not at home. What you will, to dismiss it.
    Exit Malvolio.
    Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, and people dislike it.
    405Clown
    Thou hast spoke for us, madonna, as if thy eldest son should be a fool; whose skull Jove cram with brains, for--
    Enter Sir Toby [drunk].
    here he comes-- one of thy kin has a most weak pia mater.
    Olivia
    By mine honor, half drunk. What is he at the 410gate, cousin?
    Sir Toby
    A gentleman.
    Olivia
    A gentleman? What gentleman?
    Sir Toby
    'Tis a gentleman here--[belching] a plague o'these pickle herring! [To Clown] How now, sot!
    415Clown
    Good Sir Toby!
    Olivia
    Cousin, cousin, how have you come so early by this lethargy?
    Sir Toby
    Lechery? I defy lechery! There's one at the gate.
    420Olivia
    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.
    Exit.
    Olivia
    What's a drunken man like, fool?
    Clown
    Like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman: 425one draught above heat makes him a fool, the second mads him, and a third drowns him.
    Olivia
    Go thou and seek the coroner, and let him sit o'my coz, for he's in the third degree of drink: he's drowned. Go look after him.
    430Clown
    He is but mad yet, madonna, and the fool shall look to the madman.
    [Exit.]
    Enter Malvolio.
    Malvolio
    Madam, yond young fellow swears he will speak with you. I told him you were sick; he takes on 435him to understand so much, and therefore comes to speak with you. I told him you were asleep; he seems to have a foreknowledge of that too, and therefore comes to speak with you. What is to be said to him, lady? He's fortified against any denial.
    440Olivia
    Tell him he shall not speak with me.
    Malvolio
    He 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.
    Olivia
    What kind o'man is he?
    445Malvolio
    Why, of mankind.
    Olivia
    What manner of man?
    Malvolio
    Of very ill manner: he'll speak with you, will you or no.
    Olivia
    Of what personage and years is he?
    450Malvolio
    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-favored, and he speaks very shrewishly; one would think his 455mother's milk were scarce out of him.
    Olivia
    Let him approach. Call in my gentlewoman.
    Malvolio
    [Calling offstage] Gentlewoman, my lady calls.
    Exit.
    Enter Maria.
    Olivia
    Give me my veil. Come, throw it o'er my face.
    [She is veiled.]
    460We'll once more hear Orsino's embassy.
    Enter Viola [as Cesario].
    Viola
    The honorable lady of the house, which is she?
    Olivia
    Speak to me, I shall answer for her. Your will?
    Viola
    Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable 465beauty--[To Maria or a Gentleman] I pray you tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw 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. [Olivia and others laugh.] Good beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very comptible, even to the least 470sinister usage.
    Olivia
    Whence came you, sir?
    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 475may proceed in my speech.
    Olivia
    Are you a comedian?
    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?
    480Olivia
    If I do not usurp myself, I am.
    Viola
    Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp yourself, for 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 485my message.
    Olivia
    Come to what is important in't, I forgive you the praise.
    Viola
    Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical.
    490Olivia
    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 that time of moon with me to make one in so 495skipping a dialogue.
    Maria
    Will you hoist sail, sir? Here lies your way.
    Viola
    [To Maria] No, good swabber, I am to hull here a little longer. [To Olivia] Some mollification for your Giant, sweet lady! Tell me your mind, I am a messenger.
    500Olivia
    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, no taxation of homage. I hold the olive in my hand. My words are as full of peace as matter.
    505Olivia
    Yet you began rudely. What are you? What would you?
    Viola
    The rudeness that hath appeared in me, have I learned from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would, are as secret as maidenhead: to your ears, 510divinity; to any others', profanation.
    Olivia
    Give us the place alone; we will hear this divinity.
    [Exeunt Maria, Gentlemen, and Ladies.]
    Now sir, what is your text?
    Viola
    Most sweet lady--
    Olivia
    A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said 515of it. Where lies your text?
    Viola
    In Orsino's bosom.
    Olivia
    In his bosom! In what chapter of his bosom?
    To answer by the method, in the first of his heart.
    Olivia
    O, I have read it. It is heresy. Have you no more 520to say?
    Good madam, let me see your face.
    Olivia
    Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate with my face? You are now out of your text. But we will draw the curtain, and show you the picture.
    [She unveils.]
    525Look you, sir, such a one I was this present. Is't not well done?
    Excellently done, if god did all.
    Olivia
    'Tis in grain, sir, 'twill endure wind and weather.
    'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
    Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.
    Lady, you are the cruel'st she alive
    If you will lead these graces to the grave,
    And leave the world no copy.
    535Olivia
    O sir, I will not be so hardhearted. I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labeled to my will: as, item, [Indicating] two lips, indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck; one chin; and so forth. 540Were you sent hither to praise me?
    I see you what you are, you are too proud;
    But if you were the devil, you are fair.
    My lord and master loves you. O, such love
    Could be but recompensed, though you were crowned
    545The nonpareil of beauty.
    Olivia
    How does he love me?
    With adorations, fertile tears,
    With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.
    Olivia
    Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love him.
    550Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,
    Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;
    In voices well divulged, free, learn'd, and valiant,
    And in dimension, and the shape of nature,
    A gracious person. But yet I cannot love him.
    555He might have took his answer long ago.
    If I did love you in my master's flame,
    With such a suff'ring, such a deadly life,
    In your denial I would find no sense;
    I would not understand it.
    560Olivia
    Why, what would you?
    Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
    And call upon my soul within the house;
    Write loyal cantos of contemnèd love,
    And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
    565Hallow your name to the reverberate hills,
    And make the babbling gossip of the air
    Cry out "Olivia!" O you should not rest
    Between the elements of air and earth,
    But you should pity me.
    570Olivia
    You might do much!
    What is your parentage?
    Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
    I am a gentleman.
    Olivia
    Get you to your lord.
    575I cannot love him. Let him send no more,
    Unless, perchance, you come to me again,
    To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well.
    [Offering a purse] I thank you for your pains. Spend this for me.
    I am no fee'd post, lady; keep your purse.
    580My master, not myself, lacks recompense.
    Love make his heart of flint, that you shall love,
    And let your fervor, like my master's, be
    Placed in contempt. Farwell, fair cruelty.
    Exit.
    Olivia
    "What is your parentage?"
    585"Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
    I am a gentleman." I'll be sworn thou art!
    Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit,
    Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast! Soft, soft!
    Unless the master were the man. How now!
    590Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
    Methinks I feel this youth's perfections
    With an invisible and subtle stealth
    To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.
    [Calling] What ho, Malvolio!
    595Enter Malvolio.
    Malvolio
    Here, madam, at your service.
    Olivia
    Run after that same peevish messenger,
    The county's man. He left this ring behind him,
    [Having secretly taken a ring from her finger, she gives it to Malvolio.]
    Would I or not. Tell him I'll none of it.
    600Desire him not to flatter with his lord,
    Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him.
    If that the youth will come this way tomorrow,
    I'll give him reasons for't. Hie thee, Malvolio.
    Malvolio
    Madam, I will.
    Exit.
    605Olivia
    [To the audience] I do I know not what, and fear to find
    Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
    Fate, show thy force, ourselves we do not owe;
    What is decreed must be; and be this so.
    [Exit.]