Act II, Scene 4

A Room in ORSINO'S Palace.

Enter ORSINO, VIOLA, CURIO, and others.

ORSINO
Give me some music:--Now, good morrow, friends:--
Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night;
Methought it did relieve my passion much;
More than light airs and recollected terms			5
Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times:--
Come, but one verse.

CURIO
He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing it.

ORSINO
Who was it?

CURIO
Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia's	10
father took much delight in: he is about the house.

ORSINO
Seek him out, and play the tune the while.

Exit CURIO.  Music.

Come hither, boy. If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me:
For, such as I am, all true lovers are;			15
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is belov'd.--How dost thou like this tune?

VIOLA
It gives a very echo to the seat
Where Love is throned.					20

ORSINO
Thou dost speak masterly:
My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye
Hath stayed upon some favour that it loves;
Hath it not, boy?

VIOLA
A little, by your favour.					25

ORSINO
What kind of woman is't?

VIOLA
Of your complexion.

ORSINO
She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith?

VIOLA
About your years, my lord.

ORSINO
Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take			30
An elder than herself; so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart.
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won,			35
Than women's are.

VIOLA
I think it well, my lord.

ORSINO
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent:
For women are as roses, whose fair flower,			40
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.

VIOLA
And so they are: alas, that they are so;
To die, even when they to perfection grow!

Re-enter CURIO and FESTE.

ORSINO
O, fellow, come, the song we had last night:--
Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain:			45
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids, that weave their thread with bones,
Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love
Like the old age.						50

FESTE
Are you ready, sir?

ORSINO
Ay; pr'ythee, sing.  

Music.

FESTE
      (SONG)
    Come away, come away, death.
  And in sad cypress let me be laid;
    Fly away, fly away, breath;				55
  I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
  My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
       O, prepare it!
  My part of death no one so true
      Did share it.					60

   Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
 On my black coffin let there be strown:
   Not a friend, not a friend greet
 My poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown:
 A thousand thousand sighs to save,				65
       Lay me, O, where					
 Sad true lover never find my grave,
       To weep there!

ORSINO
There's for thy pains.

FESTE
No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir.		70

ORSINO
I'll pay thy pleasure, then.

FESTE
Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid one time or another.

ORSINO
Give me now leave to leave thee.

FESTE
Now the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy
doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal!--I	75
would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business
might be everything, and their intent everywhere; for that's it
that always makes a good voyage of nothing.--Farewell.

Exit FESTE

ORSINO
Let all the rest give place.--

Exeunt CURIO and Attendants.

Once more, Cesario,					80
Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty:
Tell her my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands;
The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune;			85
But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems
That Nature pranks her in attracts my soul.

VIOLA
But if she cannot love you, sir?

ORSINO
I cannot be so answer'd.

VIOLA
'Sooth, but you must.					90
Say that some lady, as perhaps there is,
Hath for your love as great a pang of heart
As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her;
You tell her so. Must she not then be answered?

ORSINO
There is no woman's sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart: no woman's heart
So big to hold so much; they lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,--
No motion of the liver, but the palate,--			100
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much: make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.					105

VIOLA
Ay, but I know,--

ORSINO
What dost thou know?

VIOLA
Too well what love women to men may owe.
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father had a daughter loved a man,			110
As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.

ORSINO
And what's her history?

VIOLA
A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,			115
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought;
And with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love, indeed?
We men may say more, swear more; but indeed,			120
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.

ORSINO
But died thy sister of her love, my boy?

VIOLA
I am all the daughters of my father's house,
And all the brothers too;--and yet I know not.--		125
Sir, shall I to this lady?

ORSINO
Ay, that's the theme.
To her in haste: give her this jewel; say
My love can give no place, bide no denay.

Exeunt.

Twelfth Night II.iii : Twelfth Night II.v