ll the occurrence of my fortune since
Hath been between this lady and this lord.
Seb. [To Olivia.] So comes it, lady, you
have been mistook :

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Now are you, therein, by my life, deceiv'd,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.
Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his

blood.

If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

Oli. Did he write this?
Clo. Ay, madam.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.
Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian: bring him
hither.
[Exit Fabian.

My lord, so please you, these things farther
thought on,

To think me as well a sister as a wife, [you,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.
Duke. Madam, I am most apt t'embrace
your offer.-

I shall have share in this most happy wreck.-
[To Viola.] Boy, thou hast said to me a thou-[To
sand times,

Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul,
As doth that orbèd continent the fire
That severs day from night.

Duke.
Give me thy hand;
And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.
Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on
shore,
[action,
Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some
Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit,
A gentleman, and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He shall enlarge him :-fetch Malvolio
hither :-

And yet, alas, now I remember me,
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?

Clo. 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 to you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered.

Oli. Open it, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman.-" By the Lord, madam."

Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i' thy right wits.

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

Oli. [To Fabian.] Read it you, sirrah.

Fab. [Reads.] "By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know 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 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."

Viola.] Your master quits you; and, for
your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,
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
Your master's mistress.
Oli.
A sister?-you are she.
Re-enter Fabian, with Malvolio.
Duke. Is this the madman?

Oli.
How now, Malvolio!

Ay, my lord, this same.

Mal. Madam, you have done me wrong, Notorious wrong.

Oli.

Have I, Malvolio? no. Mal. 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, nor your invention:
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,
[you,
Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
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
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why.

Oli. 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
First told me thou wast mad; then cam'st in
smiling,

[pos'd
And in such forms which here were presup-
Upon thee in the letter. Prythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon

thee;

[of it, But when we know the grounds and authors Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge Of thine own cause.

Fab.

Good madam, hear me speak; And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Taint the condition of this present hour, Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall

not,

Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

Sicilian Lords and Ladies, Attendants, Guards, Satyrs, Shepherds, Shepherdesses, &c.

SCENE, Sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

Cam. Beseech you,

Leon.

No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of " This is put forth too truly." Besides, I have iny knowledge: we cannot with such magnifi- To tire your royalty. cence-in so rare-I know not what to say.— We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little ac

cuse us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

[stay'd We are tougher, brother, No longer stay.

That you can put us to't.
Pol.
Leon. One seven-night longer.
Pol.
Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leon. We'll part the time between's then:
I'll no gain-saying.
[and in that
Pol.
Press me not, beseech you, so.
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i̇
the world,

[now,

Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind So soon as yours could win me: so it should to Bohemia. They were trained together in Were there necessity in your request, although their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt | 'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs them then such an affection, which cannot Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder, choose but branch now. Since their more Were in your love a whip to me; my stay mature dignities and royal necessities made To you a charge and trouble: to save both, separation of their society, their encounters, Farewell, our brother. though not personal, have been royally attorneyed, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh they that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt. SCENE II.-Sicilia. A Room of State in the

been

Palace.

Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Hermione,
Mamillius, Camillo, and Attendants.
Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star have
[throne
The shepherd's note, since we have left our
Without a burden: time as long again
Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
With one we-thank-you many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.
Stay your thanks awhile,
And pay them when you part.
Pol.
Sir, that's to-morrow.
I am question'd by my fears, of what may
chance,

Or breed upon our absence, that may blow

peace until

Leon. Tongue-tied our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my
[You, sir,
You had drawn oaths from him not to stay.
Charge him too coldly. Tell him, you are sure
All in Bohemia's well; this satisfaction
The by-gone day proclaim'd say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.
Leon.

Well said, Hermione. Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:

But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.-
[To Polixenes.] Yet of your royal presence

I'll adventure

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,
To let him there a month behind the gest
Prefix'd for his parting :-yet, good deed,
Leontes,

I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady she her lord. You'll stay?
Pol.

Her. Nay, but you will?
Pol.

Her. Verily!

"

No, madam.

I may not, verily.

You put me off with limber vows; but I,
Though you would seek t'unsphere the stars
with oaths,
Should yet say, Sir, no going." Verily,
You shall not go: a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees
When you depart, and save your thanks. How
say you?

My prisoner, or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.

Pol.

Your guest, then, madam:
To be your prisoner should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,
Than you to punish.

Her.

Not your gaoler, then,

Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose
You were pretty lordlings then.
Pol.
We were, fair queen,
Two lads that thought there was no more be-
But such a day to-morrow as to-day, [hind,
And to be boy eternal.

[Aside.] How sometimes nature will betray its Would hang themselves. Physic for't, there folly,

Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime

To harder bosoms ![To her.] Looking on
the lines

Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil
Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous :
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman. Mine honest
Will you take eggs for money?
Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.
Leon. You will? why, happy man be his
dole! My brother,

[friend,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we
Do seem to be of ours?

Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all:
He makes a July's day short as December;
And with his varying childness cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.
Leon.
So stands this squire
Offic'd with me: we two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Her-
mione,
[welcome;
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap :
Next to thyself and my young rover, he's
Apparent to my heart.

there?

is none;

It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful,
think it,

(cluded,
From east, west, north, and south: be it con-
No barricado for a belly; know it ;
It will let in and out the enemy,
[us
With bag and baggage: many a thousand of
Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now,
Mam. I am like you, they say.

[boy! Why, that's some comfort.

Leon.
What, Camillo there?
Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions;
His business more material.
Leon.

[made Didst perceive it ?—[Aside.] They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,

"Sicilia is a so-forth;" 'tis far gone,
When I shall gust it last.- How came't,
That he did stay?
[Camillo,
Cam.
At the good queen's entreaty.
Leon. At the queen's, be't: good should
be pertinent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken Her. If you would seek us, By any understanding pate but thine? We are yours i' the garden: shall's attend you For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in [be found, More than the common blocks:-not noted, is't, Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll But of the finer natures? by some severals Be you beneath the sky.-[Aside.] I am ang-Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes, Perchance, are to this business purblind? say. Cam. Business, my lord! I think, most unBohemia stays here longer. [derstand

ling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to !

[Observing Polixenes and Hermione.
How she holds up the neb, the bill to him;
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband! Gone already!
[Exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, and Attendants.
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a
fork'd one !-

Go play, boy, play :-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and
clamour
[There have been,
Will be my knell.-Go play, boy, play.-
Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is even at this present.
Now while I speak this, holds his wife by th
[absence,
That little thinks she has been sluic'd in's
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour : nay, there's comfort
in't,

arm,

Leon.
Cam.

Ha?

Stays here longer.

Leon. Ay, but why?
Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the en-
Of our most gracious mistress. [treaties
Leon.

Satisfy

The entreaties of your mistress !-satisfy !-
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the things nearest to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
In that which seems so.
Cam.
Be it forbid, my lord!
Leon. To bide upon't; thou art not honest;

or,

If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward,
Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
[open'd, From course requir'd; or else thou must be
counted

Whiles other men have gates, and those gates
As mine, against their will: should all despair, A servant grafted in my serious. trust,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind And therein negligent; or else a fool,