Let him send no more,

Unless, perchance, you come to me again,

To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well:

I thank you for your pains. Spend this for me.

Offers a purse

VIOLA    I am no fee’d post267, lady; keep your purse.

My master, not myself, lacks recompense.

Love make his heart of flint that you shall love269,

And let your fervour, like my master’s, be

Placed in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty.

Exit

OLIVIA    ‘What is your parentage?’

‘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. Soft276, soft!

Unless the master were the man.277 How now?

Even so quickly may one catch the plague?278

Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections

With an invisible and subtle stealth

To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.

What ho, Malvolio!

Enter Malvolio

MALVOLIO    Here, madam, at your service.

OLIVIA    Run after that same peevish284 messenger,

The county’s285 man. He left this ring behind him,

Gives a ring

Would I286 or not. Tell him I’ll none of it.

Desire him not to flatter with287 his lord,

Nor hold him up with hopes.288 I am not for him.

If that the youth will come this way tomorrow,

I’ll give him reasons for’t. Hie290 thee, Malvolio.

MALVOLIO    Madam, I will.

Exit

OLIVIA    I do I know not what, and fear to find

Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.293

Fate, show thy force. Ourselves we do not owe.294

What is decreed must be, and be this so.

[Exit]

Act 2 Scene 1

running scene 6

Enter Antonio and Sebastian

ANTONIO    Will you stay no longer? Nor will you not1 that I go

with you?

SEBASTIAN    By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly3 over me;

the malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper4 yours;

therefore I shall crave of you your leave5 that I may bear my

evils6 alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any

of them on you.

ANTONIO    Let me yet know of you whither you are bound.

SEBASTIAN    No, sooth, sir: my determinate9 voyage is mere

extravagancy.10 But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of

modesty that you will not extort from me what I am willing11

to keep in. Therefore it charges me in manners12 the rather to

express13 myself. You must know of me then, Antonio, my

name is Sebastian, which I called14 Roderigo. My father was

that Sebastian of Messaline15 whom I know you have heard of.

He left behind him myself and a sister, both born in an hour.16

If the heavens had been pleased, would we had so ended. But

you, sir, altered that, for some18 hour before you took me from

the breach19 of the sea was my sister drowned.

ANTONIO    Alas the day!

SEBASTIAN    A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled

me, was yet of many accounted beautiful. But though I

could not with such estimable wonder overfar23 believe that,

yet thus far I will boldly publish24 her: she bore a mind that

envy25 could not but call fair. She is drowned already, sir, with

salt water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again

with more.27

ANTONIO    Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment.28

SEBASTIAN    O, good Antonio, forgive me your trouble.29

ANTONIO    If you will not murder me for my love30, let me be your

servant.

SEBASTIAN    If you will not undo what you have done, that is, kill

him whom you have recovered33, desire it not. Fare ye well at

once. My bosom is full of kindness, and I am yet34 so near the

manners of my mother35 that upon the least occasion more

mine eyes will tell tales of me.36 I am bound to the Count

Orsino’s court. Farewell.

Exit

ANTONIO    The gentleness38 of all the gods go with thee!

I have many enemies in Orsino’s court,

Else40 would I very shortly see thee there.

But come what may, I do adore thee so,

That danger shall seem sport42, and I will go.

Exit

Act 2 Scene 2

running scene 7

Enter Viola and Malvolio at several doors

MALVOLIO    Were not you ev’n1 now with the Countess Olivia?

VIOLA    Even now, sir, on2 a moderate pace I have since

arrived but hither.3

Shows a ring

MALVOLIO    She returns this ring to you, sir. You

might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away

yourself. She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord

into a desperate assurance7 she will none of him. And one

thing more, that you be never so hardy8 to come again in his

affairs, unless it be to report your lord’s taking of this.9

Receive it10 so.

VIOLA    She took the ring of me. I’ll none of it.

MALVOLIO    Come, sir, you peevishly12 threw it to her, and her will

Throws it on the ground

is, it should be so13 returned. If it be worth

stooping for, there it lies in your eye.14 If not, be

it his that finds it.

Exit

VIOLA    I left no ring with her. What means this lady?

Fortune forbid my outside17 have not charmed her!

She made good view of18 me, indeed so much

That methought her eyes had lost19 her tongue,

For she did speak in starts distractedly.20

She loves me, sure. The cunning of her passion

Invites me in this churlish22 messenger.

None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none;

I am the man. If it be so, as ’tis,

Poor lady, she were better25 love a dream.

Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,

Wherein the pregnant enemy27 does much.

How easy is it for the proper-false28

In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!29

Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we30,

For such as we are made of, such we be.

How will this fadge?32 My master loves her dearly,

And I, poor monster, fond33 as much on him,

And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.

What will become of this? As I am man,

My state is desperate for36 my master’s love.

As I am woman — now alas the day! —

What thriftless38 sighs shall poor Olivia breathe?

O time, thou must untangle this, not I.

It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.

[Exit]

Act 2 Scene 3

running scene 8

Enter Sir Toby and Sir Andrew

SIR TOBY    Approach1, Sir Andrew. Not to be abed after

midnight is to be up betimes2, and diluculo surgere, thou

know’st—

SIR ANDREW    Nay, by my troth I know not, but I know to be up

late is to be up late.

SIR TOBY    A false conclusion. I hate it as an unfilled can.6 To be

up after midnight and to go to bed then is early: so that to go

to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes.