Back to main page
Twelfth Night - Act 3, scene 1
Cite
Download Twelfth Night
Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
- PDF Download as PDF
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers
- HTML Download as HTML
- TXT Download as TXT
- XML Download as XML
- TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis) Download as TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis)
Navigate this work
Twelfth Night - Act 3, scene 1Act 3, scene 1
Scene 1
Synopsis:
Viola (as Cesario), on her way to see Olivia, encounters first the Fool and then Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. Olivia, meeting Cesario, sends the others away and declares her love.
Enter Viola and ⌜Feste, the Fool, playing a tabor.⌝VIOLA 1240 Save thee, friend, and thy music. Dost thou live
1241 by thy tabor?
FOOL 1242 No, sir, I live by the church.
VIOLA 1243 Art thou a churchman?
FOOL 1244 5No such matter, sir. I do live by the church, for I
1245 do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the
1246 church.
VIOLA 1247 So thou mayst say the ⌜king⌝ lies by a beggar if a
1248 beggar dwell near him, or the church stands by thy
1249 10 tabor if thy tabor stand by the church.
FOOL 1250 You have said, sir. To see this age! A sentence is
1251 but a chev’ril glove to a good wit. How quickly the
1252 wrong side may be turned outward!
VIOLA 1253 Nay, that’s certain. They that dally nicely with
1254 15 words may quickly make them wanton.
FOOL 1255 I would therefore my sister had had no name,
1256 sir.
VIOLA 1257 Why, man?
FOOL 1258 Why, sir, her name’s a word, and to dally with
1259 20 that word might make my sister wanton. But,
1260 indeed, words are very rascals since bonds disgraced
1261 them.
VIOLA 1262 Thy reason, man?
p.
93
FOOL
1263
Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words,1264 25 and words are grown so false I am loath to prove
1265 reason with them.
VIOLA 1266 I warrant thou art a merry fellow and car’st for
1267 nothing.
FOOL 1268 Not so, sir. I do care for something. But in my
1269 30 conscience, sir, I do not care for you. If that be to
1270 care for nothing, sir, I would it would make you
1271 invisible.
VIOLA 1272 Art not thou the Lady Olivia’s Fool?
FOOL 1273 No, indeed, sir. The Lady Olivia has no folly. She
1274 35 will keep no Fool, sir, till she be married, and Fools
1275 are as like husbands as pilchers are to herrings: the
1276 husband’s the bigger. I am indeed not her Fool but
1277 her corrupter of words.
VIOLA 1278 I saw thee late at the Count Orsino’s.
FOOL 1279 40Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the
1280 sun; it shines everywhere. I would be sorry, sir, but
1281 the Fool should be as oft with your master as with
1282 my mistress. I think I saw your Wisdom there.
VIOLA 1283 Nay, an thou pass upon me, I’ll no more with
1284 45 thee. Hold, there’s expenses for thee. ⌜Giving a
coin.⌝
FOOL 1285 Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send
1286 thee a beard!
VIOLA 1287 By my troth I’ll tell thee, I am almost sick for
1288 one, ⌜aside⌝ though I would not have it grow on my
1289 50 chin.—Is thy lady within?
FOOL 1290 Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?
VIOLA 1291 Yes, being kept together and put to use.
FOOL 1292 I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to
1293 bring a Cressida to this Troilus.
VIOLA 1294 55I understand you, sir. ’Tis well begged. ⌜Giving
another coin.⌝
FOOL 1295 The matter I hope is not great, sir, begging but a
1296 beggar: Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir.
p.
95
1297
I will conster to them whence you come. Who you1298 are and what you would are out of my welkin—I
1299 60 might say “element,” but the word is overworn.
He exits.
VIOLA
1300 This fellow is wise enough to play the Fool,
1301 And to do that well craves a kind of wit.
1302 He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
1303 The quality of persons, and the time,
1304 65 And, like the haggard, check at every feather
1305 That comes before his eye. This is a practice
1306 As full of labor as a wise man’s art:
1307 For folly that he wisely shows is fit;
1308 But ⌜wise men,⌝ folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit.
Enter Sir Toby and Andrew.
TOBY 1309 70Save you, gentleman.
VIOLA 1310 And you, sir.
ANDREW 1311 Dieu vous garde, monsieur.
VIOLA 1312 Et vous aussi. Votre serviteur!
ANDREW 1313 I hope, sir, you are, and I am yours.
TOBY 1314 75Will you encounter the house? My niece is
1315 desirous you should enter, if your trade be to her.
VIOLA 1316 I am bound to your niece, sir; I mean, she is the
1317 list of my voyage.
TOBY 1318 Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion.
VIOLA 1319 80My legs do better understand me, sir, than I
1320 understand what you mean by bidding me taste my
1321 legs.
TOBY 1322 I mean, to go, sir, to enter.
VIOLA 1323 I will answer you with gait and entrance—but
1324 85 we are prevented.
Enter Olivia, and ⌜Maria, her⌝ Gentlewoman.
1325 Most excellent accomplished lady, the heavens rain
1326 odors on you!
p.
97
ANDREW, ⌜aside⌝
1327
That youth’s a rare courtier. “Rain1328 odors,” well.
VIOLA 1329 90My matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own
1330 most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.
ANDREW, ⌜aside⌝ 1331 “Odors,” “pregnant,” and “vouchsafed.”
1332 I’ll get ’em all three all ready.
OLIVIA 1333 Let the garden door be shut, and leave me to
1334 95 my hearing.⌜Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria exit.⌝
1335 Give me your hand, sir.
VIOLA
1336 My duty, madam, and most humble service.
OLIVIA 1337 What is your name?
VIOLA
1338 Cesario is your servant’s name, fair princess.
OLIVIA
1339 100 My servant, sir? ’Twas never merry world
1340 Since lowly feigning was called compliment.
1341 You’re servant to the Count Orsino, youth.
VIOLA
1342 And he is yours, and his must needs be yours.
1343 Your servant’s servant is your servant, madam.
OLIVIA
1344 105 For him, I think not on him. For his thoughts,
1345 Would they were blanks rather than filled with me.
VIOLA
1346 Madam, I come to whet your gentle thoughts
1347 On his behalf.
OLIVIA 1348 O, by your leave, I pray you.
1349 110 I bade you never speak again of him.
1350 But would you undertake another suit,
1351 I had rather hear you to solicit that
1352 Than music from the spheres.
VIOLA 1353 Dear lady—
OLIVIA
1354 115 Give me leave, beseech you. I did send,
1355 After the last enchantment you did here,
p.
99
1356
A ring in chase of you. So did I abuse1357 Myself, my servant, and, I fear me, you.
1358 Under your hard construction must I sit,
1359 120 To force that on you in a shameful cunning
1360 Which you knew none of yours. What might you
1361 think?
1362 Have you not set mine honor at the stake
1363 And baited it with all th’ unmuzzled thoughts
1364 125 That tyrannous heart can think? To one of your
1365 receiving
1366 Enough is shown. A cypress, not a bosom,
1367 Hides my heart. So, let me hear you speak.
VIOLA
1368 I pity you.
OLIVIA 1369 130 That’s a degree to love.
VIOLA
1370 No, not a grize, for ’tis a vulgar proof
1371 That very oft we pity enemies.
OLIVIA
1372 Why then methinks ’tis time to smile again.
1373 O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!
1374 135 If one should be a prey, how much the better
1375 To fall before the lion than the wolf.Clock strikes.
1376 The clock upbraids me with the waste of time.
1377 Be not afraid, good youth, I will not have you.
1378 And yet when wit and youth is come to harvest,
1379 140 Your wife is like to reap a proper man.
1380 There lies your way, due west.
VIOLA 1381 Then westward ho!
1382 Grace and good disposition attend your Ladyship.
1383 You’ll nothing, madam, to my lord by me?
OLIVIA
1384 145 Stay. I prithee, tell me what thou think’st of me.
VIOLA
1385 That you do think you are not what you are.
p.
101
OLIVIA 1386 If I think so, I think the same of you.
VIOLA
1387 Then think you right. I am not what I am.
OLIVIA
1388 I would you were as I would have you be.
VIOLA
1389 150 Would it be better, madam, than I am?
1390 I wish it might, for now I am your fool.
OLIVIA, ⌜aside⌝
1391 O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful
1392 In the contempt and anger of his lip!
1393 A murd’rous guilt shows not itself more soon
1394 155 Than love that would seem hid. Love’s night is
1395 noon.—
1396 Cesario, by the roses of the spring,
1397 By maidhood, honor, truth, and everything,
1398 I love thee so, that, maugre all thy pride,
1399 160 Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide.
1400 Do not extort thy reasons from this clause,
1401 For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause;
1402 But rather reason thus with reason fetter:
1403 Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
VIOLA
1404 165 By innocence I swear, and by my youth,
1405 I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth,
1406 And that no woman has, nor never none
1407 Shall mistress be of it, save I alone.
1408 And so adieu, good madam. Nevermore
1409 170 Will I my master’s tears to you deplore.
OLIVIA
1410 Yet come again, for thou perhaps mayst move
1411 That heart, which now abhors, to like his love.
They exit ⌜in different directions.⌝