Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Twelfth Night
   1. Act I
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
   2. Act II
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
   3. Act III
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
   4. Act IV
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
   5. Act V
      1. Scene I
5. Endnotes
6. Colophon
7. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

Dramatis Personae

• Orsino, Duke of Illyria

• Sebastian, brother to Viola

• Antonio, a sea captain, friend to Sebastian

• A sea captain, friend to Viola

• Valentine, gentleman attending on the Duke

• Curio, gentleman attending on the Duke

• Sir Toby Belch, uncle to Olivia

• Sir Andrew Aguecheek

• Malvolio, steward to Olivia

• Fabian, servant to Olivia

• Feste, a clown, servant to Olivia

• Olivia

• Viola

• Maria, Olivia’s woman

• Lords, priests, sailors, officers, musicians, and other attendants

Scene: A city in Illyria, and the seacoast near it.

Twelfth Night

Act I

Scene I

The Duke’s palace.

	Enter Duke, Curio, and other Lords; Musicians attending.
Duke	If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more: ’Tis not so sweet now as it was before. O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou, That, notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soe’er, But falls into abatement and low price, Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical.
Curio	Will you go hunt, my lord?
Duke	What, Curio?
Curio	The hart.
Duke	Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence! That instant was I turn’d into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E’er since pursue me.
	Enter Valentine.
	How now! what news from her?
Valentine	So please my lord, I might not be admitted; But from her handmaid do return this answer: The element itself, till seven years’ heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine: all this to season A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh And lasting in her sad remembrance.
Duke	O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will she love, when the rich golden shaft Hath kill’d the flock of all affections else That live in her; when liver, brain and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d Her sweet perfections with one self king! Away before me to sweet beds of flowers: Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers. Exeunt.

Scene II

The sea-coast.

	Enter Viola, a Captain, and Sailors.
Viola	What country, friends, is this?
Captain	This is Illyria, lady.
Viola	And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. Perchance he is not drown’d: what think you, sailors?
Captain	It is perchance that you yourself were saved.
Viola	O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be.
Captain	True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance, Assure yourself, after our ship did split, When you and those poor number saved with you Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself, Courage and hope both teaching him the practice, To a strong mast that lived upon the sea; Where, like Arion on the dolphin’s back, I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves So long as I could see.
Viola	For saying so, there’s gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, Whereto thy speech serves for authority, The like of him. Know’st thou this country?
Captain	Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born Not three hours’ travel from this very place.
Viola	Who governs here?
Captain	A noble duke, in nature as in name.
Viola	What is his name?
Captain	Orsino.
Viola	Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then.
Captain	And so is now, or was so very late; For but a month ago I went from hence, And then ’twas fresh in murmur⁠—as, you know, What great ones do the less will prattle of⁠— That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.
Viola	What’s she?
Captain	A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her In the protection of his son, her brother, Who shortly also died: for whose dear love, They say, she hath abjured the company And sight of men.
Viola	O that I served that lady And might not be delivered to the world, Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, What my estate is!
Captain	That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the duke’s.
Viola	There is a fair behavior in thee, captain; And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe thou hast a mind that suits With