[Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and others.] DUKE 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
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.
DUKE Who was it?
CURIO Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia's
father took much delight in: he is about the house.
DUKE 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;
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.
DUKE 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.
DUKE What kind of woman is't?
VIOLA Of your complexion.
DUKE She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith?
VIOLA About your years, my lord.
DUKE Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take
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,
Than women's are.
VIOLA I think it well, my lord.
DUKE Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent:
For women are as roses, whose fair flower,
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 CLOWN.] DUKE O, fellow, come, the song we had last night:--
Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain:
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.
CLOWN Are you ready, sir?
DUKE Ay; pr'ythee, sing.
[Music] CLOWN SONG
Come away, come away, death.
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
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.
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,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!
DUKE There's for thy pains.
CLOWN No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir.
DUKE I'll pay thy pleasure, then.
CLOWN Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid one time or another.
DUKE Give me now leave to leave thee.
CLOWN Now the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy
doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal!--I
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 CLOWN.] DUKE Let all the rest give place.--
[Exeunt CURIO and Attendants.] Once more, Cesario,
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;
But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems
That Nature pranks her in attracts my soul.
VIOLA But if she cannot love you, sir?
DUKE I cannot be so answer'd.
VIOLA 'Sooth, but you must.
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 answer'd?
DUKE 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,--
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.
VIOLA Ay, but I know,--
DUKE 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,
As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.
DUKE And what's her history?
VIOLA A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
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,
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.
DUKE 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.--
Sir, shall I to this lady?
DUKE Ay, that's the theme.
To her in haste: give her this jewel; say
My love can give no place, bide no denay.
[Exeunt.]