Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
She having observed a fair behaviour in the captain, and that he showed
a friendly concern for her welfare, entrusted him with her design, and
he readily engaged to assist her. Viola gave him money, and directed
him to furnish her with suitable apparel, ordering her clothes to be
made of the same colour and in the same fashion her brother Sebastian
used to wear, and when she was dressed in her manly garb, she looked so
exactly like her brother that some strange errors happened by means of
their being mistaken for each other; for, as will afterwards appear,
Sebastian was also saved.
Viola's good friend, the captain, when he had transformed this pretty
lady into a gentleman, having some interest at court, got her presented
to Orsino under the feigned name of Cesario. The duke was wonderfully
pleased with the address and graceful deportment of this handsome
youth, and made Cesario one of his pages that being the office Viola
wished to obtain: and she so well fulfilled the duties of her new
station, and showed such a ready observance and faithful attachment to
her lord, that she soon became his most favoured attendant. To Cesario
Orsino confided the whole history of his love for the lady Olivia. To
Cesario he told the long and unsuccessful suit he had made to one who,
rejecting his long services, and despising his person, refused to admit
him to her presence; and for the love of this lady who had so unkindly
treated him, the noble Orsino, forsaking the sports of the held and all
manly exercises in which he used to delight, passed his hours in
ignoble sloth, listening to the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle
airs, and passionate love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise
and learned lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day
long conversing with young Cesario. Unmeet companion no doubt his grave
courtiers thought Cesario was for their once noble master, the great
duke Orsino.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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