I prithee, gentle friend,
Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway
In this uncivil and unjust extent
Against thy peace. Go with me to my house,
And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks
This ruffian hath botch’d up, that thou thereby
Mayst smile at this. Thou shalt not choose but go.
Do not deny. Beshrew his soul for me,
He started one poor heart of mine, in thee.
SEBASTIAN.
What relish is in this? How runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream.
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep;
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!
OLIVIA.
Nay, come, I prithee. Would thou’dst be ruled by me!
SEBASTIAN.
Madam, I will.
OLIVIA.
O, say so, and so be!
[_Exeunt._]
SCENE II. A Room in Olivia’s House.
Enter Maria and Clown.
MARIA.
Nay, I prithee, put on this gown and this beard; make him believe thou
art Sir Topas the curate. Do it quickly. I’ll call Sir Toby the whilst.
[_Exit Maria._]
CLOWN.
Well, I’ll put it on, and I will dissemble myself in’t, and I would I
were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown. I am not tall
enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a
good student, but to be said, an honest man and a good housekeeper goes
as fairly as to say, a careful man and a great scholar. The competitors
enter.
Enter Sir Toby and Maria.
SIR TOBY.
Jove bless thee, Master Parson.
CLOWN.
_Bonos dies_, Sir Toby: for as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw
pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc, ‘That that
is, is’: so I, being Master Parson, am Master Parson; for what is
‘that’ but ‘that’? and ‘is’ but ‘is’?
SIR TOBY.
To him, Sir Topas.
CLOWN.
What ho, I say! Peace in this prison!
SIR TOBY.
The knave counterfeits well. A good knave.
Malvolio within.
MALVOLIO.
Who calls there?
CLOWN.
Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic.
MALVOLIO.
Sir Topas, Sir Topas, good Sir Topas, go to my lady.
CLOWN.
Out, hyperbolical fiend! how vexest thou this man? Talkest thou nothing
but of ladies?
SIR TOBY.
Well said, Master Parson.
MALVOLIO.
Sir Topas, never was man thus wronged. Good Sir Topas, do not think I
am mad. They have laid me here in hideous darkness.
CLOWN.
Fie, thou dishonest Satan! I call thee by the most modest terms, for I
am one of those gentle ones that will use the devil himself with
courtesy. Say’st thou that house is dark?
MALVOLIO.
As hell, Sir Topas.
CLOWN.
Why, it hath bay windows transparent as barricadoes, and the
clerestories toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony; and yet
complainest thou of obstruction?
MALVOLIO.
I am not mad, Sir Topas. I say to you this house is dark.
CLOWN.
Madman, thou errest. I say there is no darkness but ignorance, in which
thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.
MALVOLIO.
I say this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark
as hell; and I say there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad
than you are. Make the trial of it in any constant question.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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