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- William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene II
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Scene IIOlivia’s houseEnter Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew, and FabianSir AndrewNo, faith, I’ll not stay a jot longer.Sir Toby BelchThy reason, dear venom, give thy reason.FabianYou must needs yield your reason, Sir Andrew.Sir AndrewMarry, I saw your niece do more favours to the count’s serving-man than ever she bestowed upon me; I saw’t i’ the orchard.Sir Toby BelchDid she see thee the while, old boy? tell me that.Sir AndrewAs plain as I see you now.FabianThis was a great argument of love in her toward you.Sir Andrew’Slight, will you make an ass o’ me?FabianI will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judgment and reason.Sir Toby BelchAnd they have been grand-jury-men since before Noah was a sailor.FabianShe did show favour to the youth in your sight only to exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in your heart and brimstone in your liver. You should then have accosted her; and with some excellent jests, fire-new from the mint, you should have banged the youth into dumbness. This was looked for at your hand, and this was balked: the double gilt of this opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now sailed into the north of my lady’s opinion; where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman’s beard, unless you do redeem it by some laudable attempt either of valour or policy.Sir AndrewAn’t be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate: I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician.Sir Toby BelchWhy, then, build me thy fortunes upon the basis of valour. Challenge me the count’s youth to fight with him; hurt him in eleven places: my niece shall take note of it; and assure thyself, there is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man’s commendation with woman than report of valour.FabianThere is no way but this, Sir Andrew.Sir AndrewWill either of you bear me a challenge to him?Sir Toby BelchGo, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief; it is no matter how witty, so it be eloquent and fun of invention: taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou’st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss; and as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England, set ’em down: go, about it. Let there be gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter: about it.Sir AndrewWhere shall I find you?Sir Toby BelchWe’ll call thee at the cubiculo: go.Exit Sir AndrewFabianThis is a dear manikin to you, Sir Toby.Sir Toby BelchI have been dear to him, lad, some two thousand strong, or so.FabianWe shall have a rare letter from him: but you’ll not deliver’t?Sir Toby BelchNever trust me, then; and by all means stir on the youth to an answer. I think oxen and wainropes cannot hale them together. For Andrew, if he were opened, and you find so much blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I’ll eat the rest of the anatomy.FabianAnd his opposite, the youth, bears in his visage no great presage of cruelty.Enter MariaSir Toby BelchLook, where the youngest wren of nine comes.MariaIf you desire the spleen, and will laugh yourself into stitches, follow me. Yond gull Malvolio is turned heathen, a very renegado; for there is no Christian, that means to be saved by believing rightly, can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness. He’s in yellow stockings.Sir Toby BelchAnd cross-gartered?MariaMost villanously; like a pedant that keeps a school i’ the church. I have dogged him, like his murderer. He does obey every point of the letter that I dropped to betray him: he does smile his face into more lines than is in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies: you have not seen such a thing as ’tis. I can hardly forbear hurling things at him. I know my lady will strike him: if she do, he’ll smile and take’t for a great favour.Sir Toby BelchCome, bring us, bring us where he is.Exeunt
William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Act III
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William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V
- William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
- Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
- The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- Current Events This Week: January 2023
- African Americans by the Numbers
- Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
- The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
