Ant. Sebastian are you?

Seb. Fear'st thou that, Antonio ?

230

Ant. How have you made division of yourself?

An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin

Than these two creatures.

Oli. Most wonderful!

Which is Sebastian?

Seb. Do I stand there: I never had a brother:

Nor can there be that deity in my nature,

Of here and every where. I had a sister,

Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd :Of charity, what kin are you to me?

[TO VIOLA.

What countryman? what name? what parentage ›
Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father; 241
Such a Sebastian was my brother too,

So went he suited to his wat'ry tomb :
If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

Seb. A spirit I am, indeed;

But am in that dimension grosly clad,
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say-Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!
Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow.
Seb. And so had mine.

250

Vio. And dy'd that day when Viola from her birth Had number'd thirteen years.

Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul!

He finished, indeed, his mortal act,

That day that made my sister thirteen years.

Vio. If nothing lets to make us happy both, But this my masculine usurp'd attire,

Do not embrace me, till each circumstance

Of place, time, fortune, do cohere, and jump,
That I am Viola: which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a captain in this town

260

Where lie my maid's weeds; by whose gentle help
I was preserv'd, to serve this noble count:
All the occurrence of my fortune since

Hath been between this lady, and this lord,
Seb. So comes it, lady, you have been mistook :
[TO OLIVIA

279

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Nor are you therein, by my life, deceiv'd,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.
Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood.-
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

I shall have share in this most happy wreck :

Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times, [To V10.
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

Vio. And all those sayings, will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul,
As doth that orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night.

· Duke. Give me thy hand;

And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.

280

Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore, Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action, Is how in durance; at Malvolio's suit,

A gentleman, and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He shall enlarge him: Fetch Malvolio hither. And yet, alas, now I remember me,

They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.

Re-enter Clown, with a Letter.

A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.-
How does he, sirrah?

290

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do: h'as here writ a letter to you, I should have given't you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much, when they are deliver'd.

Oli. Open't, and read it.

300

Clo. Look then to be well edify'd, when the fool delivers the madınan.-By the Lord, madam,

Oli. How now, art thou mad!

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow

vox.

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits.

Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.

Oli. Read it you, sirrah.

310 [To FABIAN.

Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me,

yet

yet have I the benefit of my senses, as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which, I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-us'd MALVOLIO. 320

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, madam.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.

Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. My lord, so please you, these things further thought

on,

To think me as well a sister as a wife,

One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you, Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer. Your master quits you; and, for your service done

him,

130

So much against the metal of your sex, [To VIOLA.
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,

And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Oli. A sister?-you are she.

Re-enter FABIAN, with MALVOLIO.

Duke. Is this the madman?

Oli. Ay, my lord, this same: How now, Malvolio?

Mal

Mal. Madam, you have done me wrong, notorious

wrong.

Oli. Have I, Malvolio? no.

140

Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that

letter:

You must not now deny it is your hand,
Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrase;
Or, say, 'tis not your seal, nor your invention:
You can say none of this: Well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of fa

vour;

Bade me come smiling, and cross-
s-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people :
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck, and gull,
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why?

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

350

First told me, thou wast mad; then cam'st in smiling, And in such forms which here were presuppos'd

Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content: This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee: Bat, when we know the grounds and authors of it,

Thou