Twelfth Night, with line numbers E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 110

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Classic Shakespearean comedy, with line numbers. According to Wikipedia: "Twelfth Night, Or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, based on the short story "Of Apollonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich, which in turn was based on a story by Matteo Bandello. It is named after the Twelfth Night holiday of the Christmas season. It was written around 1601 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The main title is believed to be an afterthought, created after John Marston premiered a play titled What You Will during the course of the writing."

Leseprobe

Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

Other comedies by William Shakespeare:

All's Well That Ends Well

As You Like It

The Comedy of Errors

Love's Labour's Lost

Measure for Measure

The Merchant of Venice

The Merry Wives of Windsor

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado About Nothing

The Taming of the Shrew

Two Gentlemen of Verona

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Dramatis Personae

Twelfth Night

Act I

Scene I Duke Orsino's Palace.

Scene II The Sea-Coast.

Scene III Olivia's House.

Scene IV Duke Orsino's Palace.

Scene V Olivia's House.

Act II

Scene I The Sea-Coast.

Scene II A Street.

Scene III Olivia's House.

Scene IV Duke Orsino's Palace.

Scene V Olivia's Garden.

Act III

Scene I Olivia's Garden.

Scene II Olivia's House.

Scene III A Street.

Scene IV Olivia's Garden.

Act IV

Scene I Before Olivia's House.

Scene II Olivia's House.

Scene III Olivia's Garden.

Act V

Scene I Before Olivia's House.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Orsino, Duke Of Illyria. (Duke Orsino:)

Sebastian, Brother To Viola.

Antonio, A Sea Captain, Friend To Sebastian.

A Sea Captain, Friend To Viola. (Captain:)

Gentlemen Attending On The Duke

Valentine

Curio

Sir Toby Belch, Uncle To Olivia.

Sir Andrew

Aguecheek (Sir Andrew:)

Malvolio, Steward To Olivia.

Servants To Olivia

Fabian

Feste, A Clown (Clown:) |

Olivia:

Viola:

Maria, Olivia's Woman.

Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other Attendants.

 (Priest:)

 (First Officer:)

 (Second Officer:)

 (Servant:)

SCENE A city in Illyria, and the sea-coast near it.

TWELFTH NIGHT

ACT I

SCENE I DUKE ORSINO's palace.

[Enter DUKE ORSINO, CURIO, and other LORDS; MUSICIANS attending]

(1) DUKE ORSINO If music be the food of love, play on;

 Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

 The appetite may sicken, and so die.

 That strain again! it had a dying fall:

 O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,

 That breathes upon a bank of violets,

 Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:

 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

 O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,

(10) That, notwithstanding thy capacity

 Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,

 Of what validity and pitch soe'er,

 But falls into abatement and low price,

 Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy

 That it alone is high fantastical.

CURIO Will you go hunt, my lord?

DUKE ORSINO           What, Curio?

CURIO The hart.

DUKE ORSINO Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:

 O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,

(20) Methought she purged the air of pestilence!

 That instant was I turn'd into a hart;

 And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

 E'er since pursue me.

[Enter VALENTINE]

 How now! what news from her?

VALENTINE So please my lord, I might not be admitted;

 But from her handmaid do return this answer:

 The element itself, till seven years' heat,

 Shall not behold her face at ample view;

 But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk

 And water once a day her chamber round

(30) With eye-offending brine: all this to season

 A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh

 And lasting in her sad remembrance.

DUKE ORSINO O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame

 To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

 How will she love, when the rich golden shaft

 Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

 That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,

 These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd

 Her sweet perfections with one self king!

(40) Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:

 Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.

[Exeunt]

SCENE II The sea-coast.

[Enter VIOLA, a CAPTAIN, and SAILORS]

(1) VIOLA What country, friends, is this?

CAPTAIN This is Illyria, lady.

VIOLA And what should I do in Illyria?

 My brother he is in Elysium.

 Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you, sailors?

CAPTAIN It is perchance that you yourself were saved.

VIOLA O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be.

CAPTAIN True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,

 Assure yourself, after our ship did split,

(10) When you and those poor number saved with you

 Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,

 Most provident in peril, bind himself,

 Courage and hope both teaching him the practise,

 To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;

 Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

 I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves

 So long as I could see.

VIOLA For saying so, there's gold:

 Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,

(20) Whereto thy speech serves for authority,

 The like of him. Know'st thou this country?

CAPTAIN Aye, madam, well; for I was bred and born

 Not three hours' travel from this very place.

VIOLA Who governs here?

CAPTAIN A noble duke, in nature as in name.

VIOLA What is the name?

CAPTAIN Orsino.

VIOLA Orsino! I have heard my father name him:

 He was a bachelor then.

(30) CAPTAIN And so is now, or was so very late;

 For but a month ago I went from hence,

 And then 'twas fresh in murmur,--as, you know,

 What great ones do the less will prattle of,--

 That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.

VIOLA What's she?

CAPTAIN A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count

 That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her

 In the protection of his son, her brother,

 Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,

(40) They say, she hath abjured the company

 And sight of men.

VIOLA                   O that I served that lady

 And might not be delivered to the world,

 Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,

 What my estate is!

CAPTAIN           That were hard to compass;

 Because she will admit no kind of suit,

 No, not the duke's.

VIOLA There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;

 And though that nature with a beauteous wall

 Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee

(50) I will believe thou hast a mind that suits

 With this thy fair and outward character.

 I prithee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,

 Conceal me what I am, and be my aid

 For such disguise as haply shall become

 The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke:

 Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him:

 It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing

 And speak to him in many sorts of music

 That will allow me very worth his service.

(60) What else may hap to time I will commit;

 Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

CAPTAIN Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:

 When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.

VIOLA I thank thee: lead me on.

[Exeunt]

SCENE III OLIVIA'S house.

[Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA]

(1) SIR TOBY BELCH What a plague means my niece, to take the death of

 her brother thus? I am sure care's an enemy to life.

MARIA By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o'

 nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great

 exceptions to your ill hours.

SIR TOBY BELCH Why, let her except, before excepted.

MARIA Aye, but you must confine yourself within the modest

 limits of order.

(10) SIR TOBY BELCH Confine! I'll confine myself no finer than I am:

 these clothes are good enough to drink in; and so be

 these boots too: an they be not, let them hang

 themselves in their own straps.

MARIA That quaffing and drinking will undo you: I heard

 my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish

 knight that you brought in one night here to be her wooer.

SIR TOBY BELCH Who, Sir Andrew Aguecheek?

MARIA Aye, he.

(20) SIR TOBY BELCH He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria.

MARIA What's that to the purpose?

SIR TOBY BELCH Why, he has three thousand ducats a year.

MARIA Aye, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats:

 he's a very fool and a prodigal.

SIR TOBY BELCH Fie, that you'll say so! he plays o' the

 viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four languages

 word for word without book, and hath all the good

 gifts of nature.

(30) MARIA He hath indeed, almost natural: for besides that

 he's a fool, he's a great quarreller: and but that

 he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he

 hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent

 he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

SIR TOBY BELCH By this hand, they are scoundrels and subtractors

 that say so of him. Who are they?

MARIA They that add, moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.

(40) SIR TOBY BELCH With drinking healths to my niece: I'll drink to

 her as long as there is a passage in my throat and

 drink in Illyria: he's a coward and a coystrill

 that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn

 o' the toe like a parish-top. What, wench!

 Castiliano vulgo! for here comes Sir Andrew Agueface.

[Enter SIR ANDREW]

SIR ANDREW Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch!

SIR TOBY BELCH Sweet Sir Andrew!

(50) SIR ANDREW Bless you, fair shrew.

MARIA And you too, sir.

SIR TOBY BELCH Accost, Sir Andrew, accost.

SIR ANDREW What's that?

SIR TOBY BELCH My niece's chambermaid.

SIR ANDREW Good Mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance.

MARIA My name is Mary, sir.

SIR ANDREW Good Mistress Mary Accost,--

SIR TOBY BELCH You mistake, knight; 'accost' is front her, board

(60) her, woo her, assail her.

SIR ANDREW By my troth, I would not undertake her in this

 company. Is that the meaning of 'accost'?

MARIA Fare you well, gentlemen.

SIR TOBY BELCH An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst

 never draw sword again.

SIR ANDREW An you part so, mistress, I would I might never

 draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have

 fools in hand?

(70) MARIA Sir, I have not you by the hand.

SIR ANDREW Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.

MARIA Now, sir, 'thought is free:' I pray you, bring

 your hand to the buttery-bar and let it drink.

SIR ANDREW Wherefore, sweet-heart? what's your metaphor?

MARIA It's dry, sir.

SIR ANDREW Why, I think so: I am not such an ass but I can

(80) keep my hand dry. But what's your jest?

MARIA A dry jest, sir.

SIR ANDREW Are you full of them?

MARIA Aye, sir, I have them at my fingers' ends: marry,

 now I let go your hand, I am barren.

[Exit]

SIR TOBY BELCH O knight thou lackest a cup of canary: when did I

 see thee so put down?

SIR ANDREW Never in your life, I think; unless you see canary

 put me down. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit

(90) than a Christian or an ordinary man has: but I am a

 great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit.

SIR TOBY BELCH No question.

SIR ANDREW An I thought that, I'ld forswear it. I'll ride home

 to-morrow, Sir Toby.

SIR TOBY BELCH Pourquoi, my dear knight?

SIR ANDREW What is 'Pourquoi'? do or not do? I would I had

 bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in

 fencing, dancing and bear-baiting: O, had I but

(100) followed the arts!

SIR TOBY BELCH Then hadst thou had an excellent head of hair.

SIR ANDREW Why, would that have mended my hair?

SIR TOBY BELCH Past question; for thou seest it will not curl by nature.

SIR ANDREW But it becomes me well enough, does't not?

SIR TOBY BELCH Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I

 hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs

(110) and spin it off.

SIR ANDREW Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby: your niece

 will not be seen; or if she be, it's four to one

 she'll none of me: the count himself here hard by woos her.

SIR TOBY BELCH She'll none o' the count: she'll not match above

 her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; I

 have heard her swear't. Tut, there's life in't,

 man.

SIR ANDREW I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o' the

(120) strangest mind i' the world; I delight in masques

 and revels sometimes altogether.

SIR TOBY BELCH Art thou good at these kickshawses, knight?

SIR ANDREW As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the

 degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare

 with an old man.

SIR TOBY BELCH What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?

SIR ANDREW Faith, I can cut a caper.

(130) SIR TOBY BELCH And I can cut the mutton to't.

SIR ANDREW And I think I have the back-trick simply as strong

 as any man in Illyria.

SIR TOBY BELCH Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have

 these gifts a curtain before 'em? are they like to

 take dust, like Mistress Mall's picture? why dost