_A Room in_ DUKE ORSINO'S _Palace_.
_The Duke discovered, seated, and attended by_ CURIO, _and Gentlemen_.
_Duke._ [_Music._] If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.----
[_Music._] That strain again;--it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odours.--
[_Music._] Enough; no more; [_He rises._
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
_Cur._ Will you go hunt, my lord?
_Duke._ What, Curio?
_Cur._ The hart.
_Duke._ Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
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 my Olivia?--speak.
_Val._ 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
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._ 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!--
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers;
Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.
[_Exeunt._