Sebastian and his sister Viola, a young gentleman and lady of
Messaline, were twins, and (which was accounted a great wonder)
from their birth they so much resembled each other that, but for
the difference in their dress, they could not be known apart.
They were both born in one hour, and in one hour they were both
in danger of perishing, for they were shipwrecked on the coast of
Illyria, as they were making a sea-voyage together. The ship on
board of which they were split on a rock in a violent storm, and
a very small number of the ship’s company escaped with their
lives. The captain of the vessel, with a few of the sailors that
were saved, got to land in a small boat, and with them they
brought Viola safe on shore, where she, poor lady, instead of
rejoicing at her own deliverance, began to lament her brother’s
loss; but the captain comforted her with the assurance that he
had seen her brother, when the ship split, fasten himself to a
strong mast, on which, as long as he could see anything of him
for the distance, he perceived him borne up above the waves.
Viola was much consoled by the hope this account gave her, and
now considered bow she was to dispose of herself in a strange
country, so far from home; and she asked the captain if he knew
anything of Illyria.
“Aye, very well, madam,” replied the captain, “for I was born not
three hours’ travel from this place.”
“Who governs here?” said Viola. The captain told her Illyria was
governed by Orsino, a duke noble in nature as well as dignity.
Viola said, she had heard her father speak of Orsino, and that he
was unmarried then.
“And he is so now,” said the captain; “or was so very late for,
but a month ago, I went from here, and then it was the general
talk (as you know what great ones do, the people will prattle of)
that Orsino sought the love of fair Olivia, a virtuous maid, the
daughter of a count who died twelve months ago, leaving Olivia to
the protection of her brother, who shortly after died also; and
for the love of this dear brother, they say, she has abjured the
sight and company of men.”
Viola, who was herself in such a sad affliction for her brother’s
loss, wished she could live with this lady who so tenderly
mourned a brother’s death. She asked the captain if be could
introduce her to Olivia, saying she would willingly serve this
lady. But he replied this would be a hard thing to accomplish,
because the Lady Olivia would admit no person into her house
since her brother’s death, not even the duke himself. Then Viola
formed another project in her mind, which was, in a man’s habit,
to serve the Duke Orsino as a page. It was a strange fancy in a
young lady to put on male attire and pass for a boy; but the
forlorn and unprotected state of Viola, who was young and of
uncommon beauty, alone, and in a foreign land, must plead her
excuse.
She having observed a fair behavior in the captain, and that he
showed a friendly concern for her welfare, intrusted him with her
design, and he readily engaged to assist her. Viola gave him
money and directed him to furnish her with suitable apparel,
ordering her clothes to be made of the same color and in the same
fashion her brother Sebastian used to wear, and when she was
dressed in her manly garb she looked so exactly like her brother
that some strange errors happened by means of their being
mistaken for each other, for, as will afterward appear, Sebastian
was also saved.
Viola’s good friend, the captain, when he had transformed this
pretty lady into a gentleman, having some interest at court, got
her presented to Orsino under the feigned name of Cesario. The
duke was wonderfully pleased with the address and graceful
deportment of this handsome youth, and made Cesario one of his
pages, that being the office Viola wished to obtain; and she so
well fulfilled the duties of her new station, and showed such a
ready observance and faithful attachment to her lord, that she
soon became his most favored attendant. To Cesario Orsino
confided the whole history of his love for the lady Olivia. To
Cesario he told the long and unsuccessful suit he had made to one
who, rejecting his long services and despising his person,
refused to admit him to her presence; and for the love of this
lady who had so unkindly treated him the noble Orsino, forsaking
the sports of the field and all manly exercises in which he
used to delight, passed his hours in ignoble sloth, listening to
the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle airs, and passionate
love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise and learned
lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day long
conversing with young Cesario. Unmeet companion no doubt his
grave courtiers thought Cesario was for their once noble master,
the great Duke Orsino.
It is a dangerous matter for young maidens to be the confidantes
of handsome young dukes; which Viola too soon found, to her
sorrow, for all that Orsino told her he endured for Olivia she
presently perceived she suffered for the love of him, and much it
moved her wonder that Olivia could be so regardless of this her
peerless lord and master, whom she thought no one could behold
without the deepest admiration, and she ventured gently to hint
to Orsino, that it was a pity he should affect a lady who was so
blind to his worthy qualities; and she said:
“If a lady were to love you, my lord, as you love Olivia (and
perhaps there may be one who does), if you could not love her in
return) would you not tell her that you could not love, and must
she not be content with this answer?”
But Orsino would not admit of this reasoning, for he denied that
it was possible for any woman to love as he did. He said no
woman’s heart was big enough to hold so much love, and therefore
it was unfair to compare the love of any lady for him to his love
for Olivia. Now, though Viola had the utmost deference for the
duke’s opinions, she could not help thinking this was not quite
true, for she thought her heart had full as much love in it as
Orsino’s had; and she said:
“Ah, but I know, my lord.”
“What do you know, Cesario?” said Orsino.
“Too well I know,” replied Viola, “what love women may owe to
men. They are as true of heart as we are. My father had a
daughter loved a man, as I perhaps, were I a woman, should love
your lordship.”
“And what is her history?” said Orsino.
“A blank, my lord,” replied Viola. “She never told her love, but
let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her damask
cheek. She pined in thought, and with a green and yellow
melancholy she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at
Grief.”
The duke inquired if this lady died of her love, but to this
question Viola returned an evasive answer; as probably she had
feigned the story, to speak words expressive of the secret love
and silent grief she suffered for Orsino.
While they were talking, a gentleman entered whom the duke had
sent to Olivia, and he said, “So please you, my lord, I might not
be admitted to the lady, but by her handmaid she returned you
this answer: Until seven years hence the element itself shall not
behold her face; but like a cloistress she will walk veiled,
watering her chamber with her tears for the sad remembrance of
her dead brother.”
On hearing this the duke exclaimed, “Oh, she that has a heart of
this fine frame, to pay this debt of love to a dead brother, how
will she love when the rich golden shaft has touched her heart!”
And then he said to Viola: “You know, Cesario, I have told you
all the secrets of my heart; therefore, good youth, go to
Olivia’s house. Be not denied access; stand at her doors and tell
her there your fixed foot shall grow till you have audience.”
“And if I do speak to her, my lord, what then?” said Viola.
“Oh, then,” replied Orsino, “unfold to her the passion of my
love. Make a long discourse to her of my dear faith. It will well
become you to act my woes, for she will attend more to you than
to one of graver aspect.”
Away then went Viola; but not willingly did she undertake this
courtship, for she was to woo a lady to become a wife to him she
wished to marry; but, having undertaken the affair, she performed
it with fidelity, and Olivia soon heard that a youth was at her
door who insisted upon being admitted to her presence.
“I told him,” said the servant, “that you were sick. He said he
knew you were, and therefore he came to speak with you. I told
him that you were asleep. He seemed to have a foreknowledge of
that, too, and said that therefore he must speak with you. What
is to be said to him, lady? for he seems fortified against all
denial, and will speak with you, whether you will or no.”
Olivia, curious to see who this peremptory messenger might be,
desired be might be admitted, and, throwing her veil over her
face, she said she would once more hear Orsino’s embassy, not
doubting but that he came from the duke, by his importunity.
Viola, entering, put on the most manly air she could assume, and,
affecting the fine courtier language of great men’s pages, she
said to the veiled lady:
“Most radiant, exquisite, and matchless beauty, I pray you tell
me if you are the lady of the house; for I should be sorry to
cast away my speech upon another; for besides that it is
excellently well penned, I have taken great pains to learn it.”
“Whence come you, sir?” said Olivia.
“I can say little more than I have studied,” replied Viola, and
that question is out of my part.”
“Are you a comedian?” said Olivia.
“No,” replied Viola; “and yet I am not that which I play,”
meaning that she, being a woman, feigned herself to be a man. And
again she asked Olivia if she were the lady of the house.
Olivia said she was; and then Viola, having more curiosity to see
her rival’s features than haste to deliver her master’s message,
said, “Good madam, let me see your face.” With this bold request
Olivia was not averse to comply, for this haughty beauty, whom
the Duke Orsino had loved so long in vain, at first sight
conceived a passion for the supposed page, the humble Cesario.
When Viola asked to see her face, Olivia said, “Have you any
commission from your lord and master to negotiate with my face?”
And then, forgetting her determination to go veiled for seven
long years, she drew aside her veil, saying: “But I will draw the
curtain and show the picture. Is it not well done?”
Viola replied: “It is beauty truly mixed; the red and white upon
your cheeks is by Nature’s own cunning hand laid on. You are the
most cruel lady living if you lead these graces to the grave and
leave the world no copy.”
“Oh, sir,” replied Olivia, “I will not be so cruel. The world may
have an inventory of my beauty. As, item, two lips, indifferent
red; item, two gray eyes with lids to them; one neck; one chin;
and so forth. Were you sent here to praise me?”
Viola replied, “I see what you are: you are too proud, but you
are fair. My lord and master loves you. Oh, such a love could but
be recompensed though you were crowned the queen of beauty; for
Orsino loves you with adoration and with tears, with groans that
thunder love, and sighs of fire.”
“Your lord,” said Olivia, “knows well my mind. I cannot love him;
yet I doubt not he is virtuous; I know him to be noble and of
high estate, of fresh and spotless youth. All voices proclaim him
learned, courteous, and valiant; yet I cannot love him. He might
have taken his answer long ago.”
“If I did love you as my master does,” said Viola, “I would make
me a willow cabin at your gates, and call upon your name. I would
write complaining sonnets on Olivia, and sing them in the dead of
the night. Your name should sound among the hills, and I would
make Echo, the babbling gossip of the air, cry out OLIVIA. Oh,
you should not rest between the elements of earth and air, but
you should pity me.”
“You might do much,” said Olivia. “What is your parentage?’”
Viola replied: “Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a
gentleman.”
Olivia now reluctantly dismissed Viola, saying: “Go to your
master and tell him I cannot love him. Let him send no more,
‘unless perchance you come again to tell me how he takes it.”
And Viola departed, bidding the lady farewell by the name of Fair
Cruelty. When she was gone Olivia repeated the words, ABOVE MY
FORTUNES, YET MY STATE IS WELL. I AM A GENTLEMAN. And she said
aloud, “I will be sworn he is; his tongue, his face, his limbs,
action, and spirit plainly show he is a gentleman.” And then she
wished Cesario was the duke; and, perceiving the fast hold he had
taken on her affections, she blamed herself for her sudden love;
but the gentle blame which people lay upon their own faults has
no deep root, and presently the noble lady Olivia so far forgot
the inequality between, her fortunes and those of this seeming
page, as well as the maidenly reserve which is the chief ornament
of a lady’s character, that she resolved to court the love of
young Cesario, and sent a servant after him with a diamond ring,
under the pretense that he had left it with her as a present from
Orsino. She hoped by thus artfully making Cesario a present of
the ring she should give him some intimation of her design; and
truly it did make Viola suspect; for, knowing that Orsino had
sent no ring by her, she began to recollect that Olivia’s looks
and manner were expressive of admiration, and she presently
guessed her master’s mistress had fallen in love with her.
“Alas!” said she, “the poor lady might as well love a dream.
Disguise I see is wicked, for it has caused Olivia to breathe as
fruitless sighs for me as I do for Orsino.”
Viola returned to Orsino’s palace, and related to her lord the
ill success of the negotiation, repeating the command of Olivia
that the duke should trouble her no more. Yet still the duke
persisted in hoping that the gentle Cesario would in time be able
to persuade her to show some pity, and therefore he bade him he
should go to her again the next day. In the mean time, to pass
away the tedious interval, he commanded a song which he loved to
be sung; and he said:
“My good Cesario, when I heard that song last night, methought it
did relieve my passion much. Mark it, Cesario, it is old and
plain. The spinsters and the knitters when they sit in the sun,
and the young maids that weave their thread with bone, chant this
song. It is silly, yet I love it, for it tells of the innocence
of love in the old times.”