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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, not 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 favour,
Bade me come smiling and cross 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

First told me thou wast mad; then camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content :
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fab.

Good madam, hear me speak,

And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,

Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this devise against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts,
We had conceived against him: Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance;
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malace it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd
That have on both sides pass'd.

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Oli. Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!
Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve great-

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ness, and some have greatness thrown upon them." I was
one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir; but that's
all one.
"By the Lord, fool, I am not mad." But do you
remember?" Madam, why laugh you at such a barren ras-
cal? an you smile not, he's gagged:" and thus the whirli-
gig of time brings in his revenges.

Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
Oli. He hath been most notoriously abused.
Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace :
He hath not told us of the captain yet:
When that is known and golden time convents,
A solemn combination shall be made

Of our dear souls.

Meantime, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence. Cesario, come;
For so you shall be, while you are a man ;
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen.

Clo. [Sings]

[Exit.

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[Exeunt all, except Clown.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,

With hey, ho, &c.

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'Gainst knaves and thieves men sby their gate, For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas! to wive,

With hey, ho, &c.

By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came unto my beds,

With hey, ho, &c.

With toss-pots still had drunken headg

For the rain, &c.

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A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, &c.

But that's all one, our play is done,

And we'll strive to please you every day,

[Exit.

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SCENE I. Antechamber in LEONTES' palace.

Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS.

Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.

Cam. I think, this coming summer, the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

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Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be justified in our loves; for indeedČam. Beseech you,―

Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence-in so rare-I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

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Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves! Arch. I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note. 40

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that indeed physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt. 50

SCENE II. A room of state in the same.

Enter LEONTES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, POLIXENES, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star hath been
The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
Without a burthen: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply

With one We thank you" many thousands moe
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks a while;

And pay them when you part.

Pol.

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I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance

Or breed upon our absence; that may blow

No sneaping winds at home, to make us say

"This is put forth too truly:" besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty.

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Leon. We'll part the time between 's then; and in that I'll no gainsaying.

Pol.

Press me not, beseech you, so.

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world
So soon as yours could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it. My affairs

Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder
Were in your love a whip to me; my stay
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon.
Tongue-tied our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
You had drawn oaths from him not to stay.

You sir,

Charge him too coldly. Tell him, you are sure
All in Bohemia 's well; this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.
Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission
To let him there a month behind the gest
Prefix'd for 's parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady-she her lord. You'll stay?
Pol.

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No, madam

I may not, verily.

You put me off with limber vows; but I,

Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths, Should yet say "Sir, no going.' Verily,

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You shall not go a lady's "Verily" 's

As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?

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Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees

When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?

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