TWELFTH-NIGHT:

OR,

WHAT YOU WILL.

i

ORSINO, Duke of Illyria.

Sebastian, a young Gentleman, Brother to Viola.
Antonio, a Sea-captain, Friend to Sebastian.

Valentine, Gentlemen, attending on the Duke.

Curio,

Sir Toby Belch, Uncle to Olivia.

Sir Andrew Ague-cheek, a foolish Knight, pretending

to Olivia.

A Sea-captain, Friend to Viola.

Fabian, Servant to Olivia.

Malvolio, a fantastical Steward to Olivia.

Clown, Servant to Olivia.

Olivia, a Lady of great Beauty and Fortune, belov'd by

Priest, Sailors, Officers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, a City on the Coast of Illyria.

The first edition of this play is in the Folio of 1623.

The Persons of the Drama were first enumerated, with all the cant of the modern Stage, by Mr. Rowe.

TWELFTH

ACTI. 'SCENE I.

The PALACE.

Enter the Duke, Curio, and Lords.

DUKE.

F mufick be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it; that, furfeiting,
The appetite may ficken, and so die.

1

* 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 odour. Enough!-no more;
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
O fpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute; fo full of shapes in fancy,

It is true, we do not talk of the death of appetite, because we do not ordinarily speak in the figurative language of poetry; but that appetite fickens by a furfeit is true, and therefore proper.

2 That strain again;-it had a dying fall:

O! it came d'er my ear, like the fweet fouth,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour.-] Amongst the beauties of this charming fimilitude, its exact propriety is not the least. For, as a fouth wind, while blowing over a violet-bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the same time, communicates its own sweetness to it; so the soft affecting musick, here described, tho' it takes away the natural, fweet, tranquillity of the mind, yet, at the fame time, it communicates a new pleasure to it. Or, it may allude to another property of musick, where the fame strains have a power to excite pain or pleasure, as the state is, in which it finds the hearer. Hence Milton makes the self