Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 1
The sea-coast.
Antonio : Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you?
Sebastian : By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over
[p]me: the malignancy
of my fate might perhaps
[p]distemper yours; therefore I shall crave
of you your
[p]leave that I may bear my evils alone: it were a
bad
[p]recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you.
Sebastian : No, sooth, sir: my determinate voyage is mere
[p]extravagancy. But I
perceive in you so excellent a
[p]touch of modesty, that you will not
extort from me
[p]what I am willing to keep in; therefore it
charges
[p]me in manners the rather to express myself. You
[p]must
know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian,
[p]which I called
Roderigo. My father was that
[p]Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know
you have heard
[p]of. He left behind him myself and a sister,
both
[p]born in an hour: if the heavens had been pleased,
[p]would we
had so ended! but you, sir, altered that;
[p]for some hour before you
took me from the breach of
[p]the sea was my sister drowned.
Antonio : Alas the day!
Sebastian : A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled
[p]me, was yet of
many accounted beautiful: but,
[p]though I could not with such
estimable wonder
[p]overfar believe that, yet thus far I will
boldly
[p]publish her; she bore a mind that envy could not but
[p]call
fair. She is drowned already, sir, with salt
[p]water, though I seem
to drown her remembrance again with more.
Antonio : Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment.
Sebastian : O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble.
Antonio : If you will not murder me for my love, let me be
[p]your servant.
Sebastian : If you will not undo what you have done, that is,
[p]kill him whom you
have recovered, desire it not.
[p]Fare ye well at once: my bosom is
full of kindness,
[p]and I am yet so near the manners of my mother,
that
[p]upon the least occasion more mine eyes will tell
[p]tales of
me. I am bound to the Count Orsino's court: farewell.
Antonio : The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!
[p]I have many enemies in
Orsino's court,
[p]Else would I very shortly see thee there.
[p]But,
come what may, I do adore thee so,
[p]That danger shall seem sport,
and I will go.
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 2
