Twelfth Night 1.4 - Shakespeare's Comedy with Scholarly Annotations

Twelfth Night

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ACT I SCENE IV	DUKE ORSINO'S PALACE.
[Enter VALENTINE and VIOLA in man's attire]
VALENTINE	If the duke continue these favours towards you,
	Cesario, you are like to be much advanced: he hath
	known you but three days, and already you are no stranger.
VIOLA	You either fear his humour or my negligence, that
	you call in question the continuance of his love:
	is he inconstant, sir, in his favours?
VALENTINE	No, believe me.
VIOLA	I thank you. Here comes the count.
[Enter DUKE ORSINO, CURIO, and Attendants]
DUKE ORSINO	Who saw Cesario, ho?
VIOLA	On your attendance, my lord; here.	10
DUKE ORSINO	Stand you a while aloof, Cesario,
	Thou know'st no less but all; I have unclasp'd
	To thee the book even of my secret soul:
	Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her;
	Be not denied access, stand at her doors,
	And tell them, there thy fixed foot shall grow
	Till thou have audience.
VIOLA	Sure, my noble lord,
	If she be so abandon'd to her sorrow
	As it is spoke, she never will admit me.
DUKE ORSINO	Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds	20
	Rather than make unprofited return.
VIOLA	Say I do speak with her, my lord, what then?
DUKE ORSINO	O, then unfold the passion of my love,
	Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith:
	It shall become thee well to act my woes;
	She will attend it better in thy youth
	Than in a nuncio's of more grave aspect.
VIOLA	I think not so, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO	Dear lad, believe it;
	For they shall yet belie thy happy years,
	That say thou art a man: Diana's lip	30
	Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
	Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
	And all is semblative a woman's part.
	I know thy constellation is right apt
	For this affair. Some four or five attend him;
	All, if you will; for I myself am best
	When least in company. Prosper well in this,
	And thou shalt live as freely as thy lord,
	To call his fortunes thine.
VIOLA	I'll do my best
	To woo your lady:
[Aside]
	yet, a barful strife!	40
	Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.
[Exeunt]

Next: Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5

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Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 4

From Twelfth Night Or What You Will. Ed. Kenneth Deighton. London: Macmillan.

2. you are like ... advanced, there is every prospect of his raising you to a high office about him.

4. his humour, his caprice: call in question, seem to doubt.

8. the count. See note on i. 2. 25.

10. On your ... here. I am here waiting to serve you; your is objective, in attendance on you.

11. aloof, from "A prep, + Loof, luff, weather-gage, windward direction; perhaps immediately from Du. loef, in te loef, to windward" ... (Murray's Eng. Dict).

12. no less but all, no less than all, the whole truth of the matter; for but instead of 'than,' see Abb. § 127.

12, 3. I have ... soul, I have revealed to you the inmost secrets of my soul, those which I have concealed from every one else; cp. i. H. IV. i. 3. 188, "I will unclasp a secret book"; T. C. iv. 6. 60, "unclasp the tables of their thoughts."

14. address ... her, direct your steps to her house; 'dress' ultimately from the Lat. directus, straight.

15. Be not ... access, refuse to take any denial from her, insist upon being allowed to see her.

16. thy fixed ... grow, there you will plant your foot immovably: have, subjunctive.

18. so ... sorrow, so utterly given up to, so completely preoccupied by, her sorrow.

19. As it is spoke, as people say; for spoke, the curtailed form of the past participle, see Abb. § 343.

20. leap ... hounds, overleap all the limits of courtesy.

21. Rather ... return, rather than return without having gained something from her, some answer, information.

22. Say, suppose.

24. Surprise ... faith; take her by surprise, and so get the better of her, by pouring out the story of my passionate and faithful love for her; for surprise, in this sense, cp. Temp. iii. 1. 93, "So glad of this as they I cannot be Who am surprised withal"; W. T. iii. 1. 10, "And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle ... so surprised my sense"; dear, in the sense of 'heart- felt,' is common in Shakespeare.

26. She will ... youth, she will listen to it better from one so young as you are; for attend, trans., see Abb. § 200.

27. a nuncio, an ambassador, especially a papal ambassador; Lat. nuntius, a messenger.

29. yet, even up to this time: happy years, the careless, happy, years of youth.

31. rubious, red as a ruby; one of Shakespeare's coinages: small pipe, i.e. windpipe; cp. K. J. v. 7. 23, "This pale faint swan Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death. And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest," where 'the organ-pipe of frailty' means the windpipe of one who is well near worn out.

32. shrill and sound, shrill like a boy's treble and yet uncracked. In boys the voice cracks at the age of puberty, but the Duke, though not admitting that Caesario had reached manhood, seems surprised that in a lad (as he supposes her to be) of such an age the voice should still retain its treble note and not yet have cracked.

33. And all ... part, and everything about you resembles a woman's part in a play; those parts being played by boys; cp. A. C. v. 2. 220, T. G. iv. 4. 165. semblative, like; not found elsewhere in Shakespeare.

34. thy constellation ... apt. See note on i. 3. 117.

35. Some ... him, let some four or five go with him as an escort.

36, 7. am best ... company, who am happiest, most at my ease, when I am most alone.

37-9. Prosper ... thine, if you succeed in this matter, you shall be as free to use my wealth as I am; for the transposition of freely, see Abb. § 419a.

40. a barful strife, this is a contest in which, if I succeed, I place a barrier to my own happiness: cp. Blanch's speech, K. J. iii. 1. 328-35.

41. Whoe'er ... wife, though compelled to make love for him to Olivia, it is he whom I desire to wed; on who for 'whom,' see Abb. § 274.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night Or What You Will. Ed. Kenneth Deighton. London: Macmillan, 1889. Shakespeare Online. 20 Dec. 2010. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/twn_1_4.html >

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Spiritual Grace: An Examination of Viola from Twelfth Night

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Points to Ponder ... "Coming just after As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing, and just before the great tragedies, Twelfth Night has been called Shakespeare's farewell to mirth. Critically described, it appears not only a farewell to mirth, but a using-up of the old characters that in former plays had made mirth. The whole piece is full of reminiscences.

"The shipwreck, with its sequel of disguises, resemblances, misunderstandings, repeats The Comedy of Errors; as Viola, disguised as a page and carrying her sweet heart's messages to a rival, repeats Julia from The Two Gentlemen of Verona; while in her masquerade as a man she has been anticipated also by Portia and Rosalind. The trick played upon Malvolio has already been played, even to detail, upon Beatrice and Benedick. And Sir Toby, Aguecheek, the Clown -- are they not all revenants? Have we not met and known them before, in their fuller-blooded avatars, as Falstaff, Master Slender, Touchstone?" W. Heath Robinson. (From his edition of Twelfth Night. Musson Book Co.)

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Twelfth Night: Q & A

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