“Twelfth Night” – Act 1, scene 1

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Duke Orsino’s Palace

Narrator: In our first scene of Twelfth Night, we are introduced to Orsino, the lovesick Duke of Illyria. A highly romantic fellow, the Duke uses music to accompany his emotions – which are now in a melancholy state due to his love for a noble lady, Countess Olivia. Olivia, in mourning over the death of her brother, has continually rejected the Duke’s love and is determined not to marry. But Duke Orsino is nothing if not persistent.

Duke: If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.
That strain again! It had a dying fall;
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor. Enough, no more! (The music stops playing.)
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

Curio: Will you go hunt, my lord?

Duke: What Curio?

Curio: The hart.

Duke: Why, so I do, the noblest that I have.
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turned into a hart,
And, my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E’er since pursue me.

(Curio exits Upstage Center through curtain, as Valentine enters from Stage Left, then moves to Stage Left of Orsino.)

Duke: How now! What news from her?

Valentine: So please my lord, I might not be admitted;
But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years’ heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But like a cloistress she will veiled walk,
All this to season a brother’s dead love which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.

Duke: (Rising as he speaks.) O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame
To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will she love when the rich golden shaft
Hath killed the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill’d,
Her sweet perfections with one self king.
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers;
(Valentine bows and exits Upstage Left)
(To Audience.) Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bow’rs.

(Duke Orsino exits Upstage Left.)