Chapter: ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I.


                                

                            _The Sea-coast._

      _Enter_ VIOLA, ROBERTO, _and two Sailors, carrying a Trunk_.

    _Vio._ What country, friends, is this?

    _Rob._ This is Illyria, lady.

    _Vio._ And what should I do in Illyria?
  My brother he is in Elysium.
  Perchance, he is not drown'd:--What think you, sailors?

    _Rob._ It is perchance, that you yourself were saved.

    _Vio._ O my poor brother! and so, perchance may he be.

    _Rob._ True, madam; and, to comfort you with chance,
  Assure yourself, after our ship did split,
  When you, and that poor number saved with you,
  Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,
  Most provident in peril, bind himself
  (Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
  To a strong mast, that lived upon the sea;
  Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
  I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
  So long as I could see.

    _Vio._ Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,
  Whereto thy speech serves for authority,
  The like of him. Know'st thou this country?

    _Rob._ Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born,
  Not three hours travel from this very place.

    _Vio._ Who governs here?

    _Rob._ A noble duke, in nature,
  As in his name.

    _Vio._ What is his name?

    _Rob._ Orsino.

    _Vio._ Orsino!--I have heard my father name him:
  He was a bachelor then.

    _Rob._ And so is now,
  Or was so very late: for but a month
  Ago I went from hence; and then 'twas fresh
  In murmur, (as, you know, what great ones do,
  The less will prattle of,) that he did seek
  The love of fair Olivia.

    _Vio._ What is she?

    _Rob._ A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
  That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her
  In the protection of his son, her brother,
  Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
  They say, she hath abjured the company
  And sight of men.

    _Vio._ Oh, that I served that lady!
  And might not be deliver'd to the world,
  Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
  What my estate is!

    _Rob._ That were hard to compass;
  Because she will admit no kind of suit,
  No, not the duke's.

    _Vio._ There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain;
  And, I believe, thou hast a mind that suits
  With this thy fair and outward character.
  I pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,
  Conceal me what I am; and be my aid
  For such disguise as, haply, shall become
  The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke;
  Thou shalt present me as a page unto him,
  Of gentle breeding, and my name, Cesario:--
  That trunk, the reliques of my sea-drown'd brother,
  Will furnish man's apparel to my need:--
  It may be worth thy pains: for I can sing,
  And speak to him in many sorts of music,
  That will allow me very worth his service.
  What else may hap, to time I will commit;
  Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

    _Rob._ Be you his page, and I your mute will be;
  When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see!

    _Vio._ I thank thee:--Lead me on.                         [_Exeunt._

 Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, is sitting in his palace and enjoying himself by listening to music. He is in love and is in a whimsical, romantic mood, luxuriating in the various emotions which the music evokes. But he impulsively decides that he has heard enough, and after sending the musicians away, he expounds on the subject of love. Curio, one of his pages, asks his master if he wouldn't like to hunt; perhaps exercise will cure his master's soulful, philosophical moodiness. Orsino replies that he would like to hunt -- but he would like to hunt the lovely Olivia, to whom he has sent another of his pages, Valentine, as an emissary. At that moment, Valentine enters. But he brings such bad news that he begs "not be admitted": Olivia's brother has died, and she has vowed to mourn her brother's death for seven years. Surprisingly, the news does not dampen Orsino's spirit. He rhapsodizes on how a girl with such sensitivity can express her emotions; if she "hath a heart of that fine frame," he says, then she would be even more devoted and loyal to a lover.

