Twelfth Night: A Verse Translation
ISBN: 0-9752743-0-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-9752743-0-9
160 pages
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Twelfth Night Excerpt
This excerpt from Act Two shows how carefully the ENJOY SHAKESPEARE translations recreate all of Shakespeare's effects. Shakespeare's original included a mixture of verse, prose, and song. This translation preserves all of those elements. For illustration purposes, prose passages and the song are highlighted in this excerpt (not in the published book).
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Scene Four. The Duke’s Palace
[Enter DUKE ORSINO, VIOLA (as a man),
CURIO, and others.]
DUKE ORSINO
Give me some music.—[Musicians step forward]
Now, good morning, friends.
Now, good Cesario, just a little song,
That quaint, old-fashioned song we heard last night.
It seemed to ease my torment very much,
More than brisk tunes and studied, polished verse
So favored in these giddy, fast-paced times.
Come, just one verse.
CURIO (a gentleman serving the Duke)
The one who sang it, your lordship, is not here.
DUKE ORSINO
Who was it?
CURIO
Feste, the jester, my lord, a fool that the Lady Olivia’s father took much delight in. He is in the house.
DUKE ORSINO
Go seek him out, and meanwhile play the tune.
[Exit CURIO. Music plays]
Come here, my boy. If you should ever love,
In the sweet pangs of it, remember me.
For what you see here all true lovers are,
Giddy and fickle in all moods and thoughts,
Save for the constant image of the creature
That they adore. How do you like this tune?
VIOLA (masquerading as Cesario)
It echoes very clearly from the throne
Where love is seated.
DUKE ORSINO
You sound like a master.
I’d stake my life that, though you’re young, your eye
Has lingered on some face that it has favored.
Yes, boy?
VIOLA
A bit, if you too favor it.
DUKE ORSINO
What kind of woman?
VIOLA
Of your temperament.
DUKE ORSINO
She is not worth you, then. How old is she?
VIOLA
About your age, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO
Too old, by God! She must at all times take
One older than herself, and grow to fit him,
And rule with steady hand her husband’s heart.
For, boy, however we may judge ourselves,
Our loves are more capricious and unsteady,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are.
VIOLA
I think so too, my lord.
DUKE ORSINO
Then seek a love who’s younger than yourself,
Or your affection’s bow will not stay drawn;
For women are as roses, whose fair flower,
Once fully bloomed, may fall that very hour.
VIOLA
And so they are. It’s sad that this is so.
To die, just when they to perfection grow!
[Re-enter CURIO and FESTE]
DUKE ORSINO
O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.
Take note, Cesario, it is old and quaint.
The spinning, knitting women in the sun,
And carefree maids that weave their thread with bobbins,
So often chant it. It’s a simple truth,
And dwells upon the innocence of love,
Just like in days of old.
FESTE
Are you ready, sir?
DUKE ORSINO
Ay, please, sing.
[Music]
The Song
Feste
Come to me, come to me, death,
And in sad casket let me be laid;
Fade away, fade away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stained with death’s dew,
O, prepare it!
My dying scene, no one so true
Will share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin none will be tossed.
Not a friend, not a friend to greet
My poor corpse, where my bones turn to dust.
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never finds my grave
To weep there!
DUKE ORSINO
Take this for your trouble [hands him money].
FESTE
No trouble, sir. I take pleasure in singing, sir.
DUKE ORSINO
Then I’ll pay for your pleasure.
FESTE
Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid for sooner or later.
DUKE
I give you leave to take leave.
FESTE
Let the god of melancholy protect you and have the tailor cover your coat with glitter, for your opal mind changes with the light. I would have such moody men put to sea so that their business could be everything and their ports of call everywhere. For that is always the way to get nothing from a good voyage. Farewell.
[Exit FESTE]
DUKE ORSINO
Let all the rest take leave.
[CURIO and ATTENDANTS retire.]
Once more, Cesario,
Visit again that sovereign throne of cruelty.
Tell her my love, more noble than this world,
Does not esteem huge tracts of dirty land.
Endowments fortune has bestowed on her?
Say I dismiss such things as fickle fortune,
But it’s that miracle and queen of gems,
Nature’s adornment, that attracts my soul.
VIOLA
But if she cannot love you, sir?
DUKE ORSINO
I can’t accept that answer.
VIOLA
Surely you must.
Let’s say some lady, as there may well be,
Feels in her heart as great a pang of love
As you do for Olivia. You cannot love her
And tell her so. Is not that answer final?
DUKE ORSINO
No woman’s frame
Could bear the beating of so strong a passion
As love has dealt my heart. No woman’s heart
Could ever hold so much; they lack retention.
Their love—which has no discharge from the liver,
No, just the palate—is mere appetite,
Which suffers excess, fullness, and revulsion.
But mine is love as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Do not compare
Love that a woman can amass for me
With what I have for dear Olivia.
VIOLA
Yes, but I also know … [hesitant]
DUKE ORSINO
What do you know?
VIOLA
Too well the love some women hold for men.
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father’s daughter truly loved a man,
Perhaps as much as I might love your lordship
Were I a woman.
DUKE ORSINO
And what’s her history?
VIOLA
A blank, my lord. She never showed her love,
But let concealment feed like canker worms,
On her peach blossom cheeks. She pined inside,
And with an ashen, yellow melancholy,
She sat there as if Patience carved in stone
Smiling at Grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more, but indeed
Our words exceed our will, for we will pledge
Much in our vows, but little in our love.
DUKE ORSINO
So did your sister die of love, my boy?
VIOLA
I’m all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too…but still don’t know.
Sir, shall I see this lady?
DUKE ORSINO
Ay, that’s the scheme.
See her at once. Give her this ring and say,
My love rejects denial and won’t give way.
[Exit ALL]
