MALVOLIO.
By this hand, I am. Good fool, some ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady. It shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did.
CLOWN.
I will help you to’t. But tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?
MALVOLIO.
Believe me, I am not. I tell thee true.
CLOWN.
Nay, I’ll ne’er believe a madman till I see his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink.
MALVOLIO.
Fool, I’ll requite it in the highest degree: I prithee be gone.
CLOWN.
[Singing.]
I am gone, sir, and anon, sir,
I’ll be with you again,
In a trice, like to the old Vice,
Your need to sustain;
Who with dagger of lath, in his rage and his wrath,
Cries ‘ah, ha!’ to the devil:
Like a mad lad, ‘Pare thy nails, dad.
Adieu, goodman devil.’
[Exit.]
SCENE III. Olivia’s Garden.
Enter Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN.
This is the air; that is the glorious sun,
This pearl she gave me, I do feel’t and see’t,
And though ’tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet ’tis not madness. Where’s Antonio, then?
I could not find him at the Elephant,
Yet there he was, and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service.
For though my soul disputes well with my sense
That this may be some error, but no madness,
Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes
And wrangle with my reason that persuades me
To any other trust but that I am mad,
Or else the lady’s mad; yet if ’twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take and give back affairs and their dispatch,
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing
As I perceive she does. There’s something in’t
That is deceivable. But here the lady comes.