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OLIVIA.
Open it, and read it.
CLOWN.
Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the
madman:--'By the Lord, madam,--'
OLIVIA.
How now! art thou mad?
CLOWN.
No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have
it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.
OLIVIA.
Pr'ythee, read i' thy right wits.
CLOWN.
So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read
thus; therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.
OLIVIA.
[To FABIAN] Read it you, sirrah.
FABIAN.
[Reads] 'By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world
shall know it: though you have put me into darkness and given
your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my
senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that
induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not
but to do myself much right or you much shame. Think of me as you
please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of
my injury.
The madly-used Malvolio'
OLIVIA.
Did he write this?
CLOWN.
Ay, madam.
DUKE.
This savours not much of distraction.
OLIVIA.
See him delivered, Fabian: bring him hither.
[Exit FABIAN.]
My lord, so please you, these things further thought on,
To think me as well a sister as a wife,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.
DUKE.
Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.--
[To VIOLA] Your master quits you; and, for your service done him,
So much against the mettle of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you called me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
You master's mistress.
OLIVIA.
A sister?--you are she.
[Re-enter FABIAN with MALVOLIO.]
DUKE.
Is this the madman?
OLIVIA.
Ay, my lord, this same;
How now, Malvolio?
MALVOLIO.
Madam, you have done me wrong,
Notorious wrong.
OLIVIA.
Have I, Malvolio? no.
MALVOLIO.
Lady, you have. Pray you peruse that letter:
You must not now deny it is your hand,
Write from it, if you can, in hand or phrase;
Or say 'tis not your seal, not your invention:
You can say none of this. Well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you;
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention played on? tell me why.
OLIVIA.