Page 535 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

great pains to con it. Good beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very
comptible, even to the least sinister usage.

OLIVIA
Whence came you, sir?

VIOLA
I can say little more than I have studied, and that [170] question’s out of my
part. Good gentle one, give me modest assurance if you be the lady of the

house, that I may proceed in my speech.

OLIVIA
Are you a comedian?

VIOLA
No, my profound heart: and yet, by the very [175] fangs of malice I swear, I
am not that I play. Are you the lady of the house?

OLIVIA
If I do not usurp myself, I am.

VIOLA
Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp yourself: for what is yours to

bestow is not yours to reserve. [180] But this is from my commission. I will
on with my speech in your praise, and then show you the heart of my
message.

OLIVIA
Come to what is important in’t: I forgive you the praise. [185]

VIOLA
Alas, I took great pains to study it, and ’tis poetical.

OLIVIA
It is the more like to be feigned; I pray you keep it in. I heard you were saucy

at my gates, and allowed your approach rather to wonder at you than to hear
you. If you be mad, be gone: if you have reason, be [190] brief: ’tis not that