Page 606 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

mad. They have laid me here in hideous darkness. [30]

CLOWN
Fie, thou dishonest Satan! (I call thee by the most modest terms, for I am
one of those gentle ones that will use the devil himself with courtesy). Say’st
thou that house is dark?

MALVOLIO
As hell, Sir Topas. [35]

CLOWN
Why, it hath bay-windows transparent as barricadoes, and the clerestories

toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony: and yet complainest thou of
obstruction?

MALVOLIO
I am not mad, Sir Topas. I say to you, this [40] house is dark.

CLOWN
Madman, thou errest. I say there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou

art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.

MALVOLIO

I say this house is as dark as ignorance, [45] though ignorance were as dark
as hell; and I say there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than
you are: make the trial of it in any constant question.

CLOWN
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl? [50]

MALVOLIO
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

CLOWN
What think’st thou of his opinion?

MALVOLIO