Page 623 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Of charity, what kin are you to me?
What countryman? What name? What parentage? [225]

VIOLA
Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too:
So went he suited to his watery tomb.

If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

SEBASTIAN
A spirit I am indeed, [230]
But am in that dimension grossly clad

Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say, ‘Thrice welcome, drowned Viola’. [235]

VIOLA
My father had a mole upon his brow.

SEBASTIAN
And so had mine.

VIOLA
And died that day when Viola from her birth
Had number’d thirteen years.

SEBASTIAN
O, that record is lively in my soul! [240]
He finished indeed his mortal act

That day that made my sister thirteen years.

VIOLA
If nothing lets to make us happy both,
But this my masculine usurp’d attire,
Do not embrace me, till each circumstance [245]