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Four Passages From the Dramatic
Writings of Shakespeare
(1)
Twelfth Night
II.iv.103-117
[DUKE OF ILLYRIA]
What dost thou know?
[VIOLA]
Too well what love women to men may owe.
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father had a daughter loved a man
As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.
[DUKE OF ILLYRIA]
And what's her history?
[VIOLA]
A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i'th'bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought;
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
We men may say more, swear more; but indeed
Our shows are more than will; for still we prove
Much in our vows but little in our love. |
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