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This is Ercles' vein.

      — A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I Scene 2

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Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

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1

Twelfth Night
[I, 1]

Orsino

2

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

2

Twelfth Night
[I, 1]

Valentine

28

So please my lord, I might not be admitted;
But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.

3

Twelfth Night
[I, 2]

Viola

50

And what should I do in Illyria?
My brother he is in Elysium.
Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you, sailors?

4

Twelfth Night
[I, 2]

Captain

69

Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born
Not three hours' travel from this very place.

5

Twelfth Night
[I, 2]

Viola

89

O that I served that lady
And might not be delivered to the world,
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is!

6

Twelfth Night
[I, 2]

Captain

93

That were hard to compass;
Because she will admit no kind of suit,
No, not the duke's.

7

Twelfth Night
[I, 2]

Captain

111

Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:
When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.

8

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

124

Confine! I'll confine myself no finer than I am:
these clothes are good enough to drink in; and so be
these boots too: an they be not, let them hang
themselves in their own straps.

9

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

150

With drinking healths to my niece: I'll drink to
her as long as there is a passage in my throat and
drink in Illyria: he's a coward and a coystrill
that will not drink to my niece till his brains turn
o' the toe like a parish-top. What, wench!
Castiliano vulgo! for here comes Sir Andrew Agueface.

10

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

169

By my troth, I would not undertake her in this
company. Is that the meaning of 'accost'?

11

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Maria

177

Sir, I have not you by the hand.

12

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

183

Why, I think so: I am not such an ass but I can
keep my hand dry. But what's your jest?

13

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

200

What is 'Pourquoi'? do or not do? I would I had
bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in
fencing, dancing and bear-baiting: O, had I but
followed the arts!

14

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

206

Past question; for thou seest it will not curl by nature.

15

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

207

But it becomes me well enough, does't not?

16

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

211

Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby: your niece
will not be seen; or if she be, it's four to one
she'll none of me: the count himself here hard by woos her.

17

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

214

She'll none o' the count: she'll not match above
her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; I
have heard her swear't. Tut, there's life in't,
man.

18

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

222

As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the
degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare
with an old man.

19

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

230

Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have
these gifts a curtain before 'em? are they like to
take dust, like Mistress Mall's picture? why dost
thou not go to church in a galliard and come home in
a coranto? My very walk should be a jig; I would not
so much as make water but in a sink-a-pace. What
dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in?
I did think, by the excellent constitution of thy
leg, it was formed under the star of a galliard.

20

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Toby Belch

241

What shall we do else? were we not born under Taurus?

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