This one features a scene from Twelfth Night. Joanna Lumley speaks Viola’s soliloquy from act II, scene 2. In it, Viola, disguised as a page boy, wonders why the countess Olivia has sent her a ring.
Read the following words and phrases and their definitions.
- soliloquy - a long, usually serious speech that a character in a play makes to an audience and that reveals the character's thoughts
- methought - I thought
- cunning - cleverness or skill, especially at tricking people in order to get something
- churlish - not polite, rude
- disguise - clothes or other things that you wear so that people will not recognize you
- frailty - weakness
- fond- feeling love or friendship
- untangle - to separate things that are twisted together
2. Watch the video once more and read the text at the same time:
1 I left no ring with her: what means this lady?On SparkNotes’ website you can read Shakespeare’s texts in a modern English translation. It’s still Shakespeare, but now in the kind of English people actually speak today. Below are some parts from Viola’s monologue in modern English.
2 Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her!
3 She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
4 That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,
5 For she did speak in starts distractedly.
6 She loves me, sure; the cunning of her passion
7 Invites me in this churlish messenger.
8 None of my lord's ring! why, he sent her none.
9 I am the man: if it be so, as 'tis,
10 Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
11 Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,
12 Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.
13 How easy is it for the proper-false
14 In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!
15 Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!
16 For such as we are made of, such we be.
17 How will this fadge? my master loves her dearly;
18 And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
19 And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.
20 What will become of this? As I am man,
21 My state is desperate for my master's love;
22 As I am woman,—now alas the day!—
23 What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!
24 O time! thou must untangle this, not I;
25 It is too hard a knot for me to untie!
3. Match the translated lines to the correct ones in the original.
a I didn’t give her any ring.Extra reading assignment
b I hope she doesn’t have a crush on me!
c I’m the man she wants. If that’s true, which it is,
she might as well be in love with a dream, the poor lady.
d It’s not our fault—we women are weak.
e Ah, how will this all turn out?
f What can possibly fix this situation? I’m pretending to be a man,
so my love for the Duke is hopeless.
g I can’t figure it out by myself!
Here you can read the complete soliloquy side by side in Shakespeare’s original and the modern English version.
