Orsino Discusses His Love For Olivia (From "Twelfth Night")

(DUKE ORSINO)Once more, Cesario,
Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty:
Tell her, my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands;
The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune;
But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems
That nature pranks her in attracts my soul.
( VIOLA)But if she cannot love you, sir?
(DUKE ORSINO)I cannot be so answer'd.
(VIOLA)Sooth, but you must.
Say that some lady, as perhaps there is ,
Hath for your love a great a pang of heart
As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her;
You tell her so; must she not then be answer'd?
(DUKE ORSINO)There is no woman's sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart
So big, to hold so much; they lack retention
Alas , their love may be call'd appetite,
No motion of the liver, but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much: make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe Olivia.
(VIOLA)Ay, but I know--
(DUKE ORSINO)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 ORSINO)And what's her history?
(VIOLA)A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the 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.
(DUKE ORSINO)But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
(VIOLA)I am all the daughters of my father's house,
And all the brothers too: and yet I know not.
Sir, shall I to this lady?
(DUKE ORSINO)Ay, that's the theme.
To her in haste ; give her this jewel; say,
My love can give no place, bide no denay.