Viola monologues about Lady Olivia
Changling
Verily, I lie to you happily,
Easily and automatically.
Your eyes feast on me and I pretend
You see me not, rather a handsome other.
And I lie to him, saying I woo you for him.
When the truth, bare as bleached wood
Is that I am loving you for him.
And him for you.
Don't you see? His passion for you is matched by none
Except perhaps my own.
Isee myself in you, if savage winds had not torn me from the womb
Of a kin-cursed ship,
Tossed me like a foundling on your shores.
I am a changeling wearing the deceitful costume of a child.
I am no child.
I am a wolf cub, suckled on the teats of changed fortune,
My brother Remus lost to sea.
Your brother was so recently sent to Hades realm as well.
Fittingly you wear the weeds of woe
And so do I
But your sorrow is the more deceitful
Though it is I who live the lie.
Your outward raiment displays dolor
Yet your eyes rake over me with inward passion
I have conceded fully to my brother's death
And become him
You mimic sorrow's pain to revel in borrowed liberty
Marry? You would not. You love yourself too much for that.