u shall now be your master's
mistress, and Orsino's true duchess."

Olivia, perceiving Orsino was making over that heart, which she had so
ungraciously rejected, to Viola, invited them to enter her house, and
offered the assistance of the good priest, who had married her to
Sebastian in the morning, to perform the same ceremony in the remaining
part of the day for Orsino and Viola. Thus the twin brother and sister
were both wedded on the same day: the storm and shipwreck, which had
separated them, being the means of bringing to pass their high and
mighty fortunes. Viola was the wife of Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, and
Sebastian the husband of the rich and noble countess, the Lady Olivia.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

TIMON OF ATHENS

Timon, a lord of Athens, in the enjoyment of a princely fortune,
affected a humour of liberality which knew no limits. His almost
infinite wealth could not flow in so fast, but he poured it out faster
upon all sorts and degrees of people. Not the poor only tasted of his
bounty, but great lords did not disdain to rank themselves among his
dependants and followers. His table was resorted to by all the luxurious
feasters, and his house was open to all comers and goers at Athens. His
large wealth combined with his free and prodigal nature to subdue all
hearts to his love; men of all minds and dispositions tendered their
services to Lord Timon, from the glass-faced flatterer, whose face
reflects as in a mirror the present humour of his patron, to the rough
and unbending cynic, who affecting a contempt of men's persons, and an
indifference to worldly things, yet could not stand out against the
gracious manners and munificent soul of Lord Timon, but would come
(against his nature) to partake of his royal entertainments, and return
most rich in his own estimation if he had received a nod or a salutation
from Timon.

If a poet had composed a work which wanted a recommendatory introduction
to the world, he had no more to do but to dedicate it to Lord Timon, and
the poem was sure of sale, besides a present purse from the patron, and
daily access to his house and table. If a painter had a picture to
dispose of, he had only to take it to Lord Timon, and pretend to consult
his taste as to the merits of it; nothing more was wanting to persuade
the liberal-hearted lord to buy it. If a jeweller had a stone of price,
or a mercer rich costly stuffs, which for their costliness lay upon his
h