Act 4, Scene 3

OLIVIA'S Garden.

[Enter SEBASTIAN.]
Sebastian
1889 This is the air; that is the glorious sun;
1890 This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't:
1891 And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
1892 Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then?
1893 I could not find him at the Elephant;
1894 Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
1895 That he did range the town to seek me out.
1896 His counsel now might do me golden service;
1897 For though my soul disputes well with my sense,
1898 That this may be some error, but no madness,
1899 Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
1900 So far exceed all instance, all discourse,
1901 That I am ready to distrust mine eyes
1902 And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me
1903 To any other trust but that I am mad,
1904 Or else the lady's mad; yet if 'twere so,
1905 She could not sway her house, command her followers,
1906 Take and give back affairs and their despatch
1907 With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing,
1908 As I perceive she does: there's something in't
1909 That is deceivable. But here comes the lady.
[Enter OLIVIA and a Priest.]
Olivia
1910 Blame not this haste of mine. If you mean well,
1911 Now go with me and with this holy man
1912 Into the chantry by: there, before him
1913 And underneath that consecrated roof,
1914 Plight me the full assurance of your faith,
1915 That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
1916 May live at peace. He shall conceal it
1917 Whiles you are willing it shall come to note;
1918 What time we will our celebration keep
1919 According to my birth.—What do you say?
Sebastian
1920 I'll follow this good man, and go with you;
1921 And, having sworn truth, ever will be true.
Olivia
1922 Then lead the way, good father;—And heavens so shine
1923 That they may fairly note this act of mine!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1897cultural context
“my soul disputes well with my sense”
Sebastian is drawing on the Elizabethan model of the human mind, which distinguished the rational soul (capable of judgment and moral reasoning) from the senses (direct physical perception). He means: my rational judgment agrees with what my eyes and touch are telling me — this is real, not a hallucination — yet the situation is so extraordinary he cannot quite trust either.
TLN 1900archaic vocab
“exceed all instance, all discourse”
'Instance' here means precedent or example — something that has happened before and can be compared against. 'Discourse' means the faculty of reason, the mind's power of working things out step by step. Sebastian is saying that what has happened to him goes beyond anything he can find a precedent for and beyond what reason can explain.
TLN 1912cultural context
“Into the chantry by: there, before him”
A 'chantry' was a small chapel, often a side-chapel within a larger church or an independent endowed chapel, founded for the singing of masses for the souls of a donor and their family. 'By' means nearby, so 'the chantry by' is the little chapel close at hand. Olivia is proposing a secret ceremony in a private, consecrated space rather than in the public parish church — appropriate to a marriage she wants kept quiet for now.
TLN 1914cultural context
“Plight me the full assurance of your faith”
'Plight' means to pledge or solemnly bind, and 'full assurance of your faith' means a complete, sworn pledge of fidelity. Olivia is asking Sebastian for a secret betrothal — a binding promise of marriage made before the priest. In Elizabethan law, a sworn betrothal before a witness was legally a marriage in its contractual essentials, even without the later public ceremony.