Mar. Go shake your ears.

Sir And. 'Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man's a hungry, to challenge him to the field; and then to break promise with him, and make a fool of him.

Sir To. Do't, knight; I'll write thee a challenge: or I'll deliver thy indignation to him by word of mouth. Mar. Sweet sir Toby, be patient for to-night; since the youth of the count's was to-day with my lady, she is much out of quiet. For monsieur Malvolio, let me alone with him: if I do not gull him into a nayword, and make him a common recreation, do not think I have wit enough to lie straight in my bed: I know, I can do it.

Sir To. Possess us,& possess us; tell us something of him. Mar. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. Sir And. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog.

6 rule; Rule is method of life; so misrule is tumult and rict. Johnson.

Rule, on this occasion, is something less than common method of life. It occasionally means the arrangement or conduct of a festival or merry-making, as well as behaviour in general, So, in the 27th song of Drayton's Polyolbion:

"Cast in a gallant round about the hearth they go,
"And at each pause they kiss; was never seen such rule
"In any place but here, at bon-fire, or at yeule."

Again, in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633:

"What guests we harbour, and what rule we keen."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub:

"And set him in the stocks for his ill rule."

In this last instance it signifies behaviour.

There was formerly an officer belonging to the court, called Lord of Misrule. So, in Decker's Satiromastix: "I have some cousins-german at court shall beget you the reversion of the master of the king's revels, or else be lord of his Misrule now at Christmas." Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "We are fully bent to be lords of Misrule in the world's wild heath." In the country, at all periods of festivity, and in the inns of court at their Revels, an officer of the same kind was elected. Steevens.

7- a nayword,] A nayword is what has been since called a byeword, a kind of proverbial reproach. Steevens.

8 Possess us,] That is, inform us, tell us, make us masters of the matter. Johnson,

Sir To. What, for being a Puritan? thy exquisite reason, dear knight?

Sir And. I have no exquisite reason for 't, but I have reason good enough.

Mar. The devil a Puritan that he is, or any thing constantly but a time-pleaser; an affection'd ass, that cons state without book, and utters it by great swarths: 1 the best persuaded of himself, so crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his ground of faith, that all that look on him, love him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work.

Sir To. What wilt thou do?

Mar. I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love; wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated: I can write very like my lady, your niece; on a forgotten matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands.

Sir To. Excellent! I smell a device.
Sir And. I have 't in my nose too.

Sir To. He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and that she is in love with him.

Mar. My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour. Sir And. And your horse now would make him an ass.2

So, in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock says:

9

" I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose." Douce.

an affection'd ass.] Affection'd means affected. In this sense, I believe, it is used in Hamlet: " - no matter in it that could indite the author of affection," i. e. affectation. Steevens. great swarths:] A swarth is as much grass as a mower cuts down at one stroke of his scythe. Thus Pope, in his version of the 18th Iliad:

1

"Here stretch'd in ranks the levell'd swarths are found." Steevens.

2 Sir And. And your horse now, &c.] This conceit, though bad enough, shews too quick an apprehension for Sir Andrew. It should be given, I believe, to Sir Toby; as well as the next short speech: "O, 'twill be admirable." Sir Andrew does not usually give his own judgment on any thing, till he has heard that of some other person. Tyrwhitt.

Mar. Ass, I doubt not.

Sir And. O, 'twill be admirable.

Mar. Sport royal, I warrant you: I know, my physic will work with him. I will plant you two, and let the fool make a third, where he shall find the letter; observe his construction of it. For this night, to bed, and dream on the event. Farewel.

Sir To. Good night, Penthesilea.3

[Exit.

Sir And. Before me, she's a good wench. Sir To. She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me; What o'that?

Sir And. I was adored once too.

Sir To. Let's to bed, knight. -Thou hadst need send for more money.

Sir And. If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out.

Sir To. Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me Cut.5

Sir And. If I do not, never trust me, take it how you will.

Sir To. Come, come; I'll go burn some sack, 'tis too late to go to bed now: come, knight; come, knight. [Exeunt.

3- Penthesilea.] i. e. Amazon. Steevens.

4 Send for money, knight;] Sir Toby, in this instance, exhibits a trait of Iago: "Put money in thy purse." Steevens.

5 call me Cut.] So, in A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "If I help you not to that as cheap as any man in England, call me Cut."

Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: "I'll meet you there; if I do not, call me Cut." This term of contempt, perhaps, signifies only-call megelding. Steevens.

call me Cut.] i. e. call me horse. So, Falstaff in King Henry IV, P. 1: - spit in my face, call me horse." That this was the meaning of this expression is ascertained by a passage in The Two Noble Kinsmen:

"He 'll buy me a white Cut forth for to ride." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: "But master, 'pray ye, let me ride upon Gut." Curtal, which occurs in another of our author's plays, (i. e. a horse, whose tail has been docked) and Cut, were probably synonymous. Malone.

:

A Room in the Duke's Palace.

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and Others.

Duke. Give me some music: - Now, good morrow,

friends:

Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night;
Methought, it did relieve my passion much;
More than light airs and recollected terms,
Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times:-
Come, but one verse.

Cur. He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing it.

Duke. Who was it?

Cur. Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool, that the lady Olivia's father took much delight in: he is about the

house.

Duke. Seek him out, and play the tune the while.
[Exit CUR.-Music.

Come hither, boy; If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it, remember me:
For, such as I am, all true lovers are;
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save, in the constant image of the creature
That is belov'd. - How dost thou like this tune?

Vio. It gives a very echo to the seat
Where Love is thron'd.

6 recollected -) Studied. Warburton.

'I rather think, that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions. Johnson.

7

Juliet:

to the seat

Where Love is thron'd.] i. e. to the heart. So, in Romeo and "My bosom's lord [i. e. Love] sits lightly on his throne-." Again, in Othello:

"Yield up, O Love, thy crown, and hearted throne -." So before, in the first act of this play:

66

when liver, brain, and beart,

"These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd
" (Her sweet perfections) with one self-king."

Duke. Thou dost speak masterly:

My life upon 't, young though thou art, thine eye
Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves;

Hath it not, boy?

Vio.

A little, by your favour. 8

Duke. What kind of woman is 't?
Vio.

Of your complexion.
What years,

Duke. She is not worth thee then.

i' faith?

Vio. About your years, my lord.

Duke. Too old by heaven; Let still the woman take

An elder than herself; so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart.
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, 9
Than women's are.

Vio.

I think it well my lord.

Duke. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent :

For womenare as roses; whose fair flower,
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour.
Vio. And so they are: alas, that they are so;
To die, even when they to perfection grow!

The meaning is, (as Mr. Heath has observed) "It is so consonant to the emotions of the heart, that they echo it back again." Malone.

8-favour.] The word favour ambiguously used. Johnson. Favour, in the preceding speech, signifies countenance.

Steevens.

9 lost and worn,] Though lost and worn may mean lost and worn out, yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir T. Hanmer. Johnson.

The text is undoubtedly right, and worn signifies, consumed, worn out. So Lord Surrey, in one of his Sonnets, describing the spring, says:

"Winter is worn, that was the flowers bale."

Again, in King Henry VI, P. II:

"These few days' wonder will be quickly worn."

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

and but infirmity,

"Which waits upon worn times "Malone.