That comes before his eye. This is a practice,
As full of labour as a wise man's art:

For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit;

But wise men, folly-fallen", quite taint their wit.

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH and Sir ANDREW
AGUE-CHEEK.

SIR TO. Save you, gentleman.

Vio. And you, sir.

SIR AND. Dieu vous garde, monsieur.

Vio. Et vous aussi; votre serviteur.

SIR AND. I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours".

"Not like the haggard."

He must choose persons and times, and observe tempers; he must fly at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like the unreclaimed haggard, to seize all that comes in his way. JOHNSON.

But wise men, folly-FALLEN,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly shewn. JOHNSON.

The first folio reads, "But wise men's folly falne, quite taint their wit." From whence I should conjecture, that Shakspeare possibly wrote:

"But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit."

i. e. wise men fallen into folly. TYRWHITT.

The sense is : "But wise men's folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion. HEATH.

I explain it thus: "The folly which he shews with proper adaptation to persons and times, is fit, has its propriety, and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men, when it falls or happens, taints their wit, destroys the reputation of their judgment. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Mr. Tyrwhitt's judicious emendation.

6 Sir To. Save you, gentleman.

Vio. And you, sir.

Sir And. Dieu vous garde, monsieur.

Vio. Et vous aussi; votre serviteur.

STEEVENS.

Sir And. I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours.] Thus the old copy.

STEEVENS.

I have ventured to make the two knights change speeches in this dialogue with Viola; and, I think, not without good reason. It were a preposterous forgetfulness in the poet, and out of all

remember. Go to; thou art made, if thou desirest to be so; if not, let me see thee a steward still, the fellow of servants, and not worthy to touch fortune's fingers. Farewell. She that would alter services with thee,

The fortunate-unhappy.

Day-light and champian discovers not more1: this is open. I will be proud, I will read politick authors, I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross acquaintance, I will be point-de-vice, the very man 2. I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise my leg being cross-gartered;

"Had there appear'd some sharp cross-garter'd man
"Whom their loud laugh might nick-name Puritan ;
"Cas'd up in factious breeches, and small ruffe ;
"That hates the surplice, and defies the cuffe.

"Then," &c.

In a former scene Malvolio was said to be an affecter of puritanism. STEEVENS.

• The fortunate-unhappy.

Day-light and champian discovers not more:] We should read-"The fortunate, and happy."-" Day-light and champian discovers not more :" i. e. 'broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. WARBURTON.

The folio, which is the only ancient copy of this play, reads, "The fortunate-unhappy," and so I have printed it. 66 The fortunate-unhappy" is the subscription of the letter. STEEVENS. I will be POINT-DE-VICE, the very man.] This phrase is of French extraction-a points-devisez. Chaucer uses it in the Romaunt of the Rose :

2

"Her nose was wrought at point-device."

i. e. with the utmost possible exactness.

Again, in K. Edward I. 1599:

"That we may have our garments point-device."

Kastril, in The Alchemist, calls his sister Punk-device: and again, in The Tale of a Tub, Act III. Sc. VII. :

66

and if the dapper priest

"Be but as cunning point in his devise,
"As I was in my lie." STEEVENS.

1

and in this she manifests herself to my love, and, with a kind of injunction, drives me to these habits of her liking. I thank my stars, I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on. Jove, and my stars be praised!-Here is yet a postscript. Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling; thy smiles become thee well: therefore in my presence still smile, dear my sweet, I pr'ythee. Jove, I thank thee.-I will smile; I will do every thing that thou wilt have me. [Exit. FAB. I will not give my part of this sport for a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy 3. SIR TO. I could marry this wench for this device: SIR AND. So could I too.

3

SIR TO. And ask no other dowry with her, but such another jest.

Enter MARIA.

SIR AND. Nor I neither.

FAB. Here comes my noble gull-catcher.
SIR TO. Wilt thou set thy foot o' my neck?
SIR AND. Or o' mine either?

SIR TO. Shall I play my freedom at tray-trip *, and become thy bond-slave?

3

a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy.] Alluding, as Dr. Farmer observes, to Sir Robert Shirley, who was just returned in the character of " embassador from the Sophy." He boasted of the great rewards he had received, and lived in London with the utmost splendor. STEEVENS.

See further on this subject in an Attempt to Ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, vol. ii. MALONE.

4

- tray-trip.] Tray-trip is mentioned in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, 1616:

66

Reproving him at tray-trip, sir, for swearing." Again, in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1640: "

mean

time, you may play at tray-trip or cockall, for black-puddings."

66

My watch are above, at trea-trip, for a black-pudding," &c.

SIR TO. Will you encounter the house? my niece is desirous you should enter, if your trade be to her 7.

Vio. I am bound to your niece, sir: I mean, she is the list of my voyage.

8

SIR To. Taste your legs, sir, put them to motion.

probability, to make Sir Andrew not only speak French, but understand what is said to him in it, who in the first Act did not know the English of pourquoi. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald thinks it absurd that Sir Andrew, who did not know the meaning of pourquoi in the first Act, should here speak and understand French; and therefore has given three of Sir Andrew's speeches to Sir Toby, and vice versa, in which he has been copied by the subsequent editors, as it seems to me, without necessity. The words,- Save you, gentleman,- -" which he has taken from Sir Toby, and given to Sir Andrew, are again used by Sir Toby in a subsequent scene; a circumstance which renders it the more probable that they were intended to be attributed to him here also.

66

With respect to the improbability that Sir Andrew should understand French here, after having betrayed his ignorance of that language in a former scene, it appears from a subsequent passage that he was a picker up of phrases, and might have learned by rote from Sir Toby the few French words here spoken. If we are to believe Sir Toby, Sir Andrew "could speak three or four languages word for word without book." MALONE.

7 If your TRADE be to her.] Trade was anciently used in a general sense to express business or employment of any kind. So, in Hamlet, vol. vii. p. 368: "Have you any further trade with us?" See note on that passage. Boswell.

8 the list] Is the bound, limit, farthest point. JOHNSON. 9 TASTE your legs, sir, &c.] Perhaps this expression was employed to ridicule the fantastic use of a verb, which is many times as quaintly introduced in the old pieces, as in this play, and in The True Tragedies of Marius and Scilla, 1594:

"A climbing tow'r that did not taste the wind." Again, in Chapman's version of the 21st Odyssey:

66

he now began

"To taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard." In the Frogs of Aristophanes, however, a similar expression occurs, v. 462 : “ ΓΕΥΣΑΙ τῆς θύρας ; i. e. taste the door, knock gently at it. STEEVENS.

V10. My legs do better understand me, sir, than I undertand what you mean by bidding me taste my legs.

SIR TO. I mean, to go, sir, to enter.

V10. I will answer you with gait and entrance : But we are prevented1.

Enter OLIVIA and MARIA.

Most excellent accomplished lady, the heavens rain odours on you!

SIR AND. That youth's a rare courtier! Rain odours! well.

Vio. My matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear 2.

SIR AND. Odours, pregnant, and vouchsafed :I'll get 'em all three all ready3.

OLI. Let the garden door be shut, and leave me to my hearing.

[Exeunt Sir TOBY, Sir ANDREW, and MARIA. Give me your hand, sir.

Vio. My duty, madam, and most humble service.

Brunck terms it, elegans locutio: and quotes Plautus as using gustare in the sense of experiri, periculum facere. Mostell, v. i. 15: Herus meus hic quidem est gustare ejus sermonem volo. BOSWELL. prevented.] i. e. our purpose is anticipated. So, in the 119th Psalm :

I

2

"Mine eyes prevent the night-watches." STEEVENS.

most PREGNANT and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant, for ready; as in Measure for Measure, vol. ix. p. 8. STEEVENS. Vouchsafed, for vouchsafing. MALONE.

3

all three READY.] The old copy has-" all three already.” Mr. Malone reads—“ all three all ready." STEEVENS.

The editor of the third folio reformed the passage by reading only-ready. But omissions ought always to be avoided if possible. The repetition of the word all is not improper in the mouth of Sir Andrew. MALONE.

Præferatur lectio brevior, is a well known rule of criticism ; and in the present instance I most willingly follow it, omitting the useless repetition-all. STEEVENS.