I shall have share in this most happy wreck : [To Viola. Thou never should'st love woman like to me. That severs day from night. Duke. Give me thy hand; And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore, IIath my maid's garments: he, upon some action, Is now in durance; at Malvolio's suit. A gentleman, and follower of my lady's. Oli. He shall enlarge him-Fetch Malvolio hither: And yet, alas, now I remember me, Re-enter Clown, with a letter. A most extracting phrensy of mine own Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do: he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much, when they are de livered. Oli. Open it, and read it. Clo. Look then to be well cdified, when the fool delivers the madman:-By the lord, madam,Oli. How now! art thon mad? Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must alJow vor*. Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits. • Voice. .Clo So I do, madonna; but to read his right. wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear. Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [To Fabian. Fab. [reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used Malvolio. Oli. Did he write this? Clo. Ay, madam. Duke. This savours not much of distraction. Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. [Erit Fabian. My lord, so please you, these things further thought on, To think me as well a sister as a wife, One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you, Here at my house, and at my proper cost. Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer. Your master quits you; [To Viola.] and, for your service done him, So much against the mettlet of your sex, Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: You must not now deny it is your hand, Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, First told me, thou wast mad; then cam'st in smi ling, And in such forms which here were presuppos'd Of thine own cause. Fab. Good madam, hear me speak; And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Taint the condition of this present hour, Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not, Most freely I confess, myself, and Toby, Set this device against Malvolio here, Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffledt thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them. I was one, sir, in this interlude; one sir Topas, sir; but that's all one :-By the Lord, fool, I am not mad-But do you remember? Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's gagg'd: And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Mal, I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. [Exit. Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd. Of our dear souls-Meantime, sweet sister, But, when in other habits you are seen, Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen. [Exeunt. SONG. Clo. When that I was and a little tiny boy, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day, But when I came to man's estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, * Importunacy. † Cheated. Shall serve. 'Gainst knave and thief men shut their gate, For the rain it raineth every day. But when I came, alas! to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A great while ago the world begun, This play is in the graver part elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous. Ague-cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no just picture of life. JOHNSON. |