Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Vio. What is his name?

Cap. Orfino.

Vio. Orfino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then.

Cap.

And fo is now,

Or was fo very late for but a month

Ago I went from hence: and then 'twas fresh
In murmur, (as, you know, what great ones do,
The lefs will prattle of,) that he did feek

The love of fair Olivia.

[blocks in formation]

Cap. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
That dy'd fome twelve-month fince; then leaving her
In the protection of his fon, her brother,
Who fhortly alfo dy'd: for whofe dear love,
They fay, the hath abjur'd the company
And fight of men.

Vio.

O, that I ferv'd that lady;
And might not be deliver'd to the world,"
Till I had made mine own occafion mellow,

What my eftate is!

Cap.

That were hard to compass;

Becaufe fhe will admit no kind of fuit,
No, not the duke's.

Vio.
And though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft clofe in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe, thou haft a mind that fuits
With this thy fair and outward character.
I pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,
Conceal me what I am; and be my aid
For fuch difguife as, haply, fhall become
The form of my intent. I'll ferve this duke;"

There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain ;

Thou

6 I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design. Viola feems to have formed a very deep defign with very little premeditation she is thrown by fhipwreck on an unknown coaft, hears that the prince is a bachelor, and refolves to fupplant the lady whom he courts. JOHNSON.

7 Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a lofs; if the cannot ferve the lady, the will serve the duke. JOHNSON.

Thou shalt prefent me as an eunuch to him,8
It may be worth thy pains; for I can fing,
And speak to him in many forts of mufick,
That will allow me very worth his service."
What elfe may hap, to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy filence to my wit!
Cap. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be ;
When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not fee!
Vio. I thank thee: Lead me on.

SCENE III.

A room in Olivia's house.

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, and MARIA.

[Exeunt.

Sir To. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am fure, care's an enemy to life. Mar. By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o'nights; your coufin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.

Sir To. Why, let her except before excepted.*

Mar. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the mo deft limits of order.

Sir To. Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in, and fo be these boots

8 This plan of Viola's was not purfued, as it would have been inconfiftent with the plot of the play. She was prefented to the duke as a page, but not as a eunuch. M. MASON.

The use of Evirati, in the fame manner as at prefent, feems to have been well known at the time this play was written, about 1600.

BURNEY.

When the practice of caftration (which originated certainly in the east) was first adopted, folely for the purpose of improving the voice, I have not been able to learn. The first regular opera, as Dr. Burney obferves to me, was performed at Florence in 1600: "till about 1635, musical dramas were only performed occafionally in the palaces of princes, and confequently before that time eunuchs could not abound. The firft eunuch that was fuffered to fing in the Pope's chapel, was in the year 1600." So early, however, as 1604, eunuchs are mentioned by Marston, one of our poets contemporaries, as excelling in finging. MALONE. 9. To allow is to approve. STEEVENS.

2 A ludicrous ufe of the formal law phrafe. FARMER.

boots too; an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own ftraps.

Mar. That quaffing and drinking will undo you: I heard my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish knight, that you brought in one night here, to be her wooer.

Sir To. Who? Sir Andrew Ague-cheek?

Mar. Ay, he.

Sir To. He's as tall 3 a man as any's in Illyria.
Mar. What's that to the purpose ?

Sir To. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year.

Mar. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats ; he's a very fool, and a prodigal.

4

Sir To. Fie, that you'll fay fo! he plays on the viol-degambo, and fpeaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

Mar. He hath, indeed,-almoft natural: 5 for, befides that he's a fool, he's a great quarreller; and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the guft he hath in quarreling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

Sir To. By this hand, they are fcoundrels, and fubftractors, that fay fo of him. Who are they?

Mar. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.

Sir To. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her, as long as there's a paffage in my throat, and drink in Iyria: He's a coward, and a coyftril, that will not drink to

3 Tall means ftout, courageous. STEEVENS.

my

4 The viol-de gambo feems, in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable inftrument. COLLINS.

In the old dramatic writers, frequent mention is made of a case of viols, confifting of a viol-de-gambo, the tenor and the treble.

See Sir John Hawkins's Hift. of Mufick, Vol. IV. p. 32, n. 338, wherein is a defcription of a cafe more properly termed a cheft of viols. STEEVENS.

5 Mr. Upton proposes to regulate this paffage differently:

He hath indeed, all, mft natural. MALONE,

6 i. e. a coward cock. It may however be a keystril, or a bastard hawk; a kind of ftone hawk. STEEVENS.

A conftril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. For its etymology, fee Couftille and Couftillier in Cotgrave's Dictionary, TALLET.

& thatthen-Kim,hapely, from tailler. Fr: to but to hape tit

[ocr errors]

my niece, till his brains turn o'the toe like a parish-top." What, wench? Caftiliano vulgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

Sir And. Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch? Sir To. Sweet fir Andrew!

Sir And. Blefs you, fair shrew.

Mar. And you too, fir.

Sir To. Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.9

Sir And. What's that?

Sir To. My niece's chamber-maid.

Sir And. Good mitress Accoft, I defire better acquaint

ance.

Mar. My name is Mary, fir.

Sir And.

7 This is one of the customs now laid afide. A large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frofty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mifchief while they could not work. STEEVENS.

"To fleep like a town-top," is a proverbial expreffion. A top is fid to fleep, when it turns round with great velocity, and makes a smooth humming noife. BLACKSTONE.

8 We should read volto. In English, put on your Caftilian countenance; that is, your grave, folemn looks. WARBURTON.

Caftiliano vulgo;] I meet with the word Caftilian and Caftilians in feve. ral of the old comedies. It is difficult to affign any peculiar propriety to it, unless it was adopted immediately after the defeat of the Armada, and became a cant term capriciously expreffive of jollity or contempt.

STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens has not attempted to explain vulge, nor perhaps can the proper explanation be given, unless fome incidental application of it may be found in connection with Caftiliano, where the context defines its meaning. Sir Toby here, having just declared that he would perfift in drinking the health of his niece, as long as there was a paffage in his throat, and drink in Illyria, at the fight of Sir Andrew, demands of Maria, with a banter, Caftiliano vulgo. What this was, may be probably inferred from a fpeech in the Shoemaker's Holiday, 4to, 1610: " -Away, firke, scower thy throat, thou shalt wash it with Gaftilian licucr." HENLEY.

9 Toascoff, had a fignification in our author's time that the word 'eems now to have loft. In the fecond part of The English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, in which the reader" who is defirous of a more refined and elegant fpeech," is furnished with hard words, " to draw near," is explained thus: To accoft, appropriate, appropinquate." See alfo Cotgrave's Dict in verb. accofter. MALONE.

2

Sir And. Good Mistress Mary Accoft,

Sir To. You mistake, knight: accoft, is, front her, board her, woo her, affail her.

Sir And. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of accost?

Mar. Fare you well, gentlemen.

Sir To. An thou let part fo, fir Andrew, 'would thou might'ft never draw fword again.

Sir And. An you part fo, miftrefs, I would I might never draw fword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools

in hand?

Mar. Sir, I have not you by the hand.

Sir And. Marry, but you fhall have; and here's my hand. Mar. Now, fir, thought is free: 3 I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.

Sir And. Wherefore, fweet heart? what's your metaphor ? Mar. It's dry, fir.4

Sir And. Why, I think fo; I am not fuch an afs, but I can keep my hand dry. But what's your jeft?

Mar. A dry jeft,

fir.

Sir And. Are you full of them ?

Mar. Ay, fir; I have them at my finger's ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren.

[Exit MARIA. Sir To. O knight, thou lack'ft a cup of canary: When did I fee thee fo put down?

Sir And. Never in your life, I think; unless you fee canary put me down: Methinks, fometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has: but I am a.great eater of beef, and, I believe, that does harm to my wit. Sir To. No queftion.

2 Probably board her may mean falute her, speak to her, &c. REED. To board is certainly to accoft, or addrefs. RITSON.

Sir

3 There is the fame pleasantry in Lylies Euphues, 1581: "None (quoth fhe) can judge of wit but they that have it; why then (quoth he) doeft thou think me a fool? Thought is free, my Lord, quoth fhe."

HOLT WHITE.

4 What is the jeft of dry band, I know not any better than Sir Andrew, It may poffibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of phyfiognomy, she may intend to infinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moift hand being vulgarly accounted a fign of an amorous conftitution. JOHNSON.

« ZurückWeiter »