Mar. You are refolute then?

Clo. Not fo neither; but I am refolv'd on two points. Mar. That, if one break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall.

Clo. Apt, in good faith; very apt! Well, go thy way; if Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.

Mar. Peace, you rogue, no more o'that; here comes my lady: make your excufe wifely, you were best.

Enter OLIVIA, and MALVOLIO.

[Exit.

Clo. Wit, and't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Thofe wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am fure I lack thee, may pass for a wife man: For what fays Quinapalus? Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. God bless thee, lady!

Oli. Take the fool away.

Clo. Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady. Oli. Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: fides, you grow dishoneft.

: be

Clo. Two faults, Madonna,9 that drink and good counfel will amend for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry;

I found this obfervation among fome papers of the late Dr. Letherland, for the perufal of which, I am happy to have an opportunity of returning my particular thanks to Mr. Glover, the author of Medea and Leonidas, by whom, before, I had been obliged only in common with the reft of the world.

I am yet of opinion that this note, however fpecious, is wrong, the literal meaning being eafy and appofite. For turning away, let fummer bear it out. It is common for unfettled and vagrant serving-men, to grow negligent of their business towards summer; and the sense of the paffage is : "If I am turned away, the advantages of the approaching fummer will bear out, or fupport all the inconveniencies of dismission ; for I shall find employment in every field, and lodging under every bedge." STEEVENS.

7 Points were metal hooks, faftened to the hofe or breeches (which had then no opening or buttons,) and going into ftraps or eyes fixed to the doublet, and thereby keeping the hofe from falling down.

BLACKSTONE.

8 Hall, in his Chronicle, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, fays, that he knows not whether to call him a foolish wife man, or a wife foolish man.' JOHNSON.

Ital. miftrefs, dame. So, La Maddona, by way of pre-eminence, the Bleed Virgin. STEEVENS.

dry; bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishoneft; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him: Any thing, that's mended, is but patch'd: virtue, that tranfgreffes, is but patch'd with fin; and fin, that amends, is but patch'd with virtue: If that this fimple fyllogifm will ferve, fo; if it will not, What remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, fo beauty's a flower :-the lady bade take away the fool; therefore, I fay again, take her away. Oli. Sir, I bade them take away you.

Clo. Mifprifion in the highest degree!-Lady, Cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much as to fay, I wear not motley in my brain. Good Madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool.

Oli. Can you do it?

Clo. Dexteriously, good Madonna.

Oli. Make your proof.

Clo. I muft catechize you for it, Madonna; Good my moufe of virtue, answer me.

Oli. Well, fir, for want of other idleness, I'll bide your proof.

Clo. Good Madonna, why mourn'ft thou?

Oli. Good fool, for my brother's death,
Clo. I think, his foul is in hell, Madonna.
Oli. I know his foul is in heaven, fool,

Clo. The more fool you, Madonna, to mourn for your brother's foul being in heaven.- -Take away the fool, gentlemen.

Oli. What think you of this fool, Malvolio? doth he not mend?

Mal. Yes; and fhall do, till the pangs of death shake him : Infirmity, that decays the wife, doth ever make the better fool.

Clo. God fend you, fir, a fpeedy infirmity, for the better encreafing your folly! Sir Toby will be fworn, that I am no fox; but he will not pafs his word for two-pence that you

are no fool.

Oli. How fay you to that, Malvolio?
Mal. I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren

P 3

Alluding to the patch'd or particoloured garment of the fool.

rafcal;

MALONE.

rafcal; I faw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool, that has no more brain than a stone: Look you now, he's out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minifler occafion to him, he is gagg'd. I proteft, I take thefe wife men, that crow fo at these fet kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies.3

Oli. O, you are fick of felf-love, Malvolio, and taste with a diftemper'd appetite. To be generous, guiltlefs, and of free difpofition, is to take thofe things for bird-bolts, that you deem cannon-bullets: There is no flander in an allow'd fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known difcreet man, though he do nothing but reprove.

Clo. Now Mercury indue thee with leafing, for thou fpeak'ft well of fools ! 4

Re-enter MARIA.

Mar. Madam, there is at the gate a young gentleman, much defires to speak with you.

Oli. From the count Orfino, is it?

Mar. I know not, madam; 'tis a fair young man, and well attended.

Oli. Who of my people hold him in delay?

Mar. Sir Toby, madam, your kinsman.

Oli. Fetch him off, I pray you; he speaks nothing but madman: Fie on him! [Exit MARIA.] Go you, Ma!volio: if it be a fuit from the count, I am fick, or not at home; what you will, to difmifs it. [Exit, MALVOLIO.] Now

: 3 i.e. fools' baubles, which had upon the top of them the bead of a foo!.

DOUCE.

4 This is a stupid blunder. We fhould read, with pleafing, i. e. with eloquence, make thee a gracious and powerful fpeaker, for Mercury was the god of orators as well as cheats. But the firft editors, who did not understand the phrafe, indue thee with pleafing, made this foolish correction; more excufable, however, than the laft editor's, who, when this emendation was pointed out to him, would make one of his own; and fo, in his Oxford edition, reads, with learning; without troubling himfelf to fatisfy the reader how the first editor fhould blunder in a word fo eafy to be understood as learning, though they well might in the word pleafing, as it is ufed in this place. WARBURTON.

I think the prefent reading more humourous: May Mercury teach thee to lie, fince thou lieft in favour of fools! JOHNSON.

Now you fee, fir, how your fooling grows old, and people diflike it.

Clo. Thou haft fpoke for us, Madonna, as if thy eldest fon fhould be a fool: whofe fcull Jove cram with brains, for here he comes, one of thy kin, has a most weak pia mater.

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH.

Oli. By mine honour, half drunk.-What is he at the gate, cousin?

Sir To. A gentleman.

Oli. A gentleman? What gentleman ?

Sir To. Tis a gentleman heres-A plague o'these pickleherrings-How now, fot?

Clo. Good Sir Toby,

Oli. Coufin, coufin, how have you come fo early by this lethargy?

Sir To. Lechery! I defy lechery: There's one at the gate.

Oli. Ay, marry; what is he?

Sir To. Let him be the devil, an he will, I care not: give me faith, fay I. Well, it's all one.

Oli. What's a drunken man like, fool?

[Exit.

Clo. Like a drown'd man, a fool, and a madman: one draught above heat makes him a fool; the fecond mads him; and a third drowns him.

5 He had before faid it was a gentleman. He was asked, what gentleman? and he makes this reply; which, it is plain, is corrupt, and fhould be read thus:

'Tis a gentleman-heir.

i. e. fome lady's eldeft fon juft come out of the nursery; for this was the appearance Viola made in men's clothes. See the character Malvolio draws of him presently after. WARBURTON.

Can any thing be plainer than that Sir Toby was going to defcribe the gentleman, but was interrupted by the effects of his pickle-herring? I would print it as an imperfect fentence. Mr. Edwards has the fame obfervation. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's interpretation may be right: yet Dr. Warburton's reading is not fo ftrange, as it hath been reprefented. In Broome's Jovial Crew, Scentwell fays to the gypfies: "We must find a young gentlewoman-beir among you." FARMER.

i. £. above the ftate of being warin in a proper degree. STEEVENS

Oli. Go thou and feek the coroner, and let him fit o' my coz; for he's in the third degree of drink, he's drown'd: go, look after him.

Clo. He is but mad yet, Madonna; and the fool fhall look to the madman. [Exit CLOWN.

Re-enter MALVOLIO.

you:

Mal. Madam, yond young fellow fwears he will speak with you. I told him you were fick; he takes on him to understand so much, and therefore comes to fpeak with I told him you were afleep; he seems to have a fore-knowledge of that too, and therefore comes to fpeak with you. What is to be faid to him, lady? he's fortified against any denial.

Oli. Tell him, he fhall not speak with me.

Mal. He has been told fo; and he fays, he'll ftand at your door like a fheriff's poft," and be the fupporter to a bench, but he'll fpeak with you.

Oli. What kind of man is he?

Mal. Why, of mankind.

Oli. What manner of man ?

Mal. Of very ill manner; he'll fpeak with you, will you,

or no.

Oli. Of what perfonage, and years, is he?

Mal. Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a fquafh is before 'tis a peafcod, or a codling

when

7 It was the custom for that officer to have large pots fet up at his door, as an indication of his office. The original of which was, that the king's proclamations, and other public acts, might be affixed thereon, by way of . publication. So, Jonfon's Every Man out of bis Humour :

put off

"To the lord Chancellor's tomb, or the Shrives pofts."

So again, in the old play called Lingua:

"Knows he how to become a fcarlet gown? hath he a pair of fresh pofts at his door? WARBURTON.

Dr. Letherland was of opinion, that by this poft is meant a poft to mount a horse from, a horfe block, which, by the cuftom of the city, is ftill placed at the fheriff's door."

Thus, in A Woman never vex'd, Com. by Rowley, 1632:

"If e'er I live to fee thee sheriff of London,

"I'll gild thy painted pofts cum privilegio." STEEVENS.