when 'tis almoft an apple: 8 'tis with him e'en ftanding water, between boy and man. He is very well-favour'd, and he speaks very fhrewithly; one would think, his mother's milk were scarce out of him. Oli. Let him approach: Call in my gentlewoman. Re-enter MARIA. Oli. Give me my veil: come, throw it o'er my We'll once more hear Orfino's embassy. Enter VIOLA. [Exit. face; Vio. The honourable lady of the house, which is fhe? Oli, Speak to me, I fhall answer for her; Your will? Vio. Moft radiant, exquifite, and unmatchable beauty,I pray you, tell me, if this be the lady of the houfe, for I never faw her: I would be loth to caft away my fpeech; for, befides that it is excellently well penn'd, I have taken great pains to con it. Good beauties, let me fuftain no fcorn; I am very comptible, even to the least finister usage. Oli. Whence came you, fir? Vio. I can fay little more than I have studied, and that queftion's out of my part. Good gentle one, give me modest affurance, if you be the lady of the houfe, that I may proceed in my fpeech. Oli. Are you a comedian? Vio. No, my profound heart: and yet, by the very fangs of malice, I fwear, I am not that I play. Are you the lady of the house? Oli. If I do not ufurp myself, I am. P 5 Viola. A codling anciently meant an immature apple. So, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist: "What is it, Dol? "A fine young quodling.' The fruit at present ftyled a codling, was unknown to our gardens in the time of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 9 Comptible for ready to call to account. WARBURTON. Viola feems to mean just the contrary. She begs she may not be treated with fcorn, because she is very fubmiffive, even to lighter marks of reprehenfion. STEEVENS. Comptible for accountable f Viol. Moft certain, if you are fhe, you do ufurp yourself; for what is yours to bestow, is not yours to reserve. But this is from my commiffion: I will on with my fpeech in your praife, and then fhew you the heart of my meffage. Oli. Come to what is important in't I forgive you the praise ? Vio. Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical. Oli. It is the more like to be feign'd; I pray you, keep it in. I heard, you were faucy at my gates; and allow'd your approach, rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reafon, be brief: 'tis not that time of moon with me, to make one in fo skipping3 a dialogue. Mar. Will you hoift fail, fir? here lies your way. Vio. No, good fwabber; I am to hull here 4 a little longer. Some mollification for your giant, fweet lady. Oli. Tell me your mind. Vio. I am a meffenger." Oli. Sure, you have fome hideous matter to deliver, when the courtesy of it is fo fearful. Speak your office. Vio. It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of 2 The fenfe evidently requires that we should read, If you be mad, be gone, &c. war, For the words mad, in the first part of the fentence, are opposed to reafon in the fecond. M. MASON. 3 skipping - Wild, frolick, mad. JOHNSON. 4 To ball means to drive to and fro upon the water, without fails or rudder. STEEVENS. 5 Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or trouble fome advances. Viola, feeing the waiting maid fo eager to oppofe her meffage, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant. JOHNSON. Viola likewife alludes to the diminutive fize of Marià, who is called on fubfequent occafions, little villain, youngest wren of nine, &c. STEEVENS. 6 Thefe words (which in the old copy are part of Viola's last speech) must be divided between the two fpeakers. Viola growing troublesome, Olivia would difmifs her, and therefore cuts her fhort with this command, Tell me your mind. The other, taking advantage of the ambiguity of the word mind, which fignifies either business or inclination, replies as if she had used it in the latter sepse, I am a meffenger. WARBURTON. As a melenger, he was not to speak her own mind, but that of her em, ployer. M. MASON. war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in my my words are as full of peace as matter. hand: Oli. Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you? Vio. The rudeness, that hath appear'd in me, have I learn'd from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would, are as fecret as maidenhead: to your ears, divinity; to any other's, prophanation. Oli. Give us the place alone: we will hear this divinity. [Exit MARIA.] Now, fir, what is your text? Vio. Moft fweet lady, Oli. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be faid of it. Where lies your text? Vio. In Orfino's bofom. Oli. In his befom? In what chapter of his bofom? Vio. To answer by the method, in the first of his heart. Oli. O, I have read it; it is herefy. Have you no more to say? Vio. Good madam, let me fee your face. Oli. Have you any commiffion from your lord to negotiate with my face? you are now out of your text: but we will draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture. Look you, fir, fuch a one I was this prefent: Is't not well done ?7 7 This is nonfenfe. The change of was to wear, I think, clears all up, and gives the expreffion an air of gallantry. Viola preffes to fee Olivia's face: The other at length pulls off her veil, and fays: We will draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture. I wear this complexion to-day, I may wear another to-morrow; jocularly intimating, that the painted. The other, vext at the jeft, fays, "Excellently done, if God did all.' 'Perhaps, it may be true, what you fay in jeft; otherwife 'tis an excellent face. "Tis in grain, &c. replies Olivia, WARBURTON. I am not fatisfied with this emendation. We may read, "Such a one 1 was. This pref nce, is't not well done ?" i, e. this mien, is it not happily reprefented? Similar phrafeology occurs in Othello :cation, fhall we fee it?" STEEVENS. This fortifi This paffage is nonfenfe as it ftands, and neceffarily requires fome amendment. That propofed by Warburton would make fenfe of it; but then the allufion to a picture would be dropped, which began in the preceding part of the fpeech, and is carried on through thofe that follow. If we read prefents, instead of present, this allufion will be preferved, and the meaning Vio. Excellently done, if God did all. Oli. 'Tis in grain, fir; 'twill endure wind and weather. If you will lead these graces to the grave, Oli. O, fir, I will not be fo hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty : It fhall be inventoried ; and every particle, and utenfil, label'd to my will as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and fo forth. Were you fent hither to 'praife me ?3 Vio. I fee you what you are: you are too proud; My lord and mafter loves you; O, fuch love Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd The non-pareil of beauty! meaning will be clear. I have no doubt but the line fhould run thus: Oli. Prefents means reprefents. So Hamlet calls the pictures he shews his mother: "The counterfeit prefentment of two brothers." She had faid before-" But we will draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture ;" and concludes with asking him, if it was well done. The fame idea occurs in Troilus and Creffida, where Pandarus, taking off her veil, fays: "Come draw this curtain, and let us fee your picture." M. MASON. I fufpect, the author intended that Olivia should again cover her face with her veil, before the speaks thefe words. MALONE. 9 i. e. blended, mixed together.. Blent is the ancient participle of the verb to blend. STEEVENS. 2 i. e. to appraife, or appretiate me. The foregoing words, fchedules, and inventoried, fhew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline" I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his fide, and I to perufe him by items." MALONE. Malone's conjecture is ingenious, and I fhould have thought it the true reading, if the foregoing words, schedule and inventoried, had been used by Viola: but as it is Olivia herfelf who makes ufe of them, I believe the old reading is right, though Steevens has adopted that of Malone. Viola has extolled her beauty fo highly, that Olivia asks, whether the was fent there on purpose to praise her. M. MASON. Viola. had intimated that to praise her was 3 the first part of her commission we 4.322. near the toke-T 3+ ON. How does he love me? Vio. With adorations, with fertile tears, With groans that thunder love, with fighs of fire.4 Oli. Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love him : Yet I fuppofe him virtuous, know him noble, Of great eftate, of fresh and stainless youth; I would not understand it. Oli. Oli. 4 This line is worthy of Dryden's Almanzor, and, if not faid in mockery of amorous hyperboles, might be regarded as a ridicule on a paffage in Chapman's tranflation of the first book of Homer, 1598 : "Jove thunder'd out a figb;" STEEVENS. 5 Well spoken of by the world. 6 The old copy has cantons; which Mr. Capell, who appears to have been entirely unacquainted with our ancient language, has changed into canzons.-There is no need of alteration. Canton was used for canto in our author's time. MALONE. ? I have corrected, reverberant. THEOBALD. Mr. Upton well obferves, that Shakspeare frequently ufes the adjective paffive, actively. Theobald's emendation is therefore unneceffary. STEEVENS. Johnfon, in his Dictionary, adopted Theobald's correction. But the following line from T. Heywood's Troja Britannica, 1609, canto 11. It ix. fhows that the original text thould be preserved: "Give fhrill reverberat echoes and rebounds." * A most beautiful expreffion for an echo. Doucz. HOLT WHITE. |