Enter the Duke, Curio, and Lords.

Duke. If mufick be the food of love, play on, Give me excefs of it; that, furfeiting,

The

There is great reafon to believe, that the ferious part of this Comedy is founded on fome old tranflation of the feventh history in the fourth volume of Belleforeft's Hiftoires Tragiques. It appears from the books of the Stationers' Company, July 15, 1596, that there was a verfion of " "Epitomes des cent Hiftoires Tragiques, partie extraictes des actes des Romains, et autres, &c." Belleforest took the story, as ufual, from Bandello. The comic fcenes appear to have been entirely the production of Shakespeare. August 6, 1607, a Comedy called What you Will, (which is the fecond title of this play) was entered at Stationers' Hall by Tho. Thorpe. I believe, however, it was Mariton's play with that name. Ben Jonfon, who takes every opportunity to find fault with Shakespeare, feems to ridicule the conduct of Twelfth-Night in his Every Man out of his Humor, at the end of act III. fc. vi. where he makes Mitis fay; "That the argument of his comedy might have been of fome other nature, as of a duke to be in love with a countefs, and that countess to be in love with the duke's fon, and the fon in love with the lady's waiting maid: fome fuch crofs wooing, with a clown to their ferving man, better than be thus near and familiarly allied to the time." STEEVENS.

2

that, furfeiting,

The appetite may ficken, and fo die.]

There is an impropriety of expreflion in the prefent reading of

The appetite may ficken, and fo die.

That ftrain again;-it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the fweet fouth 4,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing,

this fine paffage. We do not fay, that the appetite fickens and dies through a furfeit; but the subject of that appetite. I am perfuaded, a word is accidentally dropt; and that we fhould read and point the paffage thus:

-that, furfeiting

The app'tite, love may ficken, and fo die. WARBURTON. It is true, we do not talk of the death of appetite, because we do not ordinarily fpeak in the figurative language of poetry; but that appetite fickens by a furfeit is true, and therefore proper.

3 That firain again; it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the feet fouth,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odour.

JOHNSON.

Amongst the beauties of this charming fimilitude, its exact pro-
priety is not the least. For, as a fouth wind, while blowing over
a violet-bank, wafts away the odour of the flowers, it, at the
fame time communicates its own fweetnefs to it; fo the foft af-
fecting mufick, here defcribed, though it takes away the natural,
fweet tranquility of the mind, yet, at the fame time, it com-
municates a new pleasure to it. Or, it' may allude to another
property of mufick, where the fame ftrains have a power to ex-
cite pain or pleafure, as the ftate is, in which it finds the hearer.
Hence Milton makes the felf-fame ftrains of Orpheus proper to
excite both the affections of mirth and melancholy, just as the
mind is then difpofed. If to mirth, he calls for fuch mufick:
"That Orpheus felf may heave his head
"From golden flumbers on a bed
"Of heapt Elyfian flowers, and hear

Such ftrains as would have won the ear
"Of Pluto, to have quite fet free
"His half-regain'd Eurydice." L'Allegro.

If to melancholy

"Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing
"Such notes as warbled to the ftring,
"Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,

And made hell grant what love did feek." Il Penferofo.
WARBURTON.

Thefe felf-fame ftrains of Orpheus, as Mr. Edwards has likewife obferved, are, in the firft inftance, what are performed by another perfon, when Orpheus is only a hearer; in the fecond, Orpheus

Stealing, and giving odour.Enough; no more;
"Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.

O fpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foever 5,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute! fo fuil of fhapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.

Cur. Will you go hunt, my lord?
Duke. What, Curio?

Cur. The hart.

Duke. Why, fo I do, the nobleft that I have: O, when iny eyes did fee Olivia firft,

fings himself. Milton, in his Paradife Loft, b. iv. has very fuécefsfully introduced the fame image:

661

now gentle gales,

"Fanning their odoriferous wings, difpenfe

"Native perfumes, and whifper whence they stolé

"Thofe balmy fpoils." STEEVENS.

4the fweet fouth,] The old copy reads

fweet found,

STEEVENS.

which Mr. Rowe changed into vind, and Mr. Pope into fouth.

5 Of what validity and pitch foever,]

Validity is here used for value. So, in All's Well that ends. Well: O behold this ring,

6

664

"Whofe high respect and rich validity
"Doth lack a parallel." MALOne.

fo full of Shapes is fancy,

That it alone is high fantaftical.]

This complicated nonfenfe fhould be rectified thus:

-fo full of shapes in fancy,

That it alone is hight fantastical,

i. e. love is fo full of fhapes in fancy, that the name of fantastical is peculiarly given to it alone.

But, for the old nonfenfe, the Oxford editor gives us his new: -fo full of fhapes is fancy,

And thou all o'er art high fantastical,

fays the critic. WARBURTON.

High fantaftical, means no more than fantastical to the height. So, in All's Well that ends Well:

"My high-repented blames

"Dear fovereign, pardon me." STEEVENS.

Methought

Methought, the purg'd the air of peftilence;
That inftant was I turn'd into a hart 7;

And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er fince purfue me.-How now? what news from her?

Enter Valentine.

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her hand-maid do return this answer: The element itself, till feven years hence, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But, like a cloiftrefs, fhe will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine: all this, to season A brother's dead love, which fhe would keep fresh, And lafting, in her fad remembrance.

1

Duke. O, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame,' To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will the love, when the rich golden fhaft Hath kill'd the flock of all affections elfe That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart,

Thefe

7 That inftant was I turn'd into a bart;] This image evidently alludes to the ftory of Acteon, by which Shakespeare seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who faw Diana naked, and was torn in pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with inceffant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wifdom of the Antients, fuppofes this story to warn us against enquiring into the fecrets of princes, by fhewing, that thofe who knew that which for reafons of ftate is. to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own ferJOHNSON.

vants.

O, be, that hath a heart of that fine frame,

To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will be love, when the rich golden fhaft
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections elfe
That live in her! -]

Dr.

'These fovereign thrones, are all fupply'd, and fill'd, '(Her fweet perfections) with one felf-fame king!Away before me to fweet beds of flowers;

Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopy'd with bowers.

SCENE II.

The Street.

Enter Viola, a Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?
Cap. This is Illyria, lady.

Vio. And what should I do in Illyria ?
My brother he is in Elyfium.

[Exeunt.

Perchance, he is not drown'd:-What think you, failors?

Cap. It is perchance, that you yourself were fav'd.

Dr. Hurd obferves, that Simo, in the Andrian of Terence, reafons on his fon's concern for Chryfis in the fame manner :

"Nonnunquam conlacrumabat: placuit tum id mihi. "Sic cogitabam: hic parvæ confuetudinis

"Caufâ hujus mortem tam fert familiariter:

"Quid fi ipfe amâffet? quid mihi hic faciet patri ?"
the flock of all affections

So, in Sidney's Arcadia: " -has the flock of unspeakable virtues." STEEVENS.

9 These fovereign thrones,-]

We fhould read-three fovereign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shakespeare. So, afterwards, in this play, Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and fpirit, do give thee fivefold blazon.

1

(Her Sweet perfections)

WARBURTON.

We fhould read and point it thus: (Ofweet perfection!)

WARBURTON.

There is no occafion for this new pointing, as the poet does not appear to have meant exclamation. Liver, brain, and heart, are admitted in poetry as the refidence of paffions, judgment, and fentiments. Thefe are what Shakeipeare calls, ber fweet perfections, though he has not very clearly expreffed what he might defign to have faid. STEEVENS.

2 Enter Viola, ] Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confeffione Amantis. STEEVENS.