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Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee.

Clo. Now, the melancholy god protect thee, and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffata, for thy mind is a very opal'!-I would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be every thing, and their intent every where; for that's it, that always makes a good voyage of nothing.-Farewell. [Exit Clown.

Duke. Let all the rest give place.

[Exeunt CURIO and Attendants.
Once more, Cesario,

Get thee to yond' same sovereign cruelty :
Tell her, my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands:

The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune;
But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems,
That nature pranks her in, attracts my soul.
Vio. But, if she cannot love you, sir?
Duke. It cannot be so answer'd2.

Vio.

Sooth, but you must.

Say, that some lady, as perhaps there is,
Hath for your love as great a pang of heart
As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her;
You tell her so; must she not then be answer'd?
Duke. There is no woman's sides

Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart
So big to hold so much: they lack retention.
Alas! their love may be call'd appetite,

1 for thy mind is a very OPAL !] An opal is a stone of various colours, according to the light in which it is seen. The clown wishes the duke to have his dress made to correspond with his mind.

2 IT cannot be so answer'd.] i. e. My love to her cannot be so answered. The modern editors read, "I cannot be so answered," in opposition to the folios. When Viola replies, "Sooth, but you must," she means, that if your love cannot be so answered, you must be content with the answer. Malone adopted the correction of I for "It," (which was made by Sir T. Hanmer) but expressing doubts whether he ought to do so.

No motion of the liver, but the palate,
That suffers surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,

And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me,
And that I owe Olivia.

Vio.

Ay, but I know,—

Duke. What dost thou know?

Vio. Too well what love women to men may owe:

In faith, they are as true of heart as we.

My father had a daughter lov'd a man,
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.

Duke.

And what's her history?

Vio. A blank, my lord. She never told her love3,— But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought:
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love, indeed?
We men may say more, swear more; but, indeed,
Our shows are more than will, for still we prove
Much in our vows, but little in our love.

Duke. But died thy sister of her love, my boy?
Vio. I am all the daughters of my father's house,
And all the brothers too; and yet I know not.-
Sir, shall I to this lady?

Duke.
Ay, that's the theme.
To her in haste: give her this jewel; say,
My love can give no place, bide no denay*.

[Exeunt.

3 A blank, my lord. She never told her love,-] Coleridge says, " After the first line the actress ought to make a pause, and then start afresh, from the activity of thought, born of suppressed feelings, and which thought had accumulated during the brief interval, as vital heat under the skin during a dip in cold water." Lit. Remains, ii. 118.

11

bide no DENAY.] i. e. denial. "Denay" is sometimes used as a verb, but I recollect no other instance in which it is converted into a substantive.

SCENE V.

OLIVIA'S Garden.

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, and FABIAN.

Sir To. Come thy ways, signior Fabian.

Fab. Nay, I'll come: if I lose a scruple of this sport, let me be boiled to death with melancholy.

Sir To. Would'st thou not be glad to have the niggardly, rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame?

Fab. I would exult, man: you know, he brought me out o' favour with my lady about a bear-baiting here. Sir To. To anger him we'll have the bear again, and we will fool him black and blue;-shall we not, sir Andrew?

Sir And. An we do not, it is pity of our lives.

Enter MARIA.

Sir To. Here comes the little villain.-How now, my metal of India?

Mar. Get ye all three into the box-tree. Malvolio's coming down this walk: he has been yonder i̇' the sun, practising behaviour to his own shadow, this half hour. Observe him, for the love of mockery; for, I know, this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him. Close, in the name of jesting! [The men hide themselves.] Lie thou there; [throws down a letter] for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling.

Enter MALVOLIO.

Mal. 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune.

[Exit MARIA.

Maria once told me, she did affect me; and I have heard herself

come thus near, that, should she fancy, it should be one

of my complexion. Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect than any one else that follows her. What should I think on't?

Sir To. Here's an over-weening rogue!

Fab. O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkeycock of him how he jets under his advanced plumes! Sir And. 'Slight, I could so beat the rogue.Sir To. Peace! I say.

Mal. To be count Malvolio.—

Sir To. Ah, rogue!

Sir And. Pistol him, pistol him.

Sir To. Peace! peace!

Mal. There is example for't: the lady of the Strachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe.

Sir And. Fie on him, Jezebel!

Fab. O, peace! now he's deeply in look, how imagination blows him.

Mal. Having been three months married to her, sitting in my state,—

Sir To. O, for a stone-bow', to hit him in the eye! Mal. Calling my officers about me, in my branched velvet gown, having come from a day-bed, where I have lefts Olivia sleeping:

5 how he JETS under his advanced plumes !] To "jet" is to strut, or swagger, one of the commonest words in writers of the time, as well as long before and afterwards.

6

the lady of the STRACHY married the yeoman of the wardrobe.] There is, doubtless, an allusion here to some popular story not now known, "Strachy" (printed, or misprinted, in italic in the original edition) being the name of some noble family of which one of the female branches had condescended to marry a menial. Possibly that family was the Strozzi of Florence; and the copyist of Shakespeare's MS. for the theatre, not being able to read the word, wrote "Strachy" for Strozzi, or Strozzy. On the other hand, Mr. R. P. Knight suggested that "Strachy" was the strategus or governor of some province, whose widow had married below her rank. Warburton's conjecture of Trachy, from Thrace, and Steevens's notion about the starchy, connected with the laundry, are equally untenable. The meaning of Malvolio merely is, that a great lady had married a servant; and whether Strachy be a corruption, or the real name given in the old story to which Shakespeare referred, is a matter of little consequence.

70, for a STONE-BOW,] A bow used for the purpose of discharging stones. - where I HAVE left-] Malone omits "have."

8

Sir To. Fire and brimstone!

Fab. O, peace! peace!

Mal. And then to have the humour of state; and after a demure travel of regard,-telling them, I know my place, as I would they should do theirs,-to ask for my kinsman Toby

Sir To. Bolts and shackles !

Fab. O, peace, peace, peace! now, now.

Mal. Seven of my people, with an obedient start, make out for him. I frown the while; and, perchance, wind up my watch, or play with my-some rich jewel9. Toby approaches; court'sies there to me.

Sir To. Shall this fellow live?

Fab. Though our silence be drawn from us with cars 10, yet peace!

Mal. I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of control.

Sir To. And does not Toby take you a blow o' the lips then?

Mal. Saying, "Cousin Toby, my fortunes, having cast me on your niece, give me this prerogative of speech."Sir To. What, what?

Mal. "You must amend your drunkenness."

Sir To. Out, scab!

Fab. Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot.

Mal. "Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a foolish knight."

Sir And. That's me, I warrant you.

9 — or play with my-some rich jewel.] So the old copy, but omitting the dash. Steevens understands "my some rich jewel" to mean, "some rich jewel of my own;" but it is more natural to suppose that Malvolio, having mentioned his watch, then a rarity, wishes to enumerate some other valuable in his possession, and pauses after "or play with my," following it up with the words some rich jewel," not being able on the sudden to name any one in particular. 10 Though our silence be drawn from us with CARS,] Thus the old copies, but some corruption may be suspected. Tyrwhitt would substitute cables for "cars;" but Steevens and Johnson consider the expression to allude to the force necessary to draw a car or cart. Sometimes "cars" has been misprinted ears.

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