extravagancy: but I perceive in you fo excellent a touch of modefty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges me in manners the rather to exprefs myself: you must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebaftian, which I call'd Rodorigo; my father was that Sebaftian of MefJaline, whom, I know, you have heard of. He left behind him, myself, and a fifter, both born in one hour ; if the heav'ns had been pleas'd, would we had fo ended! but you, Sir, alter'd that; for, fome hour before you took me from the breach of the fea, was my fifter drown'd. Ant. Alas, the day! Seb. A Lady, Sir, tho' it was faid fhe much refembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful; but tho' I could not with fuch eftimable wonder over-far believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, fhe bore a mind that envy could not but call fair: fhe is drown'd already, Sir, with falt water, tho' I feem to drown her remembrance again with more. Ant. Pardon me, Sir, your bad entertainment. Seb. O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble. Ant. If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your fervant. Seb. If you will not undo what you have done, that is, kill him whom you have recover'd, defire it not. Fare ye well at once; my bofom is full of kindness, and I am yet fo near the manners of my mother, that upon the leaft occafion more, mine eyes will tell tales of me: I am bound to the Duke Orfino's court; farewel. [Exit. Ant. The gentleness of all the gods go with thee ! I have made enemies in Orfino's court, Elfe would I very fhortly fee thee there: That danger fhall feem fport, and I will go. [Exit. Enter Viola and Malvolio, at feveral doors: Mal. Were not you e'en now with the Countess Olivia ? Vio. Even now, Sir; on a moderate pace I have fince arrived but hither. Mal. She returns this ring to you, Sir; you might have faved me my pains, to have taken it away your felf. She adds moreover, that you should put your Lord into a defperate affurance, fhe will none of him. And one thing more, that you be never fo hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your Lord's taking of this: receive it so. Vio. She took the ring of me, I'll none of it. Mal. Come, Sir, you peevishly threw it to her, and, her will is, it should be fo returned: if it be worth ftooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. [Exit. She loves me, fure; the cunning of her paffion None of my Lord's ring? why, he fent her none. In womens waxen hearts to fet their forms! For fuch as we are made, if fuch we be. How will this fadge? my mafter loves her dearly, F 2 [Exit. SCENE SCENE changes to Olivia's House. Enter Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew. Sir To. Approach, Sir Andrew, not to be a-bed af ter midnight, is to be up betimes; and Diluculo furgere, thou know'ft,-——— Sir And. Nay, by my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up late, is to be up late. Sir To. A falfe conclufion: I hate it, as an unfill'd can; to be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is early; fo that to go to bed after midnight, is to go to bed betimes. Does not our life confift of the four elements? Sir And. 'Faith, fo they fay; but, I think, it rather confifts of eating and drinking. Sir To. Th'art a fcholar, let us therefore eat and drink. Maria! I fay!- -afloop of wine. Enter Clown. Sir And. Here comes the fool, i' faith. Clo. How now, my hearts? did you never see the picture of we three ? Sir To. Welcome, afs, now let's have a catch. Sir And. (5) By my troth, the fool has an excellent breaft. I had rather than forty fhillings I had fuch a leg, and fo fweet a breath to fing, as the fool has. Infooth, thou waft in very gracious fooling laft night, (5) By my troth, the fool bas an excellent breaft.] I have been advis'd to read, breath, here. But the text is, certainly, right without any alteration. The allufion is not to the clown having a white skin, but a good power in finging. It was a phrafe in vogue, in our author's time. In a Spanish vocabulary, printed in Queen Elizabeth's reign, Aquel tiene linda boz is thus expounded; He has a good breast; i. e. as we now fay, good lungs, to hold out in finging. So Ben Johnson, in his mafque of Gipfies metamorphos'd; An excellent fong, and a fweet fongfier, and would have done rarely in a cage, with a dish of water and hempfeed; fine breast of his own! And Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Pilgrim; Pray you, ftay a little: Let's hear him fing, h'as a fine breast. when < when thou fpok'ft of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians palfing the equinoctial of Queubus: 'twas very good, 'faith (6) I fent thee fix-pence for thy Leman, had't it? : Clo. I did impetticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nofe is no whip-stock. My Lady has a white hand, and the Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houfes. Sir And. Excellent: why, this is the best fooling, when all is done. Now, a fong. Sir To. Come on, there's fix-pence for you Let's have a fong. Sir And. There's a teftril of me too; if one Knight give a Clo. Would you have a love-fong, or a fong of good life? Sir To. A love-fong, a love-fong. Sir And. Ay, ay, I care not for good life. Clown fings. O Mistress mine, where are you roaming ? Sir And. Excellent good, i' faith ! Clo. What is love? 'tis not hereafter : Prefent mirth hath present laughter : (6) I fent thee fix-pence for thy Lemon, bad'ft it.] But the Clown was neither pantler, nor butler The Poet's word was certainly miftaken by the ignorance of the Printers. I have restored, lcman, i. e. I fent thee fix-pence to spend on thy miftrefs. So, in Merry Wives of Windfor; as jealous as Ford, that fearch'd a hollow wallnut for his wife's leman; 2 Henry IV. A cup of wine, that's brifk and fine, And drink unto the leman mine; The word was ufed indifferently, to fignify, either a mif refs, or gal lant; as the word, lover, stood for both fexes. F 3 What's What's to come, is ftill unfure; Then come kiss me, fweet, and twenty: Sir And. A mellifluous voice, as I am a true Knight. Sir And. Very fweet and contagious, i' faith. Sir To. To hear by the nofe, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall we make the welkin dance, indeed ? (7) Shall we rouze the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three fouls out of one weaver? fhall we do that? Sir And. An you love me, let's do't: I am a dog at a catch. Clo. By'r Lady, Sir, and fome dogs will catch well. (7) Shall we rowze the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three fouls out of one weaver?] i. e. by which he shall be thrice transported, or equally tranfported with every one of us three fingers. As for drawing out the foul, this is a phrafe, which, as it feems, our author delights to ufe, to exprefs the ravifling power of mufick. Much Ado about Nathing. Now is his foul ravifh'd. Is it not ftrange that sheep's guts should kale fouls out of men's bodies, &c. But, perhaps, by mentioning three fouls, Sir Toby may be hinting at the peripatetic philofophy (the learning then in vogue,) which very liberally gave to every man three fouls, the vegitative or flaftic, the amimai, and the rational. I would not imagine that Shakespeare had no further drift in this, than either to expose that system, or make a parade of his own knowledge. Thofe, who are converfant in him, can't but obferve, that he takes delight on all occafions to display the. great power and force of mufick. And here, in the moft extraordinary manner, he conveys to us the idea of that power in its full extent as we receive it from poetical relations. For in fpeaking of it's power, to draw the three fouls out of a man, viz. the vegitative or plaftic, the fenfative or animal, and the rational or human, he would infinuate to us all thofe furprizing effects of mufick that the antients fpeak of, when they tell us of Amphion who mov'd stones and trees; Orpheus and Arion, who tam'd the favages; and Timotheus, who govern'd as he pleas'd the paffions of his human auditors, by the irrefiftible force of harmony. So noble and extraordinary an obfervation has our author cover'd under the ribaldry of a fantastick character. Mr. Warburton. Cle |