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Clo. Foolery, Sir, does walk about the orb like the fun; it fhines every where. I would be forry, Sir, but the fool fhould be as oft with your mafter, as with my mistress I think, I faw your wisdom there.

Vio. Nay, an thou pafs upon me, I'll no more with thee. Hold, there's expences for thee.

Clo. Now, Jove, in his next commodity of hair, fend thee a beard!

Vio. By my troth, I'll tell thee, I am almost fick for one, though I would not have it grow on my chin. Is thy Lady within ?

Clo. Would not a pair of these have bred, Sir? Vio. Yes, being kept together, and put to use. Clo. I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, Sir, to bring a Crefida to this Troylus.

Vio. I understand you, Sir, 'tis well begg'd.

worn.

Clo. The matter, I hope, is not great, Sir; begging but a beggar: Creffida was a beggar. (11) My Lady is within, Sir, I will confter to them whence you come; who you are, and what you would, is out of my welkin; I might fay, element; but the word is over[Exit. Vio. This fellow is wife enough to play the fool, And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit: He must obferve their mood on whom he jefts, The quality of the perfons, and the time;" And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice, As full of labour as a wife-man's art :

For folly, that he wifely fhews, is fit;

But wife men's, folly fall'n, quite taints their wit.

(11) Creffida was a beggar.) The Poet in this circumftance undoubtedly had his eye on CHAUCER's Teftament of Crefeide. Cupid, to revenge her prophanation against his deity, calls in the planetary gods to affift him in his vengeance.. They inftantly turn her mirth into melancholy, her health into fickness, her beauty into deformity, and in the end pronounce this fentence upon her;

Thus fhalt thou go begging fro hous to hous,
With cuppe and clappir like a Lazarous

4.

Enter

Enter Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew.

Sir And. Save you, gentleman. (12)
Vio. And you, Sir.

Sir To. Dieu vous guarde, Monfieur.
Vio. Et vous auffi; votre ferviteur.

Sir To. I hope, Sir, you are; and I am yours. Will you encounter the houfe? my niece is defirous you'fhould enter, if your trade be to her.

Vio. I am bound to your niece, Sir; I mean, he is the lift of my voyage.

Sir To. Tafte your legs, Sir, put them to motion. Vio. My legs do better underftand me, Sir, than I understand what you mean by bidding me taste my legs. Sir To. I mean to go, Sir, to enter.

Vio. I will answer you with gate and entrance; but we are prevented.

Enter Olivia and Maria.

Moft excellent accomplish'd Lady, the heav'ns rain odours on you!

Sir And. That youth's a rare courtier! rain odours? well.

Vio. My matter hath no voice, Lady, but to your own moft pregnant and vouchfafed ear.

Sir And. Odours, pregnant, and vouchfafed: - I'll get 'em all three ready.

Oli. Let the garden door be fhut, and leave me to my hearing. [Exeunt Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria. Give me your hand, Sir.

Vio. My duty, Madam, and moft humble fervice.

(12) Sir Tob. Save you, gentleman.
Vio. And you, Sir.

Sir And. Dieu vous guarde, Monfieur.

Vio. Et vous auffi; votre ferviteur.

Sir And. I hope, Sir, you are; and I am yours.]

I have ventur'd to make the two knights change fpeeches in this dia logue with Viola; and, I think, not without good reafon. It were a prepofterous forgetfulness in the Poet, and out of all probability, to make Sir Andrew not only fpeak French, but understand what is faid to him in it, who in the first act did not know the English of Pourquoy.

Oli.

Oli. What is your name?

Vio. Cefario is your fervant's name, fair Princefs.
Oli. My fervant, Sir? 'Twas never merry world,
Since lowly feigning was call'd compliment :
Y'are fervant to the Duke Orfino, youth.

Vio. And he is yours, and his must needs be yours: Your fervant's fervant is your fervant, Madam.

Oli. For him, I think not on him: for his thoughts, Would they were blanks, rather than fill'd with me. Vio. Madam, I come to whet your gentle thoughts On his behalf.

Oli. O, by your leave, I pray you;

I bade you never speak again of him.
But would you undertake another fuit,
I'd rather hear you to follicit that,
Than mufick from the spheres.

Vio. Dear Lady,

Oli. Give me leave, I befeech you: I did fend, After the last enchantment, you did hear,

A ring in chafe of you.

So did I abuse

Myself, my fervant, and, I fear me, you;
Under your hard conftruction must I fit,

To force that on you in a fhameful cunning,

Which you knew none of yours. What might you think?
Have you not fet mine honour at the stake,
And baited it with all th' unmuzzled thoughts

That tyrannous heart can think? to one of your receiving
Enough is fhewn; a cyprus, not a bofom,

Hides my poor heart. So let us hear you speak.

Vio. I pity you.

Oli. That's a degree to love.

Vio. No not a grice: for 'tis a vulgar proof,

That very oft we pity enemies.

Oli. Why then, methinks, 'tis time to fmile again;

O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!

If one fhould be a prey, how much the better

To fall before the lion, than the wolf! [Clock ftrikes.
The clock upbraids me with the waste of time.
Be not afraid, good youth, I will not have you;

And

And yet when wit and youth are come to harvest,
Your wife is like to reap a proper man :
There lies your way, due weft.

Vio. Then, weftward hoe :

Grace and good difpofition attend your Ladyship!
You'll nothing, Madam, to my Lord by me?

Oli. Stay; pr'ythee tell me, what thou think'st of me? Vio. That you do think, you are not what you are. Oli. If I think fo, I think the fame of you. Vio. Then think you right: I am not what I am. Oli. I would you were, as I would have you be! Vio. Would it be better, Madam, than I am? I wish it might for now I am your fool.

Oli. O, what a deal of fcorn looks beautiful In the contempt and anger of his lip!

A murd'rous guilt fhews not itself more foon,

Than love that would feem hid: love's night is noon.
Cefario, by the rofes of the fpring,

By maid-hood, honour, truth, and every thing,
I love thee fo, that, maugre all thy pride,
Nor wit, nor reafon, can my paffion hide.
Do not extort thy reafons from this clause,
For that I woo, thou therefore haft no cause :
But rather reason thus with reason fetter;

Love fought is good; but given, unfought, is better.
Vio. By innocence I fwear, and by my youth,

I have one heart, one bofom, and one truth,

And that no woman has; nor never none
Shall mistress be of it, fave I alone.

And fo adieu, good Madam; never more
Will I my mafter's tears to you deplore.

Oli. Yet come again; for thou, perhaps, may'ft move That heart, which now abhors to like his love.

[Exeunt.

VOL. III.

G

SCENE

SCENE changes to an apartment in OLIVIA'S

house.

Enter Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian. Sir And. O, faith, I'll not ftay a jot longer, Sir To. Thy reafon, dear venom, give

N

thy reafon.

Fab. You must needs yield your reason, Sir Andrew. Sir And. Marry, I faw your niece do more favours to the Duke's ferving-man, than ever she bestow'd on I faw't, i' th' orchard.

me.

Sir To. Did the fee thee the while, old boy, tell me that?

Sir And. As plain as I fee you now.

Fab. This was a great argument of love in her toward you.

Sir And. 'Slight! will you make an ass o' me? Fab. I will prove it legitimate, Sir, upon the oaths of judgment and reafon.

Sir To. And they have been grand jury-men fince before Noah was a failor.

Fab. She did fhew favour to the youth in your fight, only to exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in your heart, and bimstone in your liver. You should then have accofted her, and with fome excellent jefts, fire-new from the mint, you should have bang'd the youth into dumbnefs. This was look'd for at your hand, and this was baulkt. The double gilt of this opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now fail'd into the North of my Lady's opinion; where you will hang like an ificle on a Dutchman's beard, unless you do redeem it by fome laudable attempt, either of valour or policy

Sir And. And't be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate: I had as lief be a Brownift as a politician.

Sir To. Why then, build me thy fortunes upon the bafis of valour; challenge me the Duke's youth to

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