Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

she uses to seal: 'tis my lady: To whom should this be?

Fab. This wins him, liver and all.

Mal. [reads.] Jove knows, I love:

But who?

Lips do not move,

No man must know.

[ocr errors]

No man must know. What follows? the numbers altered! No man must know: If this should be thee, Malvolio?

[ocr errors]

Sir To. Marry, hang thee, brock!!
Mal. I may command, where I adore :
But silent, like a Lucrece knife,

With bloodless stroke my heart doth gore;
M, O, A, I, doth sway my life.

Fab. A fustian riddle!

Sir To. Excellent wench, say I.

Mal. M, O, A, I, doth sway my life. - Nay, but first, let me see, let me see, - let me see.

[ocr errors]

Fab. What a dish of poison has she dressed him! Sir To. And with what wing the stannyel2 checks at it!

3

Mal. I may command where I adore. Why, she may command me; I serve her, she is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal capacity. There is no obstruction in this; And the end, -What should that alphabetical position portend? if I could make that resemble something in me,- Softly! - M, O, A, I. —

-

Sir To. O, ay! make up that:- he is now at a cold

scent.

4

Fab. Sowter will cry upon't, for all this, though it be as rank as a fox.

1

2

brocki. e. badger; a term of contempt.

· stannyel — ] The stannyel is the common stone-hawk, which inhabits old buildings and rocks.

3 -formal capacity.] i. e. any one whose capacity is not out of form.

4 Sowter-] Sowter is here perhaps the name of a hound.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Mal. M, Malvolio; -M,-why, that begins my

name.

Fab. Did not I say, he would work it out? the cur is excellent at faults.

Mal. M,-But then there is no consonancy in the sequel; that suffers under probation: A should follow, but O does.

Fab. And O shall end, I hope.

Sir To. Ay, or I'll cudgel him, and make him cry, O. Mal. And then I comes behind.

Fab. Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at your heels, than fortunes before

you.

[ocr errors]

Mal. M, O, A, I; This simulation is not as the former: - and yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name. Soft; here follows prose. If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Thy fates open their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them. And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble slough, and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants: let thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thyself into the trick of singularity: She thus advises thee, that sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy yellow stockings; and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered: I say, remember. Go to; thou art made, if thou desirest to be so; if not, let me see thee a steward still, the fellow of servants, and not worthy to touch fortune's fingers. Farewell. She that would alter services with thee,

6

The fortunate-unhappy.

Day-light and champian discovers not more: this is open. I will be proud, I will read politick authors, I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross acquaintance,

[ocr errors]

-Be opposite-] That is, be adverse, hostile.

6 Daylight and champian―] i. e. broad day and an open country.

I do not now

I will be point-de-vice 7, the very man. fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise my leg being cross-gartered; and in this she manifests herself to my love, and with a kind of injunction, drives me to these habits of her liking. I thank my stars, I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on. Jove, and my stars be praised! Here is yet a postscript. Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou entertainest my love, let it appear in thy smiling; thy smiles become thee well; therefore in my presence still smile, dear my sweet, I pr'ythee. Jove, I thank thee. I will smile; I will do every thing that thou wilt have [Exit. Fab. I will not give my part of this sport for a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy.

me.

8

Sir To. I could marry this wench for this device :
Sir And. So could I too.

Sir To. And ask no other dowry with her, but such another jest.

Enter MARIA.

'Sir And. Nor I neither.

Fab. Here comes my noble gull-catcher.

Sir To. Wilt thou set thy foot o' my neck?

Sir And. Or o' mine either?

Sir To. Shall I play my freedom at tray-trip? 9 and become thy bond-slave?

Sir And. I'faith, or I either.

7 I will be point-de-vice,] i. e. with the utmost possible

exactness.

8 — a pension of thousands to be paid from the Sophy.] Alluding, as Dr. Farmer observes, to Sir Robert Shirley, who was just returned in the character of embassador from the Sophy. He boasted of the great rewards he had received, and lived in London with the utmost splendor.

9

tray-trip?] some kind of game.

« PředchozíPokračovat »