Mar. Sport royal, I warrant you: I know my physic will work with him. I will plant you two, and let the fool make a third, where he shall find the letter: observe his construction of it. For this night, to bed, and dream on the event. Farewell. Sir To. Good night, Penthesilea,59

[Exit MARIA. Sir And. Before me, she's a good wench. Sir To. She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me what o'that? Sir And. Sir To. Let's to bed, knight.-Thou hadst need send for more money.

I was adored once too.

Sir And. If I cannot recover your niece,60 I am a foul way out.

Sir To. Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me cut.61

59. Penthesilea. A queen of the Amazons, who fought with Achilles. Si. Toby calls Maria thus, in ironical allusion to her unmartial dimensions, as well as in compliment to her prowess. 60. If I cannot recover your niece. Shakespeare sometimes, as here, uses "recover" for 'attain,' 'reach to.'

See Note 42, Act iii., " Merry

61. Call me cut. This phrase, and "call me horse," were synonymous with 'abuse me,' 'reproach me.' "Cut" was one name for a horse; probably an abbreviation of 'curtal,' or 'curtail.' See Note 79, Act ii., "All's Well." 62. I'll go burn some sack. Wives." 63. Recollected terms. By this expression the poet probably means what musicians call 'phrases of repetition,' or 'passages of imitation;' where rapid successions of notes, and florid ornamentation, produce the effect of liveliness which the Duke's lovemelancholy shrinks from, and contrast with the simplicity he so much prefers.

64. Feste. Shakespeare's aptly-invented name for this, one of his pleasantest clowns; from the Italian word festeggiante, which

Sir And. If I do not, never trust me, take it how you will.

Sir To. Come, come; I'll go burn some sack; 62 'tis too late to go to bed now; come, knight; come, knight. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-An Apartment in the DUKE'S Palace.

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and others. Duke. Give me some music :-now, good morrow, friends:

Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song we heard last night:
Methought it did relieve my passion much,
More than light airs, and recollected terms,"3
Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times :-
Come, but one verse.

Cur. He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing it.

Duke. Who was it?

Cur. Feste,64 the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia's father took much delight in he is about the house.

while.

Duke. Seek him out:-and play the tune the [Exit CURIO. Music. Come hither, boy: if ever thou shalt love, In the sweet pangs of it remember me; For such as I am all true lovers are,Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, Save in the constant image of the creature That is belov'd.-How dost thou like this tune? Vio. It gives a very echo to the seat Where Love is thron'd.

Duke. Thou dost speak masterly: 65
My life upon 't, young though thou art, thine eye
Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves;-
Hath it not, boy?

Vio.
A little, by your favour.66
Duke. What kind of woman is 't?

Florio explains' Feasting, merrie, banqueting, pleasant, of good entertainment.'

65. Speak masterly. This is one of the few instances where Shakespeare indirectly (and of course unconsciously) comments upon himself. That the comment is here highly commendatory is, as it were, forced from him by the exigencies of dramatic truth in the situation, and by the verity of beauty in the words commented upon. Certainly there never was more "masterly speaking" on the effect produced by music upon a nature sensitively alive to its finest influences, than Viola's few but intensely expressive words.

66. A little, by your favour. Viola says this ostensibly in the sense of a little, by your leave; but she secretly says it in consonance with the sense in which the Duke uses the word "favour" ("look,' 'aspect,' countenance"), meaning, 'I have suffered mine eye to rest upon your own countenance.' And how well the words "a little " serve to denote the shy, timid, occasional glances that she has allowed herself to indulge in, when his not observing her has favoured her looking upon him!

"worn

[Music.

67. Worn. It was proposed by Johnson, who has been followed by some editors, to change to 'won' here. We think that "worn" is here much the more Shakespearian word, as signifying 'worn out,' worn away,' 'obliterated;' and that it more strictly consists with the context than 'won' would do. The reason that Johnson gives for preferring 'lost and won' ("these two words," he says, "coming usually and naturally together"), is the very cause why we do not believe that the poet placed them here in conventional conjunction; for, as we have before shown (see Note 47, Act iv., "All's Well "), Shakespeare often gives the effect of one word to another by his introduction of the latter in a sentence where usually the former is employed.

68. Hold the bent. 'Bide the strain,' 'maintain, or endure the tension; "bent" being a technicality in archery for the degree of flexure to which a bow was drawn. Shakespeare uses the word "bent" with peculiar and forcible meaning. See Note 71, Act ii., "Much Ado."

69. Perfection. This word, as used here, not only applies to the blown beauty of the rose, but has figurative reference to the full loveliness of a woman when matched with her chosen manly counterpart in married union; thus affording corroboration to the reading of "perfection" instead of 'perfections' in a previous passage of the present play. See Note 13, Act i.

70. The free maids. The word "free" was used by Chaucer, and sometimes by Shakespeare (as here), to express 'pure,' 'chaste,' 'free from vicious taint.'

Duke. I'll pay thy pleasure then.

Clo. Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another.75

Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee.

Clo. Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta,76 for thy mind is a very opal!77-I would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be everything, and their intent everywhere; for that's it that always makes a [Exit. good voyage of nothing.-Farewell. Duke. Let all the rest give place.

[Exeunt CURIO and Attendants. Once more, Cesario,

Get thee to yond' same sovereign cruelty:

73. Cypress. By this word it is not quite certain whether a coffin of cypress-wood, or a shroud of cypress (or cyprus, the then name for what we call 'crape'), was meant; since it may refer either to the black coffin," or the "white shroud." In this play, Olivia says a cyprus, not a bosom, hides my heart;" and in the "Winter's Tale," Act iv., sc. 3, we find"Lawn as white as driven snow, Cyprus black as e'er was crow." Cyprus, or crape, was made in both black and white. 74. My part of death, no one so true did share it. one so true as I did ever take part in death's tragedy.'

'No

75. Pleasure will be paid, one time or another. One of the beautifully wise and largely significant axioms that we owe to Shakespeare's fools; his fools have in their folly a reflection of their deviser's wit-wit replete with acute truth in playful expression.

76. Changeable taffeta. What is now called 'shot silk.' 77. Opal. A precious stone, that displays varying colours according to the lights in which it is viewed. It is worthy of remark that this touch, indicating the variable hues in the Duke's mood-supported by just such another in the first scene, where we also find him abruptly breaking off from listening to music, with confessed restlessness and alteration of humourharmonises with, and suitably prepares the subsequent facile transposition of his fancy from Olivia to Viola. How well, too, it agrees with what he himself says of men's "fancies" being

more giddy and unfirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, than women's are." So naturally, so consistently, so characteristically does Shakespeare write!

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,78
That nature pranks her in, attracts my soul.
Vio. But if she cannot love you, sir?
Duke. I cannot be so answer'd.79
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.80
Alas! their love may be call'd appetite,-
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.

78. That miracle and queen of gems. 'That fair frame,' 'that beauteous person.' To "prank" is to 'adorn,' to set forth advantageously.'

79. I cannot be so answer'd. The Folio misprints 'it' for "I" here; which the "you" in the next speech shows to be right.

80. They lack retention. This, from the Duke-who has lately affirmed that women's love is firmer and more lasting than men's--is but another point in keeping with his opal-hued mind. He one moment owns his sex's fickleness, the next maintains its superior strength of passion; in one speech, proclaims women's greater constancy; in another, accuses them of incapacity for steady attachment.

81. Was not this love indeed? It is as if the poet were hurried away by the force of his own exquisite description, and were involuntarily impelled to make the speaker ask this.

82. Will. Here used for 'resolute intention,' 'fixed purpose.' 83. I am all the daughters of my father's house. Shakespeare, in such speeches as these, has not only shown his knowledge of the depths of feminine nature, but the utmost grace, refinement, and delicacy in fancy of which enigmatic reply is susceptible. See Note 95, Act i, "All's Well.”

84 And yet I know not. This momentary wandering of

She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed ?81
We men may say more, swear more: but, indeed,
Our shows are more than will; 82 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, 83

And all the brothers too;-and yet I know not.84
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.85

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-OLIVIA'S Garden. Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, Sir ANDREW AGUECHEEK, 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. Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally sheep-biter 86 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. Sir To. Here comes the little villain.

Enter MARIA. How now, my nettle of India !8:

thought to the possibility of her brother Sebastian's survival, and then her recollection, and return to present passing interests, which will not only serve her to recover herself, but which effectually divert the Duke from dwelling upon her words and reading their full meaning, are all in the highest and purest

taste.

85. My love can give no place, bide no denay. My love can never withdraw itself, can bide no denial.' To 'give place,' as an idiom for 'retire,' or 'withdraw,' is used just previously; where Orsino says, "Let all the rest give place." To" "denay" was an old form of the verb to 'deny,' and Shakespeare has used it substantively, to afford a rhyme with "say."

86. Sheep-biter. A cant term for a paltry thief. See Note 35, Act v., "Measure for Measure."

87. Nettle of India. The first Folio prints 'mettle,' which some editors have changed to metal,' while the second Folio gives "nettle." We adopt the latter reading as far the likeliest word to be here used. Sir Toby would hardly use "metal of India" as a round-about way of calling Maria 'gold' for a golden girl, or a heart of gold; while he would naturally allude to her stinging qualities when waiting for "the little villain" to practise her sharp, practical jest upon Malvolio. In Greene's "Card of Fancie," 1608, there is mention made of " the flower

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