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Enter OLIVIA.

Oli. Hold, Toby; on thy life, I charge thee, hold. Sir To. Madam!

Oli. Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch, Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves, Where manners ne'er were preach'd! out of my sight!

Be not offended, dear Cesario ?

Rudesby,' be gone ?-I pr'ythee, gentle friend,

[Exeunt SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW, and FABIAN. Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway In this uncivil and unjust extent2

Against thy peace. Go with me to my house;
And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks
This ruffian hath botch'd up, that thou thereby
May'st smile at this: thou shalt not choose but go;
Do not deny: Beshrew his soul for me,
He started one poor hearts of mine in thee.

Seb. What relish is in this ? how runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream:--
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep;
If it be thu to dream, still let me sleep!

Clo. Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic.

Mal. Sir Topas, Sir Topas, good Sir Topas, go to my lady.

Clo. Out, hyperbolical fiend! how vexest thou this man? talkest thou nothing but of ladies! Sir To. Well said, master parson.

Mal. Sir Topas, never was man thus wronged: good Sir Topas, do not think I am mad: they have laid me here in hideous darkness.

Clo. Fye, thou dishonest Sathan! I call thee by the most modest terms; for I am one of those gentle ones, that will use the devil himself with courtesy: Say'st thou, that house is dark?

Mal. As hell, Sir Topas.

Clo. Why, it hath bay-windows11 transparent as barricadoes, and the clear stories 2 towards the southnorth are as lustrous as ebony; and yet complainest thou of obstruction?

Mal. I am not mad, Sir Topas: I say to you, this house is dark.

Clo. Madman, thou errest: I say, there is no darkness, but ignorance; in which thou art more

Oli. Nay, come, I pr'ythee: 'Would thou'dst be puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.

rul'd by me!

Seb. Madam, I will. Oli.

O, say so, and so be!

SCENE II. A Room in Olivia's House. MARIA and Clown.

[Exeunt. Enter

Mar. Nay, I pr'ythee, put on this gown, and this beard; make him believe, thou art Sir Topas the curate; do it quickly: I'll call Sir Toby the whilst. [Exit MARIA. Clo. Well, I'll put it on, and I will dissemble" myself in't; and I would I were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown. I am not tall enough to become the function well; nor lean enough to be thought a good student: but to be said, an honest man, and a good housekeeper, goes as fairly as to say, a careful man, and a great scholar. The competitors enter.

Mal. I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say, there was never man thus abused: I am no more mad than you are; make the trial of it in any constant question, 13

Clo. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild-fowl?

Mal. That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

Clo. What thinkest thou of his opinion? Mal. I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.

Clo. Fare thee well: Remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras, ere I will allow of thy wits; and fear to kill a woodcock, 14 lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well.

Mal. Sir Topas, Sir Topas,

Sir To. My most exquisite Sir Topas !
Clo. Nay, I am for all waters.15

Mar. Thou might'st have done this without thy beard and gown; he sees thee not.

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA. Sir To. Jove bless thee, master parson. Sir To. To him in thine own voice, and bring me Clo. Bonos dies, Sir Toby: for as the old hermit word how thou findest him; I would, we were well of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily rid of this knavery. If he may be conveniently desaid to a niece of king Gorboduc, That, that is, is:livered, I would he were; for I am now so far in so I, being master parson, am master parson: For what is that, but that? and is, but is ?io

Sir To. To him, Sir Topas.

Clo. What, hoa, I say ;-Peace in this prison! Sir To. The knave counterfeits well: a good knave.

Mal. [in an inner chamber.] Who calls there?

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offence with my niece, that I cannot pursue with any safety this sport to the upshot. Come by and by to my chamber. [Exeunt SIR TOBY and MARIA. Clo. Hey Robin, jolly Robin,16

Tell me how thy lady does.

[Singing.

first folio reads clear stores, the second folio clear stones, which was followed by all subsequent editors The emendation and explanation are Mr. Blakeway's. Randle Holme, however, in his Academy of Armory; says that clear story windows are such windows that have no transum or cross-piece in the middle to break the same into two lights."

13 Regular conversation.

14 The clown mentions a woodcock because it was proverbial as a foolish bird, and therefore a proper an cestor for a man out of his wits.

15 A proverbial phrase not yet satisfactorily explain. ed. The meaning, however, appears to be 'I can turn my hand to any thing, or assume any character.' Flo

8 The modern editors have changed this to fat with- rio in his translation of Montaigne, speaking of Arisout any apparent reason.

9 Confederates.

10 A humorous banter upon the language of the schools.

11 Bay windows were large projecting windows, probably so called because they occupied a whole bay or space between two cross beams in a building. Minshew says a bay-window, so called 'because it is builded in manner of a bay or road for ships, i. e. round.'

12 Clear stories, in Gothic Architecture, denote the row of windows running along the upper part of a lofty hall or of a church, over the arches of the nave: q. d. a clear story, a story without joists, rafters, or flooring. Over each side of the nave is a row of clere story windows.”—Ormerod's Hist. of Cheshire, i. 450. The

totle, says he hath an oar in every water, and med. dleth with all things.' And in his Second Frutes, there is an expression more resembling the import of that in the text. I am a knight for all saddles. Nash in his Lenten Stuffe, 1599, has almost the language of the clown. He is first broken to the sea in the Herring. man's skiffe or cock-boate, where having learned to brooke all waters, and drink as he can out of a tarrie can.' Mason's conjecture, that the allusion is to the water hue or colour of precious stones, is surely inad. missible.

16 This ballad may be found in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. i. p. 194, ed. 1794. Dr. Not has also printed it among the poems of Sir Thomas Wiatt the elder, p. 188,

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Clo. Master Malvolio!
Mal. Ay, good fool.

Clo. Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits? Mal. Fool, there was never man so notoriously abused: I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art. Clo. But as well? then you are mad, indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool.

Mal. They have here propertied me ; keep me in darkness, send ministers to me, asses, and do all they can to face me out of my wits.

Clo. Advise you what you say: the minister is here,-Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the heavens restore! endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble babble.

Mal. Sir Topas,

Clo. Maintain no words with him, good fellow.
-Who, I, sir? not I, sir. God b'wi'you, good
Sir Topas.-Marry, amen.-I will, sir, I will.
Mal. Fool, fool, fool, I say.-.
Clo. Alas, sir, be patient. What say you, sir?
I am shent for speaking to you.

Mal. Good fool, help me to some light, and some paper; I tell thee, I am as well in my wits as any man in Illyria.

Clo. Well-a-day,-that you were, sir! Mal. By this hand, I am: Good fool, some ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady; it shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did.

Clo. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad, indeed? or do you but counterfeit ? Mal. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true.

This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't:
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:
Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,"
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service:
For though my soul disputes well with my sense,
That this may be some error, but no madness,
Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,"
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes,
And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me
To any other trust, but that I am mad,
Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her fo!-
lowers,

Take, and give back affairs, and their despatch,
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing,
As, I perceive, she does: there's something in't,"
That is deceivable." But here the lady comes.
Enter OLIVIA and a Priest.

Oli. Blame not this haste of mine: If you mean
well,

Now, go with me, and with this holy man,
Into the chantry10 by: there, before him,
And underneath that consecrated roof,
Plight me the full assurance of your faith;
That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace: He shall conceal it,
Whiles' you are willing it shall come to note;
According to my birth. What do you say?
What time we will our celebration keep

Seb. I'll follow this good man, and go with you;
And, having sworn truth,12 ever will be true.
Oli. Then lead the way, good father :--And
heavens so shine,
That they may fairly note this act of mine! [Exeunt

ACT V.

Enter Clown and FABIAN.

Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman till I see SCENE I The Street before Olivia's House his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink.

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Fab. Now, as thou lovest me, let me see his letter.
Clo. Good master Fabian, grant me another re

quest.

Fab. Any thing.

Clo. Do not desire to see this letter.

Fab. That is, to give a dog, and, in recompense, desire my dog again.

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants.
Duke. Belong you to the lady Olivia, friends?
Clo. Ay, sir; we are some of her trappings.
Duke. I know thee well: How dost thou, my
good fellow?

Clo. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends.

Duke. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends.
Clo. No, sir, the worse.

Duke. How can that be?

Clo. Marry sir, they praise me, and make an ass the catastrophe. See Note on K. Henry V. Act. iv. Sc. 4.

6 i. e. intelligence. Mr. Steevens has referred to several passages which seem to imply that this word was used for oral intelligence. I find it thus in a letter from Elizabeth to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton among the Conway Papers. This beror came from you with great spede-We have heard his credit and fynd your> carefulness and diligence very great.'

7 i. e. reason. 8 Servants. 9 i. e. deceptious. 10 Chantry,' a little chapel, or particular altar in some cathedral or parochial church, endowed for the purpose of having masses sung therein for the souls of the founders

11 Until.

5 The vice was the fool of the old moralities. He was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger of lath. One of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil, leaping on his back and belabouring him with his dagger, till he made him roar. The devil, however, always carried him off in the end. The moral was, that sin, which 12 Troth or fidelity. It should be remarked that this has the courage to make very merry with the devil, and was not an actual marriage, but a betrothing, affiancis allowed by him to take very great liberties, must ing, or solemn promise of future marriage; anciently finally become his prey. This used also to be the regu- distinguished by the name of espousals. This has been lar end of Punch in the puppet show (who was the legi-established by Mr. Douce in his very interesting Illus timate successor of the old vice or iniquity,) until mo-trations of Shakspeare, where the reader will find much dern innovation, in these degenerate times, reversed curious matter on the subject, in a note on this passage

of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives,' why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes. Duke. Why, this is excellent.

Clo. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends.

Duke. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold.

Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could make it another.

Duke. O, you give me ill counsel.

Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it.

Duke. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer; there's another.

Clo. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and *he old saying is, the third pays for all; the triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; One, two, three. Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw: if you will let your lady know, I am here to speak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.

Clo. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, sir; but I would not have you to think, that my desire of having is the sin of covetousness; but, as you say, sir, let your bounty I will awake it anon. take a nap, [Exit Clown. Enter ANTONIO and Officers. Vio. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me. Duke. That face of his I do remember well;

Yet, when I saw it last, it was besmear'd
As black as Vulcan, in the smoke of war:
A bawbling vessel was he captain of,
For shallow draught, and bulk, unprizable:
With which such scathful grapple did he make
With the most noble bottom of our fleet,
That very envy, and the tongue of loss,
Cry'd fame and honour on him.-What's the matter?
Í Qf. Orsino, this is that Antonio
That took the Phoenix and her fraught, from Candy:
And this is he that did the Tiger board,
When your young nephew Titus lost his leg:
Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,
In private brabble did we apprehend him.

Vio. He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side;
But, in conclusion, put strange speech upon me,
I know not what 'twas, but distraction.

Duke. Notable pirate! thou salt-water thief! What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies, Whom thou, in terms so bloody, and so dear,' Hast made thine enemies?

Ant.

Orsino, noble sir, Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me; Antonio never yet was thief, or pirate, Though, I confess, on base and ground enough, Orsino's enemy. A witchcraft drew me hither: That most ingrateful boy there, by your side, From the rude sea's enrag'd and foamy mouth Did I redeem: a wreck past hope he was: His life I gave him, and did thereto add My love, without retention or restraint, All his in dedication: for his sake,

1 So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion :Come let's kisse.

Moor. Away, away. Queen. No, no, says I; and twice away says stay. Sir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon the thought in the Sixty-third Stanza of Astrophel and Stella. 2 Mischievous, destructive.

3 Freight.

4 Inattentive to his character or condition, like a desperate man.

Did I expose myself, pure for his love,
Into the danger of this adverse town;
Drew to defend him, when he was beset;
Where being apprehended, his false cunning
(Not meaning to partake with me in danger,)
Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance,
And grew a twenty-years-removed thing,
While one would wink; denied me mine own purse,
Which I had recommended to his use
Not half an hour before.
Vio.
How can this be?
Duke. When came he to this town?
Ant. To-day, my lord; and for three months before
(No interim, not a minute's vacancy,)
Both day and night did we keep company.
Enter OLIVIA and Attendants.

Duke. Here comes the countess; now heaven walks on earth.

But for thee, fellow, fellow, thy words are madness: Three months this youth hath tended upon me;

But more of that anon.

-Take him aside.

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Oli. Still so constant, lord.

Duke. What! to perverseness? you uncivil lady, To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breath'd out, That e'er devotion tender'd! What shall I do?

Oli. Even what it please my lord, that shall become him.

Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it Like the Egyptian thief, at point of death, Kill what I love; a savage jealousy, That sometimes savours nobly ?-But hear me this: Since you to non-regardance cast my faith, And that I partly know the instrument That screws me from my true place in your favour, Live you, the marble-breasted tyrant, still; But this your minion, whom, I know, you love, And whom, by heaven, I swear, I tender dearly, Him will I tear out of that cruel eye, Where he sits crowned in his master's spite.Come boy with me; my thoughts are ripe in

mischief:

I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love,
To spite a raven's heart within a dove. [Going.
Vio. And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly,
To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.

[Following.

Oli. Where goes Cesario? Vio. After him I love, More than I love these eyes, more than my life, More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife: If I do feign, you witnesses above, Punish my life for tainting of my love! Oli. Ah me, detested! how am I beguil'd!

chief of a band of robbers. Theogenes and Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis falls in love with Cha riclea, and would have married her. But, being attack ed by a stronger band of robbers, he was in such feat

for his mistress that he causes her to be shut into a cave with his treasure. It was customary with those barbarians, when they despaired of their own safety, first to make away with those whom they held most dear, and 5 Tooke has so adinirably accounted for the appli- desired for companions in the next life. Thyamis, cation of the epithet dear by our ancient writers to any therefore, benetted round with enemies, raging with object which excites a sensation of hurt, pain, and con-love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave, and calling sequently of anxiety, solicitude, care, earnestness, aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he heard himthat I shall refer to it as the best comment upon the ap-self answered towards the cave's mouth by a Grecian, parently opposite uses of the word in our great poet. 6 Dull, gross.

7 This Egyptian Thief was Thyamis. The story related in the Aethiopics of Heliodorus. He was the

making to the person by the direction of her voice, he caught her by the hair with his left hand, and (suppos. ing her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his sword into her breast.

Vio. Who does beguile you? who does do you | Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. wrong?

Oli. Hast thou forgot thyself! Is it so long!-
Call forth the holy father. [Exit an Attendant.
Duke.
Come away. [To VIOLA.
Oli. Whither, my lord?-Cesario, husband, stay.
Duke. Husband!
Oli.

Ay, husband; Can he that deny?
Duke. Her husband, sirrah?
Vio.

No, my lord, not I.
Oli. Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear,
That makes thee strangle thy propriety:1
Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up;
Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art
As great as that thou fear'st.-O, welcome father!

Re-enter Attendant and Priest.

Father, I charge thee by thy reverence,
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness, what occasion now
Reveals before 'tis ripe,) what thou dost know,
Hath newly past between this youth and me.

Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love.
Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,

Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings;2
And all the ceremony of this compact

Seal'd in my function, by my testimony:

Here comes Sir Toby halting, you shall hear more: but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did.

Duke. How now, gentleman? how is't with you? Sir To. That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's an end on't.-Sot, didst see Dick surgeon, sot? Clo. O he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at eight i'the morning.

Sir To. Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures pavin; I hate a drunken rogue.

Oli. Away with him: Who hath made this havock with them?

Sir And. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together.

Sir To. Will you help ?-An ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave? a thin-faced knave, a gull?

Oli. Get him to bed and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW. Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your kins

man;

But, had it been the brother of my blood,

I must have done no less, with wit and safety.
You throw a strange regard upon me, and

Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my By that I do perceive it hath offended you;

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Duke. My gentleman, Cesario?

Sir And. Od's lifelings, here he is :-You broke my head for nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by Sir Toby.

Vio. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you: You drew your sword upon me, without cause; But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not.

Sir And. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; I think you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb.

1 i. e. suppress, or disown thy property.

2 In ancient espousals the man received as well as gave a ring.

3 So, in Cary's Present State of England, 1626. Queen Elizabeth asked a knight named Young, how he liked a company of brave ladies? He answered, as I like my silver haired conies at home, the cases are far better than the bodies.'

+ Otherways.

5 The parin was a grave Spanish dance. Sir John Hawkins derives it from pavo a peacock, and says that every pavin had its galliard, a lighter kind of air formed out of the former. Thus, in Middleton's More Dissemblers beside Women :

"I can dance nothing but ill favour'dly, A strain or two of passe measures gulliard. By which it appears that the passe measure puran, and the passe measure galliard were only two different measures of one dance. Sir Toby therefore means by this quaint expression that the surgeon is a rogue and a

Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows
We made each other but so late ago.

Duke. One face, one voice one habit, and two
persons;

A natural perspective, that is, and is not.
Seb. Antonio! O, my dear Antonio,
How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me,
Since I have lost thee.

Ant. Sebastian are you?

Seb.
Fear'st thou that, Antonio?
Ant. How have you made division of yourself?—
Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian?
An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin
Oli. Most wonderful!

Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother;
Nor can there be that deity in my nature,
Of here and every where. I had a sister,
Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd:→
of charity, what kin are you to me? [To VIOLA.
What countryman? what name? what parentage?
Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too,
So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

Seb.
A spirit I am, indeed;
But am in that dimension grossly clad,
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say-Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!

Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow.
Seb. And so had mine.

grave solemn corcomb. In the first act of the play he
has shown himself well acquainted with the various
kinds of dance. Shakspeare's characters are always
consistent, and even in drunkenness preserve the traits
of character which distinguished them when sober.
6 A perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted
the sight in any way. The severa. kinds in use in
Shakspeare's time are enumerated in Scot's Discoverie
of Witchcraft, 1584, b. xiii. c. 19, where that alluded to
by the Duke is thus described: There be glasses also
wherein one man may see another man's image and
not his own-that optical illusion may be meant, which
is called anamorphosis:- where that which is, is not,
or appears, in a different position, another thing. This
may also explain a passage in Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2:
'Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities
turned into a maid.' Vide also K. Richard II. Act ii. Sc.
1, and note there :

Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing, but confusion; ey'd awry
Distinguish form.'

7 Out of charity, tell me.

Vio. And died that day when Viola from her birth Had number'd thirteen years.

Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul!
He finished, indeed, his mortal act,
That day that made my sister thirteen years.
Vio. If nothing lets to make us happy both,
But this my masculine usurp'd attire,
Do not embrace me, till each circumstance
Of place, time, fortune, do cohere, and jump,
That I am Viola: which to confirm,
I'll bring you to a captain in this town,
Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help
I was preserv'd, to serve this noble count:
All the occurrence of my fortune since
Hath been between this lady, and this lord.
Seb. So comes it, lady, you have been mistook:
[To OLIVIA.

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.
Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood.—
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,
I shall have share in this most happy wreck:
Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times,

[TO VIOLA.

Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.
Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul,
As doth that orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night.

Duke.

Give me thy hand; And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action, Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit, A gentleman and follower of my lady's.

.

Oli. He shall enlarge him:-Fetch

hither:

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on,

To think me as well a sister as a wife,
One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.

Your master quits you [To VIOLA ;] and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettles of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time bo
Your master's mistress.

Oli.

A sister?-you are she.

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You must not now deny it is your hand,
Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrase;
You can say none of this: Well, grant it then,
Or say 'tis not your seal, nor your invention:
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
Malvolio To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Bade me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you,

And yet, alas, now I remember me,
They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.
Re-enter Clown, with a letter.

A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.-
How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do; he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it to you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered.

Cli. Open it, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman :-By the lord, Madam,— Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an hour ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you

must allow Vox.3

you,

sirrah.

4

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits. Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear. Oli. Read it [TO FABIAN. Fab. [Reads] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used Malvolio.

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Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people :

And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck," and gull,
That e'er invention played on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
And now I do bethink me, it was she
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand. -
First told me, thou wast mad: then cam'st in
smiling,

And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fab.

And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,
Good madam, hear me speak;
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Most freely I confess, myself, and Toby,
Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance ;10
We had conceiv'd against him: Maria writ
In recompense whereof, he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd,
That have on both sides past.

Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatthrown upon them. I ness, and some have greatness

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