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MAR. Make that good.

CLO. He shall see none to fear.

MAR. A good lenten answer: I can tell thee where that saying was born, of, I fear no colours. CLO. Where, good mistress Mary?

MAR. In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery.

CLO. Well, God give them wisdom, that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.

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MAR. Yet you will be hanged, for being so long absent: or, to be turned away; is not that as good as a hanging to you?

CLO. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and, for turning away, let summer bear

it out.3

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Sej. You minister to a royal lady then? "Eud. She is, my lord, and fair.

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Sej. That's understood

"Of all their sex, who are or would be so;

"And those that would be, physick soon can make 'em : "For those that are, their beauties fear no colours." Again, in The Two angry Women of Abingdon, 1599:

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answer.

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are you disposed, sir?

"Yes indeed: I fear no colours; change sides, Richard." STEEVENS.

-lenten answer :] A lean, or as we now call it, a dry

JOHNSON.

Surely a lenten answer, rather means a short and spare one, like the commons in Lent. So, in Hamlet : 66 - what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you." STEEVENS. or, to be turned away;] The editor of the second folio omitted the word to, in which he has been followed by all subsequent editors. MALONE.

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and, for turning away, let summer bear it out.] This seems to be a pun from the nearness in the pronunciation of turning away and turning of whey.

MAR. You are resolute then?

CLO. Not so neither; but I am resolved on two points.

MAR. That, if one break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall.

CLO. Apt, in good faith; very apt! Well, go thy way; if sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria.

MAR. Peace, you rogue, no more o' that; here comes my lady: make your excuse wisely, you were best. [Exit.

I found this observation among some papers of the late Dr. Letherland, for the perusal of which, I am happy to have an opportunity of returning my particular thanks to Mr. Glover, the author of Medea and Leonidas, by whom, before, I had been obliged only in common with the rest of the world.

I am yet of opinion that this note, however specious, is wrong, the literal meaning being easy and apposite. For turning away, let summer bear it out. It is common for unsettled and vagrant serving-men, to grow negligent of their business towards summer; and the sense of the passage is: "If I am turned away, the advantages of the approaching summer will bear out, or support all the inconveniencies of dismission; for I shall find employment in every field, and lodging under every hedge."

STEEVENS.

if one (point) break,] Points were metal hooks, fastened to the hose or breeches, (which had then no opening or buttons,) and going into straps or eyes fixed to the doublet, and thereby keeping the hose from falling down. BLACKSTONE.

So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "Their points being broken,— down fell their hose." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

mingle eyes

"With one that ties his points?" STEEVENS.

Enter OLIVIA, and MALVOLIO.

CLO. Wit, and't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man: For what says Quinapalus? Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. -God bless thee, lady!

OLI. Take the fool away.

CLO. Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady.

OLI. Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides, you grow you grow dishonest.

CLO. Two faults, madonna," that drink and good counsel will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry; bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him : Any thing, that's mended, is but patched :' virtue, that transgresses, is but patched with sin; and sin, that amends, is but patched with virtue: If that this simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not, What remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so beauty's a flower:-the lady bade take away the fool; therefore, I say again, take her away. OLI. Sir, I bade them take away you.

5 Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.] Hall, in his Chronicle, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says: "that he knows not whether to call him a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man." JOHNSON.

6 — madonna,] Ital. mistress, dame. So, La madonna, by way of pre-eminence, the Blessed Virgin. STEEVENS.

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Any thing, that's mended, is but patched:] Alluding to the patched or particoloured garment of the fool. MALONE.

CLO. Misprision in the highest degree!-Lady, Cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much as to say, I wear not motley in my brain. Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. OLI. Can you do it?

CLO. Dexteriously, good madonna.
OLI. Make your proof.

CLO. I must catechize you for it, madonna ; Good my mouse of virtue, answer me.

OLI. Well, sir, for want of other idleness, I'll 'bide your proof.

CLO. Good madonna, why mourn'st thou ?
OLI. Good fool, for my brother's death.
CLO. I think, his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLI. I know his soul is in heaven, fool.

CLO. The more fool you, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven.-Take away the fool, gentlemen.

OLI. What think you of this fool, Malvolio? doth he not mend?

MAL. Yes; and shall do, till the pangs of death shake him: Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool.

CLO. God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the better encreasing your folly! Sir Toby will be sworn, that I am no fox; but he will not pass his word for two-pence that you are no fool.

OLI. How say you to that, Malvolio?

MAL. I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal; I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool, that has no more brain than a stone. Look you now, he's out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion

to him, he is gagged. I protest, I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies.R

OLI. O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts, that you deem cannon-bullets: There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove. CLO. Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou speakest well of fools!9

Re-enter MARIA.

MAR. Madam, there is at the gate a young gentleman, much desires to speak with you.

OLI. From the count Orsino, is it?

MAR. I know not, madam; 'tis a fair young man, and well attended.

no better than the fools' zanies.] i. e. fools' baubles, which had upon the top of them the head of a fool. DOUCE.

9 Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou speakest well of fools!] This is a stupid blunder. We should read, with pleasing, i. e. with eloquence, make thee a gracious and powerful speaker, for Mercury was the god of orators as well as cheats. But the first editors, who did not understand the phrase, endue thee with pleasing, made this foolish correction; more excusable, however, than the last editor's, who, when this emendation was pointed out to him, would make one of his own; and so, in his Oxford edition, reads, with learning; without troubling himself to satisfy the reader how the first editor should blunder in a word so easy to be understood as learning, though they well might in the word pleasing, as it is used in this place.

WARBURTON,

I think the present reading more humorous: May Mercury teach thee to lie, since thou liest in favour of fools! JOHNSON.

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