MAR. Will you hoist sail, sir? here lies your way. V10. No, good swabber; I am to hull here' a little longer. Some mollification for your giant,2 sweet lady. OLI. Tell me your mind. Again, in The Merchant of Venice: 66 take pain "To allay, with some cold drops of modesty, I am to hull here-] To hull means to drive to and fro upon the water, without sails or rudder. So, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 9th Book of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, p. 239: - fell to be drowsie and sleepie, and hulled to and fro with the waves, as if it had beene half dead." Again, in The Noble Soldier, 1634: 66 "That all these mischiefs hull with flagging sail." STEEVENS. some mollification for your giant,] Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome advances. Viola, seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant. JOHNSON. Viola likewise alludes to the diminutive size of Maria, who is called on subsequent occasions, little villain, youngest wren of nine, &c. STEEVENS. So, Falstaff to his page: 68 Sirrah, you giant," &c. K. Henry IV. P. II. Act I.' • Oli. Tell me your mind. MALONE. Vio. I am a messenger.] These words (which in the old copy are part of Viola's last speech) must be divided between the two speakers. Viola growing troublesome, Olivia would dismiss her, and therefore cuts her short with this command, Tell me your mind. The other, taking advantage of the ambiguity of the word mind, which signifies either business or inclination, replies as if she had used it in the latter sense, I am a messenger. WARBURTON. OLI. Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver, when the courtesy of it is so fearful. Speak your office. VIO. It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in my hand: my words are as full of peace as matter. OLI. Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you? VIO. The rudeness, that hath appear'd in me, have I learn'd from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would, are as secret as maiden, head to your ears, divinity; to any other's, prophanation. OLI. Give us the place alone: we will hear this divinity. [Exit MARIA.] Now, sir, what is text? V10. Most sweet lady,― your OLI. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it. Where lies your text? V10. In Orsino's bosom. OLI. In his bosom? In what chapter of his bosom? V10. To answer by the method, in the first of his heart. OLI. O, I have read it; it is heresy. Have you no more to say? V10. Good madam, let me see your face. OLI. Have you any commission from your lord to negociate with my face? you are now out of As a messenger, she was not to speak her own mind, but that of her employer. M. MASON. your text: but we will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture. Look you, sir, such a one as I was this present: Is't not well done? [Unveiling. V10. Excellently done, if God did all. OLI. 'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather. Look you, sir, such a one as I was this present: Is't not well done?] This is nonsense. The change of was to wear, I think, clears all up, and gives the expression an air of gallantry. Viola presses to see Olivia's face: The other at length pulls off her veil, and says: We will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture. I wear this complexion to-day, I may wear another to-morrow; jocularly intimating, that she painted. The other, vext at the jest, says, "Excellently done, if God did all." Perhaps, it may be true, what you say in jest; otherwise 'tis an excellent face. 'Tis in grain, &c. replies Olivia. WARBURTON. I am not satisfied with this emendation. We may read, "Such a one I was. This presence, is't not well done?" i. e. this mien, is it not happily represented? Similar phraseology occurs in Othello: "This fortification, shall we see it?" STEEVENS. This passage is nonsense as it stands, and necessarily requires some amendment. That proposed by Warburton would make sense of it; but then the allusion to a picture would be dropped, which began in the preceding part of the speech, and is carried on through those that follow. If we read presents instead of present, this allusion will be preserved, and the meaning will be clear. I have no doubt but the line should run thus: "Look you, sir, such as once I was, this presents," Presents means represents. So Hamlet calls the pictures he shews his mother: "The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." She had said before-" But we will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture;" and concludes with asking him, if it was well done. The same idea occurs in Troilus and Cressida, where Pandarus, taking off her veil, says: "Come draw this curtain, and let us see your picture." M. MASON. I suspect, the author intended that Olivia should again cover her face with her veil, before she speaks these words. MALONE. V10. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on: Lady, you are the cruel'st she alive, If you will lead these graces to the grave, OLI. O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty: It shall be inventoried; and every particle, and utensil, labelled to my will: as, item, two lips indifferent 5 'Tis beauty truly blent,] i. e. blended, mixed together. Blent is the ancient participle of the verb to blend. So, in A Looking Glass for London and England, 1617: 66 the beautiful encrease "Is wholly blent." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I. c. 6: 66 for having blent "My name with guile, and traiterous intent." 6 If you will lead these graces to the grave, STEEVENS. And leave the world no copy.] How much more elegantly is this thought expressed by Shakspeare, than by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Philaster: "I grieve such virtue should be laid in earth, Shakspeare has copied himself in his 11th Sonnet : "She carv'd thee for her seal, and meant thereby Again, in the 3d Sonnet: "Die single, and thine image dies with thee." Again, in his 9th Sonnet: die." STEEVENS. "Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die, "O that you were yourself! but, love, you are VOL. V. T MALONE. red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to 'praise me?" VIO. I see you what you are: you are too proud; But, if you were the devil, you are fair. My lord and master loves you; O, such love Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd The nonpareil of beauty! OLI. How does he love me? 8 VIO. With adorations, with fertile tears, With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.' 7 to 'praise me?] i. e. to appraise, or appretiate me. The foregoing words, schedules, and inventoried, shew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline: "I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items." MALONE. Malone's conjecture is ingenious, and I should have thought it the true reading, if the foregoing words, schedule and inventoried, had been used by Viola: but as it is Olivia herself who makes use of them, I believe the old reading is right, though Steevens has adopted that of Malone. Viola has extolled her beauty so highly, that Olivia asks, whether she was sent there on purpose to praise her. M. MASON. 8 with fertile tears,] With, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Pope to supply the metre. Tears is here used as a dissyllable, like fire, hour, swear, &c. "With adoration's fertile tears," i. e. with the copious tears that unbounded and adoring love pours forth. MALONE. To read tears as a dissyllable [i.e. tě-ars] at the end of a verse, is what no ancient examples have authorised, and no human ears can endure. STEEVENS. • With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.] This line is worthy of Dryden's Almanzor, and, if not said in mockery of amorous hyperboles, might be regarded as a ridicule on a passage in Chapman's translation of the first book of Homer, 1599: "Jove thunder'd out a sigh;" |
