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.5 -God bless thee, lady! 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 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, -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. 7 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. 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? 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.8 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!" 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. 8 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. OLI. Who of my people hold him in delay? OLI. Fetch him off, I pray you; he speaks nothing but madman: Fye on him! [Exit MARIA.] Go you, Malvolio: if it be a suit from the count, I am sick, or not at home; what you will, to dismiss it. [Exit MALVOLIO.] Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, and people dislike it. CLO. Thou hast spoke for us, madonna, as if thy eldest son should be a fool: whose skull Jove cram with brains, for here he comes, one of thy kin, has a most weak pia mater.1 Enter Sir TOBY BELCH. OLI. By mine honour, half drunk.-What is he at the gate, cousin? SIR TO. A gentleman. OLI. A gentleman? What gentleman ? SIR TO. 'Tis a gentleman here2-A plague o'these pickle-herrings!-How now, sot? a most weak pia mater.] The pia mater is the membrane that immediately covers the substance of the brain. So, in Philemon Holland's Translation of Pliny's Natural History, Book XXIV. chap. 8: "the fine pellicle called pia mater, which lappeth and enfoldeth the braine." Edit. 1601, p. 185. STEEVENS. * 'Tis a gentleman here] He had before said it was a gentleman. He was asked, what gentleman? and he makes this reply; which, it is plain, is corrupt, and should be read thus: 'Tis a gentleman-heir. i. e. some lady's eldest son just come out of the nursery; for this was the appearance Viola made in men's clothes. See the character Malvolio draws of him presently after. WARBURTON. ✰ Can any thing be plainer than that Sir Toby was going to describe the gentleman, but was interrupted by the effects of his pickle-herring? I would print it as an imperfect sentence. Mr. Edwards has the same observation. STEEVENS. 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.8 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!" 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. 8 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. |