OLI. Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love him: Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble, I would not understand it. OLI. Why, what would you? V10. Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons of contemned love,2 And sing them loud even in the dead of night; Or, on another in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592: "The winds of my deepe sighes "That thunder still for noughts," &c. STEEVEns. So, in our author's Lover's Complaint: "O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly!" MALONE. MALONE. 1 In voices well divulg'd,] Well spoken of by the world. So, in Timon: "Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world * Write loyal cantons of contemned love,] The old copy has cantons; which Mr. Capell, who appears to have been entirely unacquainted with our ancient language, has changed into canzons.-There is no need of alteration. Canton was used for canto in our author's time. So, in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605: "What-do-you-call-him has it there in his third canton." Again, in Heywood's Preface to Britaynes Troy, 1609; "in the judicial perusal of these few cantons," &c. MALONE. Holla your name to the reverberate hills," OLI. You might do much: What is your parentage? V10. Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: I am a gentleman. Get you to OLI. your lord; I cannot love him: let him send no more; Unless, perchance, you come to me again, To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well: I thank you for your pains spend this for me. V10. I am no fee'd post," lady: keep your purse; My master, not myself, lacks recompense. Love make his heart of flint, that you shall love; And let your fervour, like my master's, be Plac'd in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty. [Exit. OLI. What is your parentage? › Holla your name to the reverberate hills,] I have corrected, reverberant. THEOBALD. Mr. Upton well observes, that Shakspeare frequently uses the adjective passive, actively. Theobald's emendation is therefore unnecessary. B. Jonson, in one of his masques at court, says: -which skill, Pythagoras 66 "First taught to men by a reverberate glass." STEEVENS. Johnson, in his Dictionary, adopted Theobald's correction. But the following line from T. Heywood's Troja Britannica, 1609, canto xi. st. 9, shows that the original text should be preserved: "Give shrill reverberat echoes and rebounds." the babbling gossip of the air-]] A most beautiful expression for an echo. DOUCE. 5 I am no fee'd post,] Post, in our author's time, signified a messenger. MALONE. Above my fortunes, yet my state is well : I am a gentleman.- -I'll be sworn thou art; Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, Do give thee five-fold blazon:-Not too fast:soft! soft! Unless the master were the man."-How now? Το creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.- MAL. Re-enter MALVOLIO. Here, madam, at your service. OLI. Run after that same peevish messenger, The county's man: he left this ring behind him, Would I, or not; tell him, I'll none of it. Desire him not to flatter with his lord, 8 Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him: If that the youth will come this way to-morrow, I'll give him reasons for't. Hie thee, Malvolio. soft! soft! Unless the master were the man.] Unless the dignity of the master were added to the merit of the servant, I shall go too far, and disgrace myself. Let me stop in time. MALONE. Perhaps she means to check herself by observing,―This is unbecoming forwardness on my part, unless I were as much in love with the master as I am with the man. STEEVENS. 7 The county's man :] County and count in old language were synonymous. The old copy has countes, which may be right: the Saxon genitive case. MALONE. 8 to flatter with his lord,] This was the phraseology of the time. So, in King Richard II: "Shall dying men flatter with those that live." Many more instances might be added. MALONE. MAL. Madam, I will. [Exit. OLI. I do I know not what: and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. Fate, shew thy force: Ourselves we do not owe;' What is decreed, must be; and be this so! [Exit. 9 Mine eye &c.] I believe the meaning is; I am not mistress of my own actions; I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love. JOHNSON. Johnson's explanation of this passage is evidently wrong. It would be strange indeed if Olivia should say, that she feared her eyes would betray her passion, and flatter the youth, without her consent, with a discovery of her love, after she had actually sent him a ring, which must have discovered her passion more strongly, and was sent for that very purpose.-The true meaning appears to me to be thus: She fears that her eyes had formed so flattering an idea of Cesario, that she should not have strength of mind sufficient to resist the impression. She has just before said: "Methinks, I feel this youth's perfections, "To creep in at mine eyes." Which confirms my explanation of this passage. M. MASON. I think the meaning is, I fear that my eyes will seduce my understanding; that I am indulging a passion for this beautiful youth, which my reason cannot approve. MALONE. 1 Ourselves we do not owe ;] i. e. we are not our own masters. We cannot govern ourselves. So, in Macbeth : the disposition that I owe;" i. e. own, possess. 66 STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE I. The Sea-coast. Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN. ANT. Will you stay no longer? nor will you not, that I go with you? SEB. By your patience, no: my stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave, that I may bear my evils alone: It were a bad recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you. ANT. Let me yet know of you, whither bound. you are SEB. No, 'sooth, sir; my determinate voyage is mere extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express myself. You must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, which I called Rodorigo; my father was that Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know, you have heard of: he left behind him, myself, and a sister, both born in an hour. If the 2 -to express myself.] That is, to reveal myself. JOHNSON. Messaline,] Sir Thomas Hanmer very judiciously offers to read Metelin, an island in the Archipelago; but Shakspeare knew little of geography, and was not at all solicitous about orthographical nicety. The same mistake occurs in the concluding scene of the play: "Of Messaline; Sebastian was my father." STEEVENS. |
