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 sight! Be not offended, dear Cesario :— my Rudesby, be gone!-I pr'ythee, gentle friend, Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway 5 Against thy peace. Go with me to my house; * In this uncivil and unjust extent-] Extent is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the King. It is therefore taken here for violence in general. JOHNSON. 5 This ruffian hath botch'd up,] A coarse expression for made up, as a bad tailor is called a botcher, and to botch is to make clumsily. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson is certainly right. A similar expression occurs in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 if you'll patch a quarrel, "As matter whole you've not to make it with.” Again, in King Henry V : "Do botch and bungle up damnation." STEEVENS. He started one poor heart of mine in thee.] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and hart. The sense however is easy enough. He that offends thee, attacks one of my hearts; or, as the ancients expressed it, half my heart. JOHNSON. The equivoque suggested by Dr. Johnson was, I have no doubt, intended. Heart in our author's time was frequently written hart; and Shakspeare delights in playing on these words. MALONE. SEB. What relish is in this? how runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream: OLI. Nay, come, I pr'ythee: 'Would thou'dst be rul❜d by me! 8 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 fat enough 7 What relish is in this?] judgment am I to make of it? How does this taste? What JOHNSON. 9sir Topas-] The name of Sir Topas is taken from Chaucer. STEEVENS. • I will dissemble myself-] i. e. disguise myself. MALONE. Shakspeare has here stumbled on a Latinism: Thus Ovid, speaking of Achilles : "Veste virum longa dissimulatus erat." STEEVENS. 1 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.2 The competitors enter.3 3 Enter Sir TOBY BELCH and MARIA. SIR TO. Jove bless thee, master parson. 4 CLO. Bonos dies, sir Toby: for. as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of king Gorboduc, That, that is, is: so I, being master parson, am master parson; For what is that, but that? and is, but is? 5 I am not fat enough to become the function well;] The old copy reads-tall enough: but this cannot be right. The word wanted should be part of the description of a careful man. I should have no objection to read-pale. TYRWHITT. Not tall enough, perhaps means not of sufficient height to overlook a pulpit. Dr. Farmer would read fat instead of tall, the former of these epithets, in his opinion, being referable to the following words-a good housekeeper. STEEVens. 2 as to say, a careful man, and a great scholar.] This refers to what went before: I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student: it is plain then Shakspeare wrote:-as to say a graceful man, i. e. comely. To this the Oxford editor says, recte. WARBURTON. A careful man, I believe, means a man who has such a regard for his character, as to intitle him to ordination. STEEVENS. 3 The competitors enter.] That is, the confederates or associates. The word competitor is used in the same sense in Richard III. and in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. M. MASON. the old hermit of Prague,] This refers to a real personage. STEEvens. very wittily said-That, that is, is:] This is a very humorous banter of the rules established in the schools, that all reasonings are ex præcognitis & præconcessis, which lay the 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? CLO. Sir Topas, the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatick. 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-windows' transparent as foundation of every science in these maxims, whatsoever is, is; and it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be; with much trifling of the like kind. WARBURTON. 6 that house-] That mansion, in which you are now confined. The Clown gives this pompous appellation to the small room in which Malvolio, we may suppose, was confined, to exasperate him. The word it in the Clown's next speech plainly means Malvolio's chamber, and confirms this interpretation. MALone. 7-it hath bay-windows-] A bay-window is the same" as a bow-window; a window in a recess, or bay. See A. Wood's Life, published by T. Hearne, 1730, p. 548 and 553. The following instances may likewise support the supposition: 8 barricadoes, and the clear stones towards the south-north are as lustrous as ebony; and yet complainest thou of obstruction? MAL. I am not mad, sir Topas; I this house is dark. say to you, CLO. Madman, thou errest: I say, there is no darkness, but ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled, than the Egyptians in their fog. 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." Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson, 1600: 66 retired myself into a bay-window," &c. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle of King Henry IV: As Tho. Montague rested him at a bay-window, a gun was levell'd," &c. Again, in Middleton's Women beware Women : "Tis a sweet recreation for a gentlewoman "To stand in a bay-window, and see gallants." Chaucer, in The Assemblie of Ladies, mentions bay-windows. Again, in King Henry the Sixth's Directions for building the Hall at King's College, Cambridge:-" on every side thereof a baie-window." STEEVens. See Minsheu's DICT. in v: "A bay-window,-because it is builded in manner of a baie or rode for shippes, that is, round. L. Cava fenestræ. G. Une fenestre sort anthors de la maison." MALONE. 8 the clear stones-] The old copy has-stores. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. And yet, says Mr. Malone, the second folio is not worth three shillings. STEEvens. constant question.] A settled, a determinate, a regular question. JOHNSON. Rather, in any regular conversation, for so generally Shakspeare uses the word question. MALONE. VOL. V. CC |