Enter MALVOLIO. How now, Malvolio? MAL. Sweet lady, ho, ho. [Smiles fantastically. OLI. Smil'st thou? I sent for thee upon a sad occasion. MAL. Sad, lady? I could be sad: This does make some obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering; But what of that, if it please the eye of one, it is with me as the very true sonnet is: Please one, and please all. OLI. Why, how dost thou, man? what is the matter with thee? MAL. Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs: It did come to his hands, and commands shall be executed. I think, we do know the sweet Roman hand. OLI. Wilt thou go to bed, Malvolio? MAL. To bed? ay, sweet-heart; and I'll come to thee. OLI. God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so oft ?6 · MAR. How do you, Malvolio? MAL. At your request? Yes; Nightingales answer daws. 6 kiss thy hand so oft?] This fantastical custom is taken notice of by Barnaby Riche, in Faults and nothing but Faults, 4to. 1606, p. 6: "—and these Flowers of Courtesie, as they are full of affectation, so are they no less formall in their speeches, full of fustian phrases, many times delivering such sentences, as do betray and lay open their masters' ignorance: and they are so frequent with the kisse on the hand, that word shall not passe their mouthes, till they have clapt their fingers over their lippes." REED. MAR. Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness before my lady? MAL. Be not afraid of greatness:-'Twas well writ. OLI. What meanest thou by that, Malvolio? OLI. Ha? MAL. Some achieve greatness,- MAL. And some have greatness thrust upon them. MAL. Remember, who commended thy yellow stockings ; OLI. Thy yellow stockings? MAL. And wished to see thee cross-gartered. OLI. Cross-gartered? MAL. Go to: thou art made, if thou desirest to be so ; OLI. Am I made?.. MAL. If not, let me see thee a servant still. OLI. Why, this is very midsummer madness." Enter Servant. SER. Madam, the young gentleman of the count Orsino's is returned; I could hardly entreat him back: he attends your ladyship's pleasure. midsummer madness.] Hot weather often hurts the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here. JOHNSON. 'Tis midsummer moon with you, is a proverb in Ray's Collection; signifying, you are mad. STEEVENS. OLI. I'll come to him. [Exit Servant.] Good Maria, let this fellow be looked to. Where's my cousin Toby? Let some of my people have a special care of him; I would not have him miscarry for the half of my dowry. [Exeunt OLIVIA and MARIA. 9 8 MAL. Oh, ho! do you come near me now? no worse man than sir Toby to look to me? This concurs directly with the letter: she sends him on purpose, that I may appear stubborn to him; for she incites me to that in the letter. Cast thy humble slough, says she;-be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants,-let thy tongue tang with arguments of state,-put thyself into the trick of singularity; -and, consequently, sets down the manner how; as, a sad face, a reverend carriage, a slow tongue, in the habit of some sir of note, and so forth. I have limed her; but it is Jove's doing, and Jove make me thankful! And, when she went away now, Let this fellow be looked to: Fellow! not Malvolio, nor after my degree, but fellow. Why, every thing adheres together; that 8 -be opposite with a kinsman,] Opposite, here, as in many other places, means-adverse, hostile. MALONE. So, in King Lear: 9 "Thou wast not bound to answer "An unknown opposite." STEEVENS. let thy tongue tang, &c.] Here the old copy readslanger; but it should be-tang, as I have corrected it from the letter which Malvolio reads in a former scene. The second folio reads-tang. TYRWHITT. STEEVENS. 1 I have limed her ;] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime. JOHNSON. Fellow!] This word, which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense. JOHNSON. no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle, no incredulous or unsafe circumstance,What can be said? Nothing, that can be, can come between me and the full prospect of my hopes. Well, Jove, not I, is the doer of this, and he is to be thanked. Re-enter MARIA, with Sir TOBY BELCH, and SIR TO. Which way is he, in the name of sanctity? If all the devils in hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possessed him, yet I'll speak to him. FAB. Here he is, here he is :-How is't with you, sir? how is't with you, man? MAL. Go off; I discard you; let me enjoy my private; go off. MAR. Lo, how hollow the fiend speaks within him! did not I tell you?-Sir Toby, my lady prays you to have a care of him. MAL. Ah, ha! does she so? SIR TO. Go to, go to; peace, peace, we must deal gently with him; let me alone. How do you, Malvolio? how is't with you? What, man! defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind.3 MAL. Do you know what you say? MAR. La you, an you speak ill of the devil, how he takes it at heart! Pray God, he be not bewitched! FAB. Carry his water to the wise woman. "Given to the common enemy of man," &c. STEEVENS. MAR. Marry, and it shall be done to-morrow morning, if I live. My lady would not lose him for more than I'll say. MAL. How now, mistress? MAR. O lord! SIR TO. Pr'ythee, hold thy peace; this is not the way: Do you not see, you move him? let me alone with him. FAB. No way but gentleness; gently, gently: the fiend is rough, and will not be roughly used. SIR TO. Why, how now, my bawcock? how dost thou, chuck? MAL. Sir? SIR TO. Ay, Biddy, come with me. What, man! 'tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit* with Satan: Hang him, foul collier!" MAR. Get him to say his prayers; good sir Toby, get him to pray. MAL. My prayers, minx? • — cherry-pit —] Cherry-pit is pitching cherry-stones into a little hole. Nash, speaking of the paint on ladies' faces, says: "You may play at cherry-pit in their cheeks." So, in a comedy called The Isle of Gulls, 1606: “ if she were here, I would have a bout at cobnut or cherry-pit." Again, in The Witch of Edmonton: "I have lov'd a witch ever since I play'd at cherrypit." STEEVEns. 5 Hang him, foul collier!] Collier was, in our author's time, a term of the highest reproach. So great were the impositions practised by the venders of coals, that R. Greene, at the conclusion of his Notable Discovery of Cozenage, 1592, has published what he calls, A pleasant Discovery of the Cosenage of Colliers. STEEVENS. The devil is called Collier for his blackness: Like Will to like, quoth the Devil to the Collier. JOHNSON. |
