Oli. Away with him! Who hath made this havoc with

them?

Sir And. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dress'd together.

Sir To. Will you help?-An ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave! a thin-fac'd knave, a gull!

Oli. Get him to bed, and let his hurt be look'd to.

[Exeunt Clown, FAB., Sir To., and Sir AND.

Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. I'm sorry, Madam, I have hurt

your

But, had it been the brother of my blood,

kinsman;

I must have done no less, with wit and safety.
You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that
I do perceive it hath offended

you:

Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows

We made each other but so late ago.

Duke. One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons

14

A natural perspective, that is and is not!

Seb. Antonio, O my dear Antonio!

How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me,15

Since I have lost thee!

... Sebastian are you?

Seb.

Fear'st thou that, Antonio?

Ant. How have you made division of yourself? -
An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin
Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian?
Oli. Most wonderful!

Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother;
Nor can there be that deity in my nature,
Of here and everywhere. I had a sister,
Whon. the blind waves and surges have devour'd.—
[To VIO.] Of charity, what kin are you to me?
What countryman? what name? what parentage?
Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too;
So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

14 A perspective formerly meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way. The several kinds used in Shakespeare's time are enumerated in Scot's Dis coverie of Witchcraft, 1584, where that alluded to by the Duke is thus described: "There be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's image and not his own," where that which is, is not; or appears, in a dif ferent position. another thing.

15 The Poet uses hour, fire, and many others as words of one syllabie or two, as may best suit his verse In this place hours is a dissyllable.

Seb.
A spirit I am, indeed;
But am in that dimension grossly clad,
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say
Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!
Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow.
Seb. And so had mine.

Vio. And died that day when Viola from her birth
Had number'd thirteen years.

Seb. O, that recórd is lively in my soul!

He finished, indeed, his mortal act

That day that made my sister thirteen years.

Vio. If nothing lets to make us happy both 16 But this my masculine usurp'd attire,

Do not embrace me till each circumstance

Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump,'
That I am Viola: which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a Captain's in this town,

17

Where lie my maid's weeds; by whose gentle help
I was preferr'd to serve this noble Count. 18

All the occurrence of my fortune since

Hath been between this lady and this lord.

Seb. [To OLI.] So comes it, lady, you have beer nis took; 19

But Nature to her bias drew in that.

You would have been contracted to a maid;

Nor are you therein, by my life, deceiv'd:
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.?

20

Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood.

If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

I shall have share in this most happy wreck.

[To Vio.] Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times Thou never should'st love woman like to me.

Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;

And all those swearings keep as true in soul

1 Let, often used in the English Bible, but now obsolete, is an old werd for hinder or prevent.

17 The Poet in several instances has jump in the sense of agree with, or suit.

18 Prefer was often used in the sense of recommend. The original has preserv'd here. Corrected by Theobald.

19 To be mistook was sometimes used, as to be mistaken now is, in the sense of making a mistake. The mistake Olivia has made is in being betrothed to Sebastian instead of Viola; but this was owing to the bias or predisposition of Nature, who would not have a woman betrothed to a

Woman.

20 Sebastian applies the term maid apparently to himself, in the sense of virgin. And why not maiden man as well as maiden sword or maiden speech ľ

As doth that orbed continent the fire

That severs day from night.

Duke.

Give me thy hand;

And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.

Vio. The Captain that did bring me first on shore
Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action,
Is now in durance at Malvolio's suit,

A gentleman and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He shall enlarge him. - Fetch Malvolio hither :And yet, alas, now I remember me,

They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.

Re-enter the Clown with a Letter, and FABIAN.

A most extracting frenzy of mine own

22

From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.
How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, Madam, he holds Beelzebub at the stave's end as well as a man in his case may do. H' 'as here writ a letter to you: I should have given 't you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much 23 when they are deliver❜d.

Oli. Open't, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edified when the Fool delivers the Madman.[Reads.] By the Lord, Madam,

Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, Madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.24

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i' thy right wits.

Clo. So I do, Madonna; but to read his right wits is to read thus therefore perpend," my Princess, and give ear. Oli. [To FABIAN.] Read it you, sirrah.

Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, Madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it. Though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-us'd

MALVOLIO.

21 Continent formerly meant any thing that contains. 22 Extracting has the sen-e of distracting here, and some would change the ex into dis; an unwarrantable modernizing of the Poet's language.

23 A common expression in the Poet's time, meaning it signifies not much.

24 If you would have the letter read in character, you must allow me to assume the voice or frantic tone of a madman.

25 Perpead is consider or weigh.

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, Madam.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.

Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither.

[Exit FABIAN.

My lord, so please you (these things further thought on)
To think me as well a sister as a wife,

One day shall crown th' alliance on's, so please you,

Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt t' embrace your offer.

[To Vio.] Your master quits you; and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand: you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Re-enter FABIAN, with MALVOLIO.

Duke. Is this the madman?

Oli.

How now, Malvolio!

Mal.

Notorious wrong.

Oli.

Ay, my lord, this same.

Madam, you have done me wrong,

Have I, Malvolio? no.

Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: You must not now deny it is your hand;

Write from it,26 if you can, in hand or phrase;

Or

say 'tis not your seal, nor your invention:

You can say none of this. Well, grant it then;
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of favour;
Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:

28 Write differently from it. We have similar phraseology in common

use; as, "His speaking was from the purpose."

27 Geck is from the Saxon geac, a cuckoo, and here means a fool.

But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

First told me thou wast mad: thou cam'st in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fab.

Good Madam, hear me speak;

And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,

Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceiv'd in him: Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance; 28
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd
That have on both sides pass'd.

Oli. Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee! 29

Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them. I was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir; but that's all one. By the Lord, Fool, I am not mad. But do you remember? Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's gagg'd. And thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges.

Mal. I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you.
Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace:-
He hath not told us of the Captain yet:

When that is known, and golden time convents,
A solemn combination shall be made

Of our dear souls.

Meantime, sweet sister, We will not part from hence.. Cesario, come;

For so you shall be while you are a man;

But, when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen.

30

28 Importance for importunity. So, in King Lear, iv. 4: great France my mourning and important tears hath pitied."

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

"Therefore

29 To treat with mockery or insult, to run a rig upon, and to make a butt

of, are among the old senses of baffle."

30 Convents is agrees or comes fit; a Latinism.