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- Mal. I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my .familiar smile with an austere regard of controul:

Sir To. And does not Toby take you a blow o' the lips then?

Mal. Saying, Cousin Toby, my fortunes having cast me on your niece, give me this prerogative of speech:

Sir To. What, What?

Mal. You must amend your drunkenness.

Sir To. Out, scab!

Fab. Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot.

Mal. Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a foolish knight;

Sir And. That 's me, I warrant you.

Mal. One Sir Andrew:

Sir And. I knew t'was I; for many do call me fool.
Mal. What employment have we here?5

[Taking up the letter. Fab. Now is the woodcock near the gin. Sir To. O peace! and the spirit of humours intimate reading aloud to him!

Mal. By my life this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's her U's and her T's; and thus makes she her great P's. It is in contempt of question, her hand.

Sir And. Her C's her U's and her 7's: Why that?

the grounde with her fote, myndynge to spurre the horse; but her fote slypped and she fell in the dych, and there laye all her mylke; and so she was farre from her purpose, and neuer had that she hopid to haue." Dial. 100, LL. ii, b. Steevens.

What employment have we here?] A phrase of that time, equivalent to our common specch-What's to do bere. Warburton,

6 ber great P's.] In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found.

Steevens.

I am afraid some very coarse and vulgar appellations are meant to be alluded to by these capital letters. Blackstone.

This was perhaps an oversight in Shakspeare; or rather, for the sake of the allusion hinted at in the preceding note, he chose" not to attend to the words of the direction. It is remarkable, that in the repetition of the passages in letters, which have been produced in a former part of a play, he very often makes! his characters deviate from the words before used, though they? have the paper itself in their hands, and though they appear to

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Mal. I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of controul:

Sir To. And does not Toby take you a blow o' the lips then?

Mal. Saying, Cousin Toby, my fortunes having cast me on your niece, give me this prerogative of speech:

Sir To. What, What?

Mal. You must amend your drunkenness.

Sir To. Out, scab!

Fab. Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot.

Mal. Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a foolish knight;

Sir And. That 's me, I warrant you.

Mal. One Sir Andrew:

Sir And. I knew t'was I; for many do call me fool.
Mal. What employment have we here?5

[Taking up the letter. Fab. Now is the woodcock near the gin. Sir To. O peace! and the spirit of humours intimate reading aloud to him!

Mal. By my life this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's her U's and her T's; and thus makes she her great P's. It is in contempt of question, her hand.

Sir And. Her C's her U's and her 7's: Why that?

the grounde with her fote, myndynge to spurre the horse; but her fote slypped and she fell in the dych, and there laye all her mylke; and so she was farre from her purpose, and neuer had that she hopid to haue." Dial. 100, LL. ii, b. Steevens.

What employment have we here?] A phrase of that time, equivalent to our common speech-What's to do here.

Warburton.

her great P's.] In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found.

I am afraid some very coarse and vulgar appellations are meant Steevens. to be alluded to by these capital letters. Blackstone.

This was perhaps an oversight in Shakspeare; or rather, for the sake of the allusion hinted at in the preceding note, he chose not to attend to the words of the direction. It is remarkable, that in the repetition of the passages in letters, which have) been produced in a former part of a play, he very often makes his characters deviate from the words before used, though they? have the paper itself in their hands, and though they appear to

ปี 2

Mal. [reads] To the unknown beloved, this, and my good wishes: her very phrases!-By your leave, wax. Soft!and the impressure her Lucrece, with which she uses to seal: 'tis my lady: To whom should this be?

Fab. This wins him, liver and all.

Mal. [reads] Jove knows I love:

But who?

Lips do not move,

No man must know.

No man must know.-What follows? the numbers altered! No man must know:-If this should be thee, Malvolio?

recite, not the substance, but the very words. So, in All's well ibat ends well, Act V, Helen says:

here 's your letter; This it says:

"When from my finger you can get this ring,
"And are by me with child;".

yet in Act III, sc. ii, she reads this very letter aloud; and there
the words are different, and in plain prose:
"When thou canst
get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and
shew me a child begotten of thy body," &c. Had she spoken
in either case from memory, the deviation might easily be no.
counted for; but in both these places, she reads the words from
Bertram's letter. Malone.

From the usual custom of Shakspeare's age, we may easily suppose the whole direction to have run thus: "To the Unknown belov'd, this, and my good wishes, with Care Present.” Ritson

7

See

By your leave, wax.-Soft!] It was the custom in our poct's time to seal letters with soft wax, which retained its softness for a good while. The wax used at present would have Been hardened long before Malvolio picked up this letter. Your Five Gallants, a comedy, by Middleton: "Fetch a pennyworth of soft wax to scal letters." So, Falstaff, in K. Henry IV, P. II: "I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him." Malone.

I do not suppose that-Soft! has any reference to the wax; but is merely an exclamation equivalent to Softly! i. c. be not in too much haste. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, se. i: "Soft! no haste." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Farewel. Yet soft!"

I may also observe, that though it was anciently the custom (as it still is) to seal certain legal instruments with soft and pliale wax, familiar letters (of which I have seen specimens from the time of K. Henry VI, to K. James 1,) were secured with wax as glossy and firm as that employed in the present year.

Steevens.

Sir To Marry, hang thee, brock!
Mal. I may command, where I adore:

But silence, like a Lucrece knife,

With bloodless stroke my heart doth gore ;
M, O, A, I, doth sway my life.

Fab. A fustian riddle!

Sir To. Excellent wench, say I.

Mal. M, O, A, I, doth sway my life.Nay, but first, let me see,-let me see,let me see.

Fab. What a dish of poison has she dress'd him! ' Sir To. And with what wing the stannyel1 checks at it!

Mal. I may command where I adore. Why, she may command me; I serve her, she is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal capacity. There is no bbstruction in this;-And the end;-What should that alphabetical position portend? if I could make that resemble something in me,-Softly!-M, O, A, I

brock! i. e. badger. He uses the word as a term of contempt, as if he had said, bang thee, cur! Out, filth! to stink like a brock being proverbial. Ritson."

Marry, bang thee, brock!] i. e. Marry, hang thee, thou wain, Conceited coxcomb, thou over-weening rogue!

· Brock, which properly signifies a badger, was used in this sense in Shakspeare's time. So, in The merrie conceited Fests of George Peele, 4to. 1657: "This self-conceited brock had George invited," &c. Malone.

9 doth sway my life.] This phrase is seriously employed in As you like it, Act III, sc. ii:

a

86 Thy huntress name, that my full life doth sway.”

Steevens

stannyel] The name of a kind of hawk is very judiciously put here for a stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Johnson. To check, says Latham, in his book of Falconry, is, "when crows, rooks, pics, or other birds, coming in view of the hawk, she forsaketh her natural flight, to fly at them." The stannyel is the common stone-hawk, which inhabits old buildings and rocks; in the north called stanchil. I have this information from Mr. Lambe's notes on the ancient metrical history of the battle of Floddon. Steevens.

2 -formal capacity.] i. e. any one in his senses, any one whose capacity is not dis-arranged, or out of form. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

Make of him a formal man again."

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"These informal women.” Steevens, i da vara

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