6

Clo. Maintain no words with him, good fellow.Who, I, sir? not I, sir. God b' wi' you, good sir Topas.-Marry, amen.-I will, sir, I will.

Mal. Fool, fool, fool, I say,

Clo. Alas, sir, be patient. What say you, sir? I am shent for speaking to you.

Mal. Good fool, help me to some light, and some paper; I tell thee, I am as well in my wits, as any man in Illyria.

Clo. Well-a-day, that you were, sir!

Mal. By this hand, I am: Good fool, some ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will set down to my lady; it shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did.

Clo. I will help you to 't. But tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?

• Maintain no words with him,] Here the Clown in the dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.-I will, sir, I will, is spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered. Johnson.

7 I am shent &c.] i. e. scolded, reproved. So in Ascham's Report and Discourse: "A wonderfull follie in a great man himselfe, and some piece of miserie in a whole commonwealth, where fooles chiefly and flatterers may speake freely what they will; and wise men, and good men shall commonly be shent if they speak what they should." See also note on Hamlet, Act III, sc. ii. Reed.

8

tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?] If he was not mad, what did he counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, asks, are you mad, or do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman. Is your madness real, or have you any secret design in it? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt. Johnson.

The meaning of this passage appears to me to be this. Malvolio had assured the Clown that he was as well in his senses as any man in Illyria; and the Clown in reply, asks him this provoking question: "Is it true that you are really not mad?” that is, that you are really in your right senses, or do you only pretend to be so? M. Mason.

Dr. Johnson, in my apprehension, misinterprets the words, "do you but counterfeit?" They surely mean, "do you but counterfeit madness,” or, in other words, " assume the appearance of a madman, though not one." Our author ought, I think, to have written, either, " are you mad indeed, or do

Mal. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true.

Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman, till I see his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink. Mal. Fool, I'll requite it in the highest degree: I pr'ythee, be gone.

Clo.

I am gone sir,

And anon, sir,

I'll be with you again,

In a trice,

Like to the old vice,
Your need to sustain;

Who with dagger of lath
In his rage and his wrath,
Cries, ah, ha! to the devil:
Like a mad lad,

Pare thy nails, dad,
Adieu, goodman drivel.1

[Exit.

you but counterfeit?" or else, ". - are you not not mad indeed, and do you but counterfeit?" But I do not suspect any corruption; for the last I have no doubt was what he meant, though he has not expressed his meaning accurately. He is often careless in such minute matters. Mr. Mason's interpretation removes the difficulty; but, considering the words that immediately precede, is very harsh, and appears to be inadmissible. Malone.

9 Like to the old vice,] The vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preseved in puppet-shows, and by country mummers. Johnson.

This character was always acted in a mask; it probably had its name from the old French word vis, for which they now use visage, though they still retain it in vis à vis, which is, literally, face to face. Steevens.

1 Adieu, goodman drivel.] This last line has neither rhyme nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates Malvolio's name, and says:

Adieu, goodman mean-evil. Johnson.

We have here another old catch; apparently, I think, not of Shakspeare. I am therefore willing to receive the common reading of the last line:

Adieu, goodman drivel.

The name of Malvolio seems to have been formed by an accidental transposition in the word, Malivolo.

I know not whether a part of the preceding line should not be thrown into a question, "pare thy nails, dad?"

In Henry V, we again meet with "this roaring devil i' th' old play; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger."

Farmer.

SCENE III.

Olivia's Garden.

Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. This is the air; that is the glorious sun;
This pearl she gave me, I do feel't, and see 't;
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:

Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.2

In the old translation of the Menæchmi, 1595, Menæchmus says to Peniculus: "Away, filthie mad drivell, away! I will talk no longer with thee." As I cannot suppose the author of this ballad designed that devil should be the corresponding rhyme to devil, I read with Dr. Farmer, drivel. Steevens.

I believe, with Johnson, that this is an allusion to Malvolio's name, but not in his reading, which destroys the metre. should read

Adieu, good mean-evil:

that is, good Malvolio, literally translated.

M. Mason.

We

The last two lines of this song have, I think, been misunderstood. They are not addressed in the first instance to Malvolio, but are quoted by the Clown, as the words, ab, ba! are, as the usual address in the old Moralities to the Devil. I do not therefore suspect any corruption in the words "goodman Devil.” We have in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "No man means evil but the devil," and in Much Ado about Nothing, "God's a good man."

The compound, good-man, is again used adjectively, and as a word of contempt, in King Lear: "Part" (says Edmund to Kent and the Steward). "With you, (replies Kent,) good-man boy, if you please."

The reason why the Vice exhorts the Devil to pare his nails, is, because the Devil was supposed from choice to keep his nails always unpared, and therefore to pare them was an affront. So, in Camden's Remaines, 1615:

"I will follow mine own minde and mine old trade;
"Who shall let me? the divel's nailes are unparde.”

Malone.

2 Yet there he was; and there I found this credit, That he did range &c.] i. e. I found it justified, credibly vouched. Whether the word credit will easily carry this meaning, I am doubtful. The expression seems obscure; and though

His counsel now might do me golden service:
For though my soul disputes well with my sense,
That this may be some error, but no madness,

I have not disturbed the text, I very much suspect that the poet

wrote:

and there I found this credent.

He uses the same term again in the very same sense in The Winter's Tale:

"Then 'tis very credent,

"Thou may'st cojoin with something, and thou dost," &c.

Theobald. Credit, for account, information. The Oxford editor roundly alters it to current; as he does almost every word that Shakspeare uses in an anomalous signification. Warburton.

Theobald proposes to read credent, but credent does not signify justified or vouched; it means probable only, as appears from the passage he himself has quoted. Warburton says, that credit means account or information; but as I know no instance of the word's being used in that acceptation, I believe we should read, credited instead of credit. M. Mason.

Credent is creditable, not questionable. So, in Measure for Measure, Angelo says:

"For my authority bears a credent bulk." Steevens. Perhaps credit is here used for credited. So, in the first scene of this play, beat for heated; and in Hamlet, hoist for hoisted. Malone.

After all, I belive the word-credit, to have been rightly understood by Dr. Warburton, though he has given no example in support of his interpretation.

Dr. Robertson, speaking of some memorandums included in the Letters to Mary Queen of Scots, observes, that they were not "the credit of the bearer;" i. e. points concerning which the Queen had given him verbal instructions, or information. Credit therefore might have been the prevalent term for oral intelligence.

Again, in Mr. Whitaker's Vindication of the same Queen, Vol. II, p. 145: " - these are expressly understood from the makers of the letters themselves, when they produced them at York to be the credit gifin to the berar.' This mode of referring to the credit of a bearer was no uncommon one in those times."

In this sense also it occurs in the fragment of a Letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to Queen Elizabeth. See Lodge's Illustrations, &c. Vol. II, p. 129: " and because Mr. Beale hys credyt ys wth yor Mate to make accompt of hyr ansure, and delyngs the Freche have had here, I leave all to hys reporte." See also Letter XXXIII in the Paston Collection, Vol. II, p. 41, in which credence appears to have the same meaning. Again, ibid. p. 331. Steevens.

Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,3
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes,

And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me
To any other trust, but that I am mad,

4

Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so,

She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take, and give back, affairs, and their despatch,
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing,
As, I perceive, she does: there's something in 't,
That is deceivable." But here comes the lady."

Enter OLIVIA and a Priest.

Oli. Blame not this haste of mine: If you mean well,

Now go with me, and with this holy man,
Into the chantry by:7 there, before him,
And underneath that consecrated roof,
Plight me the full assurance of your faith;
That my most jealous and too doubtful soul
May live at peace: He shall conceal it,
Whiles you are willing it shall come to note;

3 all instance, all discourse,] Discourse, for reason. Warburton.

Instance is example. Johnson.

4 To any other trust,] To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion. Johnson.

5 deceivable.] Our author licentiously uses this word for deceptious. Malone.

6 That is deceivable. But here comes the lady.] The old copy reads:

66 But here the lady comes."

Steevens.

7 Into the chantry by:] Chantries (says Cowel, in his Law Dictionary) are usually little chapels, or particular altars, in some cathedral or parochial church; and endowed with revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests, whose office it is to sing masses for the souls of their founders, &c. Steevens.

8 Whiles] is until. This word is still so used in the northern counties. It is, I think, used in this sense in the preface to the Accidence. Johnson,

Almost throughout the old copies of Shakspeare, whiles is given us instead of while. Mr. Rowe, the first reformer of his spelling, made the change. Steevens.