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NOTES ON TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,

WHAT YOU WILL.

p. 155.

ACT FIRST.

SCENE I.

like the sweet sound": -Thus the original. Rowe read "the sweet wind," and Pope and Pope "the sweet south,” which latter reading has hitherto been followed by every editor except Mr. Knight. It is not easy to discover the supposed difficulty in the original text, in which the effect, that is, the sweet sound, is by a beautiful metonymy put for the cause- the wind. Mr. Knight remarks that the question between 'sound' and 'south' is, which is the better word?" There is no such question admissible. If in the place of 'sound' there were some word without meaning, or even with a meaning incongruous with the tone of the passage, and sound' and 'south' were proposed as substitutes, then, indeed, there would be a question as to which is the better word. But 'sound' appears in the authentic text, and, to say the least, is comprehensible and appropriate, and is therefore not to be disturbed, except by those who hold that Shakespeare must have written that which they think best. But did Pope, or the editors who have followed him, ever lie musing on the sward at the edge of a wood, and hear the low, sweet hum of the summer air, as it kissed the coyly-shrinking wild flowers upon the banks, and passed on, loaded with fragrance from the sweet salute? If they ever did, how could they make this change of 'sound' to 'south'? and if they never did, they are unable to entirely appreciate the passage, much less to improve it. Shakespeare never makes the south an odorbringing wind. He speaks only of "the foggy south," "the contagion of the south," "the spungy south," "the dew-dropping south:" expressions, these, not at all descriptive of the wind that was sighing through the memory of the lovesick Duke.

VOL. V. .

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p. 156.

p. 157.

"And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds" :— The allusion is to Acteon, who, while returning from the chase, surprised Diana bathing, and being changed by her into a stag, was in that condition chased and brought down by his own hounds.

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the flock of all affections : • Flock' is used here merely as a collective noun.

"Her sweet perfections, with one self king!" — This passage is, perhaps, somewhat obscured by the interjec tional clause her sweet perfections," which, however, must be taken as an allusion to the sovereign thrones above enumerated, or, in other words, to all Olivia's natural qualities. The liver, brain, and heart were thought to be, respectively, the seats of passion, intelligence, and sentiment. The second folio has "self-same king," which has been very generally adopted; but it is one of the modernizations of that edition. Self' was used in the sense afterward confined to 'self-same;' as, for instance, "In this self place where now we mean to stand." 3 Henry VI., Act III. Sc. 1. In my minde, you give diuerse names to one selfe thing." Guazzo's Civile Conversation, 1586, fol. 37. Perfections' is here a word of four syllables. For its use in the sense which it has here, See 3 Henry VI., Act III. Sc. 2:

"Her looks do argue her replete with modesty;

Her words do shew her wit incomparable;

All her perfections challenge sovereignty.”

SCENE II.

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and those poor number saved with you : Here 'number' is used as a plural; as if the phrase were those poor people.' Hitherto in modern editions'sa-ved' has been printed sav'd, although the word is not contracted in the original. This destroys the natural rhythm, which throws the accent on with' instead of you,' and, by reducing the line to ten alternately unaccented and accented syllables, substitutes a formal verse for one much more in Shakespeare's free and masterly style.

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"A noble duke, in nature as in name": - an allusion to the great Italian family, the Orsini, with whose position Shakespeare might have been made acquainted by some of his travelled friends.

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p. 158.

p. 159.

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But as this gives us one line of eight syllables and the next of fourteen, and as it inverts the logical order of the thought, and produces an anti-climax, it may fairly be presumed that, as Hanmer suggested, sight' and 'company' became accidentally transposed.

"And might not be delivered" : In previous modern editions this word has been contracted, deliver'd;' and thus the variety of a rhythm, often introduced by Shake speare in the third foot, has been lost.

SCENE III.

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let her except before excepted": cal use of a law phrase-meaning, those things being excepted which were before excepted,' which is one of the numberless evidences of Shakespeare's familiarity with the forms of that profession.

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th' viol-de-gamboys":- The viol da gamba, which has been supplanted by the violoncello, was so called because it was, like the latter instrument, held between the legs - gamba being Italian for 'leg.' It was much in fashion among the complete men of Shakespeare's day. Sir Piercie Shafton longs for his, to the delectation of Mary Avenel.

that is, the gust he hath in quarrelling": 'the taste he hath for quarrelling'-gusto being Italian for taste.'

"a coward, and a coystril” : — Coystrils or coistrells were the followers of an army, its unwarlike attendants. Tollet says a coystril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them.

like a parish top":- It was common to have a large whipping top for the amusement of the people of a parish at a period when much time was spent in healthful sport and none in reading foolish fiction, prurient police reports, and the wordy bickerings of party politics.

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"What, wench! Castiliano-vulgo" jectured that "we should read volto. In English, put on your Castilian countenance; that is, your grave, solemn looks." The remainder of the speech, "for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face," confirms the supposition that such is Sir Toby's meaning; but he was probably not up in his Italian, and the text need not be disturbed. Mr. Singer has pointed out a passage in Hall's Satires which confirms this interpretation:

p. 160.

p. 161.

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He can kiss his hand in gree,

And with good grace bow it below the knee, Or make a Spanish face, with fawning cheer," &c. "Accost, Sir Andrew, accost : This word was not often used in Shakespeare's time, and Sir Andrew might with probability be represented as ignorant of its meaning. "An thou let part so": - Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has "an thou let her part so," which is possibly the genuine But it was quite common in the dramatic literature of Shakespeare's time to leave a pronoun, about which there could be no doubt, to be understood.

text.

It's dry, sir" — : A dry hand was considered as an indication of a lack of manly vigor.

I'm a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit" : — This notion was entertained by some in Shakespeare's time, and had been broached before. "Galen affirmeth yt biefe maketh grosse bloude and engendreth melancholie, especially if it be much eaten, and if such as doe eat it be of melancholy complexion." The Hauen of Health, 4to. 1584, p. 114.

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it will not curl by nature":

The original has "cool my nature." The obvious correction was left for Theobald to make.

the Count himself":

It will be observed that Orsino is called both Duke and Count. This is probably the result of mere indifference on the part of the poet, who only wished to represent this personage as of high rank. But possibly the play was revised after it was first written, and a change made in the title, which was inadvertently left incomplete.

like Mistress Mall's picture": :-In Shakespeare's time it was the custom to hang curtains before pictures an illustration of which is found in the last Scene of this very play, where Olivia, unveiling, says to Viola, "we will draw the curtain and show you the picture.' Mistress Mall's (or Moll's) picture appears to be named merely as a type of female portraits, which were carefully preserved from dust - Mary being the commonest of all names for women. But the commentators find an allusion to a notorious thief and prostitute, contemporary with Shakespeare, whose name was Mary Frith, but who was known as Moll Cutpurse. She was at once a seeming hermaphrodite, a prostitute, a bawd, a fortuneteller, a bully, a thief, a receiver of stolen goods, and a forger, and gloried in having been the first woman in Europe to smoke tobacco. On the books of the Stationers' Com

p. 163.

pany, August, 1610, is entered A Booke called the Madde Prancks of Merry Mall of the Bankside, with her Walks in Man's Apparel, and to what Purpose. Written by John Day. Middleton and Decker wrote a comedy, of which she is the heroine, called The Roaring Girle, or Moll CutPurse; as it hath beene lately acted on the Fortune Stage, by the Prince his Players, 1611. (See Dyce's Edition of Middleton's Works, Vol. II. p. 423.) The frontispiece to it contains a full-length portrait of her in man's clothes, smoking tobacco. Nathaniel Field, in his Amends for Ladies, a play published in 1618, also describes her. She was born in 1584, and died in 1659. Thus notorious, it is possible that she is referred to in the passage under consideration, though there appears to be no necessity for supposing this to be the case; and her portrait would hardly be painted in a style to require the protection of a curtain, or she be referred to as Mistress Mall.

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go to church in a galliard," &c.: A galliard was a lively dance, "lighter and more stirring than the pavan;" the coranto was also a lively dance for two per"traversing and running like our country dance; a cinque-pace (which Sir Toby, for the sake of an obvious pun, calls sink-apace') was a dance the steps of which were regulated by the number five. The following passage from the first prefatory letter to Barnaby Rich's Farewell to Military Profession distinguishes the style of two of the dances. "Our galliardes are so curious, that thei are not for my daunsyng for thei are so full of trickes and tournes, that he whiche hath no more but the plaine sinquepace is no better accoumpted of than a verie bongler." P. 4, Shakespeare Society's Reprint.

“ ———— a damask-colour'd stock": The original has "a dam'd colour'd stock." Pope read "flame-colour'd," and Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has “dun-colour'd." Either color is appropriate; but not more so than damask,' (Mr. Knight's correction,) and the latter word conforms most nearly to the original text. Flame-color, however, seems to have been a common tint for outer garments of all sorts in Shakespeare's time, and long after. See the following among numerous instances in which such are mentioned: "Frip. Lent to Master Andrew Lucifer upon his flamecoloured doublet and blue taffeta hose," &c. Middleton's Your Five Gallants, (1607,) Act I. Sc. 1, p. 214, ed. Dyce. "This. You said as much to the flame-colour'd petticoat in New Spring Garden." Sedley's Bellamira, Act III. p. 28, 4to. 1687. The long stockings worn by our ancestors were called stocks.

"Taurus? that's sides and heart": As almanacs are

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