SCENE V. Olivia's Garden. Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, and FABIAN. SIR TO. Come thy ways, fignior Fabian. FAB. Nay, I'll come; if I lofe a fcruple of this fport, let me be boil'd to death with melancholy. SIR TO. Would't thou not be glad to have the niggardly rafcally fheep-biter come by fome notable fhame? FAB. I would exult, man: you know, he brought me out of favour with my lady, about a bear-baiting here. SIR TO. To anger him, we'll have the bear again; and we will fool him black and blue:-Shall we not, fir Andrew? SIR AND. An we do not, it is pity of our lives. Enter MARIA. SIR TO. Here comes the little villain:-How now, my nettle of India?* 2 my nettle of India?] The poet muft here mean a zoophite, called the Urtica Marina, abounding in the Indian feas. "Quæ tacta totius corporis pruritum quendam excitat, unde nomen urticæ eft fortita." Wolfgang. Frangi Hift. Animal. "Urtica marinæ omnes pruritum quendam movent, et acrimonia fuâ venerem extinctam et fopitam excitant." Johnftoni Hift. Nat. de Exang. Aquat. p. 56. Perhaps the fame plant is alluded to by Greene in his Card of Fancy, 1608: "the flower of India pleafant to be feen, but whofo fmelleth to it, feeleth prefent fmart." Again, in his Mamillia, 1593: "Confider, the herb of India is of pleasant fmell, but whofo cometh to it, feeleth prefent Smart." Again, in P. Holland's MAR. Get ye all three into the box-tree: Malvolio's coming down this walk; he has been yonder i'the fun, practising behaviour to his own fhadow, this half hour: obferve him, for the love of mockery; for, I know, this letter will make a contemplative ideot of him. Close, in the name of jefting! [The men bide themfelves.] Lie thou there; [throws down a letter.] for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling.' [Exit MARIA. tranflation of the 9th book of Pliny's Natural Hiftory: "As for those nettles, there be of them that in the night raunge to and fro, and likewife change their colour. Leaves they carry of a fleshy fubftance, and of flesh they feed. Their qualities is to raise an itching fmart." Maria had certainly excited a congenial sensation in Sir Toby. The folio, 1623, reads-mettle of India, which may mean, my girl of gold, my precious girl. The change, however, which I have not difturbed, was made by the editor of the folio, 1632, who, in many inftances, appears to have regulated his text from more authentic copies of our author's plays than were in the poffeffion of their first collective publishers. STEEVENS. my metal of India?] So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "Lads, boys, bearts of gold," &c. Again, ibidem: 66 and as bountiful "As mines of India." Again, in K. Henry VIII: To-day the French "All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods, "Shew'd like a mine." So Lily in his Euphues and his England, 1580: "I faw that India bringeth gold, but England bringeth goodness." Again, in Wily Beguil'd, 1606: " Come, my heart of gold, let's have a dance at the making up of this match."-The person there addressed, as in Twelfth-Night, is a woman. The old copy has mettle. The two words are very frequently confounded in the early editions of our author's plays. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily changed the word to nettle; which all the subfequent editors have adopted. MALONE. 3 here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling.] Cogan, in his Haven of Health, VOL. IV. will prove an able com 1595, Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On my My poor corpfe, where my bones shall be thrown: Sad true lover ne'er find my grave, DUKE. There's for thy pains. CLO. No pains, fir; I take pleasure in singing, fir. DUKE. I'll pay thy pleasure then. CLO. Truly, fir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another. DUKE. Give me now leave to leave thee. CLO. Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffata, for thy mind is a very opal ! --I would have 7 Sad true lover-] Mr. Pope rejected the word fad, and other modern editors have unneceffarily changed true lover to-true love. By making never one fyllable the metre is preferved. Since this note was written, I have obferved that lover is elfewhere used by our poet as a word of one fyllable. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: Tie up my lover's tongue; bring him in filently." Again, in King Henry VIII: "Is held no great good lover of th' archbishop's.' There is perhaps therefore no need of abbreviating the word never in this line. MALONE. In the inftance produced from A Midsummer-Night's Dream, I fuppofe lover to be a mifprint for love; and in King Henry VIII. I know not why it should be confidered as a monofyllable. STEEVENS. a very opal!] A precious ftone of almost all colours. So, Milton, defcribing the walls of heaven: POPE. men of fuch conftancy put to fea, that their bufinefs might be every thing, and their intent every where; for that's it, that always makes a good voyage of nothing.-Farewel. [Exit Clown. DUKE. Let all the reft give place. [Exeunt CURIO and Attendants. Once more, Cefario, Get thee to yon',fame fovereign cruelty: Tell her, my love, more noble than the world, The parts that fortune hath beftow'd upon her, The opal is a gem which varies its appearance as it is viewed in different lights. So, in The Mufes' Elizium, by Drayton: "With opals more than any one "In the opal (fays P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, b. xxxvii. c. 6.) you shall fee the burning fire of the carbuncle or rubie, the glorious purple of the amethyft, the green fea of the emeraud, and all glittering together mixed after an incredible manner." STEEVENS. 9 that their business might be every thing, and their intent every where;] Both the prefervation of the antithefis, and the recovery of the fenfe, require we should read, and their intent no where. Because a man who fuffers himself to run with every wind, and fo makes his business every where, cannot be faid to have any intent; for that word fignifies a determination of the mind to fomething. Befides, the conclufion of making a good voyage of nothing, directs to this emendation. WARBURTON. An intent every where, is much the fame as an intent no where, as it hath no one particular place more in view than another. HEATH. The prefent reading is preferable to Warburton's amendment. We cannot accufe a man of inconftancy who has no intents at all, though we may the man whofe intents are every where; that is, are continually varying. M. MASON. ? But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems, That nature pranks her in,] What is that miracle, and queen Enter MALVOLIO. MAL. 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune. Maria once told me, fhe did affect me: and I have heard herself come thus near, that, fhould fhe fancy, it fhould be one of my complexion. Befides, the ufes me with a more exalted refpect, than any one elfe that follows her. What should I think on't? SIR TO. Here's an over-weening rogue! FAB. O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him; how he jets under his advanced plumes! SIR AND. 'Slight, I could fo beat the rogue:SIR TO. Peace, I fay. MAL. To be count Malvolio ; SIR To. Ah, rogue! SIR AND. Piftol him, piftol him. SIR TO. Peace, peace! MAL. There is example for't; the lady of the ftrachy married the ycoman of the wardrobe. imentator on this paffage: "This fifh of nature loveth flatterie: for, being in the water, it will fuffer it felfe to be rubbed and clawed, and fo to be taken. Whofe example I would with no maides. to follow, least they repent afterclaps." STEEVENS. 4 how he jets-] To jet is to ftrut, to agitate the body by a proud motion. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: "Is now become the steward of the house, "And bravely jets it in a filken gown." Again, in Buffy D'Ambois, 1607: To jet in others' plumes fo haughtily." STEEVENS. 5 the lady of the trachy-] We fhould read Trachy, i. e. Thrace; for fo the old English writers called it. Mandeville fays: "As Trachye and Macedoigne, of the which Alifandre as kyng.' It was common to use the article the before names of places: and this was no improper inftance, where the fcene was in Illyria. WARBURTON. |