as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and fo forth. Were you fent hither to 'praise me 3?

Vio. I fee you what you are: you are too proud;
But, if you were the devil, you are fair.
My lord and mafter loves you;' O, fuch love
Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd
The non-pareil of beauty!

Oli. How does he love me?

Vio. With adoration's fertile tears*,

With groans that thunder love, with fighs of fire ".
Oli. Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love

him:

Yet I fuppofe him virtuous, know him noble,

Of great eftate, of fresh and stainless youth;

In voices well divulg'd, free, learn'd, and valiant,
And, in dimenfion, and the shape of nature,

A gracious perfon: but yet I cannot love him;
He might have took his answer long ago.

Vio. If I did love you in my mafter's flame,
With fuch a fuffering, fuch a deadly life,

3to 'praife me ?] i. e. to appraife, or appretiate me. The fore going words, fchedules, and inventoried, fhew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline: "I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his fide, and I to perufe him by items." MALONE.

4 With adoration's fertile tears,] Tears is here ufed as a diffyllable, like fire, bour, fwear, &c. See Vol. II. p. 269, n. 3; and p. 379, Mr. Pope, to fupply a fuppofed defect in the metre, reads With adorations, with fertile tears,

n. 2.

which the fubfequent editors have adopted. MALONE.

5 With groans that thunder love, with fighs of fire.] This line is worthy of Dryden's Almanzor, and, if not faid in mockery of amorous hyperboles, might be regarded as a ridicule on a paflage in Chapman's tranflation of the first book of HOMER, 1598:

"Jove thunder'd out a figh;"

or, on another in Lodge's Rofalynde, 1592:

"The winds of my deepe fighes

"That thunder ftill for noughts, &c." STEEVENS.

So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

"O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly!" MALONE.

• In voices well divulg'd,] Well spoken of by the world. MALONE,

In

In your denial I would find no fenfe,
I would not understand it.

Oli. Why, what would you?

Vio. Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my foul within the houfe;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love7,
And fing them loud even in the dead of night;
Holla your name to the reverberate hills,
And make the babling goffip of the air
Cry out, Olivia! O, you should not reft
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me.

Oli. You might do much: What is your parentage?
Vio. Above my fortunes, yet my ftate is well :

I am a gentleman.

Oli. Get you to your lord;

I cannot love him: let him fend no more;
Unlefs, perchance, you come to me again,
To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well:
I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
Vio. I am no fee'd poft, lady; keep your purfe ;
My mafter, not myself, lacks recompence.
Love make his heart of flint, that you shall love;
And let your fervour, like my mafter's, be
Plac'd in contempt! Farewel, fair cruelty.
Oli. What is your parentage?

Above my fortunes, yet my fate is well :
I am a gentleman.-I'll be fworn thou art;

[Exit.

Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and fpirit,

7 Write loyal cantons of contemned love,] The old copy has-cantons; which Mr. Capell, who appears to have been entirely unacquainted with our ancient language, has changed into canzons.-There is no need of alteration. Canton was used for canto in our author's time. So, in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605: "What-do-you-call-him has it there in his third canton." Again, in Heywood's Preface to Britaynes Troy, 1609: -in the judicial perufal of these few cantons," &c.

MALONE.

8 Holla your name to the reverberate bills,] Mr. Upton well obferves, that Shakspeare frequently ufes the adjective paffive, actively. STEEV. 9 I am no fee'd poft,] Poft, in our author's time, fignified a messenger. MALONE.

Do

Do give thee five-fold blazon:-Not too faft ;-foft! foft!
Unless the mafter were the man '.-How now?
Even fo quickly may one catch the plague?
Methinks, I feel this youth's perfections,
With an invisible and subtle stealth,

To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.-
What, ho, Malvolio!-

Re-enter MALVOLIO.

Mal. Here, madam, at your service.

Oli. Run after that fame peevish meffenger,
The county's man2: he left this ring behind him,
Would I, or not; tell him, I'll none of it.
Defire him not to flatter with his lord 3,
Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him:
If that the youth will come this way to-morrow,
I'll give him reafons for't. Hye thee, Malvolio.
Mal. Madam, I will.

Oli. I do I know not what; and fear to find
Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
Fate, fhew thy force: Ourfelves we do not owe;
What is decreed, muft be; and be this fo!

[Exit

[Exit.

-Soft! foft!

Unless the mafter were the man.] Unless the dignity of the mafter were added to the merit of the fervant, I fhall go too far, and difgrace myfelf. Let me ftop in time. MALONE.

2 The county's man :] County and count in old language were fynonymous. See Vol. III. p. 13, n. 4. The old copy has countes, which may be right: the Saxon genitive cafe. MALONE.

3-to flatter with his lord,] This was the phraseology of the time. So, in King Richard II:

"Shall dying men flatter with those that live ?"

Many more inftances might be added. MALONE.

4 Mine eye &c.] I believe the meaning is, I am not mistress of my own actions; I am afraid that my eyes betray me, and flatter the youth without my consent, with discoveries of love. JoHNSON.

I think the meaning is, I fear that my eyes will feduce my understanding; that I am indulging a passion for this beautiful youth, which my reafon cannot approve. MALONE.

ACT

ACT II. SCENE I.
The Sea-coaft.

Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN.

Ant. Will you ftay no longer? nor will you not, that I go with you?

Seb. By your patience, no: my ftars fhine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, diftemper yours; therefore I fhall crave of you your leave, that I may bear my evils alone: It were a bad recompence for your love, to lay any of them on you.

Ant. Let me yet know of you, whither you are bound. Seb. No, 'footh, fir; my determinate voyage is mere extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges me in manners the rather to exprefs myself3: You must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebaftian, which I call'd Rodorigo; my father was that Sebaftian of Meffaline, whom I know, you have heard of: he left behind him, myself, and a fifter, both born in an hour; If the heavens had been pleas'd, would we had fo ended! but you, fir, alter'd that; for, fome hour before you took me from the breach of the fea, was my fifter drown'd.

Ant. Alas, the day!

Seb. A lady, fir, though it was faid fhe much resembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but, though I could not, with such estimable wonder, over-far be5-to express myself:] That is, to reveal myself. JOHNSON.

6

Meffaline,] Sir Thomas Hanmer very judicioully offers to read Metelin, an island in the Archipelago; but Shakspeare knew little of geography, and was not at all folicitous about orthographical nicety. The fame miftake occurs in the concluding fcene of the play:

"Of Meffaline; Sebaftian was my father." STEEVENS. 7with fuch eftimable wonder,] Shakspeare often confounds the active and paffive adjectives. Eftimable wonder is efteeming wonder, or wonder and efteem. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think fo highly as others of his fifter. JOHNSON.

So Milton ufes unexpreffive notes, for unexpreffible, in his hymn on the Nativity. MALONE.

lieve that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, fhe bore a mind that envy could not but call fair: fhe is drown'd already, fir, with falt water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again with more.

Ant. Pardon me, fir, your bad entertainment.

Seb. O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble.

Ant. If you will not murther me for my love, let me be your fervant.

I

Seb. If you will not undo what you have done, that is, Fare kill him whom you have recover'd, defire it not. ye well at once: my bofom is full of kindness; and I am the yet fo near the manners of my mother, that upon least occafion more, mine eyes will tell tales of me. am bound to the count Orfino's court: farewel. [Exit. Ant. The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!— I have many enemies in Orfino's court, Elfe would I very shortly see thee there: But, come what may, I do adore thee fo, That danger fhall feem fport, and I will go.

SCENE II.
A Street.

Enter VIOLA, MALVOLIO following.

[Exit.

Mal. Were not you even now with the countefs Olivia ? Vio. Even now, fir; on a moderate pace I have fince arrived but hither.

Mal. She returns this ring to you, fir; you might have faved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself. She adds moreover, that you should put your lord into a defperate affurance fhe will none of him: And one thing more; that you be never fo hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord's taking of this. Receive it fo9.

8- I am yet so near the manners of my mother,] So, in another of our author's plays:

"And all my mother came into my eyes." MALONE. 9 Receive it fo.] One of the modern editors reads, with fome probability, receive it, fir. But the prefent reading is fufficiently intelligible. MALONE.

Vio.