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Vio. She took the ring of me! I'll none of it'. Mal. Come, fir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is, it fhould be fo return'd: if it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. [Exit. Vio. I left no ring with her: What means this lady? Fortune forbid, my outfide have not charm'd her! She made good view of me; indeed fo much, 'That, fure, methought her eyes had lost her tongue 3, For

She took the ring of me!-I'll none of it.] This paffage has been hitherto thus pointed :-She took the ring of me, I'll none of it; which renders it, as it appears to me, quite unintelligible. The punctuation now adopted was fuggefted by an ingenious friend, and certainly renders the line lefs exceptionable: yet I cannot but think there is fome corruption in the text. Had our author intended fuch a mode of fpeech, he would probably have written

She took a ring of me !-I'll none of it.

Malvolio's anfwer feems to intimate that Viola had faid she had not given any ring. We ought therefore, perhaps, to read,

She took no ring of me ;-I'll none of it.

So afterwards: "I left no ring with her." Viola exprefsly denies her having given Olivia any ring. How then can fhe affert, as the is made to do by the old regulation of the paffage, that the lady had received one from her?

Since I wrote the above, it has occurred to me that the latter part of the line may have been corrupt, as well as the former: our author might have written

She took this ring of me! She'll none of it!

So before: "he left this ring;-tell him, I'll none of it." And afterwards: "None of my lord's ring!"-Viola may be fuppofed to repeat the fubftance of what Malvolio has faid. Our author is feldom ftudious on fuch occafions to use the very words he had before employed. MALONE. 2 That, fure,] Sure, which is wanting in the old copy, was added, to complete the metre, by the editor of the fecond folio. The author of Remarks &c. on the text and notes of the last edition of Shakspeare, very confidently afferts, that the word was added by our author. He fpeaks as if he had been at Shakspeare's elbow; and this fame addition must have been made by the old bard fixteen years after his death. But not to dwell upon fuch trifles, I fhall only obferve, that whoever shall take the trouble to compare the fecond folio with the first, will find proofs amounting almost to demonstration that all the additions, alterations, &c. which are found in the fecond folio, were made without any authority whatsoever. Sure in the prefent inftance is not very likely to have been the word omitted in the first copy, being found in the next line but one. MALONE.

3

ber eyes bad lost her tongue,] We lay a man lofes his company

when

For fhe did fpeak in ftarts diftractedly.
She loves me, fure; the cunning of her paffion
Invites me in this churlish meffenger.

None of my lord's ring! why, he sent her none.
I am the man ;-If it be fo, (as 'tis,)
Poor lady, the were better love a dream.
Difguife, I fee, thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the pregnant enemy + does much.
How eafy is it, for the proper-falfe

In women's waxen hearts to fet their forms 5!

Alas,

when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue lost her eyes; her tongue was talking of the duke, and her eyes gazing on his meflenger. JOHNSON.

4the pregnant enemy-] Is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind. JOHNSON.

Pregnant is certainly dexterous, or ready. So, in Hamlet:

"How pregnant fometimes his replies are!" STEEVENS.

5 How eafy is it, for the proper-falfe

In women's waxen hearts to fet their forms!] Viola has been condemning those who difguife themfelves, becaufe Olivia had fallen in love with a fpecious appearance. How eafy is it, fhe adds, for those who are at once proper, (i. e. fair in their appearance,) and false, (i. e. deceitful,) to make an impreffion on the hearts of women?—The proper-falfe is certainly a lefs elegant expreffion than the fair deceiver, but feems to mean the fame thing. A proper man, was the ancient phrafe for a bandfome man:

"This Ludovico is a proper man." Othello.

To fet their forms means, to plant their images, i. e. to make an impreffion on their eafy minds. Mr. Tyrwhitt concurs with me in this interpretation. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens's explanation is undoubtedly the true one. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"men have marble, women waxen minds,

"And therefore are they form'd as marble will;

"The weak opprefs 'd, the impreffion of frange kinds
"Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or fkill:
"Then call them not the authors of their ill-."

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Nay, call us ten times frail,

"For we are foft as our complexions are,

"And credulous to falfe prints." MALONE.

Viola's reflection, how eafy it was for those who are handfome to make an impreffion on the waxen hearts of women, is a natural fentiment for a girl to utter, who was herfelf in love. An expreffion fimi

lar

Alas, our frailty is the caufe, not we;

For, fuch as we are made of, fuch we be".

How will this fadge? My mafter loves her dearly;
And I, poor monfter, fond as much on him;'
And fhe, mistaken, feems to dote on me:
What will become of this? As I am man,
My ftate is defperate for my master's love;
As I am woman, now alas the day!
What thriftless fighs fhall poor Olivia breathe ?
O time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie.

[blocks in formation]

[Exit.

Enter SirTOBY BELCH, and Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK. Sir To. Approach, fir Andrew: not to be a-bed after midnight, is to be up betimes; and diluculo furgere *, thou know'ft,—

lar to that of "proper-falfe" occurs afterwards in this very play, when Antonio fays,

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Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous-evil

Are empty trunks o'er-flourish'd by the devil. MASON.

Alas, our frailty-] The old copy has-Alas, O frailty. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 7 For fuch as we are made of, such we be.] The old copy readsmade if. The very happy emendation now adopted, was fuggested by: Mr. Tyrwhitt. So, in the Tempeft (the quotation is Mr. Steevens's): we are fuch stuff

66

"As dreams are made of."

Of and if are frequently confounded in the old copies. Thus in the folio, 1632, King John, p. 6: "Lord of our prefence, Angiers, and if you." [instead of of you.]

Again, of is printed inftead of if. Merchant of Venice, 1623:

Mine own I would fay, but, of mine, then yours."

In As you like it we have a line constructed nearly like the prefent, as now corrected:

"Who fuch a one as the, fuch is her neighbour." MALONE. 8 How will this fadge?] To fadge is to fuit, to fit. So, in Mother Bombie, 1594: "All this fadges well." STEEVENS.

See Vol. II. p. 397, n. 2. MALONE.

*

diluculo furgere,] faluberrimum eft. This adage our author found in Lilly's Grammar, p. 51. MALONE.

Sir And. Nay, by my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up late, is to be up late.

Sir To. A falfe conclufion; I hate it as an unfill'd can : To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is early; fo that, to go to bed after midnight, is to go to bed betimes. Do not our lives confift of the four elements? Sir And. 'Faith, fo they fay; but, I think, it rather confifts of eating and drinking.

Sir To. Thou art a fcholar; let us therefore eat and drink.-Marian, I fay!-a ftoop' of wine!

Enter Clown.

Sir And. Here comes the fool, i'faith.

Clown. How now, my hearts? Did you never fee the picture of we three 2?

Sir To. Welcome, afs. Now let's have a catch.

Sir And. By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast 3. I had rather than forty fhillings I had fuch a leg; and 9 Do not our lives confift of the four elements?] So, in our author's 45th fonnet :

"My life being made of four, with two alone

"Sinks down to death, &c.

So alfo, in King Henry V: "He is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." MALONE.

- a stoop-] A ftoop, cadus, à stoppa, Belgis stoop. Ray's Proverbs, p. 111. In Hexam's Low Dutch Dictionary, 1660, a gallon is explained by cen kanne van twee floopen. A ftoop, however, feems to have been fomething more than half a gallon. In a catalogue of the rarities of the Anatomy-Hall at Leyden, printed there, quarto, 1701, is "The bladder of a man containing four floop, (which is fomething above Two English gallons) of water." REED.

2

the picture of we three?] I believe Shakspeare had in his thoughts a common fign, in which two wooden heads are exhibited, with this infcription under it: "We three loggerheads be." The spectator or reader is fuppofed to make the third. The clown means to infinuate, that Sir Toby and Sir Andrew had as good a title to the name of fool as himself. MALONE.

3 By my troth, the fool has an excellent breaft.] Breaft, is voice. So, in the Statutes of Stoke College, founded by Archbishop Parker, 1535, Strypes Parker, p. 9" Which faid querifters, after their breafts are changed," &c. that is, after their voices are broken. T. WARTON. Again in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602:

"Boy, fing aloud, make heaven's vault to ring
"With thy breaft's ftrength." MALONE.

VOL. IV.

D

fo

so sweet a breath to fing, as the fool has. In footh, thou waft in very gracious fooling laft night, when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians paffing the equinoctial of Queubus; 'twas very good, i'faith. I fent thee fixpence for thy leman*; Had’st it ?

Clown. I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nofe is no whip-ftock: My lady has a white hand, and the Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houses.

Sir And. Excellent! Why, this is the beft fooling, when all is done. Now, a fong.

Sir To. Come on; there is fix-pence for you: let's have a fong.

Sir And. There's a teftril of me too: if one knight give a

4-for thy leman;] The old copy has lemon. The emendation, if it may be called fo, was made by Mr. Theobald. Leman was frequently fpelt lemmon in our author's time. So, in a Looking Glass for London and England, a play by T. Lodge and R. Greene:

"Venus' Lemmon arm'd in all his pomp." MALONE.

The money was given him for his leman, i. c. his mistress. STEEV. 5 I did impeticos thy gratillity;] This, Sir T. Hanmer tells us, is the fame with impocket thy gratuity. He is undoubtedly right; but we must read: I did impeticoat thy gratuity. The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allufion is made. There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand. JOHNSON.

Figure 12 in the plate of the Morris-dancers, at the end of King Henry IV. P. II. fufficiently proves that petticoats were not always a part of the drefs of fools or jefters, though they were of ideots, for a reafon which I avoid to offer.

He fays he did impeticoat the gratuity, i. e. he gave it to his petticoat companion; for (fays he) Malvolio's nofe is no whipftock, i. e. Malvolio may fmell out our connection, but his fufpicion will not prove the inftrument of our punishment. My mistress has a white band, and the myrmidons are no bottle-ale boufes, i. e. my mistress is handsome, but the houses kept by officers of juftice, are no places to make merry and entertain her at. Such may be the meaning of this whimsical fpeech. A whipftock is, I believe, the handle of a whip, round which a ftrap of leather is ufually twisted, and is fometimes put for the whip itfelf. STEEVENS.

The meaning, I think, is, I did impeticoat or impocket thy gra tuity; but the reading of the old copy should not, in my opinion, be here difturbed. The clown ufes the fame kind of fantastick language elfewhere in this fcene. Neither Pigrogromitus, nor the Vapians would object to it. MALONE.

Clorun.

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