Mal. What employment have we here? [taking up the letter. Fab. Now is the woodcock near the gin. Sir To. O, peace! and the spirit of humours intimate reading aloud to him! Mal. By my life, this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's, her U's, and her T's; and thus makes the her great P's. It is, in contempt of question, her hand. Sir And. Her C's, her U's, and her T's: Why that ? Mal. [reads.] To the unknown beloved, this, and my good wishes her very phrases !-By your leave, wax.-Soft; and the impreffure her Lucrece, with which the uses to feal: 'tis my lady: To whom should this be? Fab. This wins him, liver and all. Mal. [reads.] Jove knows, I love: But who? Lips do not move, No man must know. No man must know.-What follows? the numbers alter'd! No man must know: if this should be thee, Malvolio ? 5 What employment bave we bere ?] A phrafe of that time, equivalent to our common fpeech of What's to do here. WARBURTON. 6 ber great P's.] In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found. STEEVENS. This was perhaps an overfight in Shakspeare; or rather, for the fake of the allufion hinted at in the following note, he chose not to attend to the words of the direction. It is remarkable that in the repetition of paffages in Letters, which have been produced in a former part of a play, he very often makes his characters deviate from the words before used, though they have the paper itself in their hands, and though they appear to recite, not the fubftance, but the very words. So, in All's well that ends well, A& V. Helen fays, here's your letter; This it fays: yet in Act III. fc. if. fhe reads this very letter aloud; and there the words are different, and in plain profe: "When thou canst get dhe ring upon my finger, which never fhall come off, and fhew me a child begotten of thy body, &c." Had the fpoken in either cafe from memory, the deviation might easily be accounted for; but in both these places, fhe reads the words from Bertram's letter. MALONE. I am afraid fome very coarfe and vulgar appellations are meant to be alluded to by thefe capital letters. BLACKSTONE. E 4 Sir Sir To. Marry, hang thee, brock 7! Fab. A fuftian riddle! Sir To. Excellent wench, fay I. Mal. M, O, A, I, doth fway my life.-Nay, but first, let me fee, let me fee,-let me fee. Fab. What a difh of poifon has the drefs'd him! Sir To. And with what wing the ftannyel checks at it!. Mal. I may command where I adore. Why, the may command me; I ferve her, fhe is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal capacity 9. There is no obftruction in this ;-And the end;-What should that alphabetical pofition portend? if I could make that refemble fomething in me,-Softly ;-M, O, A, I.— Sir To. O, ay! make up that he is now at a cold scent. Fab. Sowter will cry upon't, for all this, though it be as rank as a fox. brock!] i. e. badger. STEEVENS. 8 fannyel] The name of a kind of hawk is very judiciously put here for a fallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNSON. Here is one of at least a hundred inftances of the tranfcriber of thefe plays being deceived by his ear. The eye never could have confounded fannyel and falon. MALONE. To check, fays Latham in his book of Falconry, is "when crows, rooks, pies, or other birds, coming in view of the hawke, fhe forfaketh her natural flight, to fly at them." The fannyel is the common ftone. hawk which inhabits old buildings and rocks; in the North called fanchil. I have this information from Mr. Lambe's notes on the ancient metrical history of the battle of Floddon. STEEVENS. 9 formal capacity:] i. e. any one in his fenfes, any one whofe capacity is not dil-arranged, or out of form. See Vol. II. p. 117, n.8. STEEVENS. Sowter-] Sowter is here, I fuppofe, the name of a hound. Sowte, however, is often employed as a term of abuse. A fowter was a cobler. STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is, This fellow will, notwithstanding, catch at and be duped by our device, though the cheat is fo grofs that any one elfe would find it out. Our author, as ufual, forgets to make his fimile anfwer on both fid s; for it is not to be wondered at that a hound should cry or give his tongue, if the fcent be as rank as a fox. MALONE. Mal. Mal. M,-Malvolio ; — M,-why, that begins my name. Fab. Did not I fay, he would work it out? the cur is excellent at faults. Mal. M,-But then there is no confonancy in the fequel; that fuffers under probation: A should follow, but O does. Fab. And O fhall end, I hope3. Sir To. Ay, or I'll cudgel him, and make him cry, O. Mal. And then I comes behind. Fab. Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might fee more detraction at your heels, than fortunes before you. Mal. M, O, A, I ;-This fimulation is not as the former :—and yet, to crufh this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name. Soft; here follows profe. If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my ftars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, fome atchieve greatness, and fome have greatness thrust upon them. Thy fates open their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them. And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, caft thy humble flough, and appear fresh. Be oppofite with a kinfman, furly with fervants: let thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thyself into the 3 And O fhall end, I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a bempen collar. JOHNSON. I believe he means only, it shall end in fighing, in disappointment. So, fomewhere else: "How can you fall into fo deep an Ob ?" Again, in Hymen's Triumph by Daniel, 1623: "Like to an 0, the character of woe.' STEEVENS. are born great,] The old copy reads are become great. STEEVENS. This neceffary emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. It is justified by a fubfequent paffage in which the clown recites from memory the words of this letter. MALONE. 5 Be oppofite-] That is, be adverfe, boftile. An opposite in the language of our author's age meant an adverfary. See a note on K. Ricard III. A& V. fc. iv. To be oppofite with was the phraseology of the time. So, in Sir T. Overbury's Character of a Precifian, 1616: "He will be fure to be in oppofition with the papift" &c. MALONE. trick trick of fingularity: She thus advises thee, that fighs for thee. Remember who commended thy yellow ftockings; and wifh'd to fee thee ever cross-garter'd': I fay, remem ber. Go to; thou art made, if thou defireft to be fo; if not, let me fee thee a feward ftill, the fellow of fervants, and not worthy to touch fortune's fingers. Farewel. She, that would alter fervices with thee, 8 The fortunate-unhappy. Day-light and champian discovers not more: this is open. I will be proud, I will read politick authors, I will baffle fir Toby, I will wash off grofs acquaintance, I will be point-de-vice the very man. I do not now fool myfelf, to let imagination jade me; for every reafon excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow ftockings of late, he did praife my leg being cross-garter'd; and in this the manifefts herself to my love, and, with a kind of injunction, drives me to thefe habits of her liking. I thank my ftars, I am happy. I will be ftrange, ftout, in yellow ftockings, and cross-garter'd, even with the fwiftness of putting on. 6 Jove, and -yellow flockings;] Before the civil wars, yellow ftockings were much worn. PERCY. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, P. II. 1615: "What flockings have you put on this morning, madam? if they be not yellow, change them."-The yeomen attending the earl of Arundel, lord Windfor, and Mr. Fulke Greville, who affifted at an entertainment performed before Q. Elizabeth, on the Monday and Tuesday in Whitfun-week 1381, were dreffed in yellow worfied flockings. The book from which I gather this information, was published by Henry Goldwell, gent. in the fame year. STEEVENS. See alfo B. Jonfon's Tale of a Tub, A&t II. fc. ii. MALONE. 7-crofs-garter'd:] It appears, that the ancient puritans affected this fashion. Thus Barton Holyday, speaking of the ill fuccefs of his TIXNOFAMIA, fays: "Had there appear'd some sharp cross-garter'd man, In a former fcene Malvolio was faid to be an affecter of puritanism. STEEVENS. I will be point-de-vice] i. e. with the utmoft poffible exactness. This phrate is of French extraction;-a points-devifez. STEEVENS. See Vol. I. p. 393, n. 5. MALONE. my my ftars be praised!-Here is yet a poftfcript. Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou entertaineft my love, let it appear in thy fmiling; thy fmiles become thee well: therefore in my prefence ftill fmile, dear my feet, I pr'ythee-Jove, I thank thee.-I will fmile; I will do every thing that thou wilt have me. [Exit. Fab. I will not give my part of this fport for a penfion of thousands to be paid from the Sophy 9. Sir To. I could marry this wench for this device; Sir And. So could I too. Sir To. And ask no other dowry with her, but fuch another jeft. Enter MARIA, Sir And. Nor I neither. Fab. Here comes my noble gull-catcher. Sir And. Or o'mine either? Sir To. Shall I play my freedom at tray-trip', and become thy bond-slave? Sir And. I'faith, or I either? Sir To. Why, thou haft put him in such a dream, that, when the image of it leaves him, he must run mad. Mar. Nay, but fay true, does it work upon him? Sir To. Like aqua-vitæ 2 with a midwife, a penfion of thousands to be paid from the Sophy.] Alluding, as Dr. Farmer obferves, to Sir Robert Sherley, who was juft returned in the character of Embassador from the Sopby. He boasted of the great rewards he had received, and lived in London with the utmoft fplendour. STEEVENS. See further on this fubject in An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. where, fince the first edition of that piece, I had made the fame remark. MALONE. 1 at tray-trip,] The following paffage might incline one to believe that tray-trip was the name of some game at tables, or draughts. "There is great danger of being taken fleepers at tray-trip, if the king fweep fuddenly." Cecil's Correfpondence, Lett. x. p. 136. B. Jonfon joins tray-trip with mum-chance. Alchemist, A&t V. fc. iv. TYRWHITT. The truth of Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture will be established by the following extract from Machiavel's Dogge, a Satire, quarto, 1617: "But leaving cardes, let's go to dice a while, Mar. |