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Your fervant's fervant is your fervant, madam.

Oli. For him, I think not on him: for his thoughts, 'Would they were blanks, rather than fill'd with me! Vio. Madam, I come to whet your gentle thoughts On his behalf:

Oli. O, by your leave, I pray you; I bade you never speak again of him: But, would you undertake another fuit, I had rather hear you to folicit that, Than mufick from the spheres.

Vio. Dear lady,

Oli. Give me leave, 'befeech you: I did fend,
After the last enchantment you did here",
A ring in chafe of you; fo did I abuse
Myfelf, my fervant, and, I fear me, you:
Under your hard conftruction must I fit,

To force that on you, in a fhameful cunning,
Which you knew none of yours: What might you think?
Have you not fet mine honour at the stake,

8-'befeech you :] This ellipfis occurs fo frequently in our author's plays, that I do not fufpect any omiffion here. The editor of the third folio reads-I beseech you; which fupplies the fyllable wanting, but hurts the metre. MALONE.

-you did here,] The old Copy has-beare. The emendation was made by Dr. Warburton. The two words are very frequently confounded in the old editions of our author's plays, and the other books of that age. See the last line of King Richard III. quarto, 1613:

"That the may long live beare, God fay amen." Again, in The Tempest, folio, 1623, p. 3, l. 10: "Heare, ceafe more queftions."

Again, in Love's Labour's Loft, 1623, p. 139:

"Let us complain to them what fools were beare." Again, in All's Well that ends well, 1623, p.239:

"That hugs his kickfey-wickfey beare at home." Again, in Peck's Defiderata Curiofe, Vol. I. p. 205:

"to my utmost knowledge, beare is fimple truth and verity.” I could add twenty other inftances, were they neceflary. Throughout the first edition of our author's Rape of Lucrece, 1594, which was probably printed under his own infpection, the word we now spell bere, is conftantly written beare.

Let me add, that Viola had not fimply beard that a ring had been fent (if even fuch an expreffion as-" After the laft enchantment, you did beare," were admiffible); he had feen and talked with the bearer of it. MALONE.

VOL. IV.

F

And

And baited it with all the unmuzzled thoughts

That tyrannous heart can think? To one of your receiving
Enough is fhewn; a cyprus 2, not a bofom,

Hides my heart: So let me hear you speak 3.
Vio. I pity you.

Oli. That's a degree to love.

Vio. No, not a grice; for 'tis a vulgar proof*, That very oft we pity enemies.

Oli. Why then, methinks, 'tis time to fmile again: O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!

[Clock ftrikes.

If one fhould be a prey, how much the better
To fall before the lion, than the wolf?
The clock upbraids me with the wafte of time.-
Be not afraid, good youth, I will not have you :
And yet, when wit and youth is come to harvest,
Your wife is like to reap a proper man:
There lies your way, due weft.

Vio. Then weftward-hoe 5:

Grace, and good difpofition, attend your ladyship!
You'll nothing, madam, to my lord by me?

Oli. Stay :

I pr'ythee, tell me, what thou think'st of me.
Vio. That you do think, you are not what you are.
Oli. If I think fo, I think the fame of you.

Vio. Then think you right; I am not what I am.
Oli. I would, you were as I would have

you be!

To one of your receiving] i. e. to one of your ready apprehenfion, She confiders him as an arch page. WARBURTON.

2- a cyprus,] is a tranfparent stuff. JOHNSON.

3 Hides my beart: So let me hear you fpeak.] The word bear is used in this line, like tear, dear, frwear, &c. as a diffyllable. See p. 25, n. 4. The editor of the fecond folio, to fupply what he imagined to be a defect in the metre, reads-Hides my poor heart; and all the fubfequent editors have adopted his interpolation. MALONE.

4 a grice;] is a fep, fometimes written greefe from degres, Fr. JOHNSON.

'tis a vulgar proof,] That is, it is a common proof. The experience of every day fhews that &c. See Vol. II. p. 114, n. 2. MALONE. 5 Then weftward.hoe:] This is the name of a comedy by T. Decker, 1607. He was affifted in it by Webster, and it was acted with great fuccefs by the children of Pauls, on whom Shakspeare has bestowed fuch notice in Hamlet, that we may be fure they were rivals to the company patronized by himfelf. STEEVENS.

Vio. Would it be better, madam, than I am, I wish it might; for now I am your fool.

Oli. O, what a deal of fcorn looks beautiful In the contempt and anger of his lip!

A murd'rous guilt fhews not itself more foon

Than love that would feem hid: love's night is noon.
Cefario, by the roses of the spring,

6

By maidhood, honour, truth, and every thing,
I love thee fo, that, maugre all thy pride,
Nor wit, nor reafon, can my paffion hide.
Do not extort thy reasons from this clause,
For, that I woo, thou therefore haft no eaufe:
But, rather, reafon thus with reafon fetter:
Love fought is good, but given unfought is better.
Vio. By innocence I fwear, and by my youth,
I have one heart, one bofom, and one truth,
And that no woman has 7; nor never none
Shall miftrefs be of it, fave I alone.
And fo adieu, good madam; never more
Will I my master's tears to you deplore.

Oli. Yet come again: for thou, perhaps, may'ft move That heart, which now abhors, to like his love. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, and FABIAN.

Sir And. No, faith, I'll not ftay a jot longer. Sir To. Thy reafon, dear venom, give thy reafon. Fab. You muft needs yield your reafon, fir Andrew. Sir And. Marry, I faw your niece do more favours to the count's ferving-man, than ever she bestowed upon me; I faw't i'the orchard.

6

Sir To. Did the fee thee the while, old boy; tell me that?

maugre-] i. e. in fpite of. STEEVENS.

? And that no woman bas;] And that beart and bosom I have never

yielded to any woman. JOHNSON.

8 Did he fee thee the while,] Thee is wanting in the old copy. It was fupplied by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

F 2

Six

Sir And. As plain as I fee you now.

Fab. This was a great argument of love in her toward

you.

Sir And. 'Slight! will you make an afs o'me?

Fab. I will prove it legitimate, fir, upon the oaths of judgment and reafon.

Sir To. And they have been grand jury-men, fince before Noah was a failor.

Fab. She did fhew favour to the youth in your fight, only to exafperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in your heart, and brimstone in your liver: You fhould then have accofted her; and with fome excellent jefts, fire-new from the mint, you should have bang'd the youth into dumbnefs. This was look'd for at your hand, and this was baulk'd: the double gilt of this opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now fail'd into the north of my lady's opinion; where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman's beard, unless you do redeem it by fome laudable attempt, either of valour, or policy.

Sir And. And't be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate: I had as lief be a Brownift, as a politician.

Sir To. Why then, build me thy fortunes upon the bafis of valour. Challenge me the count's youth to fight with him; hurt him in eleven places; my niece fhall take note of it and affure thyself, there is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man's commendation with woman, than report of valour.

Fab. There is no way but this, fir Andrew.

Sir And. Will either of you bear me a challenge to

him?

9as lief be a Brownift,] The Brownifts were fo called from Mr. Robert Browne, a noted feparatift in queen Elizabeth's reign. See Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. III. p. 15, 16, &c. In his life of Whitgift, p. 323, he informs us, that Browne, in the year 1589, "went off from the feparation and came into the communion of the church." GREY.

The Brownifts feem, in the time of our author, to have been the constant objects of popular fatire. STEEVENS.

Sir To. Go, write it in a martial hand'; be curft and brief; it is no matter how witty, fo it be eloquent, and full of invention: taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou'ft him some thrice 2, it shall not be amifs; and as many lies as will lie in thy fheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England, fet 'em down; go, about it. Let there be gall enough in thy ink; though thou write with a goofe-pen, no matter: About it.

Sir And. Where shall I find you?

Sir To. We'll call thee at the cubiculo: Go.

[Exit Sir ANDREW. Fab. This is a dear manakin to you, fir Toby.

— in a martial hand;] Martial band, seems to be a careless fcrawl, fuch as fhewed the writer to neglect ceremony. Curft, is petulant, crabbed. A curft cur, is a dog that with little provocation fnarls and bites. JOHNSON.

2 taunt him with the licence of ink: if thou thou'ft him fome thrice,] These words seem to me directly levelled at the attorney-general Coke, who, in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, [1603,] attacked him with all the following indecent expreffions:-"All that be did was by thy inftigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traytor!" (Here, by the way, are the poet's three thou's.) You are an odious man."" Is be bafe? I return it into thy throat, on bis behalf."—" O damnable atheift!" "Thou art a monster; thou haft an English face, but a Spanish beart.”"Thou haft a Spanish heart, and thyself art a spider of bell.”—“ Go to, I will lay thee on thy back for the confident'ft traitor that ever came at a bar, &c." Is not here all the licence of tongue, which the poet fatyrically prefcribes to fir Andrew's ink? THEOBALD.

The refentment of our author, as Dr. Farmer observes to me, might likewife have been excited by the contemptuous manner in which Lord Coke has spoken of players, and the feverity he was always willing to exert against them. Thus in his Speech and Charge at Norwich, with a difcoverie of the abuses and corruption of officers, Nath. Butter, quarto, 1607: "Because I must haft unto an end, I will request that you will carefully put in execution the statute against vagrants; fince the making whereof I have found fewer theeves, and the gaole lefs pestered than before. The abuse of ftage-players, wherewith I find the country much troubled, may be easily reformed; they having no commiffion to play in any place without leave: and therefore if by your willingneffe they be not entertained, you may foone be rid of them." STEEVENS.

- at the cubiculo:] I believe, we fhould read-at thy cubiculo.

F 3

MALONE
Sir

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