And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er fince pursue me.-How now? what news from her?

Enter VALENTINE.

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted,
But from her hand-maid do return this answer:
'The element itself, till seven years heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloiftrefs, fhe will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this, to season
A brother's dead love, which fhe would keep fresh,
And lafting, in her fad remembrance.

Duke. O, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame,
Το pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will the love, when the rich golden fhaft7
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections elfe

8

That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, These fovereign thrones, are all fupply'd, and fill'd, (Her fweet perfections,) with one felf-king'!

Away

who faw Diana naked, and was torn in pieces by his hounds, reprefents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with inceffant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wifdom of the Ancients, fuppofes this ftory to warn us against enquiring into the fecrets of princes, by fhewing, that those who know that which for reasons of ftate is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own fervants. JOHNSON.

6 The element itself, till feven years heat,] Heat for beated, The air, till it shall have been warmed by feven revolutions of the fun, fhall not &c. So, in King John:

"The iron of itself, though beat red hot."

Again, in Macbeth:

And this report

"Hath fo exafperate the king-." MALONE.

7 How will she love, when the rich golden fhaft-] So, Milton, Par. Loft, B. iv:

8

"Here Love his golden fhafts employs. MALONE.

• the flock of all affections-] So, in Sidney's Arcadia:
has the flock of unspeakable virtues."

STEEVENS.

9 Her fweet perfections,—] Liver, brain, and beart, are admitted in poetry as the refidence of paffions, judgment, and fentiments. These are

B 3

what

Away before me to fweet beds of flowers ;

Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopy'd with bowers.

SCENE II.

The Sea-coaft.

Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?

Cap. This is Illyria, lady.

Vio. And what fhould I do in Illyria?

My brother he is in Elyfium.

[Exeum.

Perchance, he is not drown'd:-What think you, sailors ?
Cap. It is perchance, that you yourself were fav'd.
Vio. O my poor brother! and fo, perchance, may he be,
Cap. True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,
Affure yourself, after our fhip did fplit,

When you, and this poor number fav'd with you3,
Hung on our driving boat, I faw your brother,
Moft provident in peril, bind himself

(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
To a strong maft, that liv'd upon the fea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I faw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
So long as I could fee.

what Shakspeare calls, ber fweet perfections, though he has not very clearly expreffed what he might defign to have faid. STEEVENS.

with one felf-king!] Thus the original copy. The editor of the fecond folio, who in many inftances appears to have been equally ignorant of our author's language and metre, reads-felf-fame king; a reading, which all the subsequent editors have adopted. The verse is not defective. Perfections is here used as a quadrisyllable. So, in a fubfequent scene:

"Methinks I feel this youth's perfections—."

Self-king means felf-fame king; one and the fame king. So, in King Richard II:

that felf-mould that fashioned thee,

"Made him a man." MALONE.

Enter Viola, Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confeffione Amantis. STEEVENS.

3

and this poor number fav'd with you,] The old copy has-and thofe poor number. For the prefent emendation I am anfwerable, The tailors who were faved, enter with the captain, MALONE.

Vio. For faying fo, there's gold:
Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,
Whereto thy fpeech ferves for authority,
The like of him. Know'st thou this country?
Cap. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born,
Not three hours travel from this very place.

Vio. Who governs here?

Cap. A noble duke in nature, as in name *.
Vio. What is his name?

Cap. Orfino.

Vio. Orfino! I have heard my father name him :
He was a bachelor then.

Cap. And fo is now, or was so very late:
For but a month ago I went from hence;
And then 'twas fresh in murmur, (as, you know,
What great ones do, the lefs will prattle of,)
That he did feek the love of fair Olivia.

Vio. What's fhe?

Cap. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That dy'd fome twelve-month fince; then leaving her

In the protection of his fon, her brother,

Who fhortly alfo dy'd: for whofe dear love,

They fay, the hath abjur'd the fight

And company of men.

Vio. O, that I ferv'd that lady;

And might not be deliver'd to the world,

Till I had made mine own occafion mellow,

What my eftate is 5!

Cap. That were hard to compafs; Because she will admit no kind of fuit,

No, not the duke's.

♣ A noble duke in nature, as in name.] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in duke, or in Orfino, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family. JOHNSON.

5 And might not be deliver'd to the world, &c.] I wish I might not be made publick to the world, with regard to the fate of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my defign.

Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little premeditation: fhe is thrown by fhipwreck on an unknown coaft, hears that the prince is a bachelor, and refolves to fupplant the lady whom he courts. JOHNSON.

B 4

Vio.

Vio. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain;
And though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft clofe in pollution, yet of thee

I will believe, thou hast a mind that fuits
With this thy fair and outward character.
I pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,
Conceal me what I am; and be my aid
For fuch difguife as, haply, fhall become
The form of my intent. I'll ferve this duke";
Thou shalt prefent me as an eunuch to him,
It may be worth thy pains; for I can fing,
And fpeak to him in many forts of mufick,
That will allow me very worth his fervice?.
What elfe may hap, to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy filence to my wit.

Cap. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:
When my tongue blabs, then let mine
Vio. I thank thee: Lead me on.

eyes not fee!

A Room in Olivia's House,

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, and MARIA.

[Exeunt,

Sir To. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am fure, care's an enemy life.

to

Mar. By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o'nights; your coufin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.

6

Sir To. Why, let her except before excepted 9.

- I'll ferve this duke;] Viola is an excellent fchemer, never at a lofs; if the cannot ferve the lady, she will serve the duke. JOHNSON. 7 That will allow me--] To allow is to approve. So, in King Lear: if your fweet fway

8

66

"Allow obedience".

STEEVENS.

care's an enemy to life,] Alluding to the old proverb, Care will kill a cat. STEEVENS.

9-let ber except before excepted.] A ludicrous ufe of the formal law-pbrafe. FARMER.

It is the ufual language of leafes: "To have and to hold the faid demifed premifes &c. with their and every of their rights, members &c. (except before excepted)." MALONE.

Mar.

Mar. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modeft limits of order.

Sir To. Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in, and fo be thefe boots too; an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own ftraps.

Mar. That quaffing and drinking will undo you: I heard my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish knight, that you brought in one night here, to be her

wooer.

Sir To. Who? Sir Andrew Ague-cheek?

Mar. Ay, he.

Sir To. He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria.
Mar. What's that to the purpose ?

Sir To. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year. Mar. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats; he's a very fool, and a prodigal.

Sir To. Fie, that you'll fay fo! he plays o'th' viol-degambo, and fpeaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of

nature.

Mar. He hath, indeed,-almoft natural3: for, befides that he's a fool, he's a great quarreller; and, but that he hath a gift of a coward to allay the guft he hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

Sir To. By this hand, they are fcoundrels, and fubftractors, that fay fo of him. Who are they?

Mar. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.

Sir To. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink

—as tall a man-] Tall means ftout, courageous. STEEVENS. See Vol. I. p. 214, n. 4; and p. 228, n. 9. MALONE.

2

viol-de-gambo,] The viol-de-gambo seems, in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable inftrument. In The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, it is mentioned, with its proper derivation :

"Her viol-de-gambo is her beft content,

"For 'twixt her legs the holds her inftrument." COLLINS.

3 He batb, indeed,-almost natural:] Mr. Upton proposes to reguJate this paffage differently:

He hath indeed, all, moft natural. MALONE.

to