Cur.

Duke. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have.

O! when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
(Methought she purg'd the air of pestilence)".
That instant was I turn'd into a hart,

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds

E'er since pursue me.

The hart.

[Enter VALENTINE.] How now? what news from her?

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her handmaid do return this answer:

A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance. 10

1 Duke. O she that hath a heart of that fine frame,

To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will she love, when the rich golden shaft 11

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
That live in her: when liver, brain, and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd,

+

7

6) Nach Capell's Interpunction, der den Satz als einen parenthetischen betrachtet und That instant etc. als Nachsatz zu dem Vordersatze O! when mine eyes etc. fasst. Die gewöhnliche Iuterpunction hat keine Parenthese und beginnt mit That instant einen neuen Satz.

7) Sh. dachte an den Mythus von Actäon, auf den er deutlicher hinweist in Merry Wives of Windsor (A. 2, Sc. 1) go thou like Sir Actaeon he with Ringwood at thy heels. Dasselbe Bild wie hier fand Sh. in Daniel's Sonnets (1592), wo der Dichter von der Sprödigkeit seiner Geliebten sagt: which turn'd my sport into a hart's despair | Which still is chas'd, while I have any breath, || By mine own thoughts sel on me by my fair; My thoughts like hounds pursue me to my death.

e) heat für heated: die Luft selbst, bis sie sieben Jahre erwärmt ist, also sieben Sommer hindurch. Andere schreiben seven years' heat und fassen also heat substantivisch. Das Particip heat kommt auch in Webster's Northward hoe! vor: he's heat to the proof. element Luft, Atmosphäre, findet sich in Julius Caesar (A. 1, Sc. 3) the complexion of the element is favour'd like the work we have in hand. Für heate der Fol. liest Capell hence.

9) Die Metapher von dem Salz der Thränen, das zur Erhaltung und Würze eines Gegenstandes dient, hat Sh. wiederholt; so in Romeo and Juliet (A. 2, Sc. 3) how much salt-water thrown away in haste To season love.

10) remembrance ist viersylbig (rememberance) zu lesen, wie in Macbeth (A. 3, Sc. 2) let your remembrance apply to Banquo.

11) Cupido's goldner und bleierner Pfeil wird in Golding's Uebersetzung des Ovid so geschildert: That causes love is all of gold with point full sharp and bright. || That chaseth love is blunt, whose steel with leaden head is dight.

·

(Her sweet perfections) 12 with one self king. -
Away, before me to sweet beds of flowers;
Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.

SCENE II.

The Sea-coast.

Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?
Cap.
Vio. And what should I do in Illyria?

My brother he is in Elysium. 1
Perchance, he is not drown'd:

This is Illyria, lady.

what think you, sailors?

Cap. It is perchance 2 that you yourself were sav'd.

Vio. O, my poor brother! and so, perchance, may he be.

Cap. True, Madam: and, to comfort you with chance,

Assure yourself, after your ship did split,

When you, and those poor number 3 saved with you,
Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,

Most provident in peril, bind himself

(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)

To a strong mast, that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves 5
So long as I could see.

[Exeunt.

12) her sweet perfections fasst Steevens als parenthetische Apposition zu liver, brain and heart als den Sitzen der Leidenschaften, der Urtheilskraft und der Empfindungen. Nach Knight's Erklärung, der dann mit Capell perfection lesen müsste, beziehen sich die Worte auf die Besetzung dieser drei Sitze oder Throne durch einen einzigen König, durch Cupido, weil erst dadurch diese Vollkommenheit Olivia's erreicht wird. one self = ein und derselbe. So in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Laws of Candy: we meet in one self centre of blest content. Manche Hgg. lesen mit

der zweiten Folioausg. von 1632 with one self-same king.
Douce macht auf den Gleichklang von Illyria und Elysium, als vom Dichter beab-
sichtigt, aufmerksam.

1

2) perchance vielleicht, fasst der Schiffscapitain durch Glückszufall (per chance). 3) Sh. verbindet den pluralischen Begriff poor number mit dem Plural those, was die Hgg. meistens in that oder this umändern.

4) Der Mast schwamm auf dem Wasser, wie ein lebendiges Wesen, wie der Delphin, dem Arion sich rettete. Die Fol. hat Orion, was sogar Rowe noch beibehielt.

auf

5) Viola's Bruder war mit den Wellen so vertraut, wie mit Bekannten, mit denen er verkehrte.

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. 7
Vio. What is his name?

Cap.

Orsino.

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

Cap. And so is now, or was so very late;

For but a month ago I went from hence,

And then 't was fresh in murmur, (as, you know,
What great ones do, the less will prattle of)
That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.

Cap. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her
In the protection of his son, her brother,

Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
They say, she hath abjur'd the company,

Vio. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain,

And though that nature with a beauteous wall

Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee

I will believe, thou hast a mind that suits

With this thy fair and outward character.
I pr'ythee, (and I'll pay thee bounteously)

country ist dreisylbig zu lesen (coun

6) the like bezieht sich auf mine own escape. tery) wie in Peele's Edward I.: Sending whole countries of heathen souls || To Pluto's house.

7) Der Herzog ist ebenso adlig in seinem Wesen, wie vermöge seines Namens und seiner. Abstammung aus der Familie Orsino. Manche Herausgeber theilen den Vers anders ab und lesen willkührlich A noble duke, in nature || As in his name.

8) So stellt Hanmer die Worte der Fol. the sight || And company of men um.

9) what my estate is ist zu verbinden mit deliver'd to the world, obwohl der Zwischensatz till I had etc. die Construction stört: möchte ich doch im Dienste der Dame sein und nicht eher als das, was ich eigentlich bin, vor die Welt treten, bis ich selbst die Gelegenheit dazu reif gemacht haben werde.

Conceal me what I am, 10 and be my aid

For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke:
Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him.
It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing,
And speak to him in many sorts of music,
That will allow me very worth his service. 11
What else may hap to time I will commit;
Only, shape thou thy silence to my wit.

Cap. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be:
When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see. 12
Vio. I thank thee.

Lead me on.

SCENE III.

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 sure care 's an enemy to life.

Mar. By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. 1

Sir To. Why, let her except before excepted.

Mar. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. Sir To. Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots to: an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps.

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 2 a man as any 's in Illyria.

Mar. What 's that to the purpose?

Sir To. Why, he has three thousand ducats a-year.

10) Verhehle mich als das, was ich bin, verrathe mein eigentliches Geschlecht nicht. 11) to allow anerkennen als Etwas: Viola's musikalisches Talent, die zu dem Zwecke sich dem Herzog als Kastrat vorstellen will, wird ihr die Anerkennung verschaffen, dass sie würdig ist, ihm zu dienen.

12) Eine Anspielung auf die aus Eunuchen und Stummen bestehende Dienerschaft in Türkischen Harems, so wie auf die dort übliche Strafe der Blendung.

1) Mein Fräulein hat viel auszusetzen an den unpassenden Stunden Eures ZuhausekomSir Toby fast dann scherzhaft to except im juristischen Sinne perhorresciren, und macht ebenso ein Wortspiel mit to confine, das er als Compositum von

mens.

-

feingekleidet, fast.

tüchtig, stattlich.

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 say so he plays o' the viol-de-gamboys, ' and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

Mar. He hath, indeed,

4

almost natural; for, besides that he 's a fool, he's a great quarreller; and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he hath in quarrelling, 't is thought among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

Sir To. By this hand, they are scoundrels, and substractors 5 that say so 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 to her, as long as there is a passage in my throat, and drink in Illyria. He's a coward, and a coystril, that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o' the toe like a parish-top. 7 What, wench! Castiliano vulgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

6

Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

8

Sir And. Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch?

Sir To. Sweet Sir Andrew.

Sir And. Bless you, fair shrew.

Mar. And you too, Sir.

Sir To. Accost, Sir Andrew, accost.9

4) Wortspiel zwischen nature und natural = Einfaltspinsel.

He hath indeed all, most natural.

5) er will detractors sagen. 6) coystril

=

Manche Hgg. setzen subtractors.

a kind

Trossbube, von einigen Hgg. irrthümlich identificirt mit kestrel = of bastard hawk, kommt als verächtliche Bezeichnung auch bei Sh.'s Zeitgenossen vor; so in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour: You whoreson bragging coystril.

7) parish-top oder town-top, ein grosser Kreisel, der zur Belnstigung der Einwohner, die ihn namentlich bei kaltem Wetter peitschten, in Englischen Städten und Dörfern gehalten wurde.

*) Warburton änderte Castiliano volto, als wolle Sir Toby der Maria eine ernste spanische Miene empfehlen. Wahrscheinlich spricht er nur beliebige spanisch klingende Worte, um sich bei dem herzukommenden Sir Andrew, dem diese Sprachkenntnisse imponiren, in Respect zu setzen.

9) to accost = sich an Jemanden machen, mit Jemandem anbinden; so in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels: to accost him with some choice remnant of Spanish or Italian. Sir Andrew hält das ihm unbekannte Wor. für den Familiennamen der Maria. In demselben Sinne wie to accost gebraucht Sir Toby auch to board.