But for thee, fellow; fellow, thy words are madness: Oli. What would my lord, but that he may not have, Cesario, you do not keep promise with me. Vio. Madam! Duke. Gracious Olivia, Oli. What do you say, Cesario ?-Good my lord,— It is as fat and fulsome to mine ear, As howling after music. Oli. Still so constant, lord. Duke. What, to perverseness? you uncivil lady, My soul the faithfull'st offerings hath breath'd out, Oli. Even what it please my lord, that shall become him. Duke. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, That sometime savours nobly.-But hear me this: Where he sits crowned in his master's spite. Come boy, with me: my thoughts are ripe in mischief: To spite a raven's heart within a dove. Vio. And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly, To do you rest a thousand deaths would die. 7 Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, [Going. [Following. Kill what I love?] The allusion is, as Theobald pointed out, to the story of Thyamis, in the Ethiopian History of Heliodorus, which had been translated by Thomas Underdowne: the date of the first edition is not known, but it was reprinted in 1587, and again in 1605. There was no edition in 1602, although Mr. Singer so states: in fact, he misprinted this part of my note, and erred as to the date. Oli. Where goes Cesario? Vio. After him I love, More than I love these eyes, more than my life, Punish my life for tainting of my love! Oli. Ah me! detested? how am I beguil'd! Vio. Who does beguile you? who does do you wrong? Call forth the holy father? Duke. [Exit an Attendant. Come away. [TO VIOLA. Oli. Whither, my lord ?-Cesario, husband, stay. Oli. Alas! it is the baseness of thy fear, Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art Re-enter Attendant with the Priest. Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence, Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings'; Seal'd in my function, by my testimony: Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave Duke. O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be, 8 A contract AND eternal bond of love,] The compositor, according to the evidence of the corr. fo. 1632, mistook the abbreviation of "and" for of, and so misprinted the line. This is more than probable, the contraction for "and" having been not unfrequently thus mistaken. "Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings ;] "In our ancient marriage ceremony," says Steevens, "the man received, as well as gave, a ring.” When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case1? Oli. O! do not swear: Hold little faith, though thou hast too much fear. Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, with his head broken. Sir And. For the love of God, a surgeon! send one presently to sir Toby. Oli. What's the matter? Sir And. He has broke my head across, and has given sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too. For the love of God, your help! I had rather than forty pound I were at home. Oli. Who has done this, sir Andrew? Sir And. The count's gentleman, one Cesario. We took him for a coward, but he's the very devil incardinate. Duke. My gentleman, Cesario ? Sir And. Od's lifelings! here he is.-You broke my head for nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by sir Toby. Vio. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you: You drew your sword upon me, without cause; But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not. Sir And. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me : I think you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb. Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown. Here comes sir Toby halting, you shall hear more: but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did. Duke. How now, gentleman! how is't with you? Sir To. That's all one: he has hurt me, and there's the end on't. Sot, did'st see Dick surgeon, sot? Clo. O he's drunk, sir Toby, an hour agone: his eyes were set at eight i' the morning. Sir To. Then he's a rogue, and a passing-measures pavin2. I hate a drunken rogue. 1 When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy CASE?] i. e. On thy exterior. The skin of a fox, or of a rabbit, is called its case. 2 Then he's a rogue, and a PASSING-MEASURES PAVIN.] There is a slight error Oli. Away with him! Who hath made this havoc with them? Sir And. I'll help you, sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together. Sir To. Will you help? An ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave! a thin-faced knave, a gull ! Oli. Get him to bed, and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, Sir TOBY, and Sir ANDREW. Enter SEBASTIAN". Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your kinsman ; But had it been the brother of my blood, I must have done no less with wit and safety. You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that I do perceive it hath offended you ': Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows We made each other but so late ago. Duke. One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons! A natural perspective, that is, and is not. Seb. Antonio! O, my dear Antonio! How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me, Since I have lost thee! Ant. Sebastian are you? Seb. Fear'st thou that, Antonio? Ant. How have you made division of yourself?— An apple cleft in two is not more twin in the original text of this passage, where "pavyn" is printed panym, the u, for r, having been turned; but otherwise, with a little explanation, it is sufficiently intelligible. The pavin, or peacock dance, was a slow heavy movement, such as a drunken man, like “Dick surgeon," might be supposed to execute in his intoxication: "passing measures (it is printed passy-measures in the folios) is a corruption of passamezzo, which signified, in Italian, a mode of dancing not much differing from walking, (Sir J. Hawkins's Hist. of Music, iv. 386,) so that "Dick surgeon " in his drunkenness, went through this species of slow half-walking dance, and hence, probably, the humour of Sir Toby's allusion. It seems in English to have been called "the passing-measures pavin," (see Shakesp. Soc. Papers, i. 24,) and part of its applicability to the drunken surgeon, who had passed all measures in his intoxication, was derived from this circumstance. 3 Enter Sebastian.] "All start" is here added in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632, perhaps to instruct the other actors on the stage to express astonishment at the obvious likeness between Viola and Sebastian. You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that I do perceive it hath offended you :] This is the regulation of the folios, which Malone altered by placing "by that" at the beginning of the second line. 5 A natural perspective,] i. e. A natural illusion, as if seen through a perspective glass, representing the same figure twice over. Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian? Oli. Most wonderful! Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother; Of here and every where. I had a sister, So went he suited to his watery tomb. Seb. Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow. Vio. And died that day, when Viola from her birth Seb. O! that record is lively in my soul. He finished, indeed, his mortal act That day that made my sister thirteen years. I'll bring you to a captain in this town, Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help All the occurrence of my fortune since Hath been between this lady, and this lord. Seb. So comes it, lady, [To OLIVIA.] you have been mis took; But nature to her bias drew in that ". 6 But nature to her bias DREW in that.] We cannot prevail upon ourselves to alter the old text here, but in the corr. fo. 1632 true is substituted for "drew." The two words may have been misheard, and to say that nature was true in her bias is a very natural expression. Still, "drew" fills its place well. |
