Page images
PDF
EPUB

And yet when wit and youth are come to harveft,
Your wife is like to reap a proper man :
There lies your way, due weft.

Vio. Then, weftward hoe:

Grace and good difpofition attend your Lady fhip!
You'll nothing, Madam, to my Lord by me?

[ocr errors]

Oli. Stay; pr'ythee tell me, what thou think'it 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! 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 scorn 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,

By maid-hood, 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 reafons from this clause,
For that I woo, thou therefore haft no caufe:
But rather reason thus with reason fetter;

Love fought is good; but given, unfought, is better.

*

Vio. By innocence I fwear, and by my youth,

I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth,

And that no woman has; nor never none
Shall miftrefs be of it, fave I alone.

And fo adieu, good Madam; never more
Will I my mafter's tears to you deplore.

Oli. Yet come again; for thou, perhaps, may'st move That heart, which now abhors to like his love.

[Exeunt.

VOL. III.

G

SCENE

SCENE changes to an apartment in OLIVIA'S house.

Enter Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian.

Sir And. NO, faith, I'll not fay a jot longer,
Sir To. Thy reafon, dear venom, give

thy reafon.

Fab. You must needs yield your reason, Sir Andrew. Sir And. Marry, I faw your niece do more favours to the Duke's ferving-man, than ever she bestow'd on me. I faw't, i' th' orchard.

Sir To. Did he see thee the while, old boy, tell me that?

[ocr errors]

Sir And. As plain as I see you now.

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

Sir And. 'Slight! will you make an ass o' me? Fab. I will prove it legitimate, Sir, upon the oaths of judgment and reafon.

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

I

Fab. She did fhew favour to the youth in your fight, only to exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in your heart, and brimstone in your liver. You should 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 baulkt. 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 ificle 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. :

[ocr errors]

Sir To. Why then, build me thy fortunes upon the bafis of valour; challenge me the Duke's youth to

7.1

fight with him; hurt him in eleven places; my niece
thall take note of it; and affure thyfelf, 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, Sir Andrew.

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

Sir To. Go, write in a martial hand; be curft and brief: it is no matter how witty, fo it be eloquent, and full of invention; (13) taunt him with the licence of ink; if thou thou'ft him fome thrice, it fhall not be amifs; and as many lyes as will lie in thy fheet of paper, although the fheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England; fet 'em down, go about it. Let there be gall enough in thy ink, tho' thou write with. a goofe-pen, no matter: about it.

Sir And. Where fhall I find you?

Sir To. We'll call thee at the Cubiculo: go.

[Exit Sir Andrew. Fab. This is a dear manikin to you, Sir Toby. Sir To. I have been dear to him, lad, fome two thousand strong or fo.

(13) Taunt him with the licence of ink; if thou thou'st him fome tbrice,] There is no doubt, I think, but this paffage is one of thole, in which our author intended to fhew his refpect for Sir Waiter Ra leigh, and a deteftation of the virulence of his profecutors. The words quoted, feem to me directly levell'd at the Attorney General Coke, who in the trial of Sir Walter, attack'd him with all the following indecent expreffions.- "All that he did was by thy instit gation, thou vipour; for I thou thee, thou traytor!" (Here, by the way, are the Poet's three thou's.) "You are an odious man." Is he base? I return it into thy throat, on his behalf.”. "O "damnable atheist !" Thou art a monster; thou haft an "Thou haft a Span b "Go to, I will

English face, but a Spanish heart." "heart, and thyfelf art a fpider of hell." "lay thee on thy back for the confident'ft traytor that ever came at a bar," &c. Is not here all the licence of tongue, which the Poet fatyrically prefcribes to Sir Andrew's ink? And how mean an opi nion Shakespeare had of thefe petulant invectives, is pretty evident from his clofe of this fpeech; Let there be gall enough in thy ink, tho' ebou write it with a goofe-pen, no matter. A kerner lah at the Attorney for a fool, than all the contumelies the Attorney threw at the prifoner as a fuppos'd traytor!

G 2

Fab.

1

1

F

Fab. We fhall have a rare letter from him; but you'll not deliver't.

Sir To. Never truft me then; and by all means ftir on the youth to an answer. I think, oxen and wainropes cannot hale them together. For Andrew, if he were open'd; and you find fo much blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I'll eat the reft of th' anatomy.

Fab. And his oppofite, the youth, bears in his vifage no great prefage of cruelty.

Enter Maria.

Sir To. Look, where the youngest wren of nine comes. Mar. If you defire the spleen, and will laugh yourfelves into ftitches, follow me; yond gull Malvolio is turned heathen, a very Renegado? for there is no Chriflian, that means to be fav'd by believing rightly, can ever believe fuch impoffible paffages of groffnefs. He's in yellow ftockings..

Sir To. And cross-garter'd ?

Mar. Moft villanously; like a pedant that keeps a fchool i'th' church: I have dogg'd him, like his murderer...He does obey every point of the letter, that I dropt to betray him; he does fmile his face into more lines than is in the new map, with the augmentation of the Indies; you have not feen fuch a thing, as 'tis; I can hardly forbear hurling things at him. I know, my Lady will ftrike him; if the do, he'll fmile, and take't for a great favour.

1: Sir To. Come, bring us, bring us where he is,

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

Seb.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

SCENE changes to the Street."

Enter Sebaftian, and Anthonio.

[ocr errors]

[Exeunt.

Would not by my will have troubled you. But fince you make your pleasure of your pains, I will no further chide you.

[ocr errors]

Ant. I could not stay behind you, my defire, (More sharp than filed steel,) did spur me forth;

[ocr errors]

And

And not all love to fee you, (tho' fo much,
As might have drawn one to a longer voyage.)
But jealoufy what might befal your travel,
Being killefs in thefe parts; which to a stranger,
Unguided and unfriended, often prove
Rough and unhofpitable. My willing love,
The rather by thefe arguments of fear,
Set forth in your purfuit.

Seb. My kind Anthonio,

(14) I can no other anfwer make, but thanks;
And thanks, and ever thanks; and oft good turns
Are fhuffled off with fuch uncurrent pay;
But were my worth, as is my confcience, firm,
You should find better dealing: what's to do?
Shall we go fee the relicks of this town?

Ant. To-morrow, Sir; beft, firft, go fee your lodging. Seb. I am not weary, and 'tis long to night;

I pray you, let us fatisfy our eyes

With the memorials, and the things of fame,
That do renown this city..

Ant. Would, you'd pardon me:

I do not without danger walk these streets.
Once, in a fea-fight 'gainst the Duke his gallies,
I did some fervice, of fuch note, indeed,

That were I ta'en here, it would fcarce be anfwer'd.
Seb. Belike, you flew great number of his people.

[merged small][ocr errors]

-37 (14) I can no other answer make but thanks, And thanks and ever-oft good turns

n

Are buffled off with fuch uncurrent pay;] It must be obvious to every reader, who has the leaft knowledge in verfifications that the fecond line is too fhort by a whole foot; however the editors have indolently paffed it over without fufpicion. Then, who ever heard of this goodly double adverb, ever-oft, which seems to have as much propriety as, always-fometimes? As I have reftor'd the paffage, it is very much in our author's manner, and mode of expreffion. So, in Cymbeline;

[ocr errors]

Since when I have been debtor to you for courtefies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay ftill. z 19 in And in All's well, that Ends well.

4

[ocr errors]

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will over pay,

When I have found it.

and pay again

[ocr errors]

Ant.

« PreviousContinue »