Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,

What my estate is 1.

Cap.

That were hard to compass;

Because she will admit no kind of suit,

No, not the duke's.

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 pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously, Conceal me what I am; 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 musick, That will allow3 me very worth his service. 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! Vio. I thank thee: Lead me on. [Exeunt.

1 i. e. 'I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design.' Johnson remarks that Viola seems to have formed a deep design with very little premeditation.' In the novel upon which the play is founded, the Duke being driven upon the isle of Cyprus, by a tempest, Silla, the daughter of the governor, falls in love with him, and on his departure goes in pursuit of him. All this Shakspeare knew, and probably intended to tell in some future scene, but afterwards forgot it. Viola, in Act ii. Sc. 4, plainly alludes to her having been secretly in love with the Duke, but it would have been inconsistent with her delicacy to have made an open confession of it to the Captain.

2 This plan of Viola's was not pursued, as it would have been inconsistent with the plot of the play. She was presented as a page not as an eunuch.

3 Approve.

VOL. I.

DD

SCENE III. A Room in Olivia's House.

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA.

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.

Sir To. Why, let her except before excepted1. 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 too; 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 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. Fye, that you'll say so! he plays o' the viol-de-gambo, and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

1 A ludicrous use of a formal law phrase.

2 That is as valiant a man, as tall a man, is used here by Sir Toby with more than the usual licence of the word; he was pleased with the equivoque, and banters upon the diminutive stature of poor Sir Andrew, and his utter want of courage.

Mar. He hath, indeed,-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, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

Sir To. By this hand they are scoundrels, and substractors, 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 coystrils, that will not drink to my niece, till his

3 A coystril is a low, mean, or worthless fellow. Holinshed classes coisterels with lacqueys and women, the unwarlike attendants on an army, vol. iii. p. 272. In another passage, speaking of the origin of esquires, he says: They were at the first costerels, or bearers of the arms of barons and knights, and thereby being instructed in martial knowledge, had that name [i.e. esquire], for a dignitie given to distinguish them from common soldiers.' Vol. i. p. 162. The etymology of the word has been variously and erroneously stated. It is evidently from the Low Latin Coterellus. Cotæ seu tugurii habitator, a peasant: from whence the French Costerauls, or Coteraux; an association or combination of peasants; or, as Cotgrave says, 'a certain crew of peasantly outlaws, who in old time did much mischief unto the nobility and clergy.' It was also given as a nick-name to the emissaries employed by the Kings of England in their French wars. Nicholas Gilles, in his Chronicle, speaking of our Richard I. says: En ce mesmes temps Richard Roy d'Angleterre feit eslever et mettre sus une armée des gens, qu'on appelle Costerauls, dont estoit chef et conducteur de par luy un nommé Mercadier. Ces Costerauls estoient gens de pied, qui servirent les roys d'Angleterre es guerres qu'ils menerent en France.'-And in another place:- - Le dit Richard I. reprint la ville de Tours, et la pluspart des habitants feit par Costerauls et Satellites mettre à occision.' These Costerels were, I presume,' a rout of Brabanters,' under Mercadier, of whom Holinshed observes that they did the French much hurt by robbing and spoiling the country.' We thus see why it was used as a term of contempt. I find in one or two Dictionaries of the last century Coistrel interpreted a young lad.' I know not how to account for this; unless it is because

brains turn o' the toe like a parish-top. What, wench? Castiliano volto 5; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

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.

Sir And. What's that?

Kastril is the name of a boy in the Alchemist. The term Kestrel, for an inferior and cowardly kind of hawk, was evidently a corruption of the French Quercelle or Quercerelle, and had originally no connexion with Coystril, though in later times they may have been confounded. The origin of the word Coterie has been traced to the same source, yet how distinct is a rude rabblement from a Coterie.

4 A large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief when they could not work. To sleep like a Town-top' is a proverbial expression.

5 The old copy reads Castiliano vulgo. Warburton proposed reading Castiliano volto. In English, put on your Castilian countenance, i.e. 'grave serious looks.' I have no doubt that Warburton was right, for that reading is required by the context, and Castiliano vulgo has no meaning. But I have met with a passage in Hall's Satires, B. iv. S. 2, which I think places it beyond a doubt:

- he can kiss his hand in gree.

And with good grace bow it below the knee,
Or make a Spanish face with fawning cheer,

With th' Iland congé like a cavalier,

And shake his head, and cringe his neck and side,' &c. The Spaniards were in high estimation for courtesy, though the natural gravity of the national countenance was thought to be a cloak for villany. The Castiliano volto was in direct opposition to the viso sciolto which the noble Roman told Sir Henry Wootton would go safe over the world. Castiliano vulgo, besides its want of connexion or meaning in this place, could hardly have been a proverbial phrase, when we remember that Castile is the noblest part of Spain.

Sir To. My niece's chamber-maid.

Sir And. Good mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance.

Mar. My name is Mary, sir.

Sir And. Good mistress Mary Accost,

Sir To. You mistake, knight: accost, is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her.

Sir And. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of accost? Mar. Fare you well, gentlemen.

Sir To. An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, 'would thou might'st never draw sword again.

Sir And. An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?

Mar. Sir, I have not you by the hand.

Sir And. Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.

Mar. Now, sir, thought is free: I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.

Sir And. Wherefore, sweetheart? what's your metaphor?

Mar. It's dry, sir.

Sir And. Why, I think so; I am not such an ass, but I can keep my hand dry. But what's your jest?

Mar. A dry jest, sir.

Sir And. Are you full of them?

Mar. Ay, sir; I have them at my fingers' ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren. [Exit MARIA. Sir To. O knight, thou lack'st a cup of canary: When did I see thee so put down?

Sir And. Never in your life, I think; unless you see canary put me down: Methinks, sometimes I have no more wit than a christian, or an ordinary