Enter OLIVIA.

OLI. Hold, Toby; on thy life, I charge thee, hold. SIR TO. Madam?

OLI. Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch, Fit for the mountains, and the barbarous caves, Where manners ne'er were preach'd! out of my fight! Be not offended, dear Cefario:

Rudefby, be gone!-I pr'ythee, gentle friend,

[Exeunt SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW, and FABIAN. Let thy fair wisdom, not thy paffion, fway In this uncivil and unjuft extent1

Against thy peace. Go with me to my houfe; And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks This ruffian hath botch'd up,' that thou thereby May'st smile at this: thou shalt not choose but go; Do not deny: Befhrew his foul for me,

He started one poor heart of mine in thee.*

SEB. What relifh is in this? how runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream:

In this uncivil and unjuft extent-] Extent is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are feized for the King. It is therefore taken here for violence in general. JOHNSON.

3 This ruffian hath botch'd up,] A coarfe expreffion for made up, as a bad tailor is called a botcher, and to botch is to make clumsily. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon is certainly right. A fimilar expreffion occurs in Antony and Cleopatra:

if you'll patch a quarrel,

"As matter whole you've not to make it with.”

Again, in King Henry V

"Do botch and bungle up damnation." STEEVENS.

4 He started one poor heart of mine in thee.] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and hart. The fenfe however is eafy enough. He that offends thee, attacks one of my hearts; or, as the ancients expreffed it, half my heart. JOHNSON.

The equivoque fuggefted by Dr. Johnfon was, I have no doubt, intended. Heart in our author's time was frequently written hart; and Shakspeare delights in playing on thefe words. MALONE.

5 What relish is in this ?] How does this tafte? What judgement am I to make of it? JOHNSON.

Let fancy ftill my fenfe in Lethe steep;
If it be thus to dream, ftill let me sleep!

OLI. Nay, come, I pr'ythee: 'Would, thou'dft be rul'd by me!

MAR. Nay, I pr'ythee, put on this gown, and this beard; make him believe, thou art fir Topas the curate; do it quickly: I'll call fir Toby the whilft. [Exit MARIA.

CLO. Well, I'll put it on, and I will diffemble myself in't; and I would I were the first that ever diffembled in fuch a gown. I am not tall enough to become the function well; nor lean enough to be thought a good student: but to be faid, an honest man, and a good housekeeper, goes as fairly, as to

Chaucer.

-fir Topas-] The name of fir Topas is taken from STEEVENS.

7 I will diffemble myself—] i. e. disguise myself.

MALONE. Shakspeare has here ftumbled on a Latinifm: Thus Ovid, fpeaking of Achilles :

8 I

"Vefte virum longa diffimulatus erat. STEEVENS.

am not tall enough to become the function well;] This cannot be right. The word wanted should be part of the description of a careful man. I fhould have no objection to read-pale.

TYRWHITT.

Not tall enough, perhaps means not of fufficient height to overlook a pulpit. STEEVENS.

fay, a careful man, and a great fcholar." The competitors enter."

Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, and MARIA. SIR TO. Jove blefs thee, master parfon.

CLO. Bonos dies, fir Toby: for as the old hermit of Prague, that never faw pen and ink, very wittily faid to a niece of king Gorboduc, That, that is, is: fo I, being mafter parfon, am mafter parfon; For what is that, but that; and is, but is?

SIR TO. To him, fir Topas.

CLO. What, hoa, I fay,-Peace in this prifon! SIR TO. The knave counterfeits well; a good knave. MAL. [in an inner chamber.] Who calls there? CLO. Sir Topas, the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatick.

MAL. Sir Topas, fir Topas, good fir Topas, go to my lady.

CLO. Out, hyperbolical fiend! how vexeft thou this man? talkeft thou nothing but of ladies?

SIR TO. Well faid, mafter parfon.

8 as to fay, a careful man, and a great fcholar.] This refers to what went before: I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good ftudent: it is plain then Shakspeare wrote:-as to fay a graceful man, i. e. comely. To this the Oxford editor fays, rectè. WARBURTON.

A careful man, I believe, means a man who has fuch a regard for his character, as to intitle him to ordination. STEEVENS.

The competitors enter.] That is, the confederates or affociates. The word competitor is used in the fame fenfe in Richard III. and in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. M. MASON.

2

This is a very

very wittily faid-That, that is, is:] humorous banter of the rules eftablished in the fchools, that all reafonings are ex præcognitis & præconceffis, which lay the foundation of every science in these maxims, whatsoever is, is; and it is impoffible for the fame thing to be and not to be; with much trifling of the like kind. WARBURTON.

MAL. Sir Topas, never was man thus wrong'd: good fir Topas, do not think I am mad; they have laid me here in hideous darkness.

CLO. Fye, thou dishonest Sathan! I call thee by the most modefl terms; for I am one of thofe gentle ones, that will use the devil himself with courtesy; Say'st thou, that house' is dark?

MAL. As hell, fir Topas.

CLO. Why, it hath bay windows tranfparent as barricadoes, and the clear ftones towards the fouth north are as luftrous as ebony; and yet complainest thou of obftruction?

MAL. I am not mad, fir Topas; I fay to you, this house is dark.

3

that houfe-] That manfion, in which you are now confined. The clown gives this pompous appellation to the small room in which Malvolio, we may fuppofe, was confined, to exafperate him. The word it in the clown's next fpeech plainly means Malvolio's chamber, and confirms this interpretation. MALONE, it hath bay-windows-] A bay-window is the fame as a bow-window; a window in a recess, or bay. See A. Wood's Life, published by T. Hearne, 1730, p. 548 and 553. The following inftances may likewife fupport the fuppofition:

Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon, 1600:

"retired myfelf into a bay-window," &c.

Again, in Stow's Chronicle of King Henry IV:

"As Tho. Montague rested him at a bay-window, a gun was levell'd," &c.

Again, in Middleton's Women beware Women:

""Tis a fweet recreation for a gentlewoman

"To stand in a bay-window, and fee gallants." Chaucer, in The Affemblie of Ladies, mentions bay-windows. Again, in King Henry the Sixth's Directions for building the Hall at King's College, Cambridge:-" on every fide thereof a baie-window." STEEVENS.

See Minfheu's DICT. in v. " A bay-window, becaufe it is builded in manner of a baie or rode for fhippes, that is, round. L. Cave feneftra. G. Une feneftre fort anthors de la maison." MALONE. sthe clear ftones-] The old copy has-fores. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. And yet, fays Mr. Malone, the fecond folio is not worth three fhillings. STEEVENS,

CLO. Madman, thou erreft: I fay, there is no darkness, but ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled, than the Egyptians in their fog.

MAL. I fay, this houfe is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell; and I fay, there was never man thus abufed: I am no more mad than you are; make the trial of it in any constant question."

CLO. What is the opinion of Pythagoras, concerning wild-fowl?

MAL. That the foul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

CLO. What think'ft thou of his opinion?

MAL. I think nobly of the foul, and no way approve his opinion.

CLO. Fare thee well: Remain thou ftill in darknefs: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras, ere I will allow of thy wits; and fear to kill a woodcock,' left thou difpoffefs the foul of thy grandam. Fare thee well.

MAL. Sir Topas, fir Topas,

SIR TO. My moft exquifite fir Topas!
CLO. Nay, I am for all waters."

6 conftant queftion.] A fettled, a determinate, a regular queftion. JOHNSON.

Rather, in any regular converfation, for fo generally Shakspeare ufes the word queftion. MALONE.

7 to kill a woodcock,] The Clown mentions a woodcock particularly, because that bird was fuppofed to have very little brains, and therefore was a proper ancestor for a man out of his wits. MALONE.

8 Nay, I am for all waters.] A phrafe taken from the actor's ability of making the audience cry either with mirth or grief. WARBURTON. I rather think this expreffion borrowed from fportfmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete fpaniel. JOHNSON..