ANT. Alas, the day! SEB. A lady, fir, though it was faid fhe much refembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but, though I could not, with fuch eftimable wonder,' over-far believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her, the bore a mind that envy could not but call fair: fhe is drown'd already, fir, with falt water, though I feem to drown her remembrance again with more. ANT. Pardon me, fir, your bad entertainment. SEB. O, good Antonio, forgive me your trouble. ANT. If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your fervant. SEB. If you will not undo what you have done, that is, kill him whom you have recover'd, defire Fare ye well at once: my bofom is full of kindness; and I am yet so near the manners of my mother,' that upon the leaft occation more, mine eyes will tell tales of me. I am bound to the count Örfino's court: farewel. [Exit. ANT. The gentlenefs of all the gods go with thee! 3 with fuch eftimable wonder,] Thefe words Dr. Warburton calls an interpolation of the players, but what did the players gain by it? they may be fometimes guilty of a joke without the concurrence of the poet, but they never lengthen a fpeech only to make it longer. Shakspeare often confounds the active and pailive adjectives. Eftimable wonder is efteeming wonder, or onder and eftem. The meaning is, that he could not venture to think so highly as others of his fifter. JOHNSON. Thus Milton ufes unexpreffive notes, for unexpreffible, in his hymn on the Nativity. MALONE. 4-fhe is drown'd already, fir, with falt water,] There is a refemblance between this and another falfe thought in Hamkt: "Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia, "And therefore I forbid my tears." STELVENS. 5 I am yet fo near the manners of my mother,] So, in King Henry V. Act IV. fc. vi: "And all my mother came into my eyes." MALONE. I have many enemies in Orfino's court, Enter VIOLA; MALVOLIO following. MAL. Were not you even now with the countefs Olivia? V10. Even now, fir; on a moderate pace I have fince arrived but hither. MAL. She returns this ring to you, fir; you might have faved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself. She adds moreover, that you fhould put your lord into a defperate affurance fhe will none of him: And one thing more; that you be never fo hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord's taking of this. Receive it fo." VIO. She took the ring of me; I'll none of it." Receive it fo.] One of the modern editors reads, with fome probability, receive it, fir. But the prefent reading is fufficiently intelligible. MALONE. "Receive it fo," is, understand it fo. Thus, in the third Act of this play, Olivia fays to Viola 66 To one of your receiving Enough is fhewn;-" STEEVENS. 7 She took the ring of me; I'll none of it.] This paffage has been hitherto thus pointed; which renders it, as it appears to me, quite unintelligible. The following punctuation: "She took the ring of me! I'll none of it." Was fuggefted by an ingenious friend, and certainly renders the line lefs exceptionable: yet I cannot but think there is fome corruption in the text. Had our author intended fuch a mode of fpeech, he would probably have written She took a ring of me!-I'll none of it. MAL. Come, fir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is, it fhould be so return'd: if it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. [Exit. V10. I left no ring with her: What means this lady? Fortune forbid, my outfide have not charm'd her! She made good view of me; indeed, fo much, That, fure, methought, her eyes had loft her tongue, Malvolio's anfwer feems to intimate that Viola had faid she had not given any ring. We ought therefore, perhaps, to read, She took no ring of me;-I'll none of it. So afterwards: "I left no ring with her." Viola expressly denies her having given Olivia any ring. How then can the affert, as the is made to do by the old regulation of the paffage, that the lady had received one from her? Since I wrote the above, it has occurred to me that the latter part of the line may have been corrupt, as well as the former: our author might have written She took this ring of me! She'll none of it! So before: "he left this ring;-tell him, I'll none of it." And afterwards: "None of my lord's ring!"-Viola may be fuppofed to repeat the fubftance of what Malvolio has faid. Our author is feldom ftudious on fuch occafions to use the very words he had before employed. MALONE. I do not perceive the neceffity of the change recommended. Viola finding the ring fent after her, accompanied by a fiction, is prepared to meet it with another. This lady as Dr. Johnfon has obferved, is an excellent schemer; fhe is never at a lofs, or taken unprepared. STEEVENS. 8 That, fure,] Sure, which is wanting in the old copy, was added, to complete the metre, by the editor of the fecond folio. Sure in the prefent inftance is not very likely to have been the word omitted in the firft copy, being found in the next line but one. MALONE. 9 her eyes had loft her tongue,] We fay a man loses his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue loft her eyes; her tongue was talking of the duke, and her eyes gazing on his meffenger. JoHNSON. It rather means that the very fixed and eager view fhe took of Viola, perverted the ufe of her tongue, and made her talk diftractedly. This conftruction of the verb-left, is also much in Shakspeare's manner. Doucs, For fhe did fpeak in starts diftractedly. She loves me, fure; the cunning of her paffion None of my lord's ring! why, he fent her none. Poor lady, the were better love a dream. In women's waxen hearts to fet their forms!3 2 the pregnant enemy-] Is, I believe, the dexterous fiend, or enemy of mankind. JOHNSON. Pregnant is certainly dexterous, or ready. So, in Hamlet: How pregnant fometimes his replies are!" STEEVENS. 3 How eafy is it for the proper-falfe In women's waxen hearts to fet their forms!] This is obfcure. The meaning is, how eafy is difguife to women! how eafily does their own falfehood, contained in their waxen changeable hearts, enable them to affume deceitful appearances! The two next lines are perhaps tranfpofed, and fhould be read thus: "For fuch as we are made, if fuch we be, "Alas, our frailty is the caufe, not we." JOHNSON. I am not certain that this explanation is juft. Viola has been condemning thofe who difguife themfelves, becaufe Olivia had fallen in love with a fpecious appearance. How eafy is it, fhe adds, for those who are at once proper (i. e. fair in their appearance) and falfe (i. e. deceitful) to make an impreffion on the eafy hearts of women?-The proper-falfe is certainly a lefs elegant expreffion than the fair deceiver, but feems to mean the fame thing. A proper man, was the ancient phrafe for a handsome man: "This Ludovico is a proper man." Othello. To fet their forms, means, to plant their images, i. e. to make an impreffion on their eafy minds. Mr. Tyrwhitt concurs with me in this interpretation. STEEVENS. This paffage, according to Johnfon's explanation of it, is fo fevere a fatire upon women, that it is unnatural to fuppofe that Shak fpeare fhould put it in the mouth of one of the fex, efpecially a young one. Nor do I think that the words can poffibly exprefs the fenfe which he contends for. Steevens's explanation appears to be the true one. The word proper certainly means handfome; and Viola's reflection, how eafy it was for those who are handsome and Alas, our frailty is the caufe, not we; For, fuch as we are made of, fuch we be.' deceitful, to make an impreffion on the waxen hearts of women, is a natural fentiment for a girl to utter who was herself in love. An expreffion fimilar to that of proper-false, occurs afterwards in this very play, where Antonio fays: "Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous-evil "Are empty trunks o'er flourish'd by the devil.” M. MASON. Mr. Steevens's explanation is undoubtedly the true one. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: men have marble, women waxen minds, Again, in Measure for Measure: Nay, call us ten times frail, "For we are foft as our complexions are, our frailty-] The old copy reads—O frailty. STEEVENS. The emendation was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 5 For, fuch as we are made of, fuch we be.] The old copy reads→→→ made if. Mr. Tyrwhitt obferves, that "inftead of tranfpofing thefe lines according to Dr. Johnfon's conjecture," he is inclined to read the latter as I have printed it. So, in the Tempest: we are fuch stuff 66 "As dreams are made of." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture is right. Of and if are frequently confounded in the old copies. Thus in the folio, 1632, King John, p. 6: " Lord of our prefence, Angiers; and if you." [inftead of-of you.] Again, of, is printed inftead of if. Merchant of Venice, 1623: "Mine own I would say, but, of mine, then yours." In As you like it, we have a line conftructed nearly like the prefent, as now corrected: "Who fuch a one as fhe, fuch is her neighbour.". MALONE. How will this fadge?] To fadge, is to fuit, to fit. So, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600: "I fhall never fadge with the humour, because I cannot lie.” VOL. IV. E |