FAB. Now is the woodcock near the gin. SIR TO. O, peace! and the spirit of humours intimate reading aloud to him!

MAL. By my life, this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's, her U's, and her T's; and thus makes the her great P's. It is, in contempt of question, her hand.

SIR AND. Her C's, her U's, and her T's: Why that?

MAL. [reads] To the unknown beloved, this, and my good wishes: her very phrafes!-By your leave, wax.-Soft!-and the impreffure her Lucrece,

her great P's.] In the direction of the letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be found.

STEEVENS. I am afraid fome very coarfe and vulgar appellations are meant to be alluded to by these capital letters. BLACKSTONE.

This was perhaps an overfight in Shakspeare; or rather, for the fake of the allufion hinted at in the preceding note, he chose not to attend to the words of the direction. It is remarkable, that in the repetition of the paffages in letters, which have been produced in a former part of a play, he very often makes his characters deviate from the words before ufed, though they have the paper itself in their hands, and though they appear to recite, not the fubftance, but the very words. So, in All's well that ends well, A& V. Helen fays,

here's your letter; This it fays: "When from my finger you can get this ring,

"And are by me with child;"

yet in Act III. fc. ii. fhe reads this very letter aloud; and there the words are different, and in plain profe: "When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and shew me a child begotten of thy body," &c. Had the fpoken in either cafe from memory, the deviation might easily be accounted for; but in both these places, fhe reads the words from Bertram's letter. MALONE.

From the ufual cuftom of Shakspeare's age, we may eafily fuppofe the whole direction to have run thus:-" To the Unknown belov'd, this, and my good wishes, with Care Present.”

RITSON.

By your leave, wax.-Soft!] It was the cuftom in our

with which she uses to feal: 'tis my lady: To whom fhould this be?

FAB. This wins him, liver and all.

MAL. [reads.] Jove knows, I love:

But who?

Lips do not move,

No man must know.

No man must know.-What follows? the numbers altered!-No man must know:-If this fhould be thee, Malvolio?

SIR TO. Marry, hang thee, brock!?
MAL. I may command, where I adore:
But filence, like a Lucrece knife,
With bloodless ftroke my heart doth
M, O, A, I, doth fway my life.

gore;

poet's time to feal letters with foft wax, which retained its foftnefs for a good while. The wax ufed at prefent would have been hardened long before Malvolio picked up this letter. See Your Five Gallants, a comedy, by Middleton: "Fetch a pennyworth of foft wax to feal letters." So, Falstaff, in King Henry IV. P. II : "I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I feal with him." MALONE.

I do not suppose that-Soft! has any reference to the wax; but is merely an exclamation equivalent to Softly! i. e. be not in too much hafte. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, A& IV. fc. i: "Soft! no hafte." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Farewel. Yet foft!"

I may also obferve, that though it was anciently the cuftom (as it ftill is) to feal certain legal inftruments with foft and pliable wax, familiar letters (of which I have feen fpecimens from the time of K. Henry VI. to K. James I.) were fecured with wax as gloffy and firm as that employed in the prefent year.

STEEVENS.

9 brock!] i. e. badger. He uses the word as a term of contempt, as if he had faid, bang thee, cur! Out filth! to ftink like a brock being proverbial. RITSON.

Marry, hang thee, brock!] i. e. Marry, hang thee, thou vain, conceited coxcomb, thou over-weening rogue!

FAB. A fuftian riddle!

SIR TO. Excellent wench, fay I.

MAL. M, O, A, I, doth fway my life."-Nay, but firft, let me fee,-let me fee,-let me fee.

FAB. What a difh of poifon has fhe drefs'd him! SIR TO. And with what wing the stannyel' checks at it!

MAL. I may command where I adore. Why, fhe may command me; I ferve her, fhe is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal capacity. There is no obftruction in this;-And the end;-What should that alphabetical pofition portend? if I could make that resemble fomething in me,-Softly!M, O, A, I.—

Brock, which properly fignifics a badger, was used in this fenfe in Shakspeare's time. So, in The merrie conceited Jefts of George Peele, 4to. 1657: "This felf-conceited brock had George invited," &c. MALONE.

2

doth faway my life.] This phrafe is seriously employed in As you like it, Act III. fc. ii:

3

Thy huntress name, that my full life doth fray."

STEEVENS. -ftannyel] The name of a kind of hawk, is very judiciously put here for a stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

JOHNSON.

To check, fays Latham, in his book of Falconry, is, "when crows, rooks, pies, or other birds, coming in view of the hawk, the forfaketh her natural flight, to fly at them." The ftannyel is the common ftone-hawk, which inhabits old buildings and rocks; in the North called franchil. I have this information from Mr. Lambe's notes on the ancient metrical hiftory of the battle of Floddon. STEEVENS.

4-formal capacity.] i. e. any one in his fenfes, any one whofe capacity is not dif-arranged, or out of form. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"Make of him a formal man again.” Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Thefe informal women."

STEEVENS.

SIR TO. O, ay! make up that:-he is now at a cold fcent.

FAB. Sowter will cry upon't, for all this, though it be as rank as a fox."

MAL. M,-Malvolio;-M,-why, that begins my name.

FAB. Did not I fay, he would work it out? the cur is excellent at faults.

MAL. M,-But then there is no confonancy in the fequel; that fuffers under probation: A fhould follow, but O does.

FAB. And O fhall end, I hope."

SIR TO. Ay, or I'll cudgel him, and make him cry, O.

$ Sowter-] Sowter is here, I fuppofe, the name of a hound. Sawterly, however, is often employed as a term of abuse. So, in Like will to Like, &c. 1587:

"You fouterly knaves, fhow you all your manners at once?” A fowter was a cobler. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: "If Apelles, that cunning painter, fuffer the greasy fouter to take a view of his curious work," &c. STEEVENS.

I believe the meaning is-This fellow will, notwithstanding, catch at and be duped by our device, though the cheat is fo grofs that any one elfe would find it out. Our author, as usual, forgets to make his fimile answer on both fides; for it is not to be wondered at that a hound fhould cry or give his tongue, if the scent be as rank as a fox. MALONE.

6

as rank as a fox.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, "not as rank." The other editions, though it be as rank, &c. JOHNSON. And O fhall end, I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar. JOHNSON.

I believe he means only, it shall end in fighing, in disappointment. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

Why should you fall into fo deep an O?” Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, fecond part, 1630: "—the brick houfe of caftigation, the school where they pronounce no letter well, but O!" Again, in Hymen's Triumph, by Daniel, 1623: "Like to an O, the character of woe." STEEVENS.

MAL. And then I comes behind,

FAB. Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might fee more detraction at your heels, than fortunes before you.

MAL. M,O, A, I;-This fimulation is not as the former :-and yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name. Soft; here follows profe.-If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my ftars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, fome atchieve greatnefs, and fome bave greatness thrust upon them. Thy fates open their hands; let thy blood and Spirit embrace them. And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, caft thy humble flough, and appear freh. Be oppofite' with a kinfman, furly with servants: let thy tongue tang arguments of flate; put thyfelf into the trick of fingularity: She thus advises thee, that fighs for thee. Remember who commended thy yellow flockings; and wish'd to fee thee ever cross

8 are born great,] The old copy reads are become great. The alteration by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

It is juftified by a subsequent passage in which the clown recites from memory the words of this letter. MALONE.

9 Be oppofite-] That is, be adverfe, hoftile. An oppofite in the language of our author's age, meant an adversary. See a note on K. Richard III. A& V. fc. iv. To be oppofite with was the phrafeology of the time. So, in Sir T. Overbury's Character of a Precifian, 1616: " He will be fure to be in oppofition with the papift," &c. MALONE.

2 yellow ftockings;] Before the civil wars, yellow ftockings were much worn. So, in D'Avenant's play, called The Wits, A&IV. p. 208. Works fol. 1673:

"You faid, my girl, Mary Queafie by name, did find your uncle's yellow ftockings in a porringer; nay, and you said she stole them." PERCY.

So, Middleton and Rowley in their mafque entitled The World Tofs'd at Tennis, no date, where the five different-coloured starches are introduced as ftriving for fuperiority, Yellow ftarch lays to white: