Poor lady, she were better love a dream. 2 In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! For, such as we are made of, such we be. [Exit. SCENE III. A Room in Olivia's House. Enter SIR TOBY BELCH, and SIR ANDREW Sir To. Approach, Sir Andrew: not to be a-bed after midnight, is to be up betimes; and diluculo surgere1, thou know'st. Sir And. Nay, by my troth, I know not: but I know to be up late, is to be up late. Sir To. A false conclusion; I hate it as an unfilled can: To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is early; so that to go to bed after midnight, is to go to bed betimes. Do not our lives consist of the four elements? 2 Dexterous, ready fiend. 3 How easy is it for the proper (i. e. fair in their appearance), and false (i. e. deceitful) to make an impression on the easy hearts of women! 4 Suit, or fit. 1 Diluculo surgere, saluberrimum est. This adage is in Lilly's Grammar. Sir And. 'Faith, so they say; but, I think, it rather consists of eating and drinking2. Sir To. Thou art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. Marian, I say!—a stoop of wine! Enter Clown. Sir And. Here comes the fool i'faith. Clo. How now, my hearts? Did you never see the picture of we three 3? Sir To. Welcome, ass, now let's have a catch. Sir And. By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. I had rather than forty shillings I had such a leg; and so sweet a breath to sing, as the fool has. In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus; 'twas very good, i'faith. I sent thee sixpence for thy leman5: Hadst it? Clo. I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nose is no whipstock: My lady has a white hand, and the Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houses. Sir And. Excellent? Why, this is the best fooling, when all is done. Now, a song. 2 A ridicule of the medical theory of that time, which supposed health to consist in the just temperament of the four elements in the human frame. Homer agrees with Sir Andrew : -strength consists in spirits and in blood, And those are ow'd to generous wine and food.' Iliad ix. 3 Alluding to an old common sign representing two fools or loggerheads, under which was inscribed, ' We three loggerheads be.' 4 i. e. Voice. In Fiddes's Life of Wolsey, Append. p. 128, Singing men well breasted.' The phrase is common to all writers of the poet's age. 5 i. e. mistress. 6 The greater part of this scene, which the commentators have endeavoured to explain, is mere gracious fooling, and was hardly meant to be seriously understood. The Clown uses the same fantastic language before. By some the phrase has been thought to mean I did impetticoat or impocket thy gratuity. Sir To. Come on; there is sixpence for you; let's have a song. Sir And. There's a testril of me too: if one knight give a Clo. Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life? Sir To. A love-song, a love-song. Sir And. Ay, ay; I care not for good life. SONG. Clo. O mistress mine, where are you roaming? Sir And. Excellent good, i'faith! Clo. What is love? 'tis not hereafter; In delay there lies no plenty; Sir And. A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight. Sir And. Very sweet and contagious, i'faith. Sir To. To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch, that 8 7 Sweet-and-twenty, appears to have been an ancient term of endearment. 8 Drink till the sky seems to turn round. VOL. I. FF will draw three souls out of one weaver9? shall we do that? Sir And. An you love me, let's do't: I am dog at a catch. Clo. By'r lady, sir, and some dogs will catch well. Sir And. Most certain: let our catch be, Thou knave. Clo. Hold thy peace, thou knave, knight? I shall be constrain'd in't, to call thee knave, knight. Sir And. 'Tis not the first time I have constrain'd one to call me knave. Begin, fool; it begins, Hold thy peace 10 Clo. I shall never begin, if I hold my peace. [They sing a catch. Enter MARIA. Mar. What a caterwauling do you keep here! If my lady have not called up her steward, Malvolio, and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust me. Sir To. My lady's a Cataian 11, we are politicians; Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey 12, and Three 9 Shakspeare represents weavers as much given to harmony in his time. The peripatetic philosophy then in vogue liberally gave every man three souls, the vegetative or plastic, the animal, and the rational. Thus, in Hutton's Dictionary, 1583, Plato feigned the soul to be threefold, whereof he placed reason in the head, anger in the breast, desire or lust under the heart, liver, lites, &c.' But it may be doubted whether any allusion to this division of souls was intended. Sir Toby rather meant that the catch should be so harmonious that it would hale the soul out of a weaver thrice over, a rhodomontade way of expressing, that it would give this warm lover of song thrice more delight than it would give another man. 10 This catch is to be found in Pammelia, Musicke's Miscellanie, 1618.' The words and musick are in the Variorum Shakspeare. 11 This word generally signified a sharper, Sir Toby is too drunk for precision, and uses it merely as a term of reproach. 12 Name of an obscene old song. merry men we be. Am not I consanguineous? am I not of her blood? Tilley-valley 13, lady! There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady! [Singing. Clo. Beshrew me, the knight's in admirable fooling. Sir And. Ay, he does well enough, if he be disposed, and so do I too; he does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. Sir To. O, the twelfth day of December 14, Mar. For the love o' God, peace. Enter MALVOLIO. [Singing. Mal. My masters, are you mad? or what are you? Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? Do you make an alehouse of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your coziers' '15 catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time, in you? Sir To. We did keep time, sir, in our catches. Sneck up 16! Mal. Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady bade me tell you, that though she harbours you as her kinsman, she's nothing allied to your disorders. If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanors, you are welcome to the house; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, she is very willing to bid you farewell. 13 An interjection of contempt equivalent to fiddle-faddle, possibly from the Latin Titivillitium. 14 Sir Toby, in his cups, is full of the fragments of old ballads : such as, 'There dwelt a man in Babylon.'- Three merry men are we,' &c. The latter was composed by W. Lawes, and may be found in Playford's Musical Companion, 1673. 15 Cobblers, or botchers. Dr. Johnson interprets it tailors, but erroneously. 16 An interjection of contempt, signifying, go hang yourself, or go and be hanged. |