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him with all the following indecent expressions:-"All that he "did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traytor!" (Here, by the way, are the poet's three thou's.) "You

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are an odious man.”. "Is he base? I return it into thy throat, on "his behalf."-" O damnable atheist !"-" Thou art a monster; "thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart."—" Thou hast a Spanish heart, and thyself art a spider of hell.”—“ Go to, I will "lay thee on thy back for the confident'st traitor that ever came at a "bar," &c. Is not here all the licence of tongue, which the poet satyrically prescribes to Sir Andrew's ink? And how mean an opinion Shakspeare had of these petulant invectives, is pretty evident from his close of this speech; Let there be gall enough in thy ink; tho' thou write it with a goose pen no matter.—A keener lash at the attorney for a fool, than all the contumelies the attorney threw at the prisoner, as a supposed traitor ! THEOBALD.

Line 242. And his opposite,] i. e. His antagonist.

244. Look where the youngest wren of nine comes.] The women's parts were then acted by boys, sometimes so low in stature, that there was occasion to obviate the impropriety by such kind of oblique apologies. WARBURTON.

The wren generally lays nine or ten eggs at a time, and the last hatch'd of all birds are usually the smallest and weakest of the whole brood.

STEEVENS.

ACT III. SCENE III.

Line 280.-worth,] i. e. Riches.

ACT III. SCENE IV.

Line 318.

-he says he'll come ;] i. e. I suppose now, or WARBURTON.

admit now, he says he'll come. Line 323. - -sad and civil,] Civil here signifies sedate. See As you like it, Act 3. Sc. 2.

Line 376.

midsummer madness.] Hot weather often turns

the brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here.

Line 391.

the folio) reads,

JOHNSON.

let thy tongue tang, &c.] The old copy (i. e.

"let thy tongue langer," &c.

Perhaps the author wrote, Let thy tongue linger, i. e. be slow in descanting on state matters. STEEVENS.

Line 395. I have limed her;] I have entangled or caught her, as a bird is caught with birdlime. JOHNSON.

Line 398. Fellow!] This word, which originally signified companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense. JOHNSON.

Line 440. -cherry-pit-] Cherry-pit is pitching cherrystones into a little hole. Nash, speaking of the paint on ladies' faces, says "You may play at cherry-pit in their cheeks." So in The Witch of Edmonton, I have lov'd a witch ever since I play'd at cherry-pit." STEEVENS.

Line 441. Hang him, foul collier!] Collier was, in our author's time, a term of the highest reproach. So great were the impositions practised by the venders of coals, that R. Greene, at the conclusion of his Notable Discovery of Cozenage, 1592, has published what he calls, A pleasant Discovery of the Cosenage of .Colliers. STEEVENS.

The devil is called Collier for his blackness. Like will to like, says the Devil to the Collier.

JOHNSON.

Line 465. -lusion to the witch-finders, who were very busy.

-a finder of madmen:] This is, I think, an al

Line 488.

JOHNSON.

-He may have mercy upon mine,] We may read, He may have mercy upon thine, but my hope is better. Yet the passage may well enough stand without alteration.

It were much to be wished, that Shakspeare, in this and some other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness. JOHNSON. Line 530. -wear this jewel for me,] Jewel does not properly -signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity.

JOHNSON.

Line 547.thy intercepter,] Thus the old copy. The modern editors read interpreter.

STEEVENS.

Line 560. He is knight, dubbed with unhacked rapier, and on carpet consideration;] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, on carpet consideration, at a festivity, or on some peaceable occasion, when knights receive their dignity kneeling, not on the ground, as in

war, but on a carpet. This is, I believe, the original of the contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by the men of war. JOHNSON.

For a full elucidation of the order of knighthood—vide Anstis's Observations.

Carpet knights, in contempt; and in The Downfal of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601, it is employed for the same purpose:

"soldiers come away,

"This Carpet-knight sits carping at our scars."

STEEVENS.

Line 565. hob, nob,] Corrupted from hab, nab, which signifies, at random.

Line 602.

-I have not seen such a virago,] Virago cannot be properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man.

JOHNSON.

Line 635. by the duello.] i. e. By the laws of the duello, which were in Shakspeare's time settled with the utmost nicety. STEEVENS.

Line 646. Nay, if you be an undertaker,] The meaning of the word undertaker, is probably this, that Antonio appears to Sir Toby to undertake the quarrel of one of the combatants :-it is unlikely that it should allude to the king's purveyors, called undertakers.

Line 704. o'erflourish'd by the devil.] In the time of Shakspeare, trunks, which are now deposited in lumber-rooms, or other obscure places, were part of the furniture of apartments in which company was received. I have seen more than one of these, as old as the time of our poet. They were richly ornamented on the tops and sides with scroll work, emblematical devices, &c. and were elevated on feet. STEEVENS.

Line 709.

-so do not I.] This, I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this accident, I gather hope of my brother's life.

JOHNSON.

ACT IV. SCENE I

Line 14. I am afraid this great lubber- -] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world.

JOHNSON.

Line 18. I pr'ythee, foolish Greek,] Greek, was as much as to say bawd or pander. He understood the Clown to be acting in that office. A bawdy-house was called Corinth, and the fre quenters of it Corinthians, which words occur frequently in Shakspeare, especially in Timon of Athens, and Henry IV.

WARBURTON.

Line 23. get themselves a good report after fourteen years' purchase.] This seems to carry a piece of satire upon monopolies, the crying grievance of that time. The grants generally were for fourteen years; and the petitions being referred to a committee, it was suspected that money gained favourable reports from thence. WARBURTON,

Line 54. In this uncivil and unjust extent- -] Extent is, in law, a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is therefore taken here for violence in general. JOHNSON,

Line 57. This ruffian hath botch'd up;] A coarse expression for made up, as a bad tailor is called a botcher, and to botch is to make clumsily. JOHNSON.

Line 60. He started one poor heart of mine in thee.] I know not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between heart and hart. The sense however is easy enough. He that offends thee attacks one of my hearts; or, as the ancients expressed it, half my heart. JOHNSON.

Line 61. What relish is in this?] How does this taste? What judgment am I to make of it?

JOHNSON.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

Line 79. —as to say, a careful man and a great scholar.] This refers to what went before, I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student; it is plain then that Shakspeare wrote, as to say a graceful man, i. e. comely. WARBURTON.

Line 85. very wittily said—that, that is, is:] This is a very humorous banter of the rules established in the schools, that all reasonings are ex præcognitis & præconcessis, which lay the foundation of every science in these maxims, whatsoever is, is; and it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be; with much trifling of the like kind. WARBURTON.

Line 106. it hath bay-windows-] A bay-window is the same as a bow-window; a window in a recess, or bay. The following instance in Cinthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson, 1601, may support the supposition:

-"retiring myself into a bay-window," &c.

STEEVENS.

Line 119. constant question.] A settled, a determinate, a regular question. JOHNSON.

Line 134. Nay, I am for all waters.] A phrase taken from the actor's ability of making the audience cry either with mirth or grief. WARBURTON.

I rather think this expression borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications of a complete spaniel.

JOHNSON.

A cloak for all kinds of knavery; taken from the Italian proverb, Tu hai mantillo da ogni acqua.

SMITH.

Line 158.

your five wits?] Thus in King Lear: "Bless thy five wits! Tom's a cold."

163.

-propertied me;] They have taken possession of JOHNSON.

me as of a man unable to look to himself.

Line 171. Maintain no words with him,] Here the Clown in the dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.—I will, Sir, I will, is spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered. JOHNSON.

Line 176. I am shent, &c.] i. e. I am blamed.

185. tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit ?] If he was not mad, what did he counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him, I think, asks, are you mad, or do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman: Is you madness real, or have you any secret design in it? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt. JOHNSON.

Line 196. Like to the old vice,] Vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in puppet-shows, and by country mummers. JOHNSON. Line 203. Adieu, goodman drivel,] This last line has neither

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