near the manners of my mother, that, upon the least occasion more, mine eyes will tell tales of me. I am bound to the Count Orsino's Court: farewell.

[Exit.

Ant. The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!

I have many enemies in Orsino's Court,

Else would I very shortly see thee there :

But, come what may, I do adore thee so,

That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

[Exit.

SCENE II. A Street.

Enter VIOLA, MALVOLIO following.

Mal. Were not you even now with the Countess Olivia? Vio. Even now, sir; on a moderate pace I have since arrived but hither.

Mal. She returns this ring to you, sir: you might have saved me my pains, to have taken it away yourself. She adds, moreover, that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will none of him: and one thing more, that you be never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord's taking of this. Receive it so.1

Vio. She took no ring of me: I'll none of it. Mal. Come, sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is, it should 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.

Vio. I left no ring with her: what means this lady?
Fortune forbid, my outside have not charm'd her!
She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
That, as methought, her eyes had lost her tongue,2
For she did speak in starts distractedly.

1 "Receive it so" is understand it so. Take is still used in the same way.

2 Her eyes were so charmed that she lost the right use of her tongue, and let it run as if it were divided from her judgment.

She loves me, sure; the cunning of her passion
Invites me in this churlish messenger.

as 'tis,

None of my lord's ring! why, he sent her none.
I am the man: if it be so,
Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the pregnant 3 enemy does much.
is it for the proper-false

How easy

In woman's waxen hearts to set their forms!
Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!

For, such as we are made of, such we be.5
How will this fadge ?6 my master loves her dearly;
And I, poor monster,7 fond as much on him,

As she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.
What will become of this? As I am man,

My state is desperate for my master's love;
As I am woman, -now, alas the day. !—
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!
O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;

It is too hard a knot for me t' untie !

3 Pregnant is quick-witted, cunning.

[Exit.

+ Proper is here used in the sense of handsome: the meaning of the passage being, "How easy it is for handsome deceivers to print their forms in the waxen hearts of women." Such compounds as proper-false are not unusual in Shakespeare. Beauteous-evil occurs in this play.

5 Such evidently refers to frailty in the preceding line; the sense being, "Since we are made of frailty, we must needs be frail."

Fadge, meaning fit or suit, was a polite word in Shakespeare's time, and moved, without question, in the best circles.

7 Viola calls herself monster from the fact of her being, in a manner, both woman and man.

SCENE III.A Room in OLIVIA'S House.

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH and Sir ANDREW Aguecheek.

Sir To. Approach, Sir Andrew: not to be a-bed after midnight is to be up betimes: and diluculo surgere, 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 unfill'd 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. Does not our life consist of the four elements ?2

Sir And. Faith, so they say; but I think it rather consists of eating and drinking.

Sir To. Thou'rt a scholar: let us therefore eat and drink. —Maria, I say! a stoup3 of wine!

Sir And. Here comes the Fool, i' faith.

Enter the Clown.

Clo. How now, my hearts! did you never see the picture of We Three ?4

Sir To. Welcome, ass. Now let's have a catch.

Sir And. By my troth, the Fool has an excellent breast.5

1 Diluculo surgere, saluberrimum est. This adage is in Lily's Grammar. It means, "To rise betimes is very wholesome."

2 The four elements referred to are earth, water, air, and fire; the right mixing of which was suposed to be the condition of health in body and mind.

3 Stoup is an old word for cup; often used by the Poet.

4 Alluding to an old common sign representing two fools or loggerheads, under which was inscribed, "We three loggerheads be"; the point of the joke being, of course, that the spectator was the third.

5 Breast was often used for voice in the Poet's time. Thus we have the phrase," singing men well-breasted." This use of the word grew from the form of the breast having much to do with the quality of the voice.

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 leman: 6 hadst it?

Clo. I did impeticos thy gratillity;7 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.

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?9 Sir To. A love-song, a love-song.

Sir And. Ay, ay: I care not for good life.

Clo.

SONG. 10

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear; your true-love's coming,

6 Leman is mistress or sweetheart.

Impetticoat, or impocket, thy gratuity. Some have complained seriously that they could not understand the Clown in this scene; which is shrewd proof they did not understand the Poet!

8 The testril or testern was originally a French coin, of sixpence value, or thereabouts; so called from having a teste or head stamped upon it.

9 That is, a civil and virtuous song; so described in The Mad Pranks of Robin Goodfellow.

10 This song probably was not written by Shakespeare. Chappell, in his Popular Music of the Olden Time, says the tune is in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, arranged by Byrd. He also says it was printed in 1599; and from this he concludes "either that Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was written in or before that year, or that in accordance with the then prevailing custom, O mistress mine was an old song, introduced into the play." Dyce thinks "the latter supposition is doubtless the true one."

That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers' meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

Sir And.

Sir To.

Clo.

Excellent good, i' faith.

Good, good.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty,11

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Sir And. A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight.

Sir To. A contagious breath.

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? 12 shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch that will draw three souls out of one weaver? 13 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 constrained in't to call thee knave, knight.

Sir And. 'Tis not the first time I have constrained one to call me knave. Begin, Fool: it begins, Hold thy peace. Clo. I shall never begin, if I hold my peace.

11 Sweet-and-twenty appears to have been an old term of endearment. 12 Drink till the sky seems to turn round.

18 Shakespeare represents weavers as much given to harmony in his time. Sir Toby meant that the catch should be so harmonious that it would hale the soul out of a weaver thrice over.