Clo. Why, it hath bay-windows 6 transparent as barricadoes, and the clere-storeys toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony; and yet complainest thou of obstruction? Mal. [Within.] I am not mad, Sir Topas: I say to you,

this house is dark.

Clo. Madman, thou errest: I say, there is no darkness but ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.

Mal. [Within.] I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as Hell; and I say, there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than you are: make the trial of it in any constant question.8

Clo. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?

Mal. [Within.] That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

Clo. What thinkest thou of his opinion?

Mal. [Within.] I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.

Clo. Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits; and fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well.

6 Bay-windows were large projecting windows, probably so called because they occupied a whole bay or space between two cross-beams in a building.

Clere-storeys, in Gothic architecture, are the row of windows running along the upper part of a lofty hall or of a church, over the arches of the

nave.

8 That is, by repeating the same question. A crazy man, on being asked to repeat a thing he has just said, is very apt to go on and say something else. So in Hamlet, iii. 4: "'Tis not madness that I have utter'd: bring me to the test, and I the matter will re-word; which madness would gambol from."

? The Clown mentions a woodcock, because it was proverbial as a foolish bird, and therefore a proper ancestor for a man out of his wits.

Mal. [Within.] Sir Topas, Sir Topas,

Sir To. My most exquisite Sir Topas !

Clo. Nay, I am for all waters.10

Mar. Thou mightst have done this without thy beard and gown: he sees thee not.

Sir To. To him in thine own voice, and bring me word how thou findest him: I would we were well rid of this knavery. If he may be conveniently deliver'd, I would he were; for I am now so far in offence with my niece, that I cannot pursue with any safety this sport to the upshot. Come by-and-by to my chamber. [Exeunt Sir TOBY and MARIA. Clo. [Singing.] Hey, Robin, jolly Robin,

Tell me how thy lady does.11

Mal. [Within.] Fool,

Clo. [Singing.] My lady is unkind, perdy.

Mal. [Within.] Fool,

Clo. [Singing.] Alas, why is she so?

Mal. [Within.] Fool, I say,

Clo. [Singing.] She loves another-Who calls, ha? Mal. [Within.] Good Fool, as ever thou wilt deserve well at my hand, help me to a candle, and pen, ink, and paper: as I am a gentleman, I will live to be thankful to thee for't. Clo. Master Malvolio?

Mal. [Within.] Ay, good Fool.

Clo. Alas, sir, how fell you beside your five wits?

Mal. [Within.] Fool, there was never man so notoriously 12 abused: I am as well in my wits, Fool, as thou art.

10 The meaning appears to be, I can turn my hand to any thing, or assume any character. Florio in his translation of Montaigne, speaking of Aristotle, says, "He hath an oar in every water, and meddleth with all things." And in his Second Frutes: "I am a knight for all saddles.”

11 This ballad may be found in Percy's Reliques. Dr. Nott has also printed it among the poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder.

12 Notoriously in the sense of prodigiously or outrageously. We have notorious in the same sense near the end of the play.

Clo. But as well? then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool.

13 keep

Mal. [Within.] They have here propertied me; me in darkness, send ministers to me, asses, and do all they can to face me out of my wits.

Clo. Advise you what you say; the minister is here.14. Malvolio, Malvolio, thy wits the Heavens restore! endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble-babble.

Mal. [Within.] Sir Topas,

Clo. Maintain no words with him, good fellow.-Who, I, sir? not I, sir. God b' wi' you,15 good Sir Topas !- Marry, amen.—I will, sir, I will.

Mal. [Within.] Fool, Fool, Fool, I say,

Clo. Alas, sir, be patient. What say you, sir? I am shent 16 for speaking to you.

Mal. [Within.] Good Fool, help me to some light and some paper: I tell thee, I am as well in my wits as any man in Illyria.

Clo. Well-a-day, that you were, sir!

Mal. [Within.] By this hand, I am. Good Fool, some ink, paper, and light; and convey what I will set down to my lady it shall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did.

Clo. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?

13" Taken possession of me as of a man unable to look to himself."

14 The Clown, in the dark, acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and Sir Topas; the preceding part of this speech being spoken as Clown, the following as Priest. “Advise you" is bethink you, consider, or be careful.-In the next line, "endeavour thyself to sleep" is induce, persuade, or compose thyself; endeavour being used transitively.

15 Here we have the old phrase "God be with you in the process of contraction into the modern phrase good bye. See page 105, note 6. Also Critical Note on "God b' wi' you! let's meet as little as we can," page 124. 16 Shent is an old word for scolded, blamed, or reprimanded.

Mal. [Within.] Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true. Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman till I see his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink.

Mal. [Within.] Fool, I'll requite it in the highest degree: I pr'ythee, be gone.

Clo. [Singing.]

I am gone, sir; and anon, sir,

I'll be with you again,

In a trice, like to the old Vice,17

You need to sustain;

Who, with dagger of lath, in his rage and his wrath,

Cries, ah, ha! to the Devil:

Like a mad lad, pare thy nails, dad;

Adieu, goodman 18 Devil.

[Exit.

17 Both the Vice and the Devil were stereotyped personages in the old Moral-plays which were in use for many ages before the Poet's time, and were then just going out of use. The Vice, sometimes called Iniquity, was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, and a long coat, and armed with a dagger of lath. He commonly acted the part of a broad, rampant jester and buffoon, full of mad pranks and mischief-making, liberally dashed with a sort of tumultuous, swaggering fun. Especially, he was given to cracking ribald and saucy jokes with and upon the Devil, and treating him with a style of coarse familiarity and mockery; and a part of his ordinary functions was to bestride the Devil, and beat him with his dagger till he roared, and the audience roared with him; the scene ending with his being carried off to Hell on the Devil's back. The Vice was the germ of the professional Fool or Clown, which Shakespeare delivers in so many forms, and always so full of matter.

18 Goodman in old language is nearly equivalent to master, or to our flattened form of it, mister. It was common for women to speak of their husbands as my goodman. And in St. Matthew, xx. II: "They murmured against the goodman of the house." Also in St. Luke, xii. 39. The verses in the text are most likely from an old popular song, of which nothing further is known.

SCENE III.-OLIVIA'S Garden.

Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. This is the air; that is the glorious Sun;
This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't:
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:

Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,1
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service;
For, though my soul disputes well with my sense,
That this may be some error, but no madness,
Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,

That I am ready to distrust mine eyes,

And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me
To any other trust but that I'm mad,—

Or else the lady's mad: yet, if 'twere so,

She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take and give back affairs, and their dispatch,2
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing,
As I perceive she does. There's something in't
That is deceivable.3 But here the lady comes.

1 Credit is oddly used here, but in the sense, apparently, of information or intelligence. So in a letter from Queen Elizabeth to Sir Nicholas Inrockmorton: "This bearer came from you with great speed. We have heard his credit, and find your carefulness and diligence very great."

2 The language is very odd and obscure, and gives but a slight hint of the speaker's probable meaning. A good housekeeper, at the head of a large domestic establishment, naturally has her time a good deal occupied in taking account or receiving word of things that need to be done, and in issuing orders and directions for the doing of them, or for " their dispatch." 8 Deceivable for deceiving or deceptive; the passive form, again, with the active sense. See page 203, note 6.