Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother;
Nor can there be that deity in my nature,
Of here and everywhere. I had a sister,
Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd. ·
[To VIOLA.] Of charity, what kin are you to me?
What countryman? what name? what parentage?
Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too,

So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit,
You come to fright us.

Seb.
A spirit I am indeed;
But am in that dimension grossly clad
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say, Thrice-welcome, drowned Viola!

Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow,-
Seb. And so had mine.

Vio.

- And died that day when Viola from her birth Had number'd thirteen years.

Seb. O, that recórd is lively in my soul!
He finished, indeed, his mortal act

That day that made my sister thirteen years.
Vio. If nothing lets 17 to make us happy both

But this my masculine usurp'd attire,

Do not embrace me till each circumstance

Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump,18

That I am Viola: which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a captain's in this town,

Where lie my maid's weeds; by whose gentle help

17 Let, often used in the English Bible, but now obsolete, is an old word

for hinder or prevent.

18 The Poet repeatedly has jump in the sense of agree or accord.

I was preferr'd 19 to serve this noble Count.

All the occurrence of my fortune since

Hath been between this lady and this lord.

Seb. [To OLIVIA.] So comes it, lady, you have been mistook :

But Nature to her bias drew in that.20

You would have been contracted to a maid;

Nor are you therein, by my life, deceived,—
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.21

Duke. Be not amazed; right noble is his blood. —

If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

I shall have share in this most happy wreck.

[To VIOLA.] Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times
Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.

Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul
As doth that orbèd continent 22 the fire

That severs day from night.

Duke.

Give me thy hand;

And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.

Vio. The captain that did bring me first on shore Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action,

Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit,

A gentleman and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He shall enlarge him: -fetch Malvolio hither:

And yet, alas, now I remember me,

19 Prefer was often used in the sense of recommend.

20 To be mistook was sometimes used, as to be mistaken now is, in the sense of making a mistake. The mistake Olivia has made is in being betrothed to Sebastian instead of Viola; but this was owing to the bias or predisposition of Nature, who would not have a woman betrothed to a woman.

21 Sebastian applies the term maid apparently to himself, in the sense of virgin. And why not maiden man as well as maiden sword or maiden speech?

22 Continent formerly meant any thing that contains.

They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.

Re-enter the Clown with a letter, and FABIAN.

A most distracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his. -
How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Beelzebub at the stave's end as well as a man in his case may do. 'Has here writ a letter to you: I should have given't you to-day morning; but, as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much 23 when they are deliver'd.

Oli. Open't, and read it.

Clo. Look, then, to be well edified when the Fool delivers the madman. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam,— Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.24 Oli. Pr'ythee, read i' thy right wits.

Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read thus therefore perpend,25 my Princess, and give ear. Oli. [To FABIAN.] Read it you, sirrah.

Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. THE MADLY-USED MALVOLIO.

23 A common phrase in the Poet's time, meaning it signifies not much. 24" If you would have the letter read in character, you must allow me to assume the voice or frantic tone of a madman."

23 Perpend is consider or weigh.

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, madam.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.

Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither.

[Exit FABIAN.

My lord, so please you, these things further thought on,
To think me as well a sister as a wife,

One day shall crown th' alliance on's, so please you,

Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt t' embrace your offer. [TO VIOLA.] Your master quits you; 26 and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand: you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: You must not now deny it is your hand,

Write from it,27 if you can, in hand or phrase;

26 Quit for acquit, and in the sense of release, discharge, or set free. So in Henry V., iii. 4: "For your great seats, now quit you of great shames." See, also, page 53, note 2.

27 Write differently from it. We have similar phraseology in common use; as, "His speaking was from the purpose."

Or say 'tis not your seal, not your invention:
You can say none of this. Well, grant it then ;
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,

Why you have given me such clear lights of favour,
Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown.
Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people :
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck 28 and gull
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

First told me thou wast mad: thou camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

Fab.

Good madam, hear me speak;

And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come

Taint the condition of this present hour,

Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,

Most freely I confess, myself and Toby

Set this device against Malvolio here,

Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts

We had conceived in him: Maria wṛit

28 Geck is from the Saxon geac, a cuckoo, and here means a fool. - Here, as twice before in this play, notorious is used, apparently, for egregious.