Is as the maiden's organ, fhrill, and found, For this affair:-Some four, or five, attend him; When leaft in company :-Profper well in this, To call his fortunes thine. V10. I'll do my best, To woo your lady: yet, [Afide.] a barrful ftrife!' Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife. [Exeunt. SCENE V. A room in Olivia's house. Enter MARIA, and CLOWN.4 MAR. Nay, either tell me where thou haft been, or I will not open my lips, fo wide as a bristle may enter, in way of thy excufe: my lady will hang thee for thy abfence. 2 a woman's part.] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were the nperfonated by boys. JOHNSON. 3 -a barrful ftrife!] i. e. a contest full of impediments. STEEVENS. 4 Clown.] As this is the first clown who makes his appearance in the plays of our author, it may not be amifs, from a paffage in Tarleton's News out of Purgatory, to point out one of the ancient dreffes appropriated to the character: "I faw one attired in ruffet, with a button'd cap on his head, a bag by his fide, and a ftrong bat in his hand; fo artificially attired for a clowne, as I began to call Tarleton's woonted fhape to remembrance." STEEVENS. Such perhaps was the drefs of the Clown in this Comedy, in All's well that ends well, &c. The clown however, in Meafure for CLO. Let her hang me: he, that is well hang'd in this world, needs to fear no colours.' MAR. Make that good. CLO. He fhall fee none to fear. MAR. A good lenten anfwer: I can tell thee where that faying was born, of, I fear no colours. CLO. Where, good mistress Mary? MAR. In the wars; and that may you be bold to fay in your foolery. CLO. Well, God give them wisdom, that have it; and thofe that are fools, let them use their talents. MAR. Yet you will be hang'd, for being fo long abfent: or, to be turn'd away;' is not that as good as a hanging to you? Meafure, (as an anonymous writer has obferved) is only the tapiter of a brothel, and probably was not fo apparelled. MALONE. $ fear no colours.] This expreffion frequently occurs in the old plays. So, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus. The perfons converfing are Sejanus, and Eudemus the phyfician to the princefs Livia: Sej. You minifter to a royal lady then? 66 "End. She is, my lord, and fair. Sej. That's understood "Of all their fex, who are or would be fo; "And thofe that would be, phyfick foon can make 'em: "For those that are, their beauties fear no colours." Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: are you difpofed, fir? "Yes indeed: I fear no colours; change fides, Richard.” STEEVENS. lenten anfwer:] A lean, or as we now call it, a diy anfwer. JOHNSON. Surely a lenten anfwer, rather means a fhort and Spare one, like the commons in Lent. So, in Hamlet: " what lenten enterSTEEVENS. tainment the players fhall receive from you." 7 or, to be turn'd away;] The editor of the fecond folio omitted the word to, in which he has been followed by all fubfequent editors. MALONE. CLO. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and, for turning away, let fummer bear MAR. You are refolute then? CLO. Not fo neither; but I am refolv'd on two points. or, MAR. That, if one break, the other will hold; if both break, your gafkins fall. CLO. Apt, in good faith; very apt! Well, go thy way; if Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria. MAR. Peace, you rogue, no more o'that; here comes my lady: make your excufe wifely, you were beft. [Exit. and for turning away, let fummer bear it out.] This feems to be a pun from the nearness in the pronunciation of turning away and turning of whey. I found this obfervation among fome papers of the late Dr. Letherland, for the perufal of which, I am happy to have an opportunity of returning my particular thanks to Mr. Glover, the author of Medea and Leonidas, by whom, before, I had been obliged only in common with the rest of the world. I am yet of opinion that this note, however fpecious, is wrong, the literal meaning being eafy and appofite. For turning away, let fummer bear it out. It is common for unfettled and vagrant ferving-men, to grow negligent of their business towards fummer; and the fenfe of the paffage is: "If I am turned away, the advantages of the approaching fummer will bear out, or support all the inconveniencies of difmiffion; for I fall find employment in every field, and lodging under every hedge." STEEVENS. 9 if one (point) break,] Points were metal hooks, faftened to the hofe or breeches (which had then no opening or buttons,) and going into ftraps or eyes fixed to the doublet, and thereby keeping the hofe from falling down. BLACKSTONE. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "Their points being broken,-down fell their hofe." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: mingle eyes "With one that ties his points? STEEVENS. Enter OLIVIA, and MALVOLIO. CLO. Wit, and't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am fure I lack thee, may pafs for a wife man: For what fays Quinapalus? Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. 2- God bless thee, lady! OLI. Take the fool away. CLO. Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady. OLI. Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: befides, you grow dishonest, CLO. Two faults, Madonna,' that drink and good counsel will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry; bid the difhoneft man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer difhoneft; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him: Any thing, that's mended, is but patch'd: virtue, that tranfgreffes, is but patch'd with fin; and fin, that amends, is but patch'd with virtue: If that this fimple fyllogifm will ferve, fo; if it will not, What remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, fo beauty's a flower:-the lady bade take away the fool; therefore, I fay again, take her away. OLI. Sir, I bade them take away you. 2 CLO. Mifprifion in the highest degree!-Lady, Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.] Hall, in his Chronicle, fpeaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, fays, "that he knows not whether to call him a foolish wife man, or a wife forlifb man." JOHNSON. 3-Madonna,] Ital. mift refs, dame. So, La Maddona, by way of pre-eminence, the Bleed Virgin. STEEVENS. 4 · Any thing, that's mended, is but patch'd:] Alluding to the patch'd or particoloured garment of the fool. MALONE. Cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much as to fay, I wear not motley in my brain. Good Madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. OLI. Can you do it? CLO. Dexteriously, good Madonna. CLO. I must catechize you for it, Madonna; Good my mouse of virtue, answer me. OLI. Well, fir, for want of other idleness, I'll bide your proof. CLO. Good Madonna, why mourn'ft thou? CLO. The more fool you, Madonna, to mourn for your brother's foul being in heaven.-Take away the fool, gentlemen. OLI. What think you of this fool, Malvolio? doth he not mend? MAL. Yes; and fhall do, till the pangs of death shake him: Infirmity, that decays the wife, doth ever make the better fool. CLO. God fend you, fir, a speedy infirmity, for the better encreasing your folly! Sir Toby will be fworn, that I am no fox; but he will not pafs his word for two-pence that you are no fool. OLI. How fay you to that, Malvolio? MAL. I marvel your ladyship takes delight in fuch a barren rafcal; I faw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool, that has no more brain than a ftone: Look you now, he's out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minifter occafion to him, he is gagg'd. I protest, |