DUKE of Illyria. MEN. SEBASTIAN, brother to Viola.. ANTONIO, friend to Sebastian. VALENTINE, an attendant on the Duke. CLOWN, fervant to Olivia. W OM E N. OLIVIA, beloved by the Duke. Twelfth Night: or, What You Will. TH HIS Play opens with a sweet paffage, in which the charms of mufic, and the nature of love, are beautifully described. Duke. If mufic be the food of love, play on; But falls into abatement and low price, As I have hitherto obferved upon Shakespeare's critical knowledge in human nature, I hope it will not appear invidious now, if 1 fhould here remark upon his deficiency in a paffage above-lines fecond and third. The duke is there made to wifh his paffion were extinct; which, I believe, the most unhappy lover never yet did. We wish to remove every uneafy fenfation it afflicts us with, by any means whatever; fometimes even by death itself; but never by the extinction of the affection. This is not peculiar to love alone; 'tis the fame in all the tender feelings. We with the object of our grief brought back again to life, but defire not to forget our forrow. We wish to relieve the fubjects of our pity, but would not be deprived of our com• Hight, ycleped, or called, inftead of Ligh. Warburton." 1 4 paffion. paffion. Heaven hath fo framed us, and Heaven be praised for having endowed and adorned us with such Sweet compunctious vifitings of nature! 'tis in these features only that we can refemble our Maker. In the more heroic qualities of bravery and fortitude, can be traced no likenefs of the Deity, because superfluous in a perfect state. The subject of love is touched upon again, twice, in the fame Scene : Duke. O, when my eyes did fee Olivia first, And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds, And when Valentine acquaints the Duke with Olivia's vow of fequeftering herfelf from the world, for seven years, to mourn the death of her brother, he cries out, in an extafy, O, the that hath a heart of that fine frame, I am happy that this latter paffage happens to oc cur fo immediately after my remark above, as it affords me an opportunity of doing juftice to Shakespeare, by obferving that his inference, from Olivia's grief, to the nature of her heart in love, fhews a perfect knowledge in this fpecies of philofophy. The paffions are divided into but two claffes, the tender and the violent; and any one of either affords an earneft of all others of the fame kind. His diftinction, too, of the three thrones, the liver, ́brain, and heart, is admirable. Thefe are truly the feats of the three chief affections of love; the heart for paffion, the mind for efteem, and the liver for jealoufy; if Horace's anatomy is to be credited t. A fine allufion to the story of A&teon, and a beautiful expofition of the fable. ↑ Difficili bile tan et jecur, SCENE SCENE XI. In the laft fpeech of this Act, Olivia fpeaks in the usual manner of all infatuated perfons, who are apt to make the Fates anfwerable for those follies or vices which they have not fenfe or virtue enough to extricate themselves from, by their own exertions. For, upon a consciousness of having too weakly betrayed her paffion for Viola, appearing under the character of a cavalier, fhe acquiefces in her indifcretion, by saying, I do I know not what-and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind *. She repeats the fame idle apology for herself, again, in the fecond Scene of the next Act: For fuch as we are made, if such we de, There are fome good rules and reflections here, upon that principal and interefting event of life, our marriage, which are well worth attending to; as the natural confequences of an improper aflortment, in that state, have been too ftrongly marked by the general experience of the world. Duke, and Viola as a Man. Duke. Let ftill the woman take An elder than herself, so wears she to him, More longing, wavering, fooner loft and won, Viola. I think it well, my lord. That my eye has revealed a fecret, which my mind fhould have concealed, Jibnfen. For own, or are mafters of. Duke Duke. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, ACT III, SCENE I. There is a flight ftroke thrown out here, against an affected refinement on common fpeech; which however I fhall lay hold of, as one should animadvert upon every fpecies of pedantry, which is an incumbrance to literature, and cafts a damp upon all free and liberal converfation. Clown. My lady is within, Sir; I will conftrue to her whence you came; who you are, and what you would, is out of my welkin. I might fay element, but the word is overworn. SCENE XIV. There is a moft delicate fenfibility expreffed by a perfon here, in his reproach to one whom, by a fimilarity of appearances, he had mistaken for a friend on whom he had formerly conferred obligations, which he seemed then to have forgotten. Antonio and Viola.. Will you deny me, now? Is't poffible that my deserts to you Can lack perfuafion? Do not tempt my misery, Left that it make me fo unfound a man, As to upbraid you with these kindnesses That I have done for you. To which the innocent and mistaken Viola replies, with a becoming fpirit of confcious virtue, I hate ingratitude more in a man, Than lying, vainnefs, babbling, drunkenness, There is an antient adage, which fays, that the fin of ingratitude includes every vice. It renders us un• Ingratum fi dixeris, omnia dixeris, worthy. |