Not a flower, not a flower sweet, On yew, my black coffin let there be strown ; My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown: Lay me, O, where Sad true lover ne'er find my grave, Duke. There's for thy pains. Clo. No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir. Clo. Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another. Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee Clo. Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffata, for thy mind is a very opal! I would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be every thing, and their intent every where; for that's it, that always makes a good voyage of nothing. Farewell. [Exit. Duke. Let all the rest give place. -Once more, Cesario, [Exe. CURIO and Attendants. Get thee to yon' same sovereign cruelty: The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her, Vio. 'Sooth, but you must. Say, that some lady, as, perhaps, there is, [8] So Milton, describing the walls of heaven: With opal tow'rs, and battlements adorn'd. " The opal is a gem which varies its appearance as it is viewed in different lights. "In the opal (says P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. History, B. XXXVII. c. 6.) you shall see the burning fire of the carbuncle or rubie, the glorious purple of the amethyst, the green sea of the emeraud, and all glittering together mixed after an incredible manner." STEEVENS. Hath for your love as great a pang of heart As you have for Olivia: you cannot love her ; Can 'bide the beating of so strong a passion And can digest as much: make no compare Vio. Ay, but I know, Duke. What dost thou know? Vio. Too well what love women to men may owe: Duke. And what's her history? Vio. A blank, my lord: She never told her love, Smiling at grief. Was not this love, indeed? [9] Mr. Theobald supposes this might possibly be borrowed from Chaucer. And adds: "If he was indebted, however, for the first rude draught, how amply has he repaid that debt, in heightening the picture! How much does the green and yellow melancholy transcend the old bard's pale face; the monument his hill of sand." I hope this critic does not imagine Shakespeare meant to give us a picture of the face of patience, by his green and yellow melancholy; because, he says it transcends the pale face of patience given us by Chaucer. To throw patience into a fit of melancholy, would be indeed very extraordinary. The green and yellow then belonged not to patience, but to her who sat like patience. To give patience a pale face was proper; and had Shakespeare described her, he had done it as Chaucer did. But Shakespeare is speaking of a marble statue of patience Chaucer of patience herself. And the two representations of her are in quite different views. Our poet speaking of a despairing lover, judiciously compares her to patience exercised on the death of friends and relations: which affords him the beautiful picture of patience on a monument. The old bard speaking of patience herself, directly, and not by comparison, as judiciously draws her in that circumstance where she is most exercised, and has occasion for all her virtue; that is to say under the losses of shipwreck. And now we see why she is represented as sitting on a hill of sand, to design the scene to be the sea-shore. It is We men may say more, swear more: but, indeed, Duke. But died thy sister of her love, my boy? Duke. Ay, that's the theme. To her in haste; give her this jewel; say, SCENE V. [Exeunt. OLIVIA'S Garden. Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, and FABIAN. Sir To. Come thy ways, signior Fabian. Fab. Nay, I'll come; if I lose a scruple of this sport, let me be boiled to death with melancholy. Sir To. Would'st thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame? Fab. I would exult, man: you know, he brought me out of favour with my lady, about a bear-baiting here. Sir To. To anger him, we'll have the bear again; and we will fool him black and blue :-Shall we not, sir Andrew ? Sir And. An we do not, it is pity of our lives. finely imagined; and one of the noble simplicities of that admirable poet. But the critic thought, in good earnest, that Chaucer's invention was so barren, and his imagination so beggarly, that he was not able to be at the charge of a monument for his goddess, but left her, like a stroller, sunning herself upon a heap of sand. WARBURTON. Dr. Percy thinks, that grief may here mean grievance, in which sense it is used in Dr. Powel's History of Wales, quarto, p. 356. MALONE. Ancient tombs, indeed, (if we must construe grief into grievance, and Shakespeare has certainly used the former word for the latter,) frequently exhibit cumbent figures of the deceased, and over these an image of Patience, without impropriety, might express a smile of complacence: "Her meek hands folded on her modest breast, Even to the storm that wrecks her.' I cannot help adding, that, to smile at grief, is as justifiable an expression as to rejoice at prosperity, or repine at ill fortune. It is not necessary we should suppose the good or bad event, in either instance, is an object visible, except to the eye of imagination. STEEVENS. [1] This was the most artful answer that could be given. The question was of such a nature, that to have declined the appearance of a direct answer must have raised suspicion. This has the appearance of a direct answer, that the sister died of her love; she (who passed for a man) saying, she was all the daughters of her father's house. WARBURTON. [2] Denay, is denial. To denay is an antiquated verb sometimes used by Holinshed. STEEVENS. Enter MARIA. Sir To. Here comes the little villain :-How now, my nettle of India ?3 Mar. Get ye all three into the box-tree: Malvolio's coming down this walk; he has been yonder i' the sun, practising behaviour to his own shadow, this half hour. observe him, for the love of mockery; for, I know, this letter will make a contemplative ideot of him. Close, in the name of jesting! [The men hide themselves.] Lie thou there; [throws down a letter.] for here comes the trout that must be caught with tickling.* Enter MALVOLIO. Mal. 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune. [Exit MARIA. Maria once told me, she did affect me and I have heard herself come thus near, that, should she fancy, it should be one of my complexion. Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect, than any one else that follows her. I think on't? Sir To. Here's an over-weening rogue! What should Fab. O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkeycock of him; how he jets under his advanced plumes 15 Sir And 'Slight, I could so beat the rogue : Sir To. Peace, I say. Mal. To be count Malvolio ; Sir To. Ah, rogue! Sir And. Pistol him, pistol him. Sir To. Peace, peace! Mal. There is example for't; the lady of the Strachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe." Sir And. Fye on him, Jezebel ! Fab. O, peace! now he's deeply in; look, how imagination blows him. [3] The nettle of India is the plant that produces what is called cow-itch, a substance only used for the purpose of tormenting, by its itching quality. M. MASON. [4] Cogan, in his Haven of Health, 1595, will prove an able commentator on this passage: "This fish of nature loveth flatterie: for, being in the water, it will suffer itselfe to be rubbed and clawed and so to be taken. Whose example I would wish no maides to follow, least they repent afterclaps." [5] To jet is to strut, to agitate the body by a proud motion. STEEVENS. [6] Here is an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered. JOHNSON. The story which our poet had in view, is perhaps alluded to by Lyly in Euphues and his England, 1580:"assuring myself there was a certain season when women are to be won; in the which moments they have neither will to deny, nor wit to mistrust. Such a time I have read a young gentleman found to obtain the love of the Dutchess of Milaine: such a time I have heard that a poor yeoman chose, to get the fairest lady in Mantua." MALONE, Mal. Having been three months married to her, sitting in my state,7 Sir To. O, for a stone-bow, to hit him in the eye! Mal. Calling my officers about me, in my branched velvet gown; having come from a day-bed, where I have left Olivia sleeping : Sir To. Fire and brimstone ! Fab. O, peace, peace! Mal. And then to have the humour of state and after a demure travel of regard,-telling them, I know my place, as I would they should do theirs, to ask for my kinsman Toby: Sir To. Bolts and shackles ! Fab. O, peace, peace, peace! now, now. Mal. Seven of my people, with an obedient start, make out for him: I frown the while; and, perchance, wind up my watch, or play with some rich jewel. Toby approaches; court'sies there to me :1 Sir To. Shall this fellow live? Fab. Though our silence be drawn from us with cars, yet peace.* Mal. I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of control : Sir To. And does not Toby take you a blow o' the lips then? Mal. Saying, Cousin Toby, my fortunes having cast me on your niece, give me this prerogative of speech: Sir To. What, what? Mal. You must amend your drunkenness. Fab. Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot. [7] A state, in ancient language, signifies a chair with a canopy over it. STEEVENS. JOHNSON. When Guy Faux was [8] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots stones. [9] In our author's time watches were very uncommon. taken, it was urged as a circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him. JOHNSON. [1] From this passage one might suspect that the manner of paying respect, which is now confined to females, was equally used by the other sex. It is probable, however, that the word court'sy was employed to express acts of civility and reverence by either men or women indiscriminately. REED. [2] I believe the true reading is: "Though our silence be drawn from us with carts, yet peace." In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the Clowns says: "I have a mistress, but who that is, a team of horses shall not pluck from me." So in this play: “Oxen and wainropes will not bring them together." JOHNSON It is well known that cars and carts have the same meaning. STEEVENS. |