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245

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.

250

Vio. And died that day when Viola from her birth

Had numb'red thirteen years.

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

That day that made my sister thirteen years. 255
Vio. If nothing lets 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
That I am Viola; which to confirm,
I'll bring you to a captain in this town,
Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle
help

260

I was preserv'd to serve this noble count.
All the occurrence of my fortune since
Hath been between this lady and this lord. 265
Seb. [To Olivia.] So comes it, lady, you have
been mistook ;

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;
Nor are you therein, by my life, deceiv'd,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man. 270
Duke. Be not amaz'd, 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, thon hast said to me a thou-
sand times

Thou never shouldst love woman like to me. 275
Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul
As doth that orbed continent the fire
That severs day from night.

Duke.
Give me thy hand,
And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. 280
Vio. The captain that did bring me first on

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Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness. An your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow Vox.

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Oli. Prithee, read i' thy right wits. Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read thus; therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.

Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [To Fabian.] * 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 [15 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-US'D MALVOLIO." Oli. Did he write this? Clo. Ay, madam.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction. Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him [Exit Fabian.]

hither.

My lord, so please you, these things further thought on,

325

To think me as well a sister as a wife, One day shall crown the alliance on 't, so please you,

Here at my house and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.

[To Viola.] Your master quits you; and for your service done him,

334

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.
Oli.

A sister! You are she.
Enter MALVOLIO [and FABIAN].

Duke. Is this the madman?

Oli.

How now, Malvolio!

Ay, my lord, this same. ssr

Mal. Madam, you have done me wrong, Notorious wrong.

Oli.

Have I, Malvolio? No.

Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter;

You must not now deny it is your hand.
Write from it, if you can, in hand or phrase; 340
Or say 't is 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

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When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, &c.

395

400

'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, &c.

By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, &c.

With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, &c.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, &c.

But that's all one, our play is done,
And we 'll strive to please you every day.

405

410

415

[Exit.]

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

UNDER the date of February 7, 1603, there was entered on the Stationers' Register for James Roberts The Booke of Troilus and Cressida, as yt is acted by My Lo. Chamberlen's men. When he hathe gotten sufficient aucthority for yt." Though Roberts seems never to have got authority to issue the play, the entry gives us a later limit for the date of composition. An carlier limit is found in the production, about the middle of 1601, of Jonson's Poetaster, the Prologue to which is alluded to in Troilus and Cressida (Prol. 23-25). The play, then, was composed in the end of 1601 or during 1602.

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The first edition is a quarto published in 1609 in two forms, with differing title-pages but identical text. The earlier title-page states that it was acted by the King's Majesty's Servants at the Globe; the later is followed by a preface claiming that the play was never stal'd with the stage, never clapperclawed with the palms of the vulgar." This statement is either a plain falsehood for advertising purposes, or is a quibble based on some alterations or omissions. The relation of the text of the First Folio to this quarto it is difficult to determine. The verbal differences between them, though often minute, are very numerous, and several passages found in the Folio are missing from the Quarto, some of which are required by the context. On the other hand, at least three passages need to be supplied to the Folio text from the Quarto; and in many of the more minute differences the Quarto has the better reading; in some, apparently the authentic one. It may be conjectured with some plausibility that the copyist or printer of the Quarto did his work carelessly, though working from an authentic manuscript; and that the Folio version was set up with a different set of mistakes from another and later copy, which may have been revised in details by Shakespeare, or another, or both. The present text is based on the Folio, readings being inserted from the Quarto and later editions only when there appears to be a corruption due to copyist or printer. Passages not in the Folio are enclosed in square brackets.

From evidence based on style, metre, and comparison with sources, it is practically certain that the Prologue and v. vii.-x. are by another hand, and it is probable that Shakespeare's part in v. iv.-vi. is confined to a few lines and phrases. These inferences are corroborated by the recurrence of the lines v. iii. 113-115 in v. x. 32-34, pointing to the later substitution of the present closing

scenes.

On account of the extraordinary vogue of the story of Troy in literature, the versions from which Shakespeare may have drawn hints are innumerable. The main sources, however, have been identified. The Troilus story is adapted from Chaucer's poem of the same name, the character of the heroine having been made somewhat lighter in accordance with the current Elizabethan conception of her as the essential coquette, and in order to make plausible the more rapid degradation necessitated by the limits of dramatic treatment. The camp scenes are based on Caxton's Recuyell of the historyes of Troye; and from Homer, probably in Chapman's translation, he drew Hector's challenge to a duel, the pride of Achilles, and some minor hints. The unknown collaborator followed Caxton much more slavishly than did Shakespeare. Whether anything was drawn from four or five lost early plays on similar themes cannot be determined. It has been thought that he was influenced by Greene's Euphues, his Censure to Philautus in the general tone of his treatment of antiquity. Of the characters, Cressida and Pandarus are from Chaucer, Thersites and Nestor from Homer, and the warriors from Caxton. Troilus is a combination of Chaucer's lover with Caxton's heroic figure. The Shakespearean Ajax alone is undiscoverable in any of the older versions. This fact, along with the nature of the description of him in 1. ii. 19– 31, and its inconsistency with the Ajax of the camp scenes, has led to the conclusion that the character is in part a satire on Ben Jonson. Other attempts to find personal satire in the play are not convincing.

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