I, fit? not I, fir. God b'w'you, good fir Topas.-Marry, amen.—I will, fir, I will.

Mal, Fool, fool, fool, I fay,

Clo. Alas, fir, be patient. What fay you, fir ? I am fhent 3 for fpeaking to you.

Mal. Good fool, help me to fome light, and fome paper; I tell thee, I am as well in my wits, as any man in Illyria. Clo. Well-a-day,-that you were, fir!

Mal. By this hand, I am: Good fool, fome ink, paper, and light, and convey what I will fet down to my lady; it fhall advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did. Clo. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit ? 4

Mal. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true.

Clo. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman, till I fee his brains. I will fetch you light, and paper, and ink.

Mal. Fool, I'll requite it in the highest degree: I pr'ythee, be gone.

variation of voice, a dialogue between himself and fir Tepas.

-I will, fir, I will, is fpoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, fir Topas had whifpered. JOHNSON.

3 i. e. folded, reproved. REED.

4 If he was not mad, what did he counterfeit by declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to infult him, I think, afks, are you mad, er do you but counterfeit? That is, you look like a madman, you talk like a madman: Is your madness real, or baue you any fecret defign in it? This, to a man in poor Malvolio's frate, was a fevere taunt. JOHNSON.

The meaning of this paffage appears to me to be this. Malvolio had affured the Clown that he was as well in his fenfes as any man in Illyria; and the Clown in reply, asks him this provoking question: "Is it true that you are really not mad?" that is, that you are really in your right fenfes, or do you only pretend to be fo? M. MASON.

Dr. Johnson, in my apprehenfion, mifinterprets the words, "do you but counterfeit?" They furely mean, do you but counterfeit madneft, or, in other words," affume the appearance of a madman, though not one." Our author ought, I think, to have written, either," are you mad indeed, or do you but counterfeit ?" or elfe, "are you not not mad indeed, and do you but counterfeit ?" But I do not fufpect any corruption; for the last I have no doubt was what he meant, though he has not expreffed his meaning accurately. He is often carelefs in fuch minute matters. Mr. Mafon's interpretation removes the difficulty; but, con fidering the words that immediately precede, is very harsh, and appears to be inadmiffible. MALONE.

Clo.

I am gone, fir,
And anon, fir,

I'll be with you again,
In a trice,

Like to the old vice, 5
Your need to fuftain ;

Who with dagger of lath,
rage and his wrath,

In his

Cries, ah, ha! to the devil:
Like a mad lad,

Pare thy nails, dad,

Adieu, goodman drivel.

[Exit. SCENE

5 The vice was the fool of the old moralities. Some traces of this character are ftill preferved in puppet-shows, and by country mummers.

JOHNSON.

This character was always acted in a mafk; it probably had its name from the old French word is, for which they now ufe vifage, though they ftill retain it in vis à vis, which is literally, face to face. STEEVENS.

This laft line has neither rhime nor meaning. I cannot but fufpe& that the fool tranflates Malvolio's name, and fays:

Adieu, goodman mean-evil. JOHNSON.

We have here another old catch; apparently, I think, not of Shakpeare. I am therefore willing to receive the common reading of the Taft line :

Adieu, goodman drivel.

The name of Malvolio feems to have been form'd by an accidental tranf❤ pofition in the word, Malivalo.

I know not whether a part of the preceding line fhould not be thrown into a question, pare thy nails, dad ?"

In Henry V. we again meet with this roaring devil i'th' old play; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger." FARMER.

In the old tranflation of the Menæchmi, 1595, Menæchmus fays to Peniculus: Away, filthie mad drivell, away! I will talk no longer with thee." As I cannot suppose the author of this ballad designed that devil fhould be the correfponding rhyme to devil, read with Dr. Farmer, drivel. STEEVENS.

I believe, with Johnson, that this is an allufion to Malvolio's name, not in his reading, which deftroys the metre. We should read

Adieu, good mean-evil:

that is, good Malvolio, literally tranflated.

M. MASON.

but

The last two lines of this fong have, I think, been misunderstood. They are not addreffed in the firft inftance to Malvolio, but are quoted by the Clown, as the words, ab, ba! are, as the ufual addrefs in the old Mo

ralities

SCENE III.

Olivia's Garden.

Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. This is the air; that is the glorious fun;
This pearl fhe gave me, I do feel't, and fee't :
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madnefs. Where's Antonio then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:

Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to feek me out."
His counsel now might do me golden fervice:
For though my foul difputes well with my fenfe,
That this may be fome error, but no madness,

S 5

Yet ralities to the Devil. I do not therefore fufpect any corruption in the words "goodman Devil." We have in The Merry Wives of Windfor:"No man means evil but the devil;" and in Much ado about Nothing, "God's a good man."

The compound, good-man, is again used adjectively, and as a word of contempt, in King Lear:-" Part (fays Edmund to Kent and the Steward.) "With you, (replies Kent,) good-man boy, if you pleafe."

The reason why the Vice exhorts the Devil to pare his nails, is, becaufe the Devil was fuppofed from choice to keep his nails always unpared, and therefore to pare them was an affront.

MALONE.

7 i. e. I found it juftified, credibly vouched. Whether the word credit will eafily carry this meaning, I am doubtful. The expreffion feems obfcure; and though I have not disturbed the text, I very much fufpe&t that the poet wrote:

and there I found this credent. THEOBALD.

Credit, for account, information. The Oxford editor roundly alters it to current; as he does almoft every word that Shakspeare ufes in an anomalous fignification. WARBURTON.

Theobald propofes to read credent, but credent does not fignify juftified or vouched; it means probable only, as appears from the paffage he himself has quoted. Warburton fays, that credit means account or information; but as I know no inftance of the word's being used in that acceptation, I believe we fhould read, credited instead of credit. M. MASON.

Credent is creditable, not queftionable. So, in Measure for Measure, Angelo fays:

"For my authority bears a credent bulk." STEEVENS. Perhaps credit is here ufed for credited. So, in the first scene of this play, beat for beated; and in Hamlet, boift for boifted. MALONE.

Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all inftance, all discourse,
That I am ready to diftruft mine eyes,

And wrangle with my reason, that perfuades me
To any other truft, but that I am mad,

Or elfe the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere fo,

She could not fway her house, command her followers,
Take, and give back, affairs, and their dispatch,
With fuch a smooth, difcreet, and ftable bearing,
As, I perceive, fhe does: there's fomething in't,
That is deceivable. But here comes the lady.

Enter OLIVIA, and a Priest.

Oli. Blame not this hafte of mine: If you mean well,
Now go with me, and with this holy man,
Into the chantry by: 3 there, before him,
And underneath that confecrated roof,
Plight me the full affurance of your faith;
That my moft jealous and too doubtful foul
May live at peace: He fhall conceal it,
Whiles 4 you are willing it fhall come to note;
What time we will our celebration keep
According to my birth.-What do you say?
Seb. I'll follow this good man, and go with you;
And, having sworn truth,' ever will be true.

8 Difcourfe, for reafon. WARBURTON. Inflance is example. JOHNSON.

9 To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion.

Oli

JOHNSON.

2 Our author licentiously uses this word for deceptious. MALONE. 3 Chantries (fays Cowel in his Law Dictionary) are ufually little chapels, or particular altars, in fome cathedral or parochial church; and endowed with revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests, whose office it is to fing maffes for the fouls of their founders, &c. STEEVENS.

Whiles] is until. This word is ftill fo ufed in the northern countries. It is, I think, used in this fenfe in the preface to the Accidence. JOHNSON.

Almost throughout the old copies of Shakspeare, whiles is given us inftead of while. Mr. Rowe, the first reformer of his spelling, made the change. STEEVINS.

5 Truth is fidelity. JOHNSON.

Oli. Then lead the way, good father;-And heavens fö

fhine,6

That they may fairly note this act of mine!

[Exeuit.

ACT V. SCENE I..

The Street before Olivia's Houfe..

Enter Clown, and FABIAN.

Fab. Now, as thou loveft me, let me fee his letter..
Clo. Good mafter Fabian, grant me another request.
Fab. Any thing.

Clo. Do not defire to fee this letter.

Fab. That is, to give a dog, and, in recompence, defire my dog again.

Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants.

Duke. Belong you to the lady Olivia, friends?
Clo. Ay, fir; we are fome of her trappings.

Duke. I know thee well; How doft thou, my good fellow ?

Clo. Truly, fir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends.

Duke. Juft the contrary; the better for thy friends..

Clo. No, fir, the worse.

Duke. How can that be?

Clo. Marry, fir, they praife me, and make an afs of me; now my foes tell me plainly, I am an afs: fo that by my foes, fir, I profit in the knowledge of myfelf; and by my friends I am abused: fo that, conclufions to be as kiffes, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worfe for my friends, and the better for my foes..

Aluding perhaps to a fuperftitious fuppofition, the memory of which is ftill preferved in a proverbial faying: "Happy is the bride upon whom. the fun fines, and blessed the corpfe upon which the rain falls." STEEVENS. 7 One cannot but wonder, that this paffage fhould have perplexed the commentators. In Marlowe's Let's Dominion, the Queen says to the Moor

one,