very fangs of malice, I fwear, I am not that I play. Are you the lady of the houfe? OLI. If I do not ufurp myself, I am. VIOL. Moft certain, if you are fhe, you do ufurp yourfelf; for what is yours to beftow, is not yours to reserve. But this is from my commiffion: I will on with my fpeech in your praife, and then fhew you the heart of my meffage. OLI. Come to what is important in't: I forgive you the praise. V10. Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poctical. OLI. It is the more like to be feign'd; I pray you, keep it in. I heard, you were faucy at my gates; and allow'd your approach, rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief: 'tis not that time of moon with me, to make one in fo skipping" a dialogue. MAR. Will you hoift fail, fir? here lies your way. V10. No, good fwabber; I am to hull here' a 5 If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reafon, be brief:] The fenfe evidently requires that we should read, If you be mad, be gone, &c. For the words be mad, in the firft part of the fentence, are oppofed to reafon in the fecond. M. MASON. 6 -Skipping-] Wild, frolick, mad. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "The Skipping king, he ambled up and down," &c. Again, in the Merchant of Venice: 7 take pain "To allay, with fome cold drops of modefty, "Thy Jkipping fpirit." MALONE. STEEVENS. I am to hull here-] To bull means to drive to and little longer. Some mollification for your giant,' fweet lady. OLI. Tell me your mind. Vio. I am a meffenger." OLI. Sure, you have fome hideous matter to deliver, when the courtefy of it is fo fearful. Speak your office. V10. It alone concerns your car. I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in my hand: my words are as full of peace as matter. OLI. Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you? V10. The rudeness, that hath appcar'd in me, fro upon the water, without fails or rudder. So, in the Noble Soldier, 1634: 7 "That all thefe mifchiefs bull with flagging fail." STEEVENS. -fome mollification for your giant,] Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or trouble fome advances. Viola, feeing the waiting-maid fo eager to oppofe her meffage, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant. JOHNSON. Viola likewife alludes to the diminutive fize of Maria, who is called on fubfequent occafions, little villain, youngest aren of nine, &c. STEEVENS. So, Falstaff to his page: "Sirrah, you giant," &c. K. Henry IV. P. II. A& I. Oli. Tell me your mind. MALONE. Vio. I am a meffenger.] Thefe words (which in the old copy are part of Viola's laft fpeech) must be divided between the two fpeakers. Viola growing trouble fome, Olivia would difmifs her, and therefore cuts her fhort with this command, Tell me your mind. The other, taking advantage of the ambiguity of the word mind, which fignifies either business or inclination, replies as if fhe had ufed it in the latter fenfe, I am a messenger. WARBURTON. As a meffenger, he was not to fpeak her own mind, but that of her employer. M. MASON. 3 have I learn'd from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would, are as fecret as maidenhead: to your ears, divinity; to any other's, prophanation. OLI. Give us the place alone: we will hear this divinity. [Exit MARIA.] Now, fir, what is your text? V10. Moft fweet lady, OLI. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be faid of it. Where lies your text? V10. In Orfino's bofom. OLI. In his bofom? In what chapter of his bofom? Vio. To answer by the method, in the first of his heart. OLI. O, I have read it; it is herefy. Have you no more to say? V10. Good madam, let me see your face. OLI. Have you any commiffion from your lord to negotiate with my face? you are now out of your text: but we will draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture. Look you, fir, fuch a one I was this prefent: Is't not well done?? [Unveiling. 9 Look you, fir, fuch a one I was this prefent: Is't not well done?] This is nonfenfe. The change of was to wear, I think, clears all up, and gives the expreffion an air of gallantry. Viola preffes to fee Olivia's face: The other at length pulls off her veil, and fays: We vill draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture. I wear this complexion to-day, I may wear another to-morrow; jocularly intimating, that the painted. The other, vext at the jeft, fays, "Excellently done, if God did all." Perhaps, it may be true, what you fay in jeft; otherwife 'tis an excellent face. 'Tis in grain, &c. replies Olivia. WARBURTON. I am not satisfied with this emendation. We may read, "Such a one I was. This prefence, is't not well done?''i. e. this mien, is it not happily reprefented? Similar phrafcology occurs in Othello" This fortification, fhall we fee it?" STEEVENS. V10. Excellently done, if God did all. OLI. 'Tis in grain, fir; 'twill endure wind and weather. V10. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whofe red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on: you If will lead thefe graces to the grave, This paffage is nonfenfe as it ftands, and neceffarily requires fome amendment. That propofed by Warburton would make fenfe of it; but then the allufion to a picture would be dropped, which began in the preceding part of the fpeech, and is carried on through thofe that follow. If we read prefents, inftead of prefent, this allufion will be preferved, and the meaning will be clear. I have no doubt but the line fhould run thus: "Lock you, Sir, fuch as once I was, this prefents." Prefents means reprefents. So Hamlet calls the pictures he fhews his mother: "The counterfeit prefentment of two brothers." She had faid before-" But we will draw the curtain, and fhew you the picture;" and concludes with afking him, if it was well done. The fame idea occurs in Troilus and Creffida, where Pandarus, taking off her veil, fays: "Come draw this curtain, and let us fee your pi&ure.” M. MASON. I fufpect, the author intended that Olivia fhould again cover her face with her veil, before she speaks these words. MALONE. 2 'Tis beauty truly blent,] i. e. blended, mixed together. Blent is the ancient participle of the verb to blend. So, in a Looking Glafs for London and England, 1617: 66 -the beautiful encrease "Is wholly blent." Again, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. I. c. 6: -for having blent My name with guile, and traiterous intent." STEEVENS. grave, 3 If you will lead thefe graces to the And leave the world no copy.] How much more elegantly is this thought expreffed by Shakspeare, than by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Philafter! "I grieve fuch virtue should be laid in earth, 7 OLI. O, fir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty: It fhall be inventoried; and every particle, and utenfil, label'd to my will: as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and fo forth. Were Were you sent hither to 'praise me?+ V10. I fee you what you are: you are too proud; But, if you were the devil, you are fair. My lord and mafter loves you; O, fuch love Shakspeare has copied himself in his 11th Sonnet: "She carv'd thee for her feal, and meant thereby Again, in the 3d Sonnet:" "Die fingle, and thine image dies with thee." Again, in his 9th Sonnet : STEEVENS. "Ah! if thou iffuelefs fhalt hap to die, Again, in the 13th Sonnet: "O that you were yourself! but, love, you are "And your fweet femblance to fome other give." MALONE. to 'praife me?] i. e. to appraise, or appretiate me. The foregoing words, schedules, and inventoried, fhew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline: "I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his fide, and I to perufe him by items." MALONE. Malone's conjecture is ingenious, and I fhould have thought it the true reading, if the foregoing words, schedule and inventoried, had been used by Viola: but as it is Olivia herfelf who makes use of them, I believe the old reading is right, though Steevens has adopted that of Malone. Viola has extolled her beauty fo highly, that Olivia afks, whether he was fent there on purpose to praise her. M. MASON. |