Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people;
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
But out of question 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

330

335

First told me thou wast mad; then camest in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.

340

Fab.

Good madam, hear me speak,

And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come

Taint the condition of this present hour,

Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,

345

Most freely I confess, myself and Toby

Set this device against Malvolio here,

Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him: Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance;
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd
That have on both sides pass'd.

350

355

Oli.

Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee! Clo. Why, 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.' I was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas, sir; but that's all one. By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.' But do you re- 360 member? 'Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's gagged:' and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. [Exit.

Oli. He hath been most notoriously abused.

365

Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace:

He hath not told us of the captain yet:

When that is known, and golden time convents,

A solemn combination shall be made

Of our dear souls. Meantime, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence. Cesario, come;
For so you shall be, while you are a man;
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen.

Clo. [Sings]

370

[Exeunt all, except Clown.

375

380

NOTES.

NOTE I.

IN our enumeration of the Dramatis Personæ we have omitted what Johnson calls 'the cant of the modern stage,' i.e. the unnecessary descriptions given by Rowe.

NOTE II.

I. I. 26. Mr Knight reads 'years' heat,' but follows Malone in interpreting 'heat' as a participle. It is more probably a substantive.

NOTE III.

1. 3. 48. Sidney Walker supposed that as the first Folio has no stop after 'acquaintance' it was intended that the sentence should be regarded as incomplete, and he therefore would read 'acquaintance—'. The real reason of the omission of the stop in F, is that the word occurs so near the end of the line that there was no room for its insertion. It is found in all the other Folios.

NOTE IV.

I. 5. 192. Mr Dyce conjectures that something more than the speaker's name has been omitted in the Folios before 'Tell me your mind.' Capell proposed to omit these words, on the ground that, in addition to other objections against them, they cause the speech to end metrically. We leave the text undisturbed, because we think that there is some corruption which Hanmer's plausible emendation does not remove.

NOTE V.

I. 5. 237. Sidney Walker conjectures that 'a word or words are lost before adorations, involving the same metaphor as the rest of the two lines.' Perhaps the lost word may have been 'earthward' or 'earthly,' so that all the four elements of which our life consists' (II. 3. 9) would be represented in the symptoms of Orsino's passion.