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

shine,"

That they may fairly note this act of mine!

[Exeuit.

ACT V. SCENE I..

The Street before Olivia's House..

Enter Clown, and FABIAN..

Fab. Now, as thou lovest me, let me fee his letter..
Cla. 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 fel low ?

my

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

Duke. Juft the contrary; the better for thy friends..
Clo. No, fir, the worfe.

Duke. How can that be?

Clo. Marry, fir, they praise 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 abufed: 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..

S6

Duke..

6 Alluding perhaps to a fuperftitious fuppofition, the memory of which is ftill preferved in a proverbial faying: "Happy is the bride upon whom the fun fhines, and bleffed the corpfe upon which the rain fails." STEEVENS. 7 One cannot but wonder, that this paffage thould have perplexed the commentators. In Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, the Queen lays to the Moor:

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Duke. Why, this is excellent.

Clo. By my troth, fir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends.

Duke. Thou shalt not be the worfe for me; there's gold. Clo. But that it would be double-dealing, fir, I would you could make it another,

Duke. O, you give me ill counsel.

Clo. Put your grace in your pocket, fir, for this once, and let your flesh and blood obey it.

Duke. Well, I will be fo much a finner to be a double dealer; there's another.

Clo. Primo, fecundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old faying is, the third pays for all: the triplex, fir, is a good tripping measure; or the bells of St. Bennet, fir, may put you in mind; One, two, three.

8

Duke. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw: if you will let your lady know, I am here to fpeak with her, and bring her along with you, it may awake my bounty further.

Clo. Marry, fir; lullaby to your bounty, till I come again. I go, fir; but I would not have you to think, that my defire of having is the fin of covetoufnefs: but, as you fay, fir, let your bounty take a nap, I will awake it anon. [Exit Clown.

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Queen. "No, no, fayes, I; and twice away, fayes ftay."

Sir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon this thought in the fixty-third stanza of his Aftropbel and Stella. FARMER.

8 That is, if the other arguments I have used are not fufficient, the bells of St. Bennet, &c. MALONE.

We should read

as the bells of St. Bennet," &c, instead of or.

M. MASON.

When in this play Shakspeare mentioned the bed of Ware, he recollected that the fcene was in Illyria, and added, in England; but his fenfe of the fame impropriety could not reftrain him from the bells of St. Bennet. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare's impropriety and anachronisms are furely venial in comparifon with thofe of contemporary writers. Lodge, in his True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla, 1594, has mentioned the razors of Palermo and St. Paul's fecple, and has introduced a Frenchman, named Don Pedro, who, in confideration of receiving forty crowns, undertakes to poison Marius.

STZEVENS.

Enter

Enter ANTONIO, and Officers.

Vio. Here comes the man, fir, that did rescue me,
Duke. That face of his I do remember well;
Yet, when I faw it last, it was befmear'd

As black as Vulcan, in the fmoke of war:
A bawbling veffel was he captain of,

9

For fhallow draught, and bulk, unprizable;
With which fuch feathful grapple did he make
With the most noble bottom of our fleet,

That very envy, and the tongue of lofs,

Cry'd fame and honour on him.-What's the matter?
Off. Orfino, this is that Antonio,

That took the Phoenix, and her fraught, from Candy;
And this is he, that did the Tiger board,
When your young nephew Titus loft his leg:
Here in the streets, defperate of shame, and state,2
In private brabble did we apprehend him.

Vio. He did me kindness, fir; drew on my fide ;
But, in conclufion, put ftrange fpeech upon me,
I know not what 'twas, but diftraction.

Duke. Notable pirate! thou falt-water thief!
What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies,
Whom thou, in terms fo bloody, and fo dear,3
Haft made thine enemies?

Ant.

Orfino, noble fir,

Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me ;
Antonio never yet was thief, or pirate,

Though, I confefs, on bafe and ground enough,
Orfino's enemy.
A witchcraft drew me hither:
That most ingrateful boy there, by your fide,
From the rude fea's enrag'd and foamy mouth
Did I redeem; a wreck paft hope he was:
His life I gave him, and did thereto add
My love, without retention, or restraint,
All his in dedication: for his fake,

9

Did

-featbful -] i. e. mifchievous, deftructive. STEEVENS.

2 Unattentive to his character or his condition, like a defperate man.

JOHNSON.

3 Dear is immediate, confequential. So, in Hamlet: "Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,” &c. STEEVENS.

Did I expofe myself, pure for his love,
Into the danger of this adverfe town;
Drew to defend him, when he was befet ::
Where being apprehended, his falfe cunning,
(Not meaning to partake with me in danger,)
Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance,
And grew a twenty-years-removed thing,

While one would wink; deny'd me mine own purfe,,
Which I had recommended to his use

Not half an hour before.

Vio.

How can this be?

Duke. When came he to this town?

Ant. To-day, my lord; and for three months before, (No interim, not a minute's vacancy,)

Both day and night did we keep company.

Enter OLIVIA and Attendants.

Duke. Here comes the countefs; now heaven walks on earth.

But for thee, fellow, fellow, thy words are madness:

Three months this youth hath tended upon me;

But more of that anon.- -Take him afide.

Oli. What would my lord, but that he may not have, Wherein Olivia may feem ferviceable?

Cefario, you do not keep promife with me.

Vio. Madam?

Duke. Gracious Olivia,

Oli. What do you fay, Cefario?-Good my lord,-
Vio. My lord would fpeak, my duty hushes me.
Oli. If it be aught to the old tune, my lord,

It is as fat and fulfome 4 to mine ear,

As howling after mufick..

Duke.

Still fo cruel?

Oli. Still fo conftant, lord.

Duke. What! to perverfenefs? you uncivil lady,
To whofe ingrate and unaufpicious altars

My foul the faithfull'ft offerings hath breath'd out,
That e'er devotion tender'd! What fhall I do?

Oli.

4 Fat means dull; fo we fay a fat-beaded fellow; fat likewife meaïs gross, and is fometimes ufed for obfcene. JOHNSON.

Oli. Even what it please my lord, that shall become him.
Duke. Why fhould I not, had I the heart to do it,
Like to the Egyptian thief, at point of death,

Kill what I love; 5 a favage jealoufy,

That fometime favours nobly? But hear me this:
Since you to non-regardance caft my faith,
And that I partly know the inftrument

That fcrews me from my true place in your favour,
Live you, the marble-breasted tyrant, still;
But this, your minion, whom, I know, you love,
And whom, by heaven I fwear, I tender dearly,
Him will I tear out of that cruel eye,

Where he fits crowned in his master's fpite.

Come boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mifchief:
I'll facrifice the lamb that I do love,

To fpite a raven's heart within a dove.

Vio. And I, moft jocund, apt, and willingly, To do you reft, a thousand deaths would die. Oli. Where goes Cefario?

After him I love,

Vio.
More than I love thefe eyes, more than my life,
More, by all mores, than e'er I fhall love wife :
If I do feign, you witneffes above,
Punish my life, for tainting of my love!

Oli. Ah me, detefted! how am I beguil'd!
Vio. Who does beguile you? who does do

[Going

[Following.

you wrong

?

1

Oli.

5 In this fimile, a particular ftory is pre-fuppos'd, which ought to be known to how the juftnefs and propriety of the comparifon. It is taken from Heliodorus's Æthiopics, to which our author was indebted for the allufion. This Egyptian thief was Thyamis, who was a native of Memphis,, and at the head of a band of robbers. Theagenes and Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis fell defperately in love with the lady, and would have married her. Soon after, a ftronger body of robbers coming down upon 1 hyamis's party, he was in fuch fears for his mistress, that he had her fhut into a cave with his treasure. It was cuftomary with those barbarians, when they defpaired of their own fafety, first to make away with those whom they held dear, and defired for companions in the next life. Thyamis, therefore, benetted round with his enemies, raging with love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave; and calling aloud in the Egyptian tongue, fo foon as he heard himself anfwer'd toward the cave's mouth by a Grecian, making to the perfon by the direction of her voice, he caught her by the hair with his left hand, and (fuppofing her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his fword into her breaft. THEOBALD,

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