the region of comedy altogether. In a household so richly furnished with comic types as Olivia's, the professed humorist plays a minor part. Feste, the clown, is distinguished among Shakespeare's fools by his comparative realism; he is not sublimated and poetised like Touchstone, but renders, literally enough, the regulation buffooneries of the typical court jester. In one point he stands alone, as the singer of the songs scattered through. the play, which so finely touch its various moods-languishing sentiment, rollicking gaiety, and mischief. It contributes something to its harmonious unity that the mocking reminiscence of the 'old Vice with his dagger of lath' springs from the same excellent breast which had recalled for the solace of the sentimental duke antique memories of another order-the old plain song:

That dallies with the innocence of love
Like the old age.

TWELFTH NIGHT

OR, WHAT YOU WILL

ACT I.

SCENE I. The DUKE's palace.

Enter DUKE, CURIO, and other Lords; Musicians attending.

Duke. If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,

4. fall, cadence.

5, 6. the sweet sound That breathes, etc. Pope altered sound to south, and Dyce and Singer followed him. But the duke's description is subtler. He tries

ΤΟ

to convey the intoxicating richness of the music by comparing it to that which appeals to two senses at once-to the melodious breeze charged with the perfume of violets.

Of what validity and pitch soe'er,

But falls into abatement and low price,

Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Cur. Will you go hunt, my lord?

Duke.

Cur. The hart.

What, Curio?

Duke. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have :
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.

Enter VALENTINE.

How now! what news from her?

Val. So please my lord, I might not be ad-
mitted;

But from her handmaid do return this answer :
The element itself, till seven years' heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this to season

A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance.

Duke. O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame
To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will she love, when the rich golden shaft

Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

26. The element, the air.

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ib. till seven years' heat, for

seven summers.

35. shaft, i.e. of Cupid.

32. remembrance; four syllables.

That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd
Her sweet perfections with one self king!
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:
Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.

[Exeunt.

40

SCENE II. The sea-coast.

Enter VIOLA, a Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?
Cap. This is Illyria, lady.

Vio. And what should I do in Illyria?

My brother he is in Elysium.

Perchance he is not drown'd: what think you,

sailors ?

Cap. It is perchance that you yourself were saved.

Vio. O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be.

Cap. True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance,

Assure yourself, after our ship did split,

When you and those poor number saved with you
Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,
Most provident in peril, bind himself,

Courage and hope both teaching him the practice,
To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
So long as I could see.

Vio. For saying so, there's gold :

37. liver; this was regarded as a special seat of the passions, especially of courage and love.

ΙΟ

39. one self king, one self-same king, i.e. Love.

Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope,
Whereto thy speech serves for authority,
The like of him. Know'st thou this country?
Cap. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born
Not three hours' travel from this very place.

Vio. Who governs here?

Cap. A noble duke, in nature as in name.
Vio. What is his name?

Cap. Orsino.

Vio. Orsino ! I have heard my father name him :

He was a bachelor then.

Cap. And so is now, or was so very late;
For but a month ago I went from hence,

And then 'twas fresh in murmur,-as, you know,
What great ones do the less will prattle of,-
That he did seek the love of fair Olivia.

Vio. What's she?

Cap. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her
In the protection of his son, her brother,
Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
They say, she hath abjured the company
And sight of men.

Vio.

O that I served that lady,
And might not be delivered to the world
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow

What my estate is !

Cap.

That were hard to compass;

Because she will admit no kind of suit,

No, not the duke's.

Vio. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain;

21. The like of him, a similar escape in his case.

42. delivered, made known. 43, 44. Till I had made mine

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own occasion mellow What my estate is, till I had made use of my opportunities to better my present condition.